The Talking Machine Patent Archive

Patents you could hear

Mechanical music

Patent drawing of an upright organ or piano with an overhead frame holding a paper music-chart between two rollers, gears, and rows of pivoted false keys positioned above the instrument's keyboard.IMPROVEMENT IN SELF-PLAYING ATTACHMENTS FOR KEY-BOARD INSTRUMENTS.Edward Forbes O'Neill · May 6, 1879Patent drawing showing a piano keyboard with an attached mechanical case containing a hand-cranked grooved roller, sliding jacks, and hammer-levers positioned to strike the keys via a perforated music-sheet.KEY-BOARD ATTACHMENT FOR MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.Francis E. Moore · January 18, 1881Patent drawing of a reed-organ attachment showing a side-sectioned organ case with an internal wind chest, bellows, and treadle, alongside a compact perforated-paper-roll mechanism with music roller, take-up roller, and gear-driven roller assembly mounted atop the keyboard.MECHANICAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.Elias P. Needham and Charles A. Needham · July 26, 1881Technical patent drawing showing a boxed mechanism with a hand-cranked roller drawing a perforated paper sheet over rows of pivoted levers, connected via rods and elbow-levers to spring-loaded hammers that strike piano keys below.KEY-BOARD ATTACHMENT FOR MUSICAL INSTRUMENTSJoseph Schwertner · May 8, 1883A detailed engineering plan and side views of a wooden mechanical musical instrument case showing a perforated paper roll mechanism, crank handle, feed and presser rolls, paired bellows exhausters, and a reed-chest with individual reed cells, all labeled with reference letters for the patent drawing.MECHANICAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.J. Herbert Chase · March 29, 1887Patent drawing showing a circular fan-folded music sheet made of overlapping sectors mounted in a mechanical instrument box, with detail views of the roller feed mechanism, connecting tappets, and sliding sector joints.MUSIC-SHEET FOR MECHANICAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.Friedrich Ernst Paul Ehrlich · April 15, 1890Patent drawing showing a row of vertical metal tongues mounted above a toothed pick wheel assembly, with detail views of the divided spur-wheel teeth engaging a perforated paper music sheet.SPUR-WHEEL FOR MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.Paul B. Th. Berner · September 22, 1896Patent drawing of a player-piano mechanism showing a paper music roll, tracker board, divided wind-chest with valve casings, and two pivoted hand levers positioned near an indicating scale for controlling bass and treble tension independently.MEANS FOR CONTROLLING THE TENSION IN WIND WAYS OF MECHANICAL-MUSICAL-INSTRUMENT PLAYERSJoseph H. Dickinson · January 17, 1905Patent drawing of an upright player piano cabinet with exposed pneumatic mechanism including foot treadles, air reservoirs, valve conduits, and a motor-driven blower assembly connected beneath the floor.PNEUMATIC CONTROLLER FOR MECHANICAL PIANO-PLAYERSHarold A. Bierck · October 2, 1917