Improvements in and relating to Organs and other Wind Instruments.
Year: 1889

page_text: Date of Application, 19th Oct., 1889-Accepted, 28th Dec., 1889
[Communicated from abroad by ALBIN KICKMANN, of Dachwig, near Erfurt, in the
Empire of Germany, Organ Builder.]
Improvements in and relating to Organs and other Wind
Instruments.
1, HENRY HARRIS LAKE, of the firm of Haseltine Lake & Co. Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings in the County of Middlesex do hereby declare the nature of
this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
This invention relates to wind-chests of organs and other musical instruments
played through the agency of compressed air, and it comprises improved means for
actuating the valves or other closing or controlling devices of the said wind-chests.
The improved wind-chest constructed according to the said invention as compared
with the arrangements which have heretofore been employed presents the following
features, that is to say --
For operating the several pipes or groups of pipes as well as the registers, only air
of the same pressure as the air for sounding the pipes is used; the effective work
always takes place in the atmospheric air; and cells are provided for the registers as
well as for the keys, the said cells crossing each other at any desired angle and being
separated at their crossing points by diaphragms, bellows, or the like.
In the accompanying drawing
Figure 1 is a longitudinal section of the improved wind chest,
Figure 2 a cross section of the same on the line a-ẞ and
Figure 3 a plan on the line y-d.
A is the inner chamber of the chest, into which the air presses from the bellows.
The air is admitted through passages a a₁ d
of suitable construction and enters the chambers BB, B₂
by the boards CC₁ C₂
.
to valves v ₂
.
.
which are covered
for the pipes. The bottom of the wind-chest
consists of cross bars which have between thein spaces y' y² covered by plates g g g².
Below the cross bars f and crossing them are arranged the bars e so as to form
channels, xq
which extend across y y₁ Y₂ . . . These
channels are closed below by a bottom of wood, paper or the like.
Of the cross channels x and y provided in this manner the former according to
the drawing, constitute the sounding cells, and the latter the register cells, and they
are separated from each other at the crossing points by diaphragms p upon which
bear small buffers or pistons b b₁ bạ
provided with rods & s₁₂
which act upon the valves, ₁₂
In most cases the aforesaid cells and y cross each other at a right angle, but they
may be arranged at any other suitable for example in the case of the so-called
prospect pipes the cells may under certain circumstances be arranged radially.
Moreover in some cases parts of the same cell may extend in different directions.
If now the register-cell y is put in communication with the atmospheric air, and
the sounding cell is filled with air from the interior of the wind chest the above
mentioned diaphragm will be forced into the cell y, thereby raising the buffer b the
rod s and by means of the latter, the valve r, so that the corresponding pipe will be
Founded.
If however air is allowed to pass from the wind-chest to the cell y the air of
he same pressure in the cell cannot raise the diaphragm and the said valve. In
this case the pipe does not sound if the key is pressed down.
Accordingly, all the registers whose cells are in communication with the atmo-
pheric air will sound, whilst all those whose cells are filled with air from the wind-
chest will not sound even if the air is admitted to the cell ď.

page_text: The alternate communication of the cells and y with the atmospheric air and
with the interior of the chest can be effected in various manners.
In the arrangement illustrated in Figure 1 two valves V and V1 are provided for
the sounding cells which are rendered dependent on one another through the medium
of rods d, the valve V closing the cell against the wind-chest, and V₁ closing the same
against the atmospheric air. V₁ is raised by the diaphragm P of a pneumatic tube or
device T but in lieu thereof the valve Vi can be set in motion by mechanical or
electrical means.
Use is made, for the register cell, of a controlling device comprising a valve Vr
which is actuated by the buffer band the diaphragm P and is adapted to play between
the bottom plate e and the plate g, so that according as it bears against e org, it will
put the cell in communication with the wind-chest or with the atmospheric air.
It is evident that use may be made, instead of the above described two devices
of any other controlling device which is known in organ-building and by which the
same object can be obtained.
y
In lieu of the simple diaphragms p any other suitable device can be employed
without departing from the nature of the invention, as long as the arrangement of the
crossed cells and y is retained. In Figure 4, for example, the cell is shewn
enlarged so that small bellows p can be located therein, these bellows acting in the
same manner as the simple diaphragms. Figure 5 represents the arrangement of a
piston which may be employed in lieu of the aforesaid bellows.
Without making any change in the arrangement of the cells, the action of the
latter can be reversed by simply putting the cells y under the action of the keys, and
the cells under the action of the registers inasmuch as a pressure upon the key
causes the escape of the air from the cell y so that the buffer or piston rises and
opens the corresponding valve v if the corresponding register has been drawn, that is
to say, if the cell has been put in communication with the interior of the wind-chest.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and the manner in which the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is :-
In organs and other musical instruments which are played through the agency of
compressed air, the arrangement of cells x and y so as to cross each other at a right
or other suitable angle which cells are separated from each other at the crossing
points by diaphragms p bellows, pistons or other actuating devices, and which,
according as the cell or the cell y or both together are put in communication with
the interior of the wind-chest A or with the outer air through the medium of the
valves Vr V or other controlling devices will be moved to one or the other side in such
a manner that the operation will always be effected by the action of the air from the
chest against the atmospheric air.
Dated this 19th day of October 1889.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Sonthampton Buildings, London, Agents for the Applicant.