IMPROVED MEANS FOR SUPPLYING AIR TO ORGANS.
Year: 1877

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Willis, of Camden Town, in the County of Middlesex,
Organ Builder, for the Invention of "IMPROVED MEANS FOR SUPPLYING AIR
TO ORGANS.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Willis at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 18th December 1877.
HENRY WILLIS, of Camden Town, in the County of Middlesex, Organ Builder.
"IMPROVED MEANS FOR SUPPLYING AIR TO ORGANS."
The object of the present Invention is to adapt steam, hot air, or gas engines to
blow organs through the agency of air pumps or other feeders, and prevent an over
supply of air to the bellows without the velocity of the engines being required to
be reduced. This object I attain by enabling the bellows to gradually diminish the
efficient action of the pump or its equivalent, and thereby to regulate the supply of
air received from the pump.
In order that my Invention may be readily understood, I will suppose an engine
applied to drive a double-acting air pump having the necessary and well-known
pressure ports, channels, and valves suitable to draw in and expel the air and deliver
it to the bellows.
To prevent the overblowing of the bellows, it has hitherto been considered neces-
sary either to retard the action of the engine or to diminish the indraught of the
air as the bellows becomes inflated.
In the case of single-cylinder steam engines, hot air, or gas engines, it is under-
stood that their speed cannot at present be sufficiently governed or caused to fall
below a certain velocity. This being so, I propose to provide the pump with ports
and channels, which, by the aid of a slide valve or its equivalent, will form a con-
nection between the opposite ends of the cylinder, and thus allow of the piston,
while still working at its full speed, doing, when desired, little or no effective work.
By connecting this valve with the bellows so that the rise of the bellows to its
Pains Bil

page_text: maximum height shall fully open the valve, and its descent shall close the valve,
I obtain such a regulation of the supply of air that the pump, without varying the
speed of its stroke, will act with its full energy when the bellows is deflected, and
gradually diminish in effect as the maximum supply is arrived at.
I prefer that the piston of the pump should fit loosely in its cylinder, relying on
its speed to draw into the cylinder and give the requisite propulsion to the air
required for maintaining the supply to the organ.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed. by
the said Henry Willis in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 18th June
1878.
HENRY WILLIS, of Camden Town, in the County of Middlesex, Organ Builder.
"IMPROVED MEANS FOR SUPPLYING AIR TO ORGANS."
The object of the present Invention is to adapt steam, hot air, or gas engines to
blow organs through the agency of air pumps or other feeders, and prevent an over
supply of air to the bellows without the velocity of the engines being required to
be reduced. This object I attain by enabling the bellows, as they are filled,
gradually to diminish the efficient action of the pump or its equivalent, and thereby
to regulate the supply of air received from the pump.
To prevent the overblowing of the bellows, it has hitherto been considered neces-
sary either to retard or stop the action of the engine, or to diminish the indraught
of the air as the bellows becomes inflated, or else to allow it to waste.
In the case of single-cylinder steam engines, hot air, or gas engines, it is under-
stood that their speed cannot, at present, be sufficiently governed or caused to fall
below a certain velocity. This being so, I propose to provide the pump with ports
and channels, which, by the aid of a slide valve or its equivalent, will form a con-
nection between the opposite ends of the cylinder, and thus allow of the piston,
while still working at its full speed, doing, when desired, little or no effective
work.
In order that my Invention may be readily understood, I will suppose an engine
applied to drive a double-acting air pump having the necessary well-known pressure
ports, channels, and valves suitable to draw in and expel the air and deliver it to
the bellows.
In the accompanying Drawing,-
Fig. 1 is a side elevation, partly in section, of an air pump connected with the
crank shaft of a motive-power engine, and fitted, according to my Invention, with
apparatus for regulating the supply of air to the bellows of an organ. In this
figure, A is the cylinder of the air pump, the piston rod of which is connected by a
rod A¹ to the crank shaft A2 of a motive power engine. This cylinder is mounted
on a hollow base B; which is shewn in a plan view at Fig. 2, and has formed in it
three air passages 1, 2, and 3, extending from end to end thereof, for receiving air

page_text: from the atmosphere, conveying the same to opposite sides of the piston of the
pump cylinder A, and conducting it to an air trunk C' leading to the organ bellows
C, Fig. 1.
In the face of the hollow base B, at one end thereof, are three ports a, a¹, a², over
which slides a
valve D (see the sectional view, Fig. 3) for admitting air
through the ports b, b', alternately to opposite ends of the pump cylinder.
The valve D, when in action, opens to the air either the port a or the port a¹,
which are respectively in connection with the passages 1 and 2, and it thus allows
of air being admitted into the pump cylinder on the receding side of the piston.
At the same time the air on the advancing side of the piston is forced out from the
cylinder, and, passing under the valve, finds its way by the port a² through the
central channel 3, to the air trunk C, and so to the bellows.
The valve D is operated through a connecting rod D' from the excentric D² on
the crank shaft A³. Its motions therefore will always have the proper relation to
the movements of the piston of the pump cylinder.
In order that the efficient action of the pump may bear the proper relation to
the requirements of the bellows as respects the amount of air to be supplied thereto,
I employ the rising-and-falling motions of the bellows to control the action of the
pump, in the manner to be presently described. For this purpose the passages 1
and 2, which lead respectively from the port a to the port b, and from the port a'
to the port 6', connect also with the ports c and c' respectively. Over these ports
I place a
slide valve F, as shewn in section at Fig. 1, and I connect this
valve by means of a link rod f, a weighted bell-crank lever f¹, and a link rod f³
with the top board of the bellows C. A pin on the crank lever plays in a slot of
the link rod f and bears on the lower end of that slot.
When the bellows is getting low, the weight of the crank lever, being no longer
supported by the link rod, will thrust the slide valve into the dotted position of
Fig. 1, at which time there will be no connection between the ports c and c'. So
soon however as the pump has charged the bellows with air sufficient to lift the
link rod f and thereby rock the weighted crank lever, the slide valve F will be
caused to open a communication between the ports c and c', and allow the air com-
pressed on one side of the piston of the pump to flow to the other side of the piston,
thus the energy of the pump, instead of being expended in forcing air into the
already expanded bellows, will simply drive it through the passages 1 and 2 in the
hollow base B until a fresh supply of air is required in the bellows. This will be
indicated by the partial collapse of the bellows, at which time the link rod will drop
and allow the weighted bell-crank lever to slide the valve F on its seat so as to
contract the passage for the air from one port to the other, or wholly to cut off the
connection between the ports.
Fig. 4 shews the pump cylinder in longitudinal section, and also the base B with
its side channels 1, 2, in connection with the opposite ends of the cylinder, the
piston being at the end of its stroke.
Supposing now the piston to commence its return stroke, the air in front of the
piston will be forced into the channel 2, and the valve F being closed or in the
dotted position of Fig. 1, the air will pass to the port a¹, and, following the arrow
in Fig. 3, will descend into the central passage 3, pass thence to the air trunk C',
and so to the bellows. If however the bellows were at this time full of air, as
indicated by Fig. 1, the valve F would be in the drawn position, and the air, instead
of flowing under the continued action of the pump to the port a² and so on to the
bellows, would, by reason of the suction of the piston, pass under the valve F and
thence to the back of the piston. By this arrangement of mechanism it will be
seen that I obtain such a regulation of the supply of air that the pump, without
varying the speed of its stroke, will act with its full energy when the bellows is
depleted, and gradually diminish in effect as the maximum supply is arrived at.
I prefer that the piston of the pump should fit loosely in its cylinder, relying
upon its speed to draw into the cylinder and give the requisite propulsion to the
air required for maintaining the supply to the organ,

page_text: To prevent pulsations in the large bellows, I prefer to employ a pair of air pumps,
and I thus secure a continuous discharge of air into the bellows.
When using a pair of pumps, I arrange the same side by side, as shewn in the
transverse sectional view, Fig. 5, and I connect them with a receiving bellows or a
pair of connected bellows C, C.
It will be readily understood by organ builders that for the supply of air to the
pumps or feeders, ordinary bellows valves may be used, and the excentric machinery
and supply valve may be dispensed with.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of "Improved Means for
Supplying Air to Organs," and explained the manner of carrying the same into
effect, I wish it to be understood that, under the above in part recited Letters
Patent, I claim, the means above described, or any mere modification thereof,
whereby, without varying the speed of the stroke of the air pump or other feeder,
or of the engine driving the same, the supply of air to the bellows may be controlled
or diminished, as desired.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Willis, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, the Fourteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight.
HENRY WILLIS. (LS)