This class includes the instruments used in producing music
and includes (1) electrical music instruments, (2) automatic instruments,
and (3) those hand played. The automatic instruments and the hand
played instruments have a parallel classification so far as seems
practical, and in both the patents are divided in the usual way
into four groups, stringed, wind, rigid vibrators, and membranes.
Then follow details or features common to groups (1), (2), and (3).
This class also includes some accessory devices generally recognized
as belonging to the art or industry.

SECTION II - LINES WITH OTHER CLASSES AND WITHIN THIS CLASS

Instruments furnishing a sound of only one pitch, even if it
might be used for musical purposes, are generally to be found in
Class 116, Signals and Indicators; Class 446, Amusement Devices:
Toys, subclasses 207-209 and 397-422; Class 472, Amusement Devices,
subclass 64; or Class 623, Prosthesis (i.e., Artificial Body Members),
Parts Thereof or Aids and Accessories Therefor, subclass 9 for larynxes.

Phonographs, unless in combination with a recognized musical
instrument, are to be searched for in Class 369, Dynamic Information
Storage or Retrieval.

Printed music and systems of notation are to be found in Class
84 (this class), Music, subclass 483.2.

Many features of construction or manufacture should be sought
for in woodworking or metal-working and many details not limited
to this art in appropriate classes, such as pedals, supports, clamps,
cases, springs, etc.

For instrument supports of general application not claimed
in combination with musical instruments or structurally limited
to use with specific musical instruments, see Class 248, Supports,
appropriate subclasses.

The means for determining which notes of the piano, organ,
etc., shall be sounded.

(1)Subject matter usually includes a tracker-bar, a perforated
sheet, and driving means.

(2)Note. These features are shown in automatic telegraphs and
in patents in many other subclasses of this class, and are sometimes
claimed along with playing mechanism, such as in subclasses 24
through 52.

(3)Note. This subclass includes also details and optical or other
attachments to the selector not otherwise classified.

Advancing Material of Indeterminate Length, appropriate subclasses for methods of, and apparatus
for, feeding material without utilizing the leading or trailing
ends to effect movement of the material.

This subclass is indented under subclass 173. Miscellaneous patents showing pianos of unusual shape or
claiming several features or not elsewhere classifiable.

(1)Note. Many features of a piano are common to other instruments
and should be searched for in appropriate subclasses of automatic,
stringed, or wind instruments, rigid vibrators, or general features
in this class.

This subclass is indented under subclass 174. Devices to communicate to the air vibrations due to the
strings or to modify them in loudness or quality.

(1)Note. These devices do not directly affect the movement of
the strings.

(2)Note. Some expression devices (subclass 216, etc.) might come
under this broad definition, but most of them affect the amplitude
or form of vibration of the strings and are under control of the player.

This subclass is indented under subclass 174. Patents for bridges not belonging in the subclasses below.

(1)Note. The vibrating length of the string is determined by
its bearing on the two bridges, one on the sounding-board and the
other usually on the wrest-plank or on the string-plate. If on the
plate, it is sometimes distinguished as the "scale rib".
If the two bridges are not on the same side of the string, the one
near the hammer-line may be called "inverted". Often
the hammer-stroke tends to lift the string from the bridge on the
plank, so in some early pianos a sort of screw-eye called an "a
gaffe" was used, while in later times many sorts of clamps
or holders have been devised to hold the strings on their bridges,
and confusing names have been given them.

This subclass is indented under subclass 173. Instruments having two sets of strings, often on different
necks or on opposite sides of the body.

(1)Note. The following subclasses--264 to 289--are intended only
for features specific to the instrument named. If the feature is
applicable to instruments of two kinds, as a harp and violin, the
patent is classified under this class, subclass 290, and indented
subclasses.

This subclass is indented under subclass 173. Theses have many strings of graduated length stretched on
a frame consisting of the body, neck, and pillar; the strings are
exposed on both sides to the player’s hands.

This subclass is indented under subclass 173. Improvements not likely to be applicable to any instruments
other than those of the violin family and not belonging in subclasses
below; also patents involving two specific features.

This subclass is indented under subclass 173. Strings stretched over a sounding-board in position to be
picked; the strings are often divided into melody-strings and accompaniment-strings,
the former sometimes lying over a finger-board.

This subclass is indented under subclass 285. Instruments, usually of the zither type, in which strings
are sounded in chord groups, specifically by multiple picks or hammers fixed
on a bar and operating simultaneously.

This subclass is indented under subclass 1. Miscellaneous wind instruments and some details not elsewhere
classifiable; also combinations of pipes and reeds.

(1)Note. The patents of this group may be classed as pipe organs,
reed organs, minor reed instruments, orchestral wood winds, and
brasses. The first two have many features in common; but they differ
so much in size and consequently in details that a parallel classification
has been made. Search should ordinarily be made in the proper subclasses
of both types and sometimes in "Automatics". Wind-supply
devices and pressure-regulators are mostly classed in Class 60, Power
Plants, and Class 417, Pumps.

This subclass is indented under subclass 331. Pipe-organ actions not belonging to a specific subclass.

(1)Note. The speaking of an organ-pipe is usually controlled
by the joint operation of devices actuated or controlled, respectively,
by a key and a stop. These devices (excluding the keys) are collectively known
as the "action". These actions and the corresponding
wind-chests are of three types: (1) the older, in which the top
of the wind-chest has as many grooves with pallets to control them
as there are keys and as many perforated slides crossing the grooves
as there are speaking-stops; (2) the type in which there are as
many stop-chambers as stops, each carrying a series or "register" of
pipes and each controlled by a valve or "ventil",
every pipe having its own valve controlled by a key, and (3) the type
in which all the pipes stand on a common or "universal" wind-chest
and each pipe has its own valve, which is jointly controlled by
a key and a draw-stop. In all three types the controlling means
may be mechanical, electrical, pneumatic, or electropneumatic. For details
of such means see this class, subclass 335, and following subclasses.
Patents for combinations of the first type are in this subclass.

This subclass is indented under subclass 332. Includes organizations in which electromagnetic valves control
pneumatics; also pneumato-electric actions in which pneumatics control
switches in the circuits of electromagnets.

This subclass is indented under subclass 388. Each valve controls two tubes of different length, often
symmetrically placed, whereby the difference in timbre between open
and valve tones is diminished.

This subclass is indented under subclass 402. Bars supported at nodal points to vibrate transversely and
means for supporting them; also some end-supported bars and some
resonators; hand-strikers are used.

Pianos or organs furnishing more than twelve notes to the
octave or tuned to give a scale different from the equally-tempered
scale of the piano; special keyboards and connections therefrom;
quarter-tone instruments; enharmonic instruments.

Supports,
subclasses 396and 397 for a piano stool or bench having a tiltable
support surface which may remain horizontal while the occupant is
playing a piano manually, but which may be tilted forwardly to support
the occupant in a position to facilitate pumping an organ bellows or
player piano mechanism with his feet, and subclasses 441.1-465.1
for an easel, book, or music score holder.

(1)Note. This subclass and the subclasses indented under it include
devices temporarily used in tuning, usually not connected to the
instrument to be tuned. Some of them furnish a note of standard pitch,
others are merely tools.

Selective Cutting (e.g., Punching),
subclasses 49-50, if the record is made by selectively perforating
a moving sheet; subclasses 109-119 and 123-125 for a keyboard controlled selective
cutting device in general.

This subclass is indented under subclass 453. Patents showing constructions not clearly belonging in one
of the following subclasses or showing features applicable to various
types of leaf-turners.

(1)Note. Leaf-turners are devices to be attached to a music-stand
or to the music-desk of a piano to enable a player to turn one or
more leaves of music from right to left. In some cases the player releases
a source of power, in others he furnishes the power. In either case
he may use his hand, knee, or foot, and the terms "releaser" and "finger-piece" are used
generically herein to include also knee-levers and foot-levers.
Often a pedal is connected to operate a finger-key. Usually each
leaf is attached by clips to one or two arms extending from a solid
or tubular shaft pivoted near the line of fold of the music-sheets
or the line of the back of a bound book, said arms extending along
the top or bottom edge of the leaf or along both. This classification
is based, first, on the immediate source of the power that turns
the leaf-motor, gravity, spring, or hand--and, second, on whether
there is a plurality of parts or a single one of each kind. The parts
considered are only those of turning a leaf from right to left.
In many instances there are keys or pedals to return the leaves
from left to right. These are disregarded in the classification.

(2)Note. Patents for some features of construction that are not
suggested by these titles are cross-referenced into this subclass.

This subclass is indented under subclass 1. Subject matter including means for generating or modifying
electric currents or potentials to produce varying electric currents
or potentials in combination with, or intended for converting the
varying electric currents or potentials into sound vibrations for
the production of musical tones.

(1)Note. For devices which generate or modify an electric current
or potential so as to produce a particular waveform, see the search
notes below.

Inductor Devices, appropriate subclasses for inductive reactors and transformers
which are provided with fixed or movable elements (e.g., having
a moving armature to modify the impedance of an inductive reactor).

This subclass is indented under subclass 615. Subject matter wherein a plurality of musical notes or keys
are selected with a certain note or notes having precedence over
others selected e.g., highest or lowest notes having priority over
any other selected, etc.

This subclass is indented under subclass 653. Subject matter wherein a plurality of musical notes or keys
are selected with a certain note or notes having precedence over
others, e.g., highest or lowest notes having priority, etc.

This subclass is indented under subclass 675. Subject matter wherein the oscillators, frequency multipliers
or frequency dividers include one or more devices in which conduction
of electrons takes place through a vacuum or gaseous medium.

This subclass is indented under subclass 678. Subject matter wherein a plurality of musical notes or keys
are selected with a certain note or notes having precedence over
others e.g., highest or lowest notes having priority, etc.

This subclass is indented under subclass 701. Subject matter wherein transients are introduced into the
initial sounding of the tone during the initial portion of the envelope
to simulate the hiss or noise of an organ pipe.

Inductor Devices, appropriate subclasses for inductive reactors and transformers
which are provided with fixed or movable elements, e.g., having
a moving armature to modify the impedance of an inductive reactor, etc.