US159838A - Improvement in repeating actions for pianos - Google Patents

Description

F. POLSTER.

Repeating-Action for Pianos.

Patented Feb. 16,1875.

WJVK" &SS ES HE GRAPHIC CO.PNOT0-LITH.39&41PARK PLACE,N.Y.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE FERDINAND POLSTER, OF BALTIMORE, MARYLAND.

IMPROVEMENT IN REPEATING ACTIONS FOR PIANOS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 1 59338, dated February 16, 1875 application filed October 28, 1874.

To all whom it may concem:

Be it known that I, FERDINAND POLSTER, of Baltimore, in the county of Baltimore and State of M aryland, have invented a new and Valuable Improvement in the Repeating Action of Pianos; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the Construction and operation of the same, reference being had to the annexed drawings making a part of this speoification, and to the letters and figures of reference marked thereon.

Figure l of the drawings is a represeutation of a side elevation of a single key-lover With its attachments, showing my spring devices acting in combination with the repeatingstandard, the 'fly and key levers, and the flylever bottom; also, the rails and key-board in section. Fig. 2 represents a perspeetive view of regulating tenon-rocker butt, with its resilient spring and bufer-head.

My invention is a device for produeing a ready and rapidly repeating action in pianos; and consists in the novel construction and operation of the same, for the purpose aforesaid, and embraces the following peeuliar features: A regulated resilient spring supporting the hammer-standard, and, by means of buffers, roeker-butts, and set-screws, coactin g with said standard and the fly and key levers of a pianoforte action; also, a bent and twisted spring, supporting and springing the lower arm of the fiy-lever, all of which and their purposes are hereinafter more full y described and illustrated by the aeeompanying drawings, in which the same letters designate identioal parts of my device in the different figures, respeotively.

The letter A represents the usual keyboard of a piano, suitably supporting the key-lover 3. G is the rooler-lever bottom or butt, attaehed to and regulated upon the aforesaid key-lover, and hinged at its inner end to the fulcrum of the usual fly-lever D, all in the usual manner. Said fly-lever has an elbow shape, with a Vertical and horizontal arm, as

illustrated. E is the usual hammer backcheck. F is the usual hammer, and I) its butt, resting upon the hammer-rail c. H is the hammer-standard, which generally rests, by means of the notch e, upon the top of the vertieal arm of the said fiy-lever. I is one of the musical strings of the piano. K is the'usual rail for the support of the hammer F when at rest, and provided with the usual set-screw and bnfer f to press down the horizontal arm of the fly-lever, and also regulate the eXtcnt of the conseqnent oscillation of its vertical arni.

The above usual elements of the best pianoactions now made have in combination and coaction with them certain new elements, as follows: A spring, L, consisting of a rod of resilient metal of' suitable size and length, having one end firmly and tightly inserted into a rochig butt or block, g, and the other end similarly inserted into a head or tongue, h, as illustrated, the whole forming a resilient and bufer spring under the foot of the aioresaid standard H, and supported and regulated upon the key-lever B by means of the setscrews t' and the tenon-rocker k. The said tongue h extends underneath the inner end of the lever-butt 0, for the purpose of preventing the said tongue from springing up to'o high, and thus pressing the hammer F against the string I. Also, inserted into the foot of the said standard H is one end of another setscrew, m, the other end of which is passed down loosely through a hole, a, piereed through the said tongue lt, and into another hole made directly underneath the former into the upper edge of the key-level* B. This set-screw m is thus arranged for the purpose of keeping the standard H always in a vertical position while raising or lowering the hammer F 5 and it is provided also with a butter-block, l, which rests upon the tongue h, and thus wholly supports said standard when the top of the vertical arm of the aforesaid fiy-lever is out of the notch e, while it also, by being turned up or down upon the screw-threads, regulates the oscillation and momentum of the aforesaid hammer. The letter s represents another spring, eonsisting of a piece of resilient wre of suitable length and size twisted once or twice upon itself, and bent into an elbow shape, as illustrated. The end of the shorter arni of said elbow is inserted tightly into the top of the outer end of the fly-lever butt G, and the end of the other arm passed underneath the horizontal arm of said fiy-lever D, for the purpose of springing the top of the vertical arn of the same into the notch e, when the inner end of' the key-level* B comes down, and the hammer F falls into rest.

Hence the operation of the aforesaid sprin gs, as shown, in conhination with the said older elements, produces" a ready and rapidly-repeatig action of the hammer upon the strings, should the performer even press continuously upon the key, and make ever so rapid a trilling vibration of the string-a result much desired, but hitlerto unattained; therefore,

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

In piano-forte actions, the resilient spring

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