IMPROVEMENTS IN ORGANS HARMONIUMS, OR LIKE REED KEY INSTRUMENTS
Year: 1883

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Baillie Hamilton of Studland Street, Haminersmith
in the County of Middlesex, for an Invention of." IMPROVEMENTS IN ORGANS
HARMONIUMS, OR LIKE REED KEY INSTRUMENTS
"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Baillie Hamilton at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 1st February 1883.
JAMES BAILLIE HAMILTON of Studland Street Hammersmith in the County
of Middlesex "IMPROVEMENTS IN ORGANS HARMONIUMS OR LIKE REED KEY
INSTRUMENTS
"
The object of my Invention is to provide an instrument in which the defects
of the ordinary reed-organ, harmonium or like key board instruments are overcome
and a quality of tone obtained resembling that of horns or instruments of a kindred
nature the improved instrument being designed in its parts to follow or imitate
as far as possible the parts essential to produce the tones in such instruments
To render the analogy more clear and to make the description of the parts which
are provided to fulfil the required conditions distinctly understood I summarize
the essential points of a horn and the corresponding parts in the improved
instrument, which are provided or modified to fulfil the required conditions.
These are; First, the cup or mouth piece of the horn, into which the lips are
placed and compressed in blowing-Secondly the bell or mouth of the instrument
and Thirdly the intermediate tube-The first is represented in the improved
instrument by a reed of the ordinary construction but preferably constrained
and governed, and when necessary acted upon by percussion as hereinafter
described The Second (ie. the bell) involves a principle of alternation which
when it is necessary for the line of reeds to be central for purposes of percussion
is as follows:-In the case of each note a narrower cavity is provided into which
the reed enters and this opens or leads into a wider cavity representing the mouth
of the horn. This wider cavity constitutes a special and important feature of my
Invention and is obtained by an alternate arrangement of the Chambers-The
narrower chambers which may be called the Reed chambers or intermediate tubes
are of the width or scale which the action demands and of the length which the

page_text: pitch demands, but the reeds are alternately reversely placed (so as to bring their
line of percussion central) and lead alternately into the double rank of the larger
chambers which may be called the mouth Chambers. These mouth chambers being
in two rows whilst the reed chambers are in one row, I can by arranging the
mouth chambers in an alternating manner, or so that they break bond with each
other, gain for each note a mouth chamber of double the width of each reed
chamber whilst fulfilling the conditions of a central line of percussion. This gives
a quality of tone hitherto unattainable in instruments of this kind and secures
a central line of the notes for the percussive action In cases where the central
line of reeds is not necessitated by percussion the intermediate tubes may overlie
the alternate bells.
There are now to be considered the pallets which may of course be merely
looked upon as means for opening the mouth of the tube. In order to give an easy
touch especially suited for opening a number of pallets to uncover a number of
openings (at "extended intervals ") I arrange the pallets in conjunction with a
lever or bar borne by parallel arins so that they rise all together by one parallel
action clear of their openings. This lever or bar may rest directly on the key
without intermediate " squares or their equivalents
In order to allow of one pallet being used for a number of like reeds corresponding
to different stops, I provide a separate chamber common to all reeds intended to be
operated upon by the same "key" or lever-The openings from the reeds to these
chambers are covered by "slides" as in an organ uncovering the openings of all
the notes of any given stop. Each chamber into which any one given note of all
the sets open has a chamber whose opening is covered by one pallet. Thus by the
sliding shutters the "stops" or sets of reeds through which the wind shall pass
is decided; the opening of a pallet of any one chamber causing all those reeds
which are uncovered in the said chamber to speak In cases where I require
special power, I follow this pallet by a larger tube to reinforce the note common
to all the sets of reeds.
In certain cases in order to govern the action of the reed I provide in connection
with the tongue of the reed which is acted upon by the wind a stiffening or
constraining block which is fixed to the tongue towards the root, and to this block
is attached a governing rod or strip which constitutes as it were a pendulum, to
regulate or control the vibrations of the speaking tongue of the reed-Or I stiffen
the root by connecting it to the root of another parallel reed not under the action
of wind and allow the free part of this reed to act as governor or Pendulum.
This additional reed I term a "blind reed" which can be turned up out of its
frame, and can be without a wind passage past it, the said blind reed being con-
nected by a rigid connection with the speaking tongue. By attaching a thin layer
of metal or suitable material to the under surface of this compound reed a valve
may be arranged at the back of this speaking tongue, by opening or closing a strip
which can be formed out of its substance by which the wind passage past the said
tongue may be regulated and controlled. The root end of the blind reed will be
the equivalent of the before-named constraining block and the free end of the
said blind reed will be the equivalent of the regulating pendulum This involves 4
a retarded action of the reed thus constrained; to overcome which (in order to
cause the ready speaking of the reed) I employ percussion, each speaking tongue
being provided with a hammer or striker which strikes upon the constraining
block or "unison bar" at the same time that the pallet is opened-As the hammer
is applied to the one side of the reed pan and the pallet to another a connecting 5
action is involved which I simplify by using one large square or bell crank lever of
sufficient size for one arm to control the pallet behind and the other to underlie
the hammer that it has to actuate.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said James Baillie Hamilton in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 1st August 1883.
JAMES BAILLIE HAMILTON of Studland Street Hammersmith in the County
of Middlesex "IMPROVEMENTS IN ORGANS, HARMONIUMS OR LIKE REED KEY
INSTRUMENTS
"
My Invention consists in the construction and arrangement of the several parts
of an Instrument whereby I am enabled to create, control and reinforce musical
tones formed upon the analogy of a human voice or a horn.
The parts of a horn whose analogy I follow are
A. The lips of a player which are compressed so as to form a double reed partially
constrained.
B. The cup or mouth piece into which they first enter and from which the current
issues.
C. The intermediate tube which occurs between this point and the diffusion to the
air by the bell or mouth.
D. The bell mouth or enlargement by which the current is diffused into the
external air.
In the diagram Figure 1 the division marked
A represents the reed or lip
Division B the cup or mouth piece
Division C the intermediate tube, and
Division D the bell or enlarged mouth.
Figure 2 is a cross section of an instrument constructed according to my
Invention wherein I have lettered the divisions which correspond in effect to the
parts or divisions in the diagram, (Figure 1) with like letters from which the
analogy between the two will be better understood.
In division A as regards the reed I prefer to use a reed partially constrained to
correspond in effect with the effect produced in the case of the vocal chords or by
the lips of a trumpeter.
The reeds may be single double or treble.
When the reeds are single the constraint is effected by a ligature or wire passing
from the more free to the more constrained portion of the reed as illustrated in
plan and elevation in Figure 3. This ligature consists of a wire a preferably
rivetted at its points of attachment and describes any desired or necessary figure
in its course such for example as that shown in side and end elevations in Figure 4
or that shewn in side elevation in Figure 5.
When more than one reed or tongue is used they are connected one to another
laterally by the ligature a as illustrated with regard to a double tongued reed in
Figure 6 and with regard to a three tongued reed in Figure 7.
The constraint may be obtained by means of a solid block in place of the
ligature or wire. This modification is shewn in Figure 8 where the block may
carry a wire y which serves to lower the note to its original pitch and which if
prolonged serves to create a harmonic of the original tone.
In division B as regards the mouth piece each reed is set upon its own mouth
piece (bb figure 2) and a stop consists of a row of such mouth pieces a series
of such stops constitutes a "reed board" each stop is opened or closed by a slide b³
controlling all orifices corresponding to every reed of each "stop" and operated by
a draw stop as in organs.
They are isolated laterally into stops by the partitions b³ but the whole of the

page_text: notes on the reed board are also isolated vertically into series intended to be
controlled by any key board by partitions which are set upon a "pallet board" a³
against which the "reed board" is hinged at a³ and locked at a*.
The spaces between these partitions I call reed channels.
As regards the divisions C and D when the wind has escaped past the "slide" b²
which controls the mouth pieces or reed cups in division B it passes into a tube
formed by division C which is common to all the mouth pieces in one vertical row
in division B thence the air passes into division D which is divided laterally into
compartments & so arranged alternately (as shewn in the back view figure 11) that
the breath of each compartment & may be increased.
This I call the principle of alternation.
In cases where I dispense with the "bell" the outer surface of C is perforated
by a row or rows of holes whose number and size tend to reinforce the pitch
of any note or all the notes to which it is common and in this case I divide the
tube or division C into a number of compartments corresponding to the mouths b
and provide it with orifices or mouths corresponding to the openings in the section B
as shewn by dotted lines in Figure 2.
Thus far I have explained the formation and reinforcement of the reed tone
created in the division A.
Now I will proceed to describe the control of the tone.
Any given note in the whole series of stops has the wind admitted to it by a
pallet on the back of the reed channels before described and shewn in Figure 2.
These may be the ordinary organ pallets but I prefer to use the special form of
pallet shewn in Figure 2. It consists of a bar F bearing a number of small
separate pallets f covering corresponding holes in the pallet board a² carried by
the vertical partitions forming the separate reed channels. This bar F is centred
to arms f so as to rise with a parallel or approximately parallel action which may
be modified by the angles at which these arms are set with each other so that one
pallet f may rise before the other.
There is a bar F to each vertical row of reeds and each bar F is lifted by a
lever f³ which may be acted upon by any suitable mechanism or connection from
the finger keys.
I prefer to make the pallets f circular and to connect them to the bar by
stems f of wire with a threaded screw so that by merely turning them they can
be made to bear wind tightly over their respective openings. Any of these pallets
can moreover be provided with a projection as shewn for example at f which by
the movement of the pallet comes in contact with the opposing reed or a projection
therefrom and so hastens its speech.
These pallets are enclosed in a wind chest G as in an organ and can be
gained access to by a lid H which I prefer to make hollow so as to act as a sound
board.
In making small instruments with only one row. of notes I am able to dispense
with the series of reed cups and their slides and the reed channels that isolate
them.
Figure 9 is a section of an arrangement of small instruments according to my
Invention.
I place the pallets f external to the alternating mouths & and set in the wind
chests a separate percussion action for each reed which strikes the reed or the
bar a at the time the pallet is opened. The percussion and the opening of the
pallet for sounding each reed can both be controlled by a single large bell crank
lever I acted upon by the key lever direct or by any suitable intervening
mechanism.
The special pallet hereinbefore described with reference to Figure 2 is valuable
for external use as in an harmonium especially where I employ the system of
alternation to gain an extended scale. Figure 10 is a section shewing the
application from which it will be readily understood without further description.
The reeds are arranged preferably so that they have a central line of percussion.

page_text: It will be evident that the instruments described may be operated upon by
suction instead of pressure
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my said
Invention and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried into
effect I would observe in conclusion that what I consider to be novel and original
and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the hereinbefore in part
recited Letters Patent is :-
First. Arranging the parts of a reed musical instrument in the manner and for
the purpose herein before described with reference to Figures 1 and 2.
Second. The constrained reed constructed as described with reference to
Figure 8.
Third-In reed musical instruments the combination of the mouth piece b
following the reeds with a tube C and compartments & arranged alternately as
described with reference to Figure 2.
Fourth In reed musical instruments the arrangement in combination with the
reed cavities or mouth pieces of the compartments d following the same and
arranged alternately as described with reference to Figure 9.
Fifth-In reed musical instruments the alternating arrangement of mouths or
exit chambers for the sound as illustrated in figure 11.
Sixth In reed musical instruinents making the pallet board a² and chest G in
one part and the divisions B C and D (or such of them as are used) in another part
the two parts being hinged and locked together as hereinbefore described with
reference to Figure 2.
Seventh-The employment in reed musical instruments having a percussion
action of the levers I for both operating the pallets and actuating the percussion as
described with reference to Figure 9.
Eighth-In reed musical instruments the combination of pallets preceding
the reeds and cavities b and stop slides following the reeds as hereinbefore
described.
In witness whereof I the said James Baillie Hamilton have to this my
Specification set my hand and seal this twenty sixth day of July One thousand
eight hundred and eighty three.
JAMES BAILLIE HAMILTON (L.S.)