The Talking Machine Patent Archive

Patents you could hear

Music roll

Patent drawing of a mechanical musical instrument showing a boxed frame with a perforated music-sheet stretched between two rollers, side gear wheels, a hand crank, and pivoted levers used to lift the take-up roller and stop the sheet's motion.MECHANICAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.James E. Treat · September 6, 1887Cutaway mechanical drawing of a player-piano pneumatic mechanism showing the vacuum chamber, key-pneumatics, tracker board with a perforated paper music roll passing over it, feeder bellows, and pedal linkage, alongside detail views of the tracker board slots and a music-sheet with rows of numbered perforations.AUTOMATIC PIANO-PLAYERErnest M. Skinner · May 7, 1901Patent drawing showing a boxed pneumatic mechanism with bellows chambers, diaphragms, valve spindles, and a lever rod connected to a piano key, alongside a wheel-driven motor variant for advancing the music roll.MECHANICAL PIANO-PLAYERCharles L. Davis · June 11, 1901Patent drawing showing a player-organ mechanism with a tracker-board, rows of pneumatic bellows, exhaust chests, wind ducts, and electromagnetic switch contacts connecting to organ pipes.PNEUMATICALLY-ACTUATED MUSICAL INSTRUMENTEdwin S. Votey · March 6, 1906Exploded mechanical drawing of a player-piano expression mechanism showing a paper music roll feeding over a tracker-board connected via tubing to a bank of pneumatic bellows, valves, and levers that operate the piano's hammer-rail and damper system, with a foot-pedal lever at the bottom.EXPRESSION MECHANISM FOR SELF-PLAYING MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS.John J. Healy · April 16, 1907