US1291202A - Metallophone. - Google Patents

Description

S. SIEGEL. METALLOPHONE. APPLICATION FILED FEB.26. 1911.

Patented Jan. 14, 1919.

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SAMUEL SIEGEL, OI YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOB T0 ANNA SIEGEL, OF NEW YORK, Y.

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. Specification oi Letters Patent.

: Patented Jan. 14, 1919.

"Application filed February 28, 1917. 7 Serial Ho. 150,946.

To all whom it ma concern:

Be it known that I, SAMUEL SIEGEL, a citizen of the United States, residing at New York city, in the county and State of New York, have invented new and useful Improvements in Metallophones, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact descri tion.

is y invention relates to what is known to the trade as metallophones, which consists, principally of a series of graduated metal bars arranged so as to produce the notes of the common musical scale when struck in succession.

The object of my invention is to identify these. metallic bars of the instrument by means of pictures or animals, or other objects, which can-be easily recognized by children who can reproduce simple melodies by striking the bars indicated by the pictures of the same objects arranged one after another upon a chart used in connection with my improvements. This I accomplish by the means hereinafter fully described, and

as particularly pointed out in the claims.

In the drawings:

Figure 1 is a plan view of my invention showing one of the charts mounted thereon. Fig. 2 is a front edge view of the same.

Fig. 3 is a transverse section taken on dotted line 3-3, Fig. 1.

Referring to the drawings, 10 represents a supportin board the front edge of which is, preferab slightly oblique to the rear edge and which is supported by transverse cleats, 11, secured to the underside thereof near each end, which latter have felt pads 12 cemented or otherwise secured to the underside of their ends.

The supporting boardhas a longitudinally elongated slot 13 which extends from near one end to near the other end thereof and is situated nearer the front edge than the rear edge thereof, and this'slot is narrower at its right hand end than at its left hand end and has strips of felt 14:, mounted upon and suitably secured to the margins of its longitudinal edges that extend practically from end to end of the slot.

The metal sounding-bars 15, are arranged transversely and bridge across slot 13, and they rest upon the felt strips 14, and have holes through them that are situated near their ends down through which pegs or pins 16, are driven into the supporting-board to retain them in their relative positions.

left to right will reproduce the musical notes of the diatonic scale, although, if desired, an additional bar may be interposed in proper'position to reproduce the sharp orflat of any of said musical notes. Between the rear edge of each of said bars and the rear edge of the supporting-board, a picture can be readily recognized by the child mind, is pasted or otherwise secured to said supporting-board in alinement with bar 15 in front of it. For instance, reading from left to right the following pictures are used to identify the plates arranged in front of them, to-wit': a girade, an elephant, a lion, a

of an animal or other familiar object, which f tiger, a monkey, a deer, a cow, a cat, a dog,

a rabbit, a horse and a hen.

These pictures are, preferably, printed upon strips of paper, but it is obvious that the representation of the animals, named, or the pictures of such other objects as may be substituted therefor, may be embossed or in intaglio or otherwise made, as, obviously, it would not involve invention to employ any of these methodsof illustration. if the pictures are printed on paper the subject of each of said pictures may be identified by printing the name thereof immediately above the pictures, as shown, and, if desired, the note produced by striking the bar indicated by each picture can be identified by the proper musical character prop erly disposed in the lines and spaces of the musical stafi, 17. I

When this musical-notation is employed, I prefer to place the name of the musical note produced by the bar above it, and place the letter indicated by said musical character above the same. Thus, the bar at the left hand end of the series of sounding-bars is identified by the picture of a girafie. The word Giraffe is printed above the said picture, a quarter note is shown on the line below the musical staff above the word Giraffe and the letter C is printed above the musical stafi.

The chart 18 used in connection with my invention is the same as that described in Letters Patent of the United States granted to me October 17, 1916, No. 1,201,769, for toy piano, and which near its upper edge has several bars of musical characters properly disposed on a staff that compose a simple melody and then has several horizontally disposed series of pictures corresponding to ictures 19 mounted .on the supporting- Eoard that are arranged one after the other so that by striking with a suitable hammer the bars indicated by the corresponding pictures, in the order in which they are arran ed, the melody readable on the musical sta above them can be produced. This chart 18 is, preferably, printed on stifi' card board, and it is held in position where it can be easily read by the musician by inserting its lower edge in a longitudinal groove 20 extending, referably, from one endof the supportingcard to the other near the rear edge and inclined slightly so as to tilt the chart rearwardly.

What I claim as new is:

1. A musical instrument comprising a supporting-board, a sounding bar mounted thereon and extending lon 'tudinally away from the forward edge 0 the board, and means for identifying the note given out by said bar comprising, in substantial alinement with the bar and disposed rearwardly thereof in the following order, the picture of a familiar object, the name of such object, the musical indication of the said note and the letter of the diatonic scale corres- .ponding to said note.

'2. A musical instrument, comprising a supporting-board, a sounding-bar mounted thereon and extending lon 'tudinally away from the forward edge 0 the board, and arbitrary and musical indicia for identifying the note given out by said bar, said indicia being alined with the bar and disposed rearwardly thereof.

3. A musical instrument, comprising a 41 supporting-board, a musically graduated set of sounding bars mounted thereon each extending longitudinally away from the forward edge of the board, and arbitrary and musical indi'cia for each bar positioned rear-5' wardly of and in alinement with the bar; said arbitrary indicia for the bars being in transverse alinement across the board and the musical indicia being similarly transversely alined.

In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand this 301 day of February, 1917.

SAMUEL SIEGEL. Witnesses FRANK D, THOMAsON,

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