US128566A - Improvement in musical instruments - Google Patents

Description

W. STANDING, Sr. Improvement in Musical Instruments.

N0.128,566. Patentedjuiy2,l872.

PATENT QFFIGE.

WILLIAM STANDING, SR, OF DU QUOIN, ILLINOIS.

lMPROVEMENT IN MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 128,566, dated July 2, 1872.

Specification describing anew and Improved Musical Instrument, invented by WILLIAM STANDING, Sr., of Du Quoin, in the county of Perry and State of Illinois.

My invention consists of a musical instrument in which the sounds are produced by air forced into a series of glass tubes with contracted necks at one end and closed at the other, and graduated in size and length. It also consists in tuning said tubes by means of glass stoppers or plugs, with which they are closed at one end, said stoppers being inserted more or less according to the modification of the sound required, which is caused by lengthening or shortening the chamber of the tubes.

Figure 1 is a transverse sectional elevation of a crystal tube-organ on line or x of Fig. 2, showing an arrangement of the said tubes adapted for such instruments; and Fig. 2 is partly a top view and partly a horizontal section of the same.

Similar" letters of reference indicate corresponding parts.

A represents the said tubes of glass, which I propose to substitute for the ordinary tubes of an organ. They are graduated-in length and size according to the range and number of sounds required of the instrument, and they are to be arranged so that air from a bellows or a wind-chest, B, may be forced into them, at one end to be contracted, as shown at U. The air will also escape from this end;

the other will be closed by the glass plugs or stoppers D, which modify the sounds according to the distance they are introduced, and

they will, therefore, be used for tuning them. They will be secured by wax or other means, by which they can be readily released. The said tubes will preferably be arranged horizontally, as shown in the drawing, but they may be placed vertically or at any angle between the vertical and horizontal. In this example they are confined upon rests or sup ports E F, by the bar G and bolts H, said supports being mounted on a sound-board, I, within a sound-chamber, K. The wind will be conveyed from the wind-chest B by tubes L, of any kind, one for each glass tube, and the wind will be admitted to and shut oif from each tube L by a valve, M, worked by an appropriate key, N, for each tube. The windchest will be filled by a bellows in the ordinary way. The said glass tubes may be so arranged with the wind-chest that the tubes L may be dispensed with, the nozzles 0 being arranged close to holes through the walls of the chest.

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent 1. The wind-chest B, valved pipes L M, nar row-necked and unequal-lengthed tubes A, and sound-chamber K, constructed and relatively arranged with respect to each other as and for the purpose set forth.

2. The narro w-necked pipes A made of glass, as and for the purpose described.

WILLIAM STANDING, SR.

Witnesses:

Gno. ABBOTT, J. S. MCLAIN.

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