MUSICAL INSTRUMENT WITH SPRING BARS AND MANUAL ROTARY ACTUATORS Technical Field The invention relates to musical instruments, and in partic¬ ular to those of small size in which the musical tones result from the mechanical vibrating of spring bars fixed at one end. Background Art

The instrument of the present invention employs small spring musical bars similar to those which have been used widely for over a century in music boxes that automatically play predetermined melodies. Such automatic devices, however, do not serve as real musical instru¬ ments whereby the user creates the musical effect by playing notes ac¬ cording to his own choice of tones, intervals, etc. Some instruments have been invented that employ spring musical bars played at the user's option, such as those disclosed in U.S. Patents Nos. 123,969; 579,031; and 2,788,698, in which the in¬ struments are played by means of a keyboard as in a piano.

The instrument of the present invention has certain advan- tages over the prior art because the individual musical bars are played at the user's option by corresponding individual rotary actuators, as disclosed below. Disclosure of the Invention

The general structure of the instrument is that of a base carrying spring bars of various musical tones, rotary actuators with braking means, and a resonant housing.

The music producing bars of this instrument are similar to those used in automatic music boxes, and they may be fixed to the in¬ strument's base either singly or in groups, being attached to the base at one extremity and vibrating freely at the other. The bars have varied tonal qualities and are played selectively at the option of the user by corresponding separate rotary actuators. The bars are of dif¬ ferent length, width and thickness according to the musical effect desired. They may have weights to further modify their tone, and they may have dampers to stop their vibration before they are restruck to prevent the noise that occurs when a striker pin touches a bar while it is in vibration.

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The bars vibrate when the user turns the corresponding ro¬ tary actuators which are mounted on an axle for free separate rota¬ tion. One part of each rotary actuator is conveniently shaped for manual rotation by the user, and another part of each rotary actuator is formed with protrusions that engage, flex, and release the corres¬ ponding bar to vibrate musically when the actuator is turned by the user.

Each actuator is biased by a suitable means to a position freeing the bar from the striking protrusions so that the musical vi- bration may continue freely until diminished to zero or reactuated.

The instrument is ordinarily enclosed in a resonant housing with one or more openings through which a portion of the rotary actu¬ ators extends for manipulation by the user.

A major object of this invention is to provide a soft toned musical instrument of exceptional convenience for persons of nearly every age, physical condition and economic means. To this end, the invention has several advantages over the prior art.

First of all, the rotary actuator system allows the instru¬ ment to be much smaller than instruments with other types of actuators such as keyboards. As a result, the instrument is more portable and can be left more conveniently in any number of places.

Secondly, the mechanism is considerably less complex than other instruments, with fewer parts to be manufactured and assembled. This simplicity, together with its smallness, allows the instrument to be manufactured quite inexpensively and thus be accessible to a greater number of people.

In spite of its small size, the instrument is quite durable since it has no particularly fragile parts. As a result the instru¬ ment can safely be carried about, for example in one's pocket, or be used by children, with little likelihood of damage.

Another advantage of this invention is that it is quite free from undesirable operational sounds. The rotary actuators allow for continuous movement in either direction, thereby avoiding the noise likely to occur with other types of actuators that must return back to starting position after each actuation. In addition, while vari¬ ous braking means are possible with this invention, the one described in the best mode and shown in the drawings is entirely noiseless and is possible only with rotary actuators of this kind.

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Since the invention is intended to be a true musical in¬ strument, allowing the user the satisfaction of personal creativity in composing sound combinations or melodies, it is obvious that auto- matic music boxes, which may be as small and portable as this instru- went, are not comparable to this invention because they only allow the playing of predetermined melodies.

The instrument of this invention may be made with any num¬ ber of musical notes, but it can satisfy the greatest number of people when it has only a limited group of notes, for example four notes that complement each other as in a basic chord. In this way, the instru¬ ment always gives pleasing results, even when played at random by persons with no musical training. At the same time, four pleasantly related notes can be arranged into a great number of interesting mel¬ odies and thus allow the user a wide range of personal creativity according to his talents. Figures in the Drawings

Figure 1 is a top plan view of the instrument with the housing partially broken away.

Figure 2 is a side elevation on the line 2—2 of Figure 1. Figure 3 is a perspective view of the instrument shown in

Figures 1 and 2 with the housing partially broken away.

Figure 4 is a top plan view showing another version of the same instrument, with the housing partially broken away.

Figure 5 is a side elevation on the line 5—5 of Figure 4. Best Mode for Carrying Out the Invention

The drawings illustrate the best mode contemplated for carrying out the invention, with Figures 1, 2 and 3 showing one ver¬ sion of the best mode, and Figures 4 and 5 showing a slightly differ¬ ent arrangement of the same elements. Both versions show four bars and actuators, but any number of bars and corresponding actuators may be used.

The instrument has a base (l) which serves as the struc¬ tural support of the other components, namel s musically tuned steel spring bars (2) of different tones, rotary actuators (3) with one portion serving as a turning wheel (4), another portion serving as a striking wheel (5)» and another portion (6) held by a spring (7) serving as a braking unit, and the entire instrument is contained in a resonant housing (8).

The musical bars (2) are of selective length and thickness to provide their given distinctive pitch when they are vibrated.

In Figures 1, 2 and 3 the bars are mounted in pairs, but they may also be mounted individually or in other groupings such as the comb (9) arrangement of Figures 4 and 5 _* The bars (2) are mounted at one end by screws (lO) on a raised portion of the base (ll), with the other end extending freely from the mounting.

In the drawings only one bar (2) corresponds to each actu¬ ator (3). Other forms of the instrument may have more than one bar for each actuator, for example, to obtain the so called mandolin effect occuring when several bars of the same tone are struck almost simul¬ taneously, or to obtain a richer tone effect by allowing some adjacent bars of the same tone to vibrate in sympathy with the struck bars.

The manually operated rotary actuators (3) are mounted for free rotation upon a shaft (12) spaced from the free ends of the bars (2) and supported by upstanding brackets (13). The shaft (12) may be fitted tightly into a deep groove (14) in the supporting brackets (13) as in Figures 1, 2 and 3, or it may extend through the brackets (13) and be held by a suitable head (15) at one end and pin (16) at the other end, as in Figures 4 and 5.

The rotary actuators (3) are spaced along the shaft (12) so that one actuator is in position to operate each musical bar (2) or group of bars. In order to provide suitable spacing between the actu¬ ators (3) and to prevent each actuator from contacting the adjacent actuators and possibly causing them to rotate, suitable spacer wash¬ ers (17) may be disposed on the shaft (12).

The turning wheel (4) portion of the actuator (3) extends partially through an opening (18) in the housing (8) so as to be ac¬ cessible for turning by the user. The peripheral edge of the wheel (4) may have ridges to afford good finger grip.

The striker portion (5) of the actuator (3) has a plurality of radially extending striker protrusions (19) adapted to engage, flex and release the corresponding bar (2) when the actuator (3) is rotated. In the drawings, each actuator (3) has four such protrusions (19) in the striker portion (5) spaced 90° from each other. Other forms of the instrument may have fewer or more protrusions per actuator.

Partial rotation of the actuator (3) by the user causes a protrusion (19) to engage and flex the free end of its corresponding

bar (2) and then release it so that it springs back and vibrates at its characteristic pitch. After each such flexing and vibrating of the corresponding bar (2) the actuator (3) is retained out of engage¬ ment with the bar (2) by the braking system (6,7) The braking portion (6) of the actuator is preferably of polygonal contour having the same number of sides as there are pro¬ trusions (l9). Thus, in the present embodiment the braking portion

(6) is square in transverse section.

A leaf spring (7) extends from the base (l) to which it is fixed by suitable means. In Figures 1, 2 and 3 the spring (7) is fitted tightly into a groove (20) of a lower section of the plat¬ form (ll) supporting the musical bars. In Figures 4 and 5 the spring

(7) is fitted into a small upstanding bracket (21) on the floor of the base (l). The spring is tensioned to press radially against the outer surface of the braking portion (β) of the actuator and to ride thereon as the actuator (3) is rotated by its turning wheel (4).

The spring (7) thus tends to retain the actuator (3) nor¬ mally in a resting position when the spring (7) engages a flat side of the braking portion (6). As the actuator (3) is rotated, the spring (7) flexes to ride over a corner of the braking portion (6) and upon passing dead center of the corner the spring (7) will urge the actuator (3) to proceed to the next successive flat surface con¬ tact with the spring (7) thereby assisting in the rapid release of the flexed bar (2). * The user in moving the turning wheel (4) to impart vibration to the corresponding bar (2) can feel the resistance in the initial movement and then the assistance in the later movement. For this pur¬ pose each protrusion (l9) should be located circumferentially of the striking portion (5) of the actuator at about the same radius position of a corner of the braking portion (6) of the actuator so that the spring (7) will be first past dead center of a corner when the protru- ^' sion (19) releases the bar (2) and so that when the spring (7) engages a flat side of the braking portion (6) it will retain the actuator (3) in a position where the bar (2) is free to vibrate out of contact with a protrusion (19). The relationship may vary depending upon the angu¬ lar location of the spring (7).

The illustrated base (l) and housing (8) are simple in form, but they may have any convenient shape or additional features such as

openings for screws for fastening to other objects, or openings for attaching a wristband, etc.

The housing (8) and base (l), as well as other parts of the instrument may be decorated as desired. The housing (8) is preferably constructed to serve as a res¬ onant sounding board and/or resonant air chamber.

The illustrated housing (8) has no bottom part but fits tightly on top of the base (l). Other forms of the housing (8) may have a bottom piece so as to enclose all sides of the instrument. Exploitation in Industry

The instrument of this invention can be made of a variety of metals, plastics and wood, preferably by die casting and/or injection molding of the actuators, base and housing, and by stamping of the musical bars and springs. Industrial exploitation is feasible for the following reasons

Because the parts are very few and small, the instrument can be manufactured quite inexpensively.

It is a small and simple instrument, but at the same time durable and of fine musical quality, with appeal for people of all ages and conditions.

Besides being a source of musical enjoyment, the instrument is an effective means of relieving nervous tension because it engages the user in a relaxing form of mental and physical activity.

In addition tά providing musical pleasure and an outlet for nervous tension, the instrument can be used as a simple communication device.whereby musical codes can be played to convey messages, for example by sick persons unable to speak, or by persons using radio communication. Musical codes can also be used very well to identify persons being paged over loudspeakers, as in a hospital. Because of its small size, the instrument can easily be held in the palm of one's hand, carried about, and left anyplace. It is also suitable for incorporating into other objects, for example pen holders for desks, ashtrays, etc. It can be made miniature enough to wear on a wristband or as a pendant or other form of jewelry.