Music – Instruments – Wind
Patent
1986-03-12
1987-08-04
Franklin, Lawrence R.
Music
Instruments
Wind
84383R, G10D 702
Patent
active
046837965
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
The present invention relates to musical wind instruments having a mouthpiece, namely that portion of the instrument which is blown by the player, which is generally of a comfortable and visually attractive shape and includes a windway which assists in providing laminar flow into the body of the instrument.
A conventional recorder mouthpiece has a straight-through windway 2 as shown in FIG. 1. A player's breath passes along the windway and is split by a fipple 3, formed by the edge of an aperture 4 in the recorder body adjacent the mouthpiece 1, thereby producing fluctuations in the local air pressure which are resonantly amplified by the air column of the instrument's body to produce a musical sound.
After the recorder has been played for a few minutes, the player's breath condenses in the windway. This condensation, together with an accumulation of saliva in the windway tends to cause a blockage in the windway, resulting in a disturbance of the air jet impinging on the fipple. This disturbance of the air jet creates a distortion of the sound produced by the instrument when played.
This liquid can also pass into the recorder body. The liquid collected has to be frequently removed, which is awkward and unpleasant and may need to be done at an inconvenient time. The liquid can also deteriorate the inside of a wooden instrument after much use.
It is possible to alleviate such blockages by prewarming the mouthpiece, especially for wooden instruments. However, blockages tend to be worse in non-wooden instruments, such as the plastic instruments often played by children, who moreover are less inclined to spend time prewarming an instrument.
A modified recorder has a widened windway in an attempt to overcome these problems but this reduces resistance to the breath which causes poor tone and intonation, especially with inexperienced players.
It is, therefore, an object of this invention to overcome these drawbacks.
According to the invention, we propose a mouthpiece for a musical wind instrument, comprising an inlet, an outlet, a hollow chamber for collecting liquid from the inlet air, and an enclosed windway which is disposed in the mouthpiece and leads to the outlet, wherein the inlet and the windway are interconnected via the hollow chamber.
We also purpose a musical instrument having the aforesaid mouthpiece.
According to another aspect of the invention, we propose a method of reducing the occurence of blockage by liquid in a musical wind instrument, comprising passing inlet air through a hollow chamber in the mouthpiece, allowing liquid from the inlet air to collect in the hollow chamber and then guiding the moisture-reduced air along an enclosed windway out of the mouthpiece.
The windway is a straight-through passage for creating laminar flow onto the fipple in the recorder body, and is defined by a narrow tube, which may have rectangular or other cross-section. The windway extends along a part of or substantially the whole length of the mouthpiece to the mouthpiece outlet. The mouthpiece may have an inlet passage which assists in directing the air into the body of the chamber. Air blown into the mouthpiece flows through the inlet into the chamber and then takes a circuitous route to the windway. Excess moisture condenses in droplet form on the inside surfaces of the mouthpiece. The droplets collect in the bottom of the chamber with the result that substantially moisture-reduced air passes along the windway to the mouthpiece outlet and onto the fipple and blockages in the windway are thus substantially alleviated. The moisture collected in the chamber does not interfere with the sound produced by the wind instrument and so does not reduce the sound quality. The moisture does not need to be removed as frequently and can be removed from or shaken out of the chamber at a time convenient to the player. Since clogging is substantially avoided this windway can be narrower than in a conventional instrument, thus creating desirable extra resistance, which is especially desirable for inexperienced players. Additiona
REFERENCES:
patent: 766027 (1904-07-01), Fairchild
patent: 2485749 (1949-10-01), Ladd
patent: 3722348 (1973-03-01), Visser
Richardson Bernard E.
Salaman William
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