Music Trade Review
Issue: 1919 Vol. 68 N. 4 - Page 8
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8
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
PNEUMATICS
(Continued from page 7)
tion is released a damper drops on the string
and muffles it. It seems evident then that, in
a succession of tones, if the keys are pressed
so that the string N has not ceased to vibrate
before string P is touched, and the key at-
tached to P is in turn not released until key
Q has been pressed, the tones of the strings will
to an extent run into each other. The better
the piano the more the tones will prolong if
the strings are left open after the hammer-
stroke. Hence,- with a very good piano, one
can undoubtedly produce an entirely different
quality of tone from a succession of tones, by
"binding them together" as the phrase is.
Dampers
This is only one possibility, of course, out of
many. The pianist has ten fingers and eighty-
eight keys. He also has a device called the
"damper pedal" whereby he can cause all the
dampers to rise from the strings and remain
free of them as long as desired. In this way
the tone of any string once sounded can be
caused to resound lightly in all strings which
bear harmonic relations to the first one. This
means therefore, according to the manner of
manipulating this damper pedal, a prolongation
of tone's or an entirely different and character-
istic quality of tone.
The Roll
Now it is evident that all pianists will be
obliged to set about the same process if they
desire the same result in any case. It is there-
fore easy to see that the quality of tone pro-
duced from a player-piano when a hand-played
roll is used must be different from and usually
better than the tone produced from a mathe-
matically cut roll, other things being equal,
which they are not always. But it is also evi-
dent that a well cut roll, taking advantage of
pianists' technique as revealed by the study of
many hand-played rolls, might enable the player-
piano to reproduce any beautiful quality of tone
common to good piano playing and suggested
to the arranger by the nature of the passage.
When we imagine such a roll, and add to it
We Can Help You Attain
Your Greatest Year's Business
Why Not Let Us?
Yes, we can, and we will; if you on your part
will get in touch with us NOW.
Our preparations for 1919 business in the man-
ufacture and sale of the wonderful
M. Schulz Company
Player-Piano
are on a scale of completeness never before
equalled, even by our great plants.
You will find during
the year in greater
measure than ever
Technical Refinements
Tonal Betterments
Selling Aids
Constant Co-operation
More than 140,000 of our pianos and player-pianos have been
made and sold, and our player-piano is our own throughout,
designed and made in our own factories by our own men!
We are ready to talk with you. Will you talk with us?
M. SCHULZ COMPANY
Established 1869
General Offices
Schulz Building
711 Milwaukee Are.
CHICAGO
3 Factories in
CHICAGO
Southern Wholesale Branch
1530CandlerBldg.
ATLANTA, GA.
JANUARY 25,
1919
damper and speed control, tinder the hands of
the player-pianist, we see that we have all the
machinery for tone-production of the artistic
sort, save control of hammer-speed.
The Player Action
This, of course, is a matter of stack and bel-
lows design. The perfect player would per-
haps be one in which the motor would be run by
a separate source of power and perhaps even a
very small power applied to help the playing
action on hard work, leaving the foot-control as
flexible as possible and the action responsive
to the least touch. Given this we have results
worth talking about.
The contact of the pneumatic with the action
is a matter of complete indifference, so long
as it be mechanically correct. Speed control is
the requirement, and that is a matter of moving
the action with the least friction, and with the
least possible wastage of power.
AUTOPIANO DECISION SUSTAINED
Court of Appeals Sustains Finding of Lower
Court in Case of the Autopiano Co. vs. Otto
Higel Co.—Injunction Now Binding
The United States Court of Appeals has af-
firmed Justice Augustus N. Hand's decision of
February 7, 1918, in the case of the Autopiano
Co. vs. Otto Higel Co., Inc., defendants, where-
in it was held that the Otto Higel Co., Inc.,
had infringed the O'Connor Tracking Device
Patents. Judge Hand's opinion of a year ago,
which has been sustained by the Court of Ap-
peals, follows:
AUGUSTUS N. HAND, District Judge.
This is a suit for infringement of claims 9, 21 and 23 of
reissue Letters Patent to James O'Connor, on a Perforated
Note Sheet Guide, reissued April 2, 1912, No. 13,398.
This patent has been sustained many times by this court
in numerous litigations, and its merit frequently commented
upon. The only defense worthy of serious consideration is
based upon the small size of the bleed openings of the
pneumatic apparatus which render the collapsing of de-
fendant's apparatus slower than in the O'Connor device in
use. That a readjustment of the mechanism is instantly
inaugurated in the defendant's device is evident. It is
also true in practice that there is instantly some readjust-
ment of the mechanism itself. If the note sheet gets far
out of position it will run forward some distance in the
defendant's device before there is complete readjustment.
In so far as this is the case, the slow means of readjust-
ment which renders such action possible is but an impair-
ment of the function of the O'Connor mechanism, only im-
portant under what may be regarded as abnormal circum-
stances, and only I think designed to avoid infringement.
There is an jnstant inauguration of the process which re-
sults in readjustment and an instant readjustment of the
ordinary slight deviation of the note sheet from the true
path. This readjustment is instant for all practical pur-
poses, and is adequate for those occasions for which a
delicate mechanism operated with the carefully made note
sheets for which such piano players are designed needs to
be used. If the word "instant" were taken to mean with-
out the slightest interval of time, neither the O'Connor
device nor any conceivable one would meet the require-
ment. If it is given the reasonable meaning of such a
prompt readjustment as will prevent any deviation of the
note sheet from its straight path, sufficient to occasion
under normal circumstances the discords which are sought
to be obviated, the defendant's mechanism falls within
the term.
I can see no substantial differences between the defendant's
device and that before the Court of Appeals in the case of
Autopiano Company v. Claviola Company. Judge Veeder's
opinion in that case is controlling and under it claims 9,
21 and 23 are infringed.
The usual decree is granted to the complainant for an
injunction and accounting with costs.
Dated Feb. 7th, 1918.
A. N. H., DJ.
Judge Hand's decree for an injunction and an
accounting, with costs, is now binding upon the
defendant.
ADOPTS PROFIT-SHARING SYSTEM
Western Automatic Music Co., Dallas, Tex., to
Give Percentage of Profits to Employes
DALLAS, TEX., January 18.—D. L. Whittle, presi-
dent of the Western Automatic Music Co., an-
nounced to their employes at the annual ban-
quet of the company that a percentage of the
profits of the company, since April 30, 1918,
would be divided among the employes at the end
of the fiscal year, according to their length of
service.
"While the music trade has been seriously
hampered by the war, still it has made an en-
viable record," said Mr. Whittle. "Along with
this our company has enjoyed an excellent busi-
ness, and we want those who have played a large
part in our success to share in the results.
Prospects for the new year are very bright, and
the agricultural, industrial and commercial out-
look is excellent."
8
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
PNEUMATICS
(Continued from page 7)
tion is released a damper drops on the string
and muffles it. It seems evident then that, in
a succession of tones, if the keys are pressed
so that the string N has not ceased to vibrate
before string P is touched, and the key at-
tached to P is in turn not released until key
Q has been pressed, the tones of the strings will
to an extent run into each other. The better
the piano the more the tones will prolong if
the strings are left open after the hammer-
stroke. Hence,- with a very good piano, one
can undoubtedly produce an entirely different
quality of tone from a succession of tones, by
"binding them together" as the phrase is.
Dampers
This is only one possibility, of course, out of
many. The pianist has ten fingers and eighty-
eight keys. He also has a device called the
"damper pedal" whereby he can cause all the
dampers to rise from the strings and remain
free of them as long as desired. In this way
the tone of any string once sounded can be
caused to resound lightly in all strings which
bear harmonic relations to the first one. This
means therefore, according to the manner of
manipulating this damper pedal, a prolongation
of tone's or an entirely different and character-
istic quality of tone.
The Roll
Now it is evident that all pianists will be
obliged to set about the same process if they
desire the same result in any case. It is there-
fore easy to see that the quality of tone pro-
duced from a player-piano when a hand-played
roll is used must be different from and usually
better than the tone produced from a mathe-
matically cut roll, other things being equal,
which they are not always. But it is also evi-
dent that a well cut roll, taking advantage of
pianists' technique as revealed by the study of
many hand-played rolls, might enable the player-
piano to reproduce any beautiful quality of tone
common to good piano playing and suggested
to the arranger by the nature of the passage.
When we imagine such a roll, and add to it
We Can Help You Attain
Your Greatest Year's Business
Why Not Let Us?
Yes, we can, and we will; if you on your part
will get in touch with us NOW.
Our preparations for 1919 business in the man-
ufacture and sale of the wonderful
M. Schulz Company
Player-Piano
are on a scale of completeness never before
equalled, even by our great plants.
You will find during
the year in greater
measure than ever
Technical Refinements
Tonal Betterments
Selling Aids
Constant Co-operation
More than 140,000 of our pianos and player-pianos have been
made and sold, and our player-piano is our own throughout,
designed and made in our own factories by our own men!
We are ready to talk with you. Will you talk with us?
M. SCHULZ COMPANY
Established 1869
General Offices
Schulz Building
711 Milwaukee Are.
CHICAGO
3 Factories in
CHICAGO
Southern Wholesale Branch
1530CandlerBldg.
ATLANTA, GA.
JANUARY 25,
1919
damper and speed control, tinder the hands of
the player-pianist, we see that we have all the
machinery for tone-production of the artistic
sort, save control of hammer-speed.
The Player Action
This, of course, is a matter of stack and bel-
lows design. The perfect player would per-
haps be one in which the motor would be run by
a separate source of power and perhaps even a
very small power applied to help the playing
action on hard work, leaving the foot-control as
flexible as possible and the action responsive
to the least touch. Given this we have results
worth talking about.
The contact of the pneumatic with the action
is a matter of complete indifference, so long
as it be mechanically correct. Speed control is
the requirement, and that is a matter of moving
the action with the least friction, and with the
least possible wastage of power.
AUTOPIANO DECISION SUSTAINED
Court of Appeals Sustains Finding of Lower
Court in Case of the Autopiano Co. vs. Otto
Higel Co.—Injunction Now Binding
The United States Court of Appeals has af-
firmed Justice Augustus N. Hand's decision of
February 7, 1918, in the case of the Autopiano
Co. vs. Otto Higel Co., Inc., defendants, where-
in it was held that the Otto Higel Co., Inc.,
had infringed the O'Connor Tracking Device
Patents. Judge Hand's opinion of a year ago,
which has been sustained by the Court of Ap-
peals, follows:
AUGUSTUS N. HAND, District Judge.
This is a suit for infringement of claims 9, 21 and 23 of
reissue Letters Patent to James O'Connor, on a Perforated
Note Sheet Guide, reissued April 2, 1912, No. 13,398.
This patent has been sustained many times by this court
in numerous litigations, and its merit frequently commented
upon. The only defense worthy of serious consideration is
based upon the small size of the bleed openings of the
pneumatic apparatus which render the collapsing of de-
fendant's apparatus slower than in the O'Connor device in
use. That a readjustment of the mechanism is instantly
inaugurated in the defendant's device is evident. It is
also true in practice that there is instantly some readjust-
ment of the mechanism itself. If the note sheet gets far
out of position it will run forward some distance in the
defendant's device before there is complete readjustment.
In so far as this is the case, the slow means of readjust-
ment which renders such action possible is but an impair-
ment of the function of the O'Connor mechanism, only im-
portant under what may be regarded as abnormal circum-
stances, and only I think designed to avoid infringement.
There is an jnstant inauguration of the process which re-
sults in readjustment and an instant readjustment of the
ordinary slight deviation of the note sheet from the true
path. This readjustment is instant for all practical pur-
poses, and is adequate for those occasions for which a
delicate mechanism operated with the carefully made note
sheets for which such piano players are designed needs to
be used. If the word "instant" were taken to mean with-
out the slightest interval of time, neither the O'Connor
device nor any conceivable one would meet the require-
ment. If it is given the reasonable meaning of such a
prompt readjustment as will prevent any deviation of the
note sheet from its straight path, sufficient to occasion
under normal circumstances the discords which are sought
to be obviated, the defendant's mechanism falls within
the term.
I can see no substantial differences between the defendant's
device and that before the Court of Appeals in the case of
Autopiano Company v. Claviola Company. Judge Veeder's
opinion in that case is controlling and under it claims 9,
21 and 23 are infringed.
The usual decree is granted to the complainant for an
injunction and accounting with costs.
Dated Feb. 7th, 1918.
A. N. H., DJ.
Judge Hand's decree for an injunction and an
accounting, with costs, is now binding upon the
defendant.
ADOPTS PROFIT-SHARING SYSTEM
Western Automatic Music Co., Dallas, Tex., to
Give Percentage of Profits to Employes
DALLAS, TEX., January 18.—D. L. Whittle, presi-
dent of the Western Automatic Music Co., an-
nounced to their employes at the annual ban-
quet of the company that a percentage of the
profits of the company, since April 30, 1918,
would be divided among the employes at the end
of the fiscal year, according to their length of
service.
"While the music trade has been seriously
hampered by the war, still it has made an en-
viable record," said Mr. Whittle. "Along with
this our company has enjoyed an excellent busi-
ness, and we want those who have played a large
part in our success to share in the results.
Prospects for the new year are very bright, and
the agricultural, industrial and commercial out-
look is excellent."
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