IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR SHAPING SHEET METAL FOR TONGUES FOR MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1876

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Lloyd Wise at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 16th November 1876.
WILLIAM LLOYD WISE, of Chandos Chambers, Adelphi, in the County of
Middlesex. "IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR SHAPING SHEET METAL FOR TONGUES FOR
MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES. A communication from abroad
Kingdom of Saxony, German
by Heinrich Huebscher, of Klingenthal, in the
Empire.
This Invention has reference to machinery for thinning, bevilling, or shaping
("fraiser") sheet metal, intended either to be punched, stamped, or formed into
tongues, reeds, or vibrators for musical instruments, or to be used for other purposes,
such as the manufacture of springs in metronomes, and the making of counter bars
in piano mechanisms.
Heretofore metallic tongues, such as above referred to, have mostly been stamped
from sheet brass, and subsequently filed down to suit a particular tone or note.
This is a tiresome process, which involves skilled labor, and consequently renders
the tongues, reeds, or vibrators too costly for the instruments for which they are
intended. Now according to this Invention, shaping machinery, as herein-after
mentioned, is employed for thinning or bevilling in widths, corresponding to the
tone lengths of the tongues, the sheet brass plates from which the tongues are to be
stamped or punched; thus the plates (and consequently the tongues) are reduced
in thickness to the gauge required for the particular tone the tongues are intended
to produce. Such tongues cannot be of uniform thickness throughout, it being
necessary for the attainment of high notes that at the fastening ends the tongues
should be thicker than and should thence taper away towards their opposite or free
ends, whilst for deep notes the reverse obtains; the tongues being thinner at their
fastenings end, and growing thicker towards their free ends.
One arrangement of machine according to this Invention has a headstock,
having a spindle or mandrel with fast and loose pullies. The spindle or mandrel
carries a rotary cutting tool, above which is arranged an adjustable abutment or
rest, between which and the rotary cutter the metal plate is thinned, bevilled, or
shaped. The abutment or rest is carried by a slide in a pivotted frame. A weighted
lever tends to raise the said slide, which may be lowered as required by a screw
carried by the pivotted frame, which screw has an arm and adjustable finger

page_text: operating in conjunction with a division plate. The said screw may be fastened
by a set screw. The angular or inclined adjustment of the abutment or rest is
effected by adjusting the pivotted frame and fixing it by set screws, a finger or
pointer and division plate being provided for enabling the amount of inclination to
be determined.
The plate to be operated upon is presented to the rotary cutting tool by a slide
rest and holder, into which the said plate is clamped.
The Invention comprises also a double machine on the principle above set forth,
as also several modified arrangements of machinery.
In one arrangement the rotary cutting tool is made adjustable, one of the
bearings of its shaft being adjustable vertically by means of a wedge-like piece or
key, which is carried on antifriction rollers, and is adjustable longitudinally by a
screw and marked with or carries divisions, near which is fixed a finger or index.
The wedge-like piece having been set is fixed in place, and by the bearing it
supports is held down by screws. In this case the rest or abutment is capable of
intermittent rotation, being arranged on a shaft below the rotary cutting tool,
and in form somewhat resembles a ratchet wheel; its shaft carries on its opposite
At one side
end a toothed disc, indicator, or division wheel actuated by a worm.
of the headstock is a sliding bar carrying a guide or stop plate, which can be
adjusted so as to accurately determine the extent to which the plate to be operated
upon shall extend beyond the sides of the rotary tool and rest or abutment.
Sometimes a bevil or other form is given to the rotary tool instead of inclining
the rest or abutment, which may then be adjusted vertically by means of a frame
and set screws arranged above or below the rotary tool.
In some cases a kind of chuck is employed for holding and presenting to the
tool the plate to be operated upon. This chuck is fixed on the same axis as the
ratchet wheel rest or abutment herein-before described. In this chuck the sheet
or plate of metal to be operated upon is held by clamps against the periphery of
a ring.
In another, arrangement of holding contrivance the plate to be operated upon is
tightened down by a clamp held down by cams or eccentrics.
In order to save time in the returning of the plate holder or support after a
plate has been operated upon it is proposed in some cases to actuate the slide
through a nut formed in two parts, hinged so as when closed to embrace a screw,
the one extremity of each half of the nut taking into a cam-shaped groove on a
shaft provided with a weighted arm or lever. On the plate holder reaching the
end of its forward course the cam shaft is turned, thus the ends of the half nuts
are caused to diverge and disengage from the screw, leaving the plate holder or
support free to return.
It will be evident that the machinery is susceptible of other modifications in
detail without departure from the distinctive character of the Invention herein-
above set forth.