"Vocalin" Violin Patent Model
date: label: Date made
content: 1905
label: date made
content: 1906
label: patent date
content: 1906-06-26
name: label: patentee
content: Smith, Lewis Cass
notes: label: Description
content: This “Vocalin” violin was patented (U.S. Patent number 824316) by Lewis Cass Smith in New York, New York in 1906. The instrument is original in all structural aspects, and retains the pegs, fingerboard, top-nut, soundpost, tailpiece, saddle, button and chinrest. In his patent application Lewis Smith claims: "This invention relates to stringed musical instruments: . . . and wherein the structure and proportions will be such that tones of high quality will be produced not withstanding the fact that the instruments may have been manufactured at a low cost and without the care to such details as are vital, especially in a violin, and which occasion much expense in the manufacture of violins . . . Tones of a high quality will be produced in such instruments (Vocalins) . . . immediately after they are finished, requiring not, as is common with violins, a certain age and years of practical use to produce tones of high qualities." While the original patent describes interior bars to produce sound amplification and improvement, this instrument has the interior construction of a traditional violin.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: Place Made
content: United States: New York, New York City
setName: label: See more items in
content: Culture and the Arts: Musical Instruments
label: See more items in
content: Music & Musical Instruments
label: See more items in
content: Violins
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: 1987.0263.02
label: catalog number
content: 1987.0263.02
label: accession number
content: 1987.0263
label: patent number
content: 824316
objectType: label: Object Name
content: violin
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: 23 3/4 in x 8 3/4 in x 3 1/2 in; 60.325 cm x 22.225 cm x 8.89 cm