A New Tone Producer for Musical Instruments.
Year: 1889

page_text: Date of Application, 1st June, 1889-Accepted, 28th Sept., 1889
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
A New Tone Producer for Musical Instruments.
I REINHOLD HANDEL Manufacturer of Chausee-Strasse 51 II Leipsic in the
Kingdom of Saxony and German Empire 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 new tone producer which is intended to be used with musical works and
musical instruments instead of strings tongues etcetera consists of plates or strips of
solid veinless stone similar to that employed for lithographic purposes.
The tone is obtained from these plates or strips of stone by the same being struck
or rubbed and is somewhat similar to the under-tone of an upright piano.
It is to be observed that the tone of a plate or strip of stone tuned in this way does
not change by itself thus obviating the troublesome after tone which is usually heard
in other tone producers such as strings tongues etcetera and which causes one of the
greatest drawbacks to such instruments.
In the annexed drawing this new tone producer is shown at Figures 1 and 2 applied
to a "Xylophone" (an instrument usually made of wood and straw) in the place of
the boards or noteplates usual in such instruments and this instrument is provided
here by way of example with the new tone producer that is with plates or strips of
lithographic stone (instead of boards) which instrument I term the "Lithophone."
In this "Lithophone" the plates 6 made of lithographic stone lie-like the boards
in the Xylophone-
-on the straw ropes a each of which is fixed to a wooden band c
and the tone from these plates of stone b is produced by the same being struck by
wooden hammers (which are or may be provided with a soft elastic covering such as
india rubber) or by the hammers being passed over plates b.
Compared with the boards of a Xylophone this use of plates of lithographic stone
offers the advantage that the instrument can be made up to 5 octaves while the known
Xylophone with boards can only be made with three octaves at the most inasmuch
as higher as well as lower tones can be obtained from the plates of stone than from
the boards. Besides this only a short sounding upper tone can be obtained from the
boards of the Xylophone whereas a resounding soft and most agreeable tone can
be obtained from the plates of stone in the "Lithophone" as before described.
Figures 3, 4 and 5 represent a side view of the plates of the new instrument
which plates are tuned by the backs thereof being as shown more or less hollowed in
the centre and by shortening their length that is to say in order to tune a plate lower
the material in the centre is taken out and in order to tune the plate higher the plate
is simply shortened.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. A new tone producer consisting of plates or strips of solid veinless stone similar
to that employed for lithographic purposes substantially as set forth.
2. A new tone producer consisting of plates or strips of solid veinless stone which
plates or strips are used instead of the tongues strings and the like as heretofore used
and arranged to act substantially in the manner and for the purposes hereinbefore
described and illustrated in the drawings hereunto annexed.
Dated this 1st day of June 1889.
TONGUE & BIRKBECK
TONGUE & BIRKBECK
34, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.