US1209714A - Perforated music-sheet. - Google Patents

Description

G. B. KELLY.

PERFORMED MUSIC SHEET. 7

APPLICATION FILED 05027.1913. RENEWED MAY 16. 1916.

1,209,714. Pa tented Dec. 26,1916.

f9. 4 7% In ventor:

by Zamy UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE B. KELLY, OF JAMAICA PLAIN, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO AEOLIAN COMPANY, OF GARWOOD, NEW JERSEY, A CORPORATION OF CONNECTICUT.

PERFORATED MUSIC-SHEET.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented-Dec. 26, 1916.

Applicationflled December 27, 1913, Serial No. 808,983. Renewed May 16, 1916 Serial No. 97,956.

To all whom it may concern.

Be it known that I, GEORGE B. KELLY, a citizen of the United States, and resident of Jamaica Plain, in the county of Suffolk and State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Perforated Music-Sheets, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to new and useful improvements in perforated music sheets adapted for use in automatic playing attachments for pianos, organs and like instruments and particularly to improvements in such sheets which are to be used for the purpose of playing the accompaniment on a piano, organ or like instrument to a melody or composition, either vocal or instrumental produced by means of a phonograph or talking machine.

The object of my invention is to provide a new and improved perforated music sheet which makes it possible to control the relation of speed of movement between the record disk of the phonograph or talking machine and of the perforated music sheet for controlling the accompanying instrument,

in such manner that the above mentioned perfect accompaniment is obtained.

In the accompanying drawing I have shown one embodiment of my new and improved perforated music sheet.

In making this sheet the phonograph or talking machine disk, or record, of the desired selection which may be either vocal or instrumental, is placed into the phonograph or talking machine and brought into operative position for playing. An accompanist manually plays the accompaniment to the slection being then reproduced by the phonograph or talking machine, on a piano or organ, which is in operative connection with a recording device which automatically cuts slots or longitudinal lines or perforations on the paper music sheet record running at a determined speed so that a perfect record of the notes sounded by the accompanist organ or piano is thus produced in perfect synchronism with the phonograph. In order to reproduce such synchronism while automatically playing these two records it is necessary that at all times a correction in the relation of the speeds of the motor of the talking machine or phonograph and of the sheet moving motor of the automatic playing attachment should be made. In order that such correction may take place it is necessary that the record music sheet, on which the record of the notes played on the piano or organ during manual accompaniment should be provided with suitable indiciawhich form a permanent indication or marking on that sheet to show that the phonograph disk or record has made certain progress. If such a perforated recording sheet, having the above mentioned indicia, is placed in operative position in a playing attachment and the speed of the perforated sheet moving motor in the playing attachment is so adjusted that the indicia will appear at a certain predetermined point, for example, the center of the tracker board, at precisely the same time that the record has made certain progress, precisely the same synchronism will be obtained which existed between the record sheet and the talking machine or phonograph disk at the time at which this record music sheet was made. I call attention to the fact that the speed of the record disk cannot and must not be disturbed as that would instantly change the pitch, and, would make the reproduction of the selection unmusical and therefore whatever changes in speed. are made must be made in the motor for moving the perforated record music sheet and 1f the several mdlcia appear at the above mentioned mark, say the center of the tracker board, precisely at the instant when the record disk has made a certain progress no correction in the speed of the sheet moving device is required.

I have referred to a mark or line at the center of the tracker board as one of the many ways of ascertaining the speed of the sheet. The record support may be provided with similar indicia or may operate another movable part carrying indicia which show the speed of the record support, for instance, as shown in my application Ser. No. 735,195, filed December (S, 1912. From the above it will be clear that the indicia on the perforated note sheet have a permanent, unalterable and unchangeable relation to the note slots produced on the record sheet by the recording device, for example, one of the indicia 2 on the sheet 1 may be produced on the record sheet automatically by a device operated from the record support at the precise time when the record disk has made certain progress and at the same time the three note slots 4:, 5 and 6 are produced by the recording device on the record sheet, that is to say, the front ends of these slots are begun at the instant when the mark 2 is made on the sheet by mechanism operated from the record disk support. Therefore if the perforated music sheet is in such position that the index mark 2 is at the center of the tracker board at precisely the same time that the forward ends of the slots at, 5, and 6 arrive at the corresponding ducts in the tracker board, the same sounds will be produced by the piano or organ, at precisely the same time, in relation to the melody produced by the record disk as were produced by the piano or organ when played manually for aroducing the accompaniment and making the record of the notes which were sounded at the same time with the above mentioned sounds produced by the phonograph or talking machine. It therefore is clear that the indicia in the perforated music sheet, in order to maintain the desired results cannot be subsequently applied or produced manually, as it would be impossible to obtain that absolutely strict relation which they must have to the note slots, as has been explained above. The vital feature of this perforated music sheet is therefore that the indicia on the sheet must bear the same relation to the music slots in the sheet that the rotation or progress of the phonograph or talking machine record bore to the production of the sounds manually by the accompanist on the piano or organ, and only such perforated music sheet in which this absolute and strict relation is maintained is capable of perfectly causing the reproduction, by means of a perforated music sheet, of the accompaniment on the piano or organ of the selection reproduced by the talking machine or phonograph.

Having described my invention what I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent is 1-- l. A perforated music sheet in which the perforations control the playing on a piano of a portion of a musical composition, these perforations being so located as to bear a fixed relation to the musical composition of a particular phonographic record, and also provided with indicia indicating the progress of the rotating phonographic record, substantially as set forth.

2. A perforated music sheet provided with indicia produced on the same to. indicate rotations of a phonograph disk or record and which indicia have precisely the same relation to the music slots in said perforated sheet as the rotations of the phonograph or talking machine record had to the musical sounds manually produced on a piano or organ while accompanying the melody produced by the phonographic record disk during such rotations of the record disk while the accompanin'ient was being played manually, substantially as set forth.

Signed at New York city in the county of New York and State of New York this 29th day of October A. D. 1913.

GEORGE R. KELLY.

\Vitnesses EDITH L. RoBINsoN, D. C. HEINS.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents, Washington, D. G.

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