US3068736A - Valve closure for wind instruments - Google Patents

Description

INVENTOR. James Fbu 7-1 5 /Wu V W Filed Aug. 11, 1960 J POLITIS VALVE CLOSURE FOR WIND INSTRUMENTS Dec. 18, 1962 United States Patent Cfiflce 3,058,736 Patented Dec. 18, 1962 3,068,736 VALVE CLOSURE FOR WIND INSTRUMENTS James Politis, Croton Falls, N.Y. Filed Aug. 11, 1960, Ser. No. 49,043 4 Claims. (Cl. 84-380) This invention relates to an improved valve closure for wind instruments and more particularly to a curved, padless valve closure for wood-wind instruments such as saxophones, clarinets, flutes and the like.

In the past in order to prevent leakage of air, collars were built up around the tone holes and the keys were padded with felt material which was usually covered with a moisture repelling substance (such as fish skin) to avoid saturation and warpage. The building up of the tone holes creates baffling effect along the inner surface of the instrument, thus requiring greater effort by the player to obtain the desired result. The baffling effect also mar the tones of the notes produced by the instrument. Moreover, the padding of the keys absorbs a great deal of the sound of the instrument, making it necessary to exert a greater eifort to play the instrument, resulting in distorted tones to the notes.

It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a valve closure which will prevent air leakage, resists moisture and warpage without the necessity of using pads. It is another object of this invention to provide an improved valve closure which will not distort the tone of the notes by the necessity of using collars around the tone holes. These and other objects will be apparent from the following detailed description.

The present invention solves these problems by a new construction which does away with the need for collars around the tone holes and for the padding of the keys. Therefore, according to this invention there is provided a valve closure for a wind instrument having a body portion with a center projection adapted to close a tone hole in the wind strument, the projection consisting of the same material as the instrument, and being constructed in such a manner that the projection completely fills the tone hole in such a manner that there is no air leakage and the bottom portion of the projection has no padding and corresponds to the interior contour of the instruments body.

The valve closure of the invention is used in connection with any of the well-known key arrangements which are in use on wind instruments at the present time.

Reference should now be made to the following description and to the accompanying drawing for a more complete understanding of the invention.

In the drawing FIG. 1 is a plane View of a flute embodying the in vention.

FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line 22 of FIG. 1 showing the improved valve construction in a closed position.

FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view taken along the line 3-3 of FIG. 2 with the improved valve in the closed position.

FIG. 4 is a view taken along the line 2-2 of FIG. 1 with the improved valve in an open position.

FIG. 5 is a view taken along the line 33 of FIG. 2 with the improved valve in an open position.

For the sake of clarity the accompanying drawing only shows the improved padless valve closure in detail since it is assumed that it will be used in connection with any of the well-known key arrangements. Furthermore, the invention will be illustrated with reference to a flute although it is equally applicable to other wind instruments.

The body of a flute 10, including the mouth piece 11 is made from the usual materials of which wind instruments are made.

The valve closures 13 embody the present invention.

Each valve closure 13 is made of the same material as the body of the flute 10. The valve closure may have an outside contour 14 which is defined by the arc of a circle having a larger radius but the same center as the circle defining the outside contour of the body of the flute.

The underside of the valve closures 13 have a raised integral central projection 17 made of the same material as the flute body 10. The raised central projection 17 is of such a height that when the valve closure is in the closed position the interior surface 16 of the flute body 10 will be continuously smooth and will not result in the formation of baflles. The valve closure 13 has a depending flange 18 on the same surface as the raised central projection 17, the flange 18 being coincident with the outer edge of the valve closure 13.

The contour of the undersides 15 of the valve closure projections 17 are defined by an arc of a circle having the same radius and center as the circuit defining the inside contour 16 of the body 10 of the flute.

The valve closure 13 is so constructed that there is a groove 19 between the raised central portion 17 and the flange 18. The groove 19 is provided with a gasket 20 which in the preferred embodiment is of a type known as an O-ring gasket.

In the present invention the gasket is outside the area of the tone hole 21 which is cut in the body 10 of the flute.

The tone hole 21 is located in a substantially saddle shape depression defined by the intersection of a spheroidal shape with the cylindrical shape of the flute body containing in the center thereof a hole as is usually present in a flute tone hole.

The co-action of the saddle shaped depression of the tone hole 21 and the valve closure 13 make it unnecessary to have the collars and pads which were required in the previous construction of flutes and like instruments.

What is claimed is:

1. A Wind instrument having a body portion of a predetermined material with a relatively thin wall, said instrument having at least one tone hole extending through said body portion, the outer surface of said body portion being relatively smooth adjacent said tone hole, and a cover for said tone hole pivotally mounted on said body portion, said cover having a central portion adjacent said tone hole of a material having acoustical properties similar to those of the predetermined material of said body portion, the contour of said central portion conforming to that of the interior of said body portion when said cover is closed, and said cover having a peripheral gasket portion contacting said relatively smooth outer surface of said body portion when said cover is closed.

spear/as which the peripheral gasket portion of said cover includes substantially uniform transverse cross-section for a portion a flange substantially coincident with the circumference of the length of said body portion adjacent said tone hole. of said cover adjacent the side opposite said central portion, said flange projecting toward the rim of said tone References ited in the file of this patent hole and defining a groove around said central portion, 5 UNITED STATES PATENTS and a gasket disposed in said groove and extending therefrom to provide a seal to said body portion when said 1,376,986 Wintefhofi y 1921 cover is closed. 2,292,767 Page Aug. 11, 1942 4. A wind instrument in accordance with claim 1 in 2,311,167 Gage Feb. 16, 1943 which said relatively thin wall of said body portion has a 10

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