US1600291A - Piano construction - Google Patents

Description

Sept. 21 1926.

C. MEHLIN PIANO CONSTRUCTION Filed August 3 1923 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 Sept. 21 1926.

1,600,291 C. MEHLIN PIANO CONSTRUCTION Filed August 3 1923 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 from Patented Sept. 21, 1926.

CHARLES MEI-ILIN, OF FORT LEE, NEW JERSEY.

PIANO CONSTRUCTION.

Application filed August 3, 19 23.

This invention relates to piano construction and has more particular reference to the sounding board and bridge arrangement.

In the ordinary piano construction the plane of the sounding board and the plane or )lancs in which the strings lie are paralle and the bridge of the treble and middle strings and the bridge of the bass strings are each of uniform height from end to end.

A principal object of the present invention is the provision of a piano in which the bridge and sound board construction and arrangement will provide a varying height of bridge for the strings, the bridges increasing in height as the length of the strings increase and at the same time maintaining each string substantially in parallelism with the soundboard. That is to say, each string, particularly the treble and middle strings and only slightly less of the bass, is arranged at substantially an equal distance from the sound board throughout its length and the distance of each string from the sounding board is best calculated to give maximum purity and evenness of tone quality. This is accomplished in the instance selected for the purpose of illustration and hereinafter described in detail by providing bridges of increasing height from right to left across the piano and arranging the sound board in a plane divergent from the plane of the strings crosswise of the piano as will be better understood the following description, which, taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, discloses a preferred embodiment thereof.

Referring to the drawings,

Figure 1 is a top plan view of so much of a grand piano constructed in accordance with my invention as is necessary to an understanding thereof;

Fig. 2 is a partial section through the keyboard showing one of the strings of a group,

the key action and Figs. 3, 4 and 5 are sections taken re spectively on the lines 3-3, 4& and 5-5 of Fig. 1.

In the piano construction shown on the drawing for the purposes of illustrating my present invention reference character 11 designates an outer rim forming to the shape of the piano, reference character 12 an inner rim, and reference character 13 the Serial No. 655.423.

key bottom. Reference character 1% indicates the usual action which need not be described in detail since it has no particular reference to the present invention. The usual iron plate is indicated at 15 and the sounding board is indicated at 16.

Upon the sounding board two bridges 17 and 18 are provided, the bridge 17 being engaged by the treble strings 19 and middle strings 21 and the bridge 18 by the bass strings 22. The strings are fastened at the end remote from the keyboard to hitch pins and 24 on the metal plate and to wrist pins 25 at the frontin the usual manner. The bridge 17 increases in height from the end carrying the short or high pitch strings to the end carrying the long or low pitch strings (Fig. 1.) and the same is true of the bridge 18.

In the illustration shown on the drawing the strings are arranged in horizontal planes and to accommodate these increases in height of the bridges the sounding board is arranged farther from the strings at the left side of the piano than at the right, i. e. (viewing Fig. 1) the sounding board diverges from the planes of these strings from the lower portion of this figure toward its top. The sounding board is supported upon the inner rim 12, which decreases in height from the right around to the left of the piano as may be seen in Figs. 3 and 4 and corresponding increases in the height of the blocks 26 which support the iron plate 15. By reason of the decreased thickness of the inner rim 12 at the left of the piano it should be made of increased thickness. The sounding board is supported at the front or keyboard side of the piano by the usual rail 27 and cross block 28, which in the present instance also decrease in height to permit the sound board to tilt across the piano front as it does at the back of the piano.

It will be manifest that the strings are as nearly parallel throughout their length with an element of the sound board as their slight angular relation with each other permit and that each is in substantial parallelism throughout its length with the sounding board.

While the invention has been hereinbefore described as incorporated in a grand piano, it can, of course with equal facility be used in an upright piano and it will be manifest that various changes may be made in the form. construction and arrangement of the parts without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention or sacrificing all of its material advantages, the form hereinhetore described being merely a preerred embodiment thereof.

I claim:

1. A piano having strings of dill'erent length and its sounding board lixed in a plane diverging troin the plane 01 the strings in the general direction transversely of the strings whereby the strings are arranged substantially parallel throughout their length with the soundin board and at increasing distances thererroin as the lengths increase.

2. A piano having strings of different length and a sounding board lined in a plane provieing substantial parallelism between each string and said sounding boarl, the strings of longer lfillgth being farther from the sounding board than the strings of shorter length.

3. A piano having a single string plate iorall of the strings, and a sounding board fixed in a plane angularly arranged ivith the plane of the strings and diverging therefrom transversely of the piano.

&. A piano having a series of strings, and a sounding board lixed in a plane diverging from said string in a general direction across the strings, and a bridge interposed between the strings and the sounding board and increasing in height from the shorter strings to the longer strings.

5. A piano having a string plate, a series of wrist pins, a curved series ot hitch pins, a sounding board. the string plate and the standing hoard diverging at the wrist pin and hitch pin sides of the piano, and a bridge teller-ling generally the curve of a series oi hitch p s and increasing in height from the shorter strings to the longer strings.

('3. A piano havi for all of the strin a bridge increasing in height as the stri1 b increase in length. and

sounding board lixed in a plane 'angiilarl arranged with the plane of the strings and divergin therefrom "transverselyof the piano.

CHARLES MEHLIN.

a single string plate

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