The Talking Machine Patent Archive

Patents you could hear

Automatic musical instrument

Mechanical drawing of a Victorian musical instrument mechanism showing a plan view of an air chest with rows of pivoted finger-levers, valves, and rails (Fig. 1), and below it a side sectional view (Fig. 2) showing a perforated paper strip looping around two drum rollers connected by a belt-driven pulley system, with a diaphragm chamber and key linkage.IMPROVEMENT IN MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.George W. Van Dusen · December 10, 1867Patent drawing of an accordion-like automatic musical instrument showing a folding bellows chamber with a reed-board, a series of gears and ratchet wheels on a shaft, and below it a separate diagram of a long perforated valve-sheet strip marked with note letters and numbered apertures.IMPROVEMENT IN AUTOMATIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENTSHenry B. Horton · October 30, 1877Exploded patent drawing of a cabinet-style reed organ labeled 'autophone,' showing a perforated paper valve-sheet feeding over rows of metal reed pipes, driven by a foot pedal, balance-wheel, and hand crank visible on the wooden case.Improvement in Mechanical Musical InstrumentsHenry B. Horton · December 3, 1878Patent drawing of a mechanical organ showing a cabinet with bellows, a hinged reed-block with air chambers, and feed rollers guiding a perforated paper strip.Mechanical Musical Instrument.Oliver H. Arno · June 14, 1881A side-elevation patent drawing showing the internal mechanism of an automatic reed organ, with a bellows, reservoir bellows, reed pipes arranged in a fan pattern, a wound paper valve-sheet running over two rollers, and a hand-crank mechanism at top left.MECHANICAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.Henry B. Morris · December 12, 1882Patent drawing of a mechanical reed organ showing a vertical cross-section with bellows, reed-board, and paper-feed rollers, plus plan views of the perforated raceway and reed cells.MECHANICAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.Oliver H. Arno · December 26, 1882Patent drawing of a McTammany automatic reed organ showing the internal gearing, bellows treadles, winding rolls, and a perforated music-sheet feeding over a reed-board inside a wooden case.MECHANICAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.John McTammany · July 7, 1885Four patent drawings show a wooden box organette with a hand crank, an internal spindle and reed chambers, and a round perforated paper disc used to select the tune.AUTOMATIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.Ellis Parr · March 15, 1887Patent drawing of a mechanical music player showing a paper roll feeding over a star wheel with plungers, geared to a spring-driven blade cylinder that plucks a comb.AUTOMATIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.William H. Hoschke · December 18, 1894Patent drawing of a self-playing piano attachment showing a row of vertical key-levers with pneumatic bellows, an exhaust trunk system, and a tracker-board with radiating air-ducts, alongside a side-sectional view of the case with bellows, treadles, and adjustable key-lever bar.SELF-PLAYING ATTACHMENT FOR MUSICAL INSTRUMENTSTheodore Parker Brown · October 17, 1899Patent drawing showing a piano's interior with rock-shafts, hand levers, telescoping vertical bars, springs, and pedal-depressing arms mechanically linked to depress the piano pedals.PEDAL-OPERATING MECHANISM FOR AUTOMATICALLY-OPERATED MUSICAL INSTRUMENTSTheodore Parker Brown · December 3, 1901A technical line drawing of a player-piano mechanism showing a hammer-and-key action linked by rods and springs to a horn-shaped pneumatic bellows, a coil spring, a secondary tilted pneumatic labeled 24, and a small valve cylinder with a manual button labeled 34 at the bottom, all connected by numbered ducts and levers.AUTOMATIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENTCharles F. Stoddard · January 21, 1919