Mechanical Musical Instruments.
Year: 1885

page_text: Mechanical Musical Instruments.
I, FRIEDRICH ERNST PAUL EHRLICH, residing at Gohlis near Leipsic, Kingdom
of Saxony, do hereby declare the nature of the said invention, for "A MACHINE
FOR AUTOMATICALLY PERFORATING THE TUNE SHEETS OF MECHANICAL MUSICAL
INSTRUMENTS" and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
This machine is employed to produce automatically the perforations in the music
sheets or tune bands used in automatic musical instruments and which are changed
in order to cause the instrument to play different tunes. In perforating these bands
by hand punching as commonly practised heretofore the perforations are produced
by punching one hole at a time and the accuracy of the work is dependent on the
care and skill of the Operator in presenting the sheet to the punching instrument.
It is evident that this method is very liable to produce defective work and involves
an extravagant expenditure of time and labor especially when large quantities of
sheets have to be prepared.
The improved perforating machine forming the object of the present Invention
obviates these disadvantages and is so arranged as to be capable when a Pattern
sheet has been inserted in the mechanism of automatically feeding forward or
turning the sheet to be perforated and also of forming the perforations therein over
the entire breadth of the sheet or over the entire length of the radius so that to
complete the operation the sheet only requires to be drawn once thro' the machine
or to describe one revolution under the punching instruments.
From the foregoing statement it is apparent that the improved machine is capable
of dealing not only with tune bands, but also with circular music sheets such as
those referred to in Specification N° 36608* or sheets of any other form employed
with the same object.
The accompanying drawing illustrates the Invention as applied to the production
of a tune band in the form of an endless sheet for example.
And in order that the said Invention may be fully understood I shall now proceed
more particularly to describe the same and for that purpose shall refer to the several
figures on the annexed sheet of drawings the same letters of reference indicating
corresponding parts in all the figures.
Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings is a side elevation of the machine
Figure 2 is a longitudinal section Fig. 3 a transverse section and Fig. 4 a plan of
the sema

page_text: A represents the band or sheet that is to be perforated and a a gang of punches
operated as hereinafter described. All the movements are derived from a main
shaft b driven by a drum or pulley c or by a crank handle in case the machine is
worked by hand. This shaft carries excentrics d (figs 2, 3 and 4) which by the
intervention of reciprocating rods or plates e impart an alternating vertical motion
to a strong transverse bar or driver guided in straight slots g in the side frames
of the machine. This bar partakes of a continuous or unintermittent reciprocating
motion but only acts upon such of the punches as are required to be brought into
action and perforate the travelling sheet A in accordance with the order and length
of the notes the punches being maintained normally elevated clear of the sheet by
the action of springs h except when they are brought under the influence of the
driver as hereinafter explained.
The punches are brought into action in the proper order by means of a pattern
sheet B acting on a series of levers i and bars k. The said pattern sheet is provided
with elevations and depressions corresponding with the notes to be reproduced by
means of the tune band or music sheet to be perforated by the punches. When
the said elevations and depressions are obtained by perforating the sheet B (the
holes representing the depressions and the unperforated parts the elevations) the
drum B¹ carrying the pattern sheet must be grooved on its periphery. The levers i
are all capable of oscillating on a common axis or centre formed by a fixed shaft
and each lever is pinned or jointed to a bar k. These bars end at in the form of
a step and rest upon the heads of the punches a being acted upon at the opposite
extremity by springs m which tend to thrust them towards the punches. The bars
cannot yield to this effort of the springs except when a pin i¹ attached to the
upper part of the corresponding lever i meets with a depression or hole in the
Pattern sheet B and drops into such depression or hole. When this occurs
the corresponding bar is pushed to the left (fig. 2) until its widest part forming the
aforesaid step is interposed between the driver fand the head of the corresponding
punch which is consequently depressed by the said driver and caused to perforate
the sheet A.
At each stroke of the driver f the pattern sheet B as well as the sheet A to be
perforated are fed or shifted forwards. This may be effected by the action of the
driver itself according to the arrangement hereinafter described by way of example.
At each extremity of the driver there are provided pins or studs n n¹ fig. 3. This
stud n works a bent lever o fig. 1 which by the intervention of a link o¹ imparts
reciprocating motion to a slotted lever o. The latter carries a pawl p engaging
with a ratchet wheel pl attached to the shaft of a feed roller B¹ and causes this
drum to describe a fraction of a revolution at each stroke of the driver. The stud n'
on the other end of the driver is connected to a lever arm q and by the intervention
of a rock shaft q¹ lever arm q' and pawl r drives a ratchet wheel 7+1 fixed on the
axis of another feed roller (A¹ figs 2 and 4). The mechanism is so timed that after
a punch has been driven through the sheet A and has risen clear of the hole in its
subsequent upward motion the pawl r causes the feed roller A' to turn on its axis
sufficiently to feed forward the sheet A to the required extend and the feed
roller B¹ is similarly operated by the pawl p. The former movement (that of the
roller A¹) brings a fresh portion of the sheet A under the punches and the latter
(that of the Cylinder B¹) shifts the pattern sheet B so as to present that part
thereof corresponding to the perforations next to be produced in the sheet A to the
pins ¹. Hereupon at all those parts of the pattern sheet corresponding with those
parts of the sheet A which were left unperforated by the preceding stroke of the
driver, but are to be perforated by the next stroke, the pius 2¹ enter the holes in
the said pattern sheet and operate the bars k so as to cause the corresponding
punches to be acted upon by the driver f. Moreover at all those parts of the
pattern sheet corresponding with those parts of the sheet A which were perforated
by the preceding stroke, but are to be left intact in the next stroke, the pins i¹ are
pushed out of the holes in the pattern sheet and cause the bars k to be withdrawn
from beneath the driver. Finally at all those parts of the Pattern sheet where the

page_text: same conditions are to be maintained as in the preceding stroke the positions of
the pins and bars k remain unchanged.
The sheet A undergoing perforation is fed forwards between the punches and the
bed or matrix by the action of the rollers A¹ A' and in order that the feed may
take place with certainty the surfaces of these rollers are roughened (or the
roller A¹ is provided at both ends with points engaging with the sheet A) or one
of the rollers is formed or covered with rubber or other yielding material. In order
to maintain the paper in a proper state of tension in the machine a second pair of
rollers (8. 8) is provided being pressed together by a spring t.
It is also essential to feed forward the pattern sheet B with precision. When
the length of this sheet does not exceed the circumference of the Roller B¹ it may
be fastened directly to this roller. When (as in the example illustrated) the sheet
is longer than the circumference of the roller it is conducted between guide
rollers u u¹ us which press it against the roller B' and against one another. The
upper roller u which as well as the other two rollers u¹ and u presents an elastic
surface should preferably revolve at a somewhat greater surface speed than the
roller B in order to maintain the sheet in a proper state of tension. It is also
advantageous in most cases to provide short pins at the ends of the roller A¹ which
pins engage with corresponding holes in the edges of the Pattern sheet or to ensure
the regular advance of the Pattern sheet by some other equivalent means.
The construction of an automatic machine for perforating music sheets of other
forms such for example as sheets which require to present concentric circular lines
of perforations will be readilly suggested by the foregoing description. An example
of such an arrangement is indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 4. A* represents the
sheet to be perforated turning on a centre v and receiving motion from the shaft of
the roller A¹ either by a Cord or by a worm and worm wheel which in suitable
manner are combined with a turntable, provided with means to fix the sheet
thereon. In this case it is evident that a different form of punching instrument
must be employed for each line of holes whereas for perforating the continuous
bands such as A all the punches of the gang are of the same form.
In order to perforate other forms of music sheets it is simply necessary to modify
the mechanism for feeding forward the sheet to be perforated under the punches
in accordance with the arrangement of the lines of holes; for conical sheets for
instance the pin at v is arranged in an inclined position, instead of vertically.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
Invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is
A perforating machine operating automatically by means of a Pattern sheet B,
provided with depressions and elevations corresponding with the order of the
perforations to be produced, said machine consisting in the combination with pins ¿¹
sliding on the Pattern sheet B of levers i and bars k arranged to move horizontally
in such a manner as to remain clear of the reciprocating driver f when they are with-
drawn, but to transmit the motion of the driver to the corresponding punches a
when pushed forward essentially as described.