The talking machine world (Jan-Dec 1915)

THE TALKING MACHINE WORLD. 71 LATEST PATENTS RELATING TO TALKING MACHINES AND RECORDS (Special to The Talking Machine World.) Washington, D. C, December 5. — Cushion for a Sound Box. — Henry C. Miller, Waterford, N. Y. Patent No. 1,155,945. This invention relates to improvements in devices for preventing a sound box dropping on a record that is being reproduced on a talking machine. The object of the invention is to provide a pneumatic cushion for a sound conveyor in such manner that when the usual tilting sound box is lowered it will gradually drop on the record without liability of scratching or otherwise mutilating the grooves. A further object is to provide a device which will preclude the accidental falling of the sound box with such force as would mutilate the face of the record. In the drawings: Figure 1 is a perspective view illustrating the application of the invention. Fig. 2 is a vertical longitudinal section, taken through the cylinder, the sound box being in lowered position in full lines, and in its elevated position in dotted lines. Fig. 3 is a plan view of the cushioning device. Fig. 4 is a detail side elevation of a modified form of the invention. Fig. 5 is an enlarged detail view thereof. Adapter for Talking Machines. — Pliny Catucci, Newark, N. J., assignor to A. F. Meisselbach & Bro., same place. Patent No. 1,156,130. This invention relates to devices for use in connection with one of the well-known talking machines now on the market and is designed as an attachment to the tone arm of the machine so as to adapt the sound box for use in playing any kind of disc record now on the market. Such disc records are made in various ways, as, for example, by the well-known Berliner method, whereby the record groove is in the form of a zig-zag spiral groove of uniform depth impressed in the record. The best results with such record are obtainable by locating the sound box with its diaphragm in a plane perpendicular to the plane of the record disc, so that the stylus needle may vibrate literally across the direction of the record groove. Other records made in accordance with the well-known Edison method have the sound groove running in a spiral, but the sound waves are formed by a series of successive elevations and excavations within the groove. In this case the sound box must have its diaphragm located in a plane passing substantially through the center of the record disc, but intersecting said disc at an acute angle. In order that the stylus needle of the sound box may properly track in the record groove, the parts must be adjusted so that the tone arm, swinging about its center, must carry the point of the stylus in an arc which passes through the center of the rotating disc record. If the stylus point varies materially from this arc, then it is liable to jump out of the groove and race across the face of the disc to the obvious injury of the record and certainly spoiling the rendition of the selection upon it. It is the purpose of this improvement to provide a connection for the tone arm and sound box of a talking machine, whereby the same sound box may be utilized for the reproduction of records either of the Berliner type or of the Edison type ; that is, the records in which the sound groove is a zig-zag spiral of uniform depth, or where the sound record is made by excavations and elevations. Figure 1 illustrates a plan view of the tone arm and sound box of a talking machine with the im proved adapter in position for playing records of the Edison type, and also in dotted lines the sound box in position for playing records of the Berliner type. Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the same showing in dotted lines the position occupied by the sound box for the reproduction of records of the Berliner type. Fig. 3 is a top plan view of the improved adapter. Fig. 4 is a right-hand end view. Fig. 5 is a bottom plan view. Fig. 6 is an end plan view showing the means for securing the adapter to the tone arm of the talking machine in general use. Correction Device for Talking Machines. — Clinton E. Woods, Bridgeport, Conn., assignor to the American Graphophone Co., same place. Patent No. 1,153,665. This invention relates to talking machines, and more particularly to correction devices employed in machines used for dictation purposes, when the record is to be transcribed and it is desired by the dictator to impart certain information in regard thereto to the transcriber. For example, a record having a variety of matters thereon, among which may be a telegram or other rush work, may be delivered by the dictator to a transcriber, or the dictator may desire to have a correction made in matter already dictated, as by erasing or changing certain parts, etc. The invention consists in a revoluble disc actuated by the sound-box carriage of the machine, and preferably so as to make one complete revolution during the time that the sound box is traveling the length of the record tablet, combined with means whereby the dictator may mark the disc at the point where a correction is to be made, telegram taken off or other desired matters attended to. This disc is removed from the dictation machine with the record, and is placed upon the transcriber's machine and, in co-operation with a fixed scale, indicates the position in which the transcriber is to place the sound box for taking off the telegram or other matter. The device is capable of being applied to any suitable talking machine provided with a traveling sound box. In said drawings Figure 1 is a front elevation of a talking machine showing the invention applied thereto ; Fig. 2 is a horizontal section through the correction device taken on the line 2 — 2 of Fig. 1, looking in the direction of the arrow, parts being shown in elevation; Fig. 3 shows the parts of the correction device in side elevation, and the inclosing chamber in central vertical section, and Fig. 4 is a vertical section of Fig. 3 on the line 4 — 4. Phonograph. — George H. Underhill, Boston, Mass. Patent No. 1,158,750. Many features of this invention have useful application to various types of such machines, in cluding those employing but a single record, but this invention is particularly applicable and is herein illustrated with reference to one type of multiple record machine employing a plurality of cylindrical records adapted automatically and successively to be brought into reproducing or recording relation with reference to suitable reproducing or recording mechanism, the latter being caused automatically to traverse the face of each record as the same is presented. In tire drawings Figure I is a central vertical section partially broken away, showing the prin cipal operating parts of a phonograph embodying one form of the invention ; Fig. 2 is a plan showing principally the sound-box traversing mechanism in the phonograph illustrated in Fig. 1 ; Fig. 3 is a detail of the mechanism for lowering the soundbox on its return to its initial position, and Fig. 4 is a side elevation, partially broken away, of the instrument shown in Fig. 1. Attachment for Gramophones. — Sylvain Dayan, Montreal, Quebec. Patent No. 1,160,146. This invention relates to improvements in attachments for gramophones, and the object is to provide a device by means of which any gramophone designed to use a steel needle may be equipped with a jeweled needle. Two types of disc records are manufactured for gramophones, one having lateral undulations in the groove; that is, undulations on the side of the groove, and the other having undulations in the bottom of the groove. The former type is adapted for steel needles and the latter jeweled needles. It will thus be seen that an entirely different motion is transmitted to the sound-box diaphragm by the two types of record, and therefore a sound-box adapted for the type of record producing lateral vibrations will not operate if used on a record producing vertical vibrations. The attachment forming the subject of the present invention is a means for transforming vertical vibrations into lateral vibrations, necessary to a sound-box adapted to receive only lateral vibrations. The device consists essentially of a short arm adapted to be mounted in the needle socket and to r,OJ free extend under the sound-box in the same plane as the sound-ibox diaphragm. This arm carries an offset socket containing the jeweled needle, the offset being such that the movement of the needle with the undulations of the record imparts a rolling motion to the arm which is transmitted to the sound-box in the proper direction. In the drawings which illustrate the invention Figure 1 is a front elevation of a sound-box with the attachment in place. Fig. 2 is a side elevation. Fig. 3 is a plan view of the attachment. Gramophone. — Reginald Warren, de la Rue, Newmarket, England. Patent No. 1,160,268. This invention relates to the starting and stopping of the electric motors by which gramophones are sometimes driven. The term "gramophone" is intended to include all talking machines of a simliar type in which a rotating record disc is used. According to this invention, an electric circuit is made and broken by the movement of the tapered arm carrying the sound-box, and the electric motor (Continued on page 72.)