US521688A - Tuning device - Google Patents

Description

D. M: WHITE.

TUNING DEVICE.

(No Model.)

No. 521,688. Patented June 19, 1894.

WITNESSES.

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A TTORNE rs UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

DANIEL M. WHITE, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

TUNING DEVICE.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 521,688, dated June 19, 1894.

Application filed November 24, 1893. Serial No. 491,923. (No model.)

To aZZ whom it may concern/.-

Be it known that I, DANIEL M. WHITE, of Boston, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and Improved Tuning Device, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

The invention relates to stringed musical instruments, such as pianos, &c., and its object is to provide a new and improved tuning de vice which is simple and durable in construction and arranged to hold the strings more permanently at the proper tension, and to permit the operator to quickly and accurately tune the instrument without much exertion.

The invention consists of certain parts and details, and combinations of the same, as will be hereinafter described and then pointed out in the claims.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification, in which similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in all the figures.

Figure l is a side elevation of the improvement with parts in section. Fig. 2 is a plan View of the same. Fig. 3 is a perspective view of the fulcrum end of one of the levers; and Fig. 4 is a similar view of a modified form of the same.

The metallic string plate A is held on the usual wooden pin block or support B connected with the other wooden parts of the piano frame. On one end of the string plateA are arranged the pins 0 for holding the strings D stretched over the bridgeE held on the soundingboardF and also stretched over the bridge G forming part of the string plate A, as plainly shown in Figs. 1 and 2. The outer ends of the strings D, after leaving the bridge G are each connected with a lever H, fulcrumed at the base of the bridge G on the string plate A, the free end of each lever being engaged by a wrest pin I screwing in the string plate A and extending into openings formed in the pin block B, the penetrating end of the wrest pin I being in frictional contact with the walls of the opening in the pin block B, so that any sound passing through the said wrest pin I also passes into the pin blockB and consequently to the other wooden structural parts of the piano frame connected with the said pin block. Each of the levers H has its free end forked or slotted, as at H, and this end is engaged by the head I of the wrest pin and by a shoulder 1 located a suitable distance below the head and engaging the under side of the forked end H of the lever. The center of a wrest pin I is in alignment with its string D to prevent sidewise pulls on the string, wrest pin and lever. Now, it will be seen, by the operator turning the wrest pin I by engaging a wrench or tuning hammer on the head I to screw the wrest pin downward, then a downward swinging motion is given to the lever so that the corresponding string D is stretched to raise the pitch or tone of that string. By turning the wrest pin in the opposite direction, that is, unscrewing it, the string D is slackened and consequently the pitch or tone is lowered.

In order to strengthen the fulcrum end of each lever H, I provide the forward edge thereof with a reinforcing rib H as plainly shown in Figs. 3and 4, the upper end of this rib terminating in an approximately horizontally-extending flange H formed on one side of the lever H. This flange H is provided on its top with a longitudinally-extending groove H forming a resting place for the string, the said flange being provided with one or more notches H through which the string end extends downward from the groove 11 to be fastened to a button J projecting from one side of the lever H, as shown in Fig. 3, or the said string end is laced in apertures in the lever, as indicated in Fig. 4. Now, it will be seen that when the string D is very slack and the lever H has swung with its outer free end downward to its limit, then the slack is taken up by removing the string from the corresponding notch H and placing it over the next following rear slot or over the grooved end H of the flange H so as to take up the slack of the string, and permit of holding the lever I1 approximately in a horizontal position, as shown in Fig. 1. The operator by then applying a wrench or tuning hammer to the head of the corresponding wrest pin can then swing the lever H downward to tune the string to the proper pitch. When levers are arranged in groups, as shown in Fig. 2, then the'space left for the middle lever between the two outermost levers is not sufficient for a reinforcing rib H and consequently the latter is dispensed with and the flange H is formed on the side of the levera suitable distance forward, as indicated in the said Fig. 3. Having thus fully described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent 1. A tuning device for stringed musical instruments comprising a metallic string plate.

having an integral bridge over which pass the strings, a series of L shaped levers having their downward arms fulcrumed on the base of the said bridge, the said levers being provided at their sides with flanges in alignment with the strings and for connection with the same, a wooden pin block or support for the said string plate and threaded wrest pins in engagement with the free ends of the saidlevers for adj ustingthelatter andconsequently the pitch of the strings carried thereby, the

said wrest pins screwing in thesaid string string plate, having a bridge over which passes the string, a lever fulcrurned on the said bridge, a wrest pin screwing in the said plate and engaging the free end of the said lever to impart a swinging motion to thelatter when screwing the wrest pin up or down, and a flange formed on the said lever and having notches for the passage of the string to take up the slack, substantially as shown and described.

3. A tuning device, comprising a metallic string plate, having a bridge over which passes the string, a lever fulcrumed on the said bridge, a wrest pin screwing in the said plate and engaging the free end of the said lever to impart a swinging motion to the latter when screwing the wrest pin up or down, a flange formed on the-saidlever andhaving notches for the passage of the string to take up the slack, and means, substantiallyas described, for fastcningitheend of thestring .tovthe said lever'after leaving ,the corresponding notch in the said flange, as set forth.

DANIEL M. WHITE. -Wi.tnesses:

v H. D. WH TE,

I WM. D. SERRAT,

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