US3204513A

US3204513A - Musical and analytical instrument

Info

Publication number: US3204513A
Application number: US188997A
Authority: US
Inventors: Balamuth Lewis
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1962-04-20
Filing date: 1962-04-20
Publication date: 1965-09-07
Anticipated expiration: 1982-09-07

Description

Sept. 7, 1965 1.. BALAMUTH 3,204,513

MUSICAL AND ANALYTICAL INSTRUMENT Filed April 20, 1962 5 Sheets-Sheet 1 nnmunllllllllmn'W INPUT s2 [L 65 OUTPUT RELAY INVENTOR. LEWIS BALAMUTH 69 BY {9% 6| EYS ATTOR Se t. 7, 1965 BALAMUTH MUSICAL AND ANALYTICAL INSTRUMENT 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed April 20 1962 INVENTOR. LEVHS BALAMUTH ATTOR P 1965 L- BALAMUTH 3,204,513

MUSICAL AND ANALYTICAL INSTRUMENT Filed April 20, 1962 3 Sheets-Sheet 5 INVENTOR. Ff q.J LEWIS BALAMUTH ATTOR EYS United States Patent 3,204,513 MUSICAL AND ANALYTICAL INSTRUMENT Lewis Balamuth, 29 Washington Square W., New York, N.Y. Filed Apr. 20, 1962, Ser. No. 188,997 9 Claims. (Cl. 84-464) This invention relates to the analysis of objects which are capable of emitting a regular tone, including musical notes and sustained vibrations such as a ringing sound, and especially to the discovery of hidden physical imperfections or changes in the composition of such objects. It also relates to a color and sound producing instrument which has colors arranged in octaves, and which is responsive to the tones of the musical scale. This novel instrument can be played from the keyboard of a piano or an organ, or it can be activated by the sounds emitted by any object capable of producing regular vibrations.

It has already been proposed to make an instrument for the performance of musical compositions in which sight and sound are both involved and a number of such instruments have been described in Class 84-464. Such devices have failed of general acceptance because of substantial imperfections, the number and magnitude of which makes a particular discussion impractical. One substantial failure, of the prior art, was to find in the field of light and color anything comparable to the tonal system of the musical system, the octave. Thus, where the piano has a graduated tonal system based upon octaves, each note having a relation of two to one to the same note in the next octave, no such relationship has been found for the system of lights. In one prior art device there were pairs of buttons controlling white, red, yellow, blue and violet lights but any opproximation of the graduated tonal system of the piano was not conceived.

It is an object of this invention to provide an instrument having a graduated tonal system comparable in color and light to the notes of the musical scale. By the construction of such a tonal scale in color, I have been enabled to construct a combined musical and light instrument in which the graded tones of sound are accompanied by graded tones of lights.

It is an object of the invention to produce an instantaneous, visual, comparative analysis of the composition, and to instantaneously determine the perfection of objects such as porcelain, bells, and car wheels.

Another object is to transform tones to lights, selected sounds being reproduced in lights of definite color, hue, or depth, and to distinguish musical notes by color. The objects include piano tuning, the reproduction in color of sounds beyond the range of the human ear, and the construction of high fidelity instruments.

Another object is to make a musical instrument which responds to the performance of the artist in sound and light. Other and numerous objects will be explained as the description proceeds. As the construction of the musical instrument and its function are a proper introduction to the scientific uses of the analytical instrument, they will be described first.

According to my invention the visible bands of light which appear as violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red constitute a grand octave and each of these colors is similarly divided into seven graded parts which constitute particular octaves. One method of constructing these octaves in graded series has been described in which rice paper is dyed with the chosen color, for instance red, and the successive gradations are made by laminating squares of the rice paper, one thickness for the lightest tone of the octave, two thicknesses for the gression.

second, three for the third tone, etc. When the seven grades are assembled before lights of the same intensity each light appears as of the same color but of different depth. I have now improved upon that invention by utilizing not only difference in depth as the distinguishing character of the tones of the visual octave but by including also the differences in hue. For example, there are many known colors-of red, for instance crimson, scarlet, cerise, and Vermilion, and from these I selected seven colors differing in tone from light to dark in graded steps. This is readily accomplished by selecting a graded series from the color tables of dyers and color makers. Reference may be made to the spectra of particular colors for the selection of a well tempered scale.

In making the novel octaves certain systems are particularly useful. In the first, seven sheets of rice paper are dyed with the seven different colors constituting the octave. The lowest note of the octave will be composed of seven laminated sheets of the deepest color, for in stance the deepest red, the second note will be composed of six sheets of the red color of next lighter hue, the third note will be composed of five sheets of the red color next lighter in hue, etc. In the second system, the principle of lamination is used but a lesser variation of one tone is used, and the successive steps are made up by laminating dilferent quantities of dark red sheets and light redsheets, for instance seven dark red sheets for the lowest tone and seven light red sheets for the highest tone, the intermediate tones being composed of diiferent numbers of dark and light red sheets depending upon the hue and depth which are to be obtained. A variation of the second method is to use a single sheet of light hue for the highest tone of the octave and a single sheet of dark hue for the lowest tone in the octave but with the ditference that the lowest tone will be more heavily dyed than the upper so that a difference in gradation is obtained by depth of dying as well as by choice of hue.

There are two basic responses to music, the responses to the. chord and to the tune. It has been an object of my invention to achieve a display in colored lights which will evoke by sight responses similar to the responses by sound, and to this end I may arrange a grand octave in area as in FIG. 5, which produces pattern, and a grand octave in line, as in FIG. 1, which reproduces pro- Pattern and progression appear in FIG. 5 but pattern predominates. Progression and pattern appear in FIG. 1 but progression predominates. By combining the two, for instance by mounting the square of FIG. 5 above the line of FIG. 1 and electrically connecting identical colors to the same piano key, a series of flickering, flashing patterns are produced and the bril liance of runs, arpeggios, and sequences in the music are conveyed in varying colors and varying combinations of colors. 7

Two methods of constructing the panels are shown in FIGS. 1 and 5. In FIG. 1 is shown a linear panel in which the violet octave and the indigo octave are set out in full with the beginning of the blue octave. When this panel is connected to the keyboard of a piano in any of the ways to be hereinafter described, the pressing of a key of the piano will produce a light in the corresponding tone of the color octave. The device being mounted in view of the audience, the flow of the music, the occurrence of the chordsand the skill of the pianist are displayed in the flashing lights. In FIG. 5 the panel is arranged so that the octaves are mounted one above the other from violet to red but with alternately reverse direction, V to V progressing to the right, R to R progressing to the left, as shown, or in spiral form, proceeding counter clockwise for instance. This preserves the continuity of the progression of runs and arpeggios which is apt to become confused if the eye must travel, to follow a run, from the right to the left of the board. Many other arr-angements of the panel are conceivable.

The panel has been described as composed of octaves but in preferred form it will have the twelve tone scale of the standard piano including the half tones.

I have also found that the panel can easily be constructed by punching holes through a piece of cardboard and pasting the color sheets over the openings. Additional interest is added to such panels by imprinting the color sheets with, or stamping the panel with holes in the shape of designs. In one successful panel I used chinese pictographs.

The manner of constructing such an instrument is set forth diagrammatically in the following drawings, wherein like numbers refer to like parts:

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic view of part of a linear panel beginning with the lowest complete octave;

FIG. 2 is a sketch of the connection between one key of the keyboard of the musical instrument, such as a piano, and the light in the panel;

FIG. 3 is a diagram of a further improvement in the invention involving the use of foot pedals to play banks of lights;

FIG. 4 is a circuit diagram of one form of the inven tion;

FIG. 5 is an arrangement of the octaves of colored lights different from that of FIG. 1;

FIG. 6 is an elevational view of a band pass filter of acceptable construction;

FIG. 7 is a circuit diagram of a type utilizing the filters of FIG. 6;

FIG. 8 is a diagram of a modified band pass filter;

FIG. 9 and 10 are diagrams of one element of a sonic filter system.

Referring to FIG. 2, 10 is the string of a piano, 11 is the hammer, 12 is the key and 13 is the pivot upon which the key is balanced. No attempt is .made to show the actual complexity of the mechanism. Beneath a movable part of the piano key is located a microswitch 14 which is operated when the key '12 is depressed, closing a circuit from a source of current 15 through lines '16, 17 to a light 18 mounted before a reflector 19 in a box 26 the face V of which is composed of translucent colored glass of deepest violet. The piano key next above 12 is connected to V etc. The microswitch operates without effort and returns to off position as soon as the key is released.

In the modification illustrated in FIG. 3 a series of foot pedals 36 are connected to switches 31 which are in turn connected to a 110 volt A.C. source of current 32 and by lines 33 to a series of lights 38 in the box 20, which are in addition to the lights 18. A general mood or tone can be established in the instrument by depressing one of the foot pedals, each of which is connected to a different combination of lights. Thus, massiveness of effect can be achieved much as one achieves it by pulling the stops on an organ and parts of the composition can be played with a background of color which establishes a mood for the passage. One of the foot pedals 30 may be connected to all the lights 38 which remain illuminated throughout the playing of the composition. This achieves a double end in that the eye fatigue produced by the onand-off flashing of the lights is greatly reduced as the differences are not between darkness and light but between intensity of light. For example, with the entire panel illuminated by the lights 38 the playing of the piece takes place upon the lights 18 which turn on and off but appear as increases and decreases in brilliance.

In FIG. 4 is shown the operating mechanism of a modification which constitutes in effect the perfected form of the invention. The difiiculty with the apparatus which has been described hereinabove is that it is applicable only to an instrument having a keyboard. It is a unit and is only useful as such. Furthermore, while it has substantial use in the field of entertainment as in theaters and the like, and in the home, it is not readily adapted to scientific use.

7 In FIG. 4 there is an extension of this invention which enables one to carry out comparative determinations of composition in objects which are capable of giving forth a sound of their own, particularly when that sound is capable of persisting and has regular vibrations. For example, the apparatus of FIG. 4 can be used where flaws exist in porcelain, iron bars and steel sheets, various metals, glassware and in innumerable uses of a similar kind. This form of the invention may also be employed to determine the existence of imperfections in such objects, for instance the existence of a hidden imperfection in a ceramic bowl.

According to this form of the invention a panel will be provided as described above in which the boxes 20 of the panel contain lights 18 which can be activated from a source of current 15 through lines 16, '17. In line 1-7' is a relay switch which is activated through a coil 40 by

lines

41, 42 which come from an amplifier 43 which is connected by line 44 to a band pass filter 45 which is connected through lines 46 to a microphone 47.

The band pass filter may be a piezoelectric crystal or any other known form of band pass filter which will reject all tones except those which it is adapted to pass. These band pass filters are selected so that the first will accept the central 10% of those vibrations which constitute the tones and overtones of the first note of the octave of the piano. The second band pass filter will pass the central 10% of those vibrations which constitute the tones and overtones of the second note of the octave. This construction can be continued until a satisfactory instrument has been made. Such an instrument may be receptive to many or to few tones and it may extend through a part of the scale or may extend beyond the tones which are audible to man. For example, if one wishes to cast bells a mold is provided, a composition is established and the bell is cast. Some bells are provided with five main tones. The instrument would be constructed to cover the five main tones of a perfect bell plus tones higher and lower so that the entire tonal area of the bell is covered. The band pass filters would pass only the center 10% of the five main tones and the corresponding lights would be illuminated. In addition other filters would pass secondary tones or vibrations and illuminate additional lights. At the conclusion there would be set up a light pattern for that bell represented by possibly eight or nine lights. When other bells are cast from the same mold they are sounded before the instrument and the pattern of lights which appears is compared with the pattern established for the perfoot bell. If the bell is also perfect, the same pattern appears but if the second bell has a fault, for instance a concealed fissue capable of muting one of the main tones the light corresponding to that tone will not appear. A similar system can be set up to test porcelainware and any other object having the capability to emit regular vibrations in or out of the audible range. The number of lights will be adapted to the need of the occasion, some test apparatus requiring many for the analysis of many tones and others few when the vibrations involved are not complex.

In FIG. 6 is illustrated an acceptable type of electromechanical filter in which a tunning fork 60 of low Q is fixed to a base, not shown, by a screw 61. We may assume that the fork is tuned to a resonance equal to the central 10% of the vibrations constituting middle A of the musical scale. An input delivers through wires 62 to coil 63 a current containing many frequencies of which middle A is one. A soft iron core 64 is Within the coil and in proximity to the left tine of the fork, which is set in vibration and vibrates the right tine, which emits only its own tonal frequency and activates the core and coil 65-66 at the pure and limited frequency of the fork, which is transmitted to the output and to the light operated thereby.

FIG. 7 discloses an operative apparatus for reproducing in a light pattern the sounds picked by by a microphone 70 and delivered to an amplifier 71 from which the current is distributed to a series of coils 72 corresponding to coils 63 of FIG. 6 which are associated with tuning forks 73 all of which are tuned to different frequencies. The coils 74 correspond to coils 65 and activate relays 75 which turn on lights 76 as their respective tuning forks respond to the frequencies which occur in the sounds being analyzed.

Thedevice of FIGS. 6 and 7 is satisfactory, easy to construct, and can be made with material of high Q in the tuning forks or with low Q, the latter of which is preferred for many uses. In the preferred embodiment the tuning fork is replaced by a resonant reed (FIG. 8) which can bend and flex and will yield a low speed of wave motion, much less than the speed of sound in air, providing a specific impedance matching air waves with efiiciency.

In the musical-optical instrument the object is to turn the lights on the screen on and off synchronously with the various sounds being received. Each switch element is to operate when the microphone receives a sound hav- 7 ing a mid-band frequency corresponding to a note of the 88-note piano scale. A good type will employ the fundamental resonant bending vibration frequency of a reed fixed at one end and free at the other. The reed will be of a magnetostrictive material such as nickel, Monel, or steel. The reed 80 is mounted in a base 81 and it will have a radius of gyration t being the thickness of the reed. If nickel is used the frequency 1.42000 (4.694) Z'lr X tX l I being the length of the reed in cm. The application of this formula, the reed being nickel and 1 being .025

cm. produces the following table, Fni being in cycles per second For lower frequencies the length of the reeds can be shortened by using appropriate thickness. For example, one half the length of the table with a width of .005 instead of the .010 on which the table was computed, produces lengths of 10.36, 7.34 and 5.18 for the first three octaves respectively.

The reeds will respond to all frequencies of sound but they will vibrate selectively with a bending vibration at the frequencies F and also at the overtones of their own fiexual vibrations.

For use as a color instrument in combination with a piano or a violin or other instruments the panel will be constructed to cover all the tones of all the instruments, or at least the major portions of the scales. A single microphone may be connected to all the band pass filters or an individual microphone may be attached to each band pass filter, or particular microphones may subtend groups of filters. The instrument being placed within range of the piano or the orchestra and plugged into the nearest convenient source of power, the microphones will pick up the tones and the band pass filters will activate the lights.

A preferred form of the invention is illustrated in FIG. 9 by a single unit, of which there would be another for each sonic frequency that is to appear in light. In this figure a base supports a U-shaped magnetostrictive laminate 91 upon two point supports 92, which may be spots of solder or adhesive. The magnetostrictive laminate, which constitutes a tuning fork, may be made of nickel, tuned to the frequency, e.g. 440 vibrations/second, that is to be reproduced, by careful reduction of its enlarged ends 91' (FIG. 10). Mounted on the base 90 without touching the tuning fork is a post 93 of insulating material, such as porcelain or plastic, which supports a permanent magnet 94, the ends of which are coated with a thin film of insulation, e.g. foam plastic, and are spaced from the ends of the tuning fork by small gaps of, for instance, about .001 inch. A coil 95 encircles the base of one of the tines of the fork and is connected to a condenser 96, forming an electronic band pass filter at a frequency which is the fundamental frequency of the tuning fork. The output of the condenser goes by line 97 to a preamplifier or to a relay coil which, when activated, will turn on the appropriate light in accordance with principles already set forth.v In this form of the invention microphones are needless as amultiplicity of tuning forks, each tuned to its own frequency, and connected to its own light through its own coil and condenser, respond directly to sonic frequencies corresponding to their own specific frequencies, and turn on and off each its own light.

My discovery of the grand octave is an important part of the invention. The ratio of the end point frequencies of the visible light spectrum is approximately 2: 1. Grand octave therefore corresponds to the octave of sound although it would appear that there are many octaves of sound. This 'is to some extent a semblance because the octaves of the keyboard differ only in the pitch of the respective notes.

Another advantage is that color compositions can be played directly from sheet music and color compositions can be recorded and printed just as sheet music is recorded and printed for musical instruments. The color piano can be played alone, without sound, by furnishing it with a keyboard of its own. The provision of foot pedals to activate multielement patterns makes it possible to furnish a tonal background for the dancing lights and to establish an overall color mood not wholly remote from the chord and harmony pattern of music.

The filters used in the perfected form of the invention can conveniently be of magnetostrictive type or piezoelectric elements. The amplifiers are preferably transistorized for spontaneous olf-on response.

The instrument can be used for tuning pianos to exact concert pitch which heretofore has been strictly an art. Having established an instrument of this sort with band pass filters exactly established at the mid band of each note the tuning becomes precise. The limitation of the filter to the acceptance of the central 10% of the several bands of each note eliminates excitation by adjacent notes.

This apparatus is an analytical tool which displays in a color pattern an acoustical spectrum of a source of sound and it can be used in quality control of any solid object which can be made to ring by being struck or stroked. The switches activated with or by the sounds may be connected, not to lights alone, but to lights and alarms or recorders, or to alarms and recorders or other signalling or responsive apparatus alone.

The device can be used to compare and demonstrate the patterns produced by speakers and singers.

In places of public entertainment and the lobbies of large buildings large screens may be established with or without background music to produce varying color patterns. The entire backdrop of a theater can be composed of a panel of lights changing with the music and furnishing a background for dancing performers.

As many apparently widely different embodiments of the present invention may be made without departing from the spirit and scope thereof, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the specific embodiments.

What is claimed is:

1. An instrument responsive in colored lights to musical tones of different pitch including a bank of differently colored lights arranged in octaves of violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange and red of different depth, each color of one octave differing from the same color in the adjacent octaves by a regular increment which progresses in depth from one end of the scale to the other, and electric circuit means to illuminate each of the colored lights including a band pass filter operably connected to a switch for each light and to a microphone.

2. An instrument according to claim 1 in which the band pass filters pass to the respective circuits sound wave lengths each of which includes about of the intervals comprising the notes of the musical scale and thereby activate corresponding lights in the visual octave.

3. A musical color instrument having color producing instrumentalities including a series of differently colored lights individually connected to and operable by oif-on switches, and means for operating each switch selectively including a relay operatively associated with each switch, electromagnetic means connected to each relay, including a coil and a tuned vibrational body tuned to the resonance of the central portion of a note of the musical scale, each tuned vibrational body being of different pitch, means to activate each tuning fork including a coil, an amplifier connected thereto, and a microphone connected to the amplifier, said vibrational bodies being free from the coil and the electromagnetic means.

4. In a selective sound-radiation pattern transformer, electrical means to receive mixed sounds and transform them to mixed electric current frequencies, input electromagnetic means which is operably connected to said electrical means and energized by the mixed frequencies, output electromagnetic mean-s adjacent the input electromagnetic means including a current generating coil operably connected to signalling means, and a tuned vibrational body between and free from the input and output electromagnetic means and which is magnetically associ ated with both of them.

5, A transformer according to claim 4 in which the tuned body is a tuning fork having its tines aligned with said input and output electromagnetic means and a tine closely associated with each of them.

6. A transformer according to claim 4 in which the tuned body is a tuned reed.

7. A transformer according to claim 4 including a multiplicity of three, vibrational bodies tuned to different frequencies, input and output electromagnetic means associated with each of them, and mean connecting all said electromagnetic means to the receiving and signalling means respectively.

8. In a system of representing selected, limited frequencies by light, an electrically operable light, switch means operably connected thereto, output electromagnetic means connected to the switch means, a microphone, an amplifier connected thereto, input electromagnetic means connected to the amplifier, and a tuned, magnetically responsive body, free of but in operative range of both the electromagnetic mean-s, serving as a band pass filter which is put in vibration when a selected frequency band is emitted by the input electromagnetic means and, by its vibration, energizes the output electromagnetic means to.

operate the light.

9. The apparatus of claim 4 in which the signalling means includes a multiplicity of lights which are operably connected to a multiplicity of current generating coils which are responsive to differently tuned vibrational bodies.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 186,298 1/77 Bishop 84-464 667,541 2/01 Loring 84-464 1,323,943 12/ 19 Wilcox. 1,432,553 10/ 22 Hector 84-464 1,573,797 2/26 Beal et al. 181-32 1,654,068 12/27 Blattner 84-464 1,831,783 11/31 Ward 73-69 1,946,026 2/ 34 Lewis et al 84-464 1,977,997 10/34 Patterson 84-464 2,152,177 3/39 Eisenbeis et a1. 84-454 2,152,955 4/39 Coyne 84-464 X 2,153,800 4/39 Holmes 84-454 2,257,285 9/41 Sundt 84-454 2,393,225 1/46 Andalikiewicz 73-69 2,571,409 10/51 Beyers et al. 73-69 2,779,920 1/57 Petroif 84-464 X OTHER REFERENCES Publication, Colour Music, Sea, Land and Air, pages 417422.

LEO SMILOW, Primary Examiner. C. W. ROBINSON, LEYLAND MARTIN, Examiners.

Claims

3. A MUSICAL COLOR INSTRUMENT HAVING COLOR PRODUCING INSTRUMENTALITIES INCLUDING A SERIES OF DIFFERENTLY COLORED LIGHTS INDIVIDUALLY CONNECTED TO AND OPERABLE BY OFF-ON SWITCHES, AND MEANS FOR OPERATING EACH SWITCH SELECTIVELY INCLUDING A RELAY OPERATIVELY ASSOCIATED WITH EACH SWITCH, ELECTROMAGNETIC MEANS CONNECTED TO EACH RELAY, INCLUDING A COIL AND A TUNED VIBRATIONAL BODY TUNED TO THE RESONANCE OF THE CENTRAL PORTION OF A NOTE NOF THE MUSICAL SCALE, EACH TUNED VIBRATIONAL BODY BEING OF DIFFERNT PITCH, MEANS TO ACTIVATE EACH TUNING FORK INCLUDING A COIL, AN AMPLIFIER CONNECTED THERETO, AND A MICROPHONE CONNECTED TO THE AMPLIFIER, SAID VIBRATIONAL BODIES BEING FREE FROM THE COIL AND THE ELECTROMAGNETIC MEANS.