Patents
The ocarina patents the museum has gathered, the ones it knows of only from somebody’s description, and which of them are not ocarinas at all.
This is what the museum has gathered. It is not a list of all ocarina patents, and it should not be used as one. No patent office has been swept systematically — these were found one at a time, from the museum’s own subjects, from citations inside other patents, from a book, from a museum catalog. Until a sweep is done, the absence of a patent from this page is not evidence of anything.
Two things make a sweep harder than it sounds. A great many ocarina patents are not filed under the word — Rohner’s is a wind instrument, Bondi’s a mold for making musical instruments, Frazeur’s four simply musical instrument, and not one of them contains “ocarina” anywhere. And the digitized record has floors that look like absence: French filings begin about 1902, British about 1892, Italian later still. Mezzetti’s British patent of 1878 sits far below that floor, and the museum found it only because a London trade paper printed the week’s applications in full.
United States patents are works of the United States government and may be reproduced freely, which is why the American rows link straight to the document and the others do not.
Why patents matter here
For most of the people on this site the record is a website, a catalog, or a memory. For the companies — Gretsch, Waterbury — it is almost entirely patents. They fix a date, a place, a name, and a claim about how the instrument was built, and they were filed by people who had reason to be exact.
They also settle arguments. Guido Bondi’s filing gives his residence and his dates, and it is why the museum can say what it says about him. The pentatonic ocarina of 1988 is a document about what its makers were trying to do — build an instrument on which a child could not finger a wrong note — and that intent is not recorded anywhere else.
Where a patent cannot say what it is
Some rows carry the verdict cannot be told from the text. That is a finding rather than an omission: the museum has the document, and the document does not answer.
Winfield S. Frazeur’s four design patents were all filed on October 20, 1947 and granted in April 1949. Each is titled, in full, Musical instrument. A design patent claims an appearance, so its text is a title, an inventor, a date, and a sentence pointing at the figures — there is no specification describing a chamber, a windway, or a bore. Whatever these instruments were, their own documents do not say. The figures show an outward shape; whether the chamber closes — which is what makes an ocarina an ocarina — is not something an outline settles. It is a real question: these are among the most findable results for anybody looking for an animal-shaped ocarina patent in the United States, and a list circulating on an ocarina forum names one of them. Settling it needs the instruments, not the sheets.
Gustav Steinert’s British patent of 1903 is indexed under “Ocarinas; flutes” and its abstract describes a mouthpiece and an internal lip directing air against the far edge of a sound hole. That is a description of a fipple, and a fipple is common to the ocarina and to every whistle ever made. The abstract never says whether the chamber closes, and no page images survive in the record, so it stands unresolved.
The distinction this page keeps is between the museum has not seen the document — the rows it knows only from somebody else’s description — and the museum has the document and the document does not answer. The verdict beside each row says which, and the summary at the head of the register counts them.
How a patent that is not an ocarina gets here at all
Nearly a quarter of the register is not an ocarina, and every one of those rows says in its first line how it arrived — cited as prior art by an ocarina patent, caught by a classification, or filed by a maker the museum follows.
Swanson’s US 2,209,427, a musical instrument for playing bugle, is typical: a device for sounding bugle calls without an embouchure, on this page because a later patent the museum holds cites it beside Mausolf and Sumner. That is how a good many of these were found at all, and recording the verdict is the point — it saves the next person following the same citation.
What is in the register
89 patents. The museum holds 83 as documents, knows 3 from an official list that printed the number and the date, and knows 3 only from somebody’s description.
44 are ocarinas, 6 are devices made for them. 24 are not ocarinas at all — recorded because they turn up in an ocarina search, or are cited by one, and saying so saves the next person checking them again. For 15 the document itself does not answer whether it is an ocarina; 12 of those are design patents, which carry a title, a figure, and almost nothing else.
34 of the 89 were filed outside the United States, or their office is not established. 18 France, 10 United Kingdom, 3 Germany, 1 Belgium, 1 international (PCT), and 1 whose office is unplaced. The museum holds 28 of those 34 as documents and has not obtained the other 6.
Patents in the public record
86 filings, each with a record a reader can open. 83 the museum holds as documents; 3 it does not.
United States
- US D20,998
- US 1,106,249
- US 1,369,381
- US D55,806
- US 1,788,613
- US D86,705
- US D97,852
- US 2,194,332
- US 2,145,605
- US 2,214,553
- US D112,623
- US 2,180,130
- US 2,195,992
- US 2,209,427
- US 2,331,975
- US 2,332,083
- US 2,460,931
- US 2,513,600
- US D141,400
- US D142,799
- US 2,485,749
- US D145,344
- US D156,069
- US 2,478,323
- US 2,610,538
- US 2,638,027
- US D153,273
- US D153,274
- US D153,275
- US D153,343
- US 2,944,459
- US 3,011,382
- US D191,831
- US 3,131,590
- US 3,815,466
- US 4,104,948
- US D258,364
- US D272,159
- US D306,454
- US 4,893,541
- US 5,309,806
- US D389,855
- US 6,255,570
- US 6,348,647
- US 6,872,876
- US 6,914,179
- US 2004/0244562 A1
- US 2007/0157792 A1
- US 7,534,337
- US 7,816,595
- US 7,799,980
- US 2011/0226114 A1
- US 2016/0022547 A1
- US 2018/0033415 A1
- US 2019/0057675 A1
France
United Kingdom
Germany
Belgium
international (PCT), filed from Korea
1870s
FR 121,167
a wind musical instrument, called ocarina – instrument de musique a vent, dit ocarina — ocarina
The earliest ocarina patent the museum has found anywhere, filed by three men together from a covered arcade in Paris. It describes nine toneholes and a tenth for the air, a mouthpiece about two centimeters long, and a body of fired clay from a mold — or of wood, tinplate, copper, any metal, rubber, crystal or glass, materials others would patent one at a time over the next twenty- five years. Who Weiser, Talbot and Neuman were is not known. INPI, Archives historiques, brevets d’invention 1791-1901
INPI register entry, dossier 1BB121167 (French)“instrument de musique a vent, dit ocarina”a wind musical instrument, called ocarina
Heading of the description (French)“Original. 121167. Description de l’Instrument de musique appele “Ocarina” pour lequel depuis 8 demandes de brevets sont ci-joints ainsi que 2 modeles en nature.”Original. 121167. Description of the musical instrument called “Ocarina”, for which eight patent applications are attached herewith, together with two models in kind.
The instrument, and its hole count (French)“Cet instrument a vent a une forme oblongue, il est perce de 9 petits trous pour produire les notes et d’un dixieme pour laisser sortir l’air. Il est muni d’une petite embouchure qui a la forme d’une pointe d’environ 2 centimetres de longueur.”This wind instrument has an oblong form; it is pierced with 9 small holes to produce the notes and a tenth to let the air out. It is fitted with a small mouthpiece in the form of a point about 2 centimetres long.
How it is made – and what else it could be made of (French)“Il est fabrique en terre cuite au moyen d’un moule. On peut le fabriquer aussi en bois, en fer blanc, en cuivre, ou en n’importe quel metal, en caoutchouc, en cristal ou en verre.”It is made of fired clay by means of a mould. It can also be made of wood, of tinplate, of copper, or of any metal whatever, of rubber, of crystal or of glass.
What it will play (French)“Il se prete a toutes les gammes chromatiques possibles et sert a jouer […]”It lends itself to every possible chromatic scale and serves to play […]
What would settle it: Who Weiser, Talbot and Neuman were. Paris trade directories — the Bottin — for passage Verdeau in the 1870s.
FR 121,675
a press for making the musical instruments called ocarina – presse destinee a la fabrication des instruments de musique dits ocarina — a device for ocarinas
Fiehn’s press, patented in Paris four years before the instrument patent that assumes it: DE 16,668 of 1881 opens by describing ocarinas made from plastic clay with the help of an eccentric press and specially constructed molds, and this is that machine. It is also the earliest filing by either man that the museum has found, four months before Mezzetti’s first. The drawing is signed by procuration, and the address INPI prints is his agent Dumas’s office. INPI, Archives historiques, brevets d’invention 1791-1901
INPI register entry, dossier 1BB121675 (French)“presse destinee a la fabrication des instruments de musique dits ocarina”a press intended for the manufacture of the musical instruments called ocarina
Endorsement on the wrapper (French)“121,675. Pour etre annexe au brevet de quinze ans pris le 18 Decembre 1877 par le Sr Fiehn. Paris, le 19 Janvier 1878. Le Ministre de l’Agriculture et du Commerce. Pour le Ministre et par delegation, Le Directeur du Commerce Interieur.”121,675. To be annexed to the fifteen-year patent taken on December 18, 1877 by Mr Fiehn. Paris, January 19, 1878. The Minister of Agriculture and Commerce. For the Minister and by delegation, the Director of Internal Commerce.
The drawing plate (French)“H. Fiehn. Fig. I [la presse]. Fig. II, Fig. IV, Fig. V, Fig. VI [les moules]. Fig. III [l’instrument]. Echelle Variable. PARIS, le 18 Decembre 1877. P.P.on de Mr H. Fiehn.”H. Fiehn. Figure I [the press]. Figures II, IV, V and VI [the moulds]. Figure III [the instrument]. Variable scale. Paris, December 18, 1877. By procuration of Mr H. Fiehn.
What would settle it: Whether “FIEHN, fabricant” of Paris is Heinrich Fiehn of Vienna himself, a French agent trading under his name, or a relative. The register gives no first name.
FR 124,164
improvements made in musical instruments – perfectionnements apportés dans les instruments de musique — ocarina
Mezzetti’s French patent, and the tuning slide in so many words: the first claim applies to ocarinas a cylinder or obturator sliding in a fitting of cork or rubber, and the second improvement is a mouthpiece of bone, ivory, mother-of-pearl or metal in place of the clay one. The drawing plate shows the slide inside the body at full size. Fiehn also claims both in DE 16,668 of 1881. INPI, Archives historiques, brevets d’invention 1791-1901
INPI register entry, dossier 1BB124164 (French)“perfectionnements apportés dans les instruments de musique”improvements made in musical instruments
The problem, in Mezzetti’s words (French)“[Les ocarinas] une fois accordes conservent un accord parfait, sans que les variations de temperature puissent avoir aucune influence; cela est tres bien lorsqu’on les emploie comme instruments solistes, mais si on les emploie comme instrument d’accompagnement, avec le piano par exemple, l’ocarina conservant son accord et le piano baissant ou montant le ton selon la temperature exterieure, l’accompagnement devient impossible a moins de ramener le piano au diapason de l’ocarina.”[Ocarinas] once tuned keep a perfect tuning, without variations of temperature having any influence on them; that is very well when they are used as solo instruments, but if they are used as an accompanying instrument, with the piano for example, the ocarina keeping its tuning and the piano falling or rising in pitch according to the outside temperature, the accompaniment becomes impossible unless the piano is brought back to the ocarina’s pitch.
The tuning slide, described (French)“Ces dispositions consistent en un obturateur b qui peut etre forme soit par un cylindre creux ou plein en bois, metal ou matiere quelconque, soit par un equivalent. Il a un diametre, une longueur proportionnes a celle de l’instrument et glisse a frottement doux dans une garniture c fixee a l’ocarina et qui peut etre en liege, caoutchouc ou leurs equivalents.”These arrangements consist of an obturator b, which may be formed either by a hollow or solid cylinder of wood, metal or any material whatever, or by an equivalent. It has a diameter and a length proportioned to those of the instrument, and slides with a gentle friction in a fitting c fixed to the ocarina, which may be of cork, rubber or their equivalents.
The second improvement – the mouthpiece (French)“Un second perfectionnement consiste a appliquer une embouchure d en os, ivoire, nacre, metal, etc., en remplacement de l’embouchure en terre refractaire qui existait precedemment et qui produisait une impression desagreable sur les levres.”A second improvement consists in applying a mouthpiece d of bone, ivory, mother-of-pearl, metal and so on, in place of the refractory clay mouthpiece that existed previously and that produced a disagreeable impression on the lips.
Claim 1 (French)“En resume, je reclame comme ma propriete: 1. L’application aux ocarinas d’un cylindre, tube, obturateur, regulateur, etc., qui peut etre construit en tous metaux ou matiere, ayant un diametre et une longueur variables, glissant a frottement doux dans une [garniture].”In summary, I claim as my property: 1. The application to ocarinas of a cylinder, tube, obturator, regulator and so on, which may be constructed in any metals or material, having a variable diameter and length, sliding with a gentle friction in a [fitting].
Mezzetti’s Patent No. 2170
Recorded as: GB 2,170 of 1878
Improvements in musical instruments known as ‘ocarinas’ — ocarina · in the public record; the museum does not hold it
Mezzetti’s British application, filed for him by the London agent Edward Griffith Brewer as a communication from abroad, one day after the certificate of addition to his French brevet FR 124,164. The Music Trades Review printed it twice — in June 1878 among applications for new patents, and in July among the grants of provisional protection. The specification itself is not held: this is the published notice, not the document.
Patent plate, The Mezzetti Ocarina Tutor, page 7“THE OCARINA. MEZZETTI’S PATENT. No. 2170.”
Running head, the facing page (English and French on one line)“Mezzetti, Inventor, Patentee and Manufacturer. LONDON, PARIS AND BUDRIO (ITALY).”The French column reads “Inventeur, Breveté et Fabricant” – patentee, in his own trade description, in both languages.
The Music Trades Review’s list of applications for patents, 1878“2,170. Edward Griffith Brewer, of Chancery Laue [sic – Lane], Middlesex, for “Improvements in musical instruments known as ‘ocarinas.’” – A communication to him from abroad by Albert Louis Napoleon Mezzetti, of Paris, France, May 30, 1878.”
The same entry as page 152 prints it – the two printings differ“2,170. Edward Griffith Brewer, of Chancery Lane, Middlesex, for “Improvements in musical instruments known as ‘Ocarinas.’” A communication from Albert Louis Napoleon Mezzetti, of Paris, France, May 30.”
What would settle it: The office and the year. SEARCHED OCTOBER 1, 2026 AND NOT FOUND. (1) BRITAIN IS NOT RULED OUT, AND AN EARLIER VERSION OF THIS ROW SAID IT WAS. GB 2170 returns nothing for any year from 1875 to 1892 – but that is the DIGITIZATION FLOOR, not an absence. Google’s GB coverage begins about 1893, which this file has said all along, so a silence below the floor is exactly what a British filing of the 1870s would look like whether or not it exists. (2) WHERE GB 2170 DOES EXIST IT IS NOT AN OCARINA – 1896 is “Improvements in Coverings for Preventing the Radiation or Transmission of Heat”, 1898 “An Improved Horse’s Nose Bag”, 1903 linotype distributors, 1905 surgical probes. (3) GOOGLE INDEXES NO NINETEENTH-CENTURY MEZZETTI FILING IN ANY OFFICE: a search for the surname returns 194 documents, all modern biomedical and chemical authors, and “mezzetti ocarina” returns one Japanese patent of 2012. (4) THE BARE NUMBER IS THE ONLY REAL ARGUMENT ABOUT THE OFFICE, and it is suggestive rather than decisive. British patents restarted their numbering every year, so a British patentee advertising to the public would normally print “No. 2170 of 1878”; a bare number leans toward a registry where the number alone identifies. It is a convention, and makers break conventions. FRANCE IS THE STRONGEST CANDIDATE on independent grounds – the medals read PARIS 1875 and PARIS 1879, the Stearns instrument is signed “a Paris”, and the firm’s own running head reads LONDON, PARIS AND BUDRIO. (5) THE INDEXES THAT WOULD SETTLE IT ALL REFUSE AUTOMATED REQUESTS: Espacenet, Gallica and INPI each returned HTTP 403, the same obstacle that made DE 16,668 a human job. The Internet Archive holds the UK “Abridgments of specifications” series but no music or musical instruments volume. SO THIS IS A BROWSER JOB. ZIJUN SEARCHED INPI FOR “Mezzetti 2170” AND GOT NOTHING, October 1, 2026 – but that query has two problems and the result should not be read as a negative yet. First, INPI’s main search is modern French IP; the nineteenth-century brevets, 1791-1902, are a SEPARATELY DIGITIZED COLLECTION and have to be searched as such. Second, SEARCH THE SURNAME ALONE: these records are indexed by patentee, the number may be formatted differently, and requiring both terms to co-occur will miss a record that exists. AND SEARCH THE VARIANTS, because every third-party record the museum holds mangles this name – Metzculini at Melbourne in 1880, Mezzotti at London in 1885, Bezzetti in a Spanish catalog of 2024. A French clerk in the 1880s had no better chance than a Melbourne juror. Try Mezzetti, Mezzotti, Metzetti, Mezetti, and the given names Ercole and Alberto Napoleone. The other address is the UK Patent Office’s annual Chronological Index for 2170 of 1878 – and for 1882, because Cedroni’s unexplained “1882” keeps that year alive as a second, weaker candidate. THE BRITISH CLASS IS SECTION 26, found October 1, 2026 on the same page of Music Trades Review that prints Mezzetti’s specification. The paper writes: “In the classification of patents at our own Patent Office A SEPARATE HEADING IS GIVEN, UNDER SECTION 26, TO MUSIC AND MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS; in Germany, Class 51 is devoted to the same topic.” IT IS RIGHT ABOUT GERMANY – DE 16,668 is printed “KLASSE 51: MUSIKALISCHE INSTRUMENTE” – which is a control on the claim about Britain. SO THE TARGET IS NOT A NUMBER, IT IS A VOLUME. The UK Patent Office’s ABRIDGMENTS OF SPECIFICATIONS for Section 26, music and musical instruments, lists every British music patent of the period with its number, date, patentee and a precis. One volume answers this question and several others at once. The Internet Archive holds that series but NOT the music class, checked October 1, 2026; a library does. ZIJUN CHECKED ESPACENET, October 1, 2026: “There is no GB187802170A in Espacenet.” THAT IS NOT YET A NEGATIVE, AND THE CONTROL IS THE REASON. Google Patents was tested the same day across the whole of 1878 – numbers 1, 500, 1000, 2000, 2170, 3000, 4000 and 5000 – AND HOLDS NOT ONE OF THEM. It holds no GB 1878 patent at any number, so its silence about 2170 says nothing. Worse, the positive control shows the coverage is PATCHY WHERE IT EXISTS: GB 1 of 1895 is there and GB 2170 of 1895 is not. AND A SECOND CONTROL CONFIRMS IT FROM THE OTHER DIRECTION. Espacenet was searched for the NAME rather than the number, October 1, 2026, and GB189607088A came back as the oldest Mezzetti record it holds. So Espacenet’s earliest document for this man is 1896 – although INPI holds five French filings by him running from 1878 to 1898, and this registry now carries all five. ESPACENET IS THEREFORE MISSING THE NINETEENTH-CENTURY FRENCH BREVETS AS WELL AS THE OLD BRITISH ONES, which is exactly why INPI keeps a separate historical archive and why that archive answered in an afternoon what Espacenet could not. TWO INDEXES, TWO CONTROLS, ONE CONCLUSION: neither Google Patents nor Espacenet reaches 1878 in Britain, so NEITHER CAN SAY ANYTHING ABOUT No. 2170 in either direction. THE CONTROL WAS RUN AND IT FAILED, October 1, 2026: Espacenet holds no GB187800001A either. So it returns nothing for the FIRST British patent of 1878 either, and its silence about 2170 is the digitization floor – or a wrong number format for the old series – and NOT an absence. EITHER WAY NO NEGATIVE IS AVAILABLE. The control did its job: it stopped a false negative being recorded, which is the whole reason the rule exists. NO FREE ONLINE INDEX REACHED SO FAR CARRIES BRITISH PATENTS OF 1878. Google holds none at any number; Espacenet holds neither number 1 nor 2170. The original instruction, kept because it still describes what to do if a different index is tried: SO THE SAME CONTROL HAS TO BE RUN ON ESPACENET before its silence counts: look up any GB number of 1878 that certainly exists. If Espacenet returns nothing for those either, the 2170 result is the digitization floor again and not an absence. This is the museum’s own four-part negative test, which it has applied to trade catalogs all year, applied to a patent index. A SECOND READING OF THE NEGATIVE, IF THE CONTROL PASSES: that 2170 is not British at all. The specification was printed in a LONDON trade paper, but that paper also reports French brevets on the same page, and Mezzetti was a Paris filer with a Paris agent. AND A TESTABLE ALIGNMENT. British numbers ran within the year, so 2170’s position fixes an approximate date once the year’s total is known – and MEZZETTI’S FRENCH CERTIFICAT D’ADDITION IS 29 MAY 1878. A man adding to his French filing in late May 1878 filing in Britain within days is exactly what a bare “No. 2170” on his own advertising would then mean. NOT ASSERTED: the year’s total is not known here, and the arithmetic has not been done against a real figure. The Chronological Index for 1878 gives both the total and the date, which is one more reason that volume is the target. AND THE SPECIFICATION’S TEXT IS ALREADY HELD, which changes what is actually missing. Music Trades Review printed it in full in January 1879 – see research/notes/MUSIC-TRADES-REVIEW.md. The museum does not need the document to know what Mezzetti claimed. IT NEEDS THE NUMBER AND THE DATE, to tie the specification to the “No. 2170” on his own patent plate. SEARCHED FURTHER, October 1, 2026, AND STILL NOT FOUND. (a) ZIJUN SEARCHED 2170 ON INPI AND GOT BREVETS, BUT NOTHING OF THE RIGHT ERA – so the number search works there and returns nothing from the 1870s or 1880s. Not decisive, because it is not established that INPI’s general search reaches the separately digitized nineteenth-century collection. (b) THE UK ANNUAL INDEX FOR 1871 WAS DOWNLOADED AND SEARCHED IN FULL – Woodcroft’s Alphabetical Index of Patentees, 2.4 MB of text, which lists every patentee of the year with number, date and subject. NO MEZZETTI IN ANY SPELLING AND NO OCARINA, with the control passing at 67 hits for “musical”. A clean negative for 1871 by this museum’s own four-part test. (c) THE INTERNET ARCHIVE DOES NOT HOLD THE 1880s VOLUMES of that series. It runs to about 1871 and then stops, so the year that matters cannot be reached this way. (d) GB 2170 EXISTS on Google for 1896, 1898 and 1902 through 1910; the four with readable titles are heat coverings, a horse’s nose bag, linotype distributors and surgical probes, and anything after about 1900 is too late to be advertised in this tutor anyway. WHAT IS LEFT IS SPECIALIST: the British Library or the IPO for pre-1893 GB, INPI’s nineteenth-century brevet collection searched as that collection, and JACK CAMPIN’S SCAN – which is better than the museum’s and may carry a year or an office beside the number that this copy loses. THE FRENCH COLLECTION HAS AN ADDRESS, FOUND October 1, 2026, AND IT IS NOT data.inpi.fr. The nineteenth-century material is at bases-brevets19e.inpi.fr – “Archives historiques de l’INPI” – which is a separate site from the data.inpi.fr portal, and that is very likely why a search there returned modern brevets and nothing of the period. It offers: /brevets for BREVETS D’INVENTION 1791-1901, which is exactly the range this question needs; /recherche/tutoriel for how to search it; /demande-de-reproduction to order a copy; and /demande-de-consultation to read on site. AND IT CARRIES A SECOND REGISTER NOBODY HERE HAD THOUGHT OF: /recherche/marque-de-1857-a-1920, MARQUES DE FABRIQUE ET DE COMMERCE, 1857-1920. Mezzetti’s own tutor lists “The stamp MEZZETTI” as the FIRST of five marks of a genuine instrument, and Fiehn registered his Sydney roundel as a Schutzmarke – so a French trade mark registration is a real possibility for either maker, and it is a different question from the patent with its own index. A METHOD NOTE ON WHY GOOGLE CANNOT ANSWER THIS. Asked for FR 2170 in four number formats Google Patents returned a page for every one – and also for FR 1000, FR 100000 and FR 300000, which were tried as controls. It serves a shell for any plausible identifier, so “the page exists” means nothing there and none of those pages carries any metadata. The control is the only reason that was not read as four hits.
GB 1,605 of 1878
Improvements in the manufacture of musical instruments called ‘Ocarina,’ and in machinery connected therewith — a device for ocarinas · in the public record; the museum does not hold it
Fiehn’s British application, with a partner the museum had never heard of: Eduard Witte, merchant, of Vienna. It claims the manufacture and the machinery rather than the instrument — the same subject as FR 121,675, and what DE 16,668 opens by describing — so the sequence is France, Belgium, then Britain in five months. It is printed under provisional protection, so whether a complete specification followed is a separate question. Music Trades Review, London, 1878, pages 116 and 152
Music Trades Review, 1878, under PROVISIONAL PROTECTION FOR SIX MONTHS“1,605. Henry Fiehn, Manufacturer of Musical Instruments, and Eduard Witte, Merchant, both of Vienna, Austria, for “Improvements in the manufacture of musical instruments called ‘Ocarina,’ and in machinery connected therewith,” April 20.”
What would settle it: The UK Patent Office’s Chronological Index for 1878 says whether 1,605 proceeded to a complete specification, and the Abridgments of Specifications for Section 26, music and musical instruments, prints the precis if it did. Both are library volumes. No free index reaches British patents of 1878: Google Patents returns HTTP 404 for GB187801605A and for GB187802170A, and holds no GB 1878 document at any of eight numbers probed.
BE 44,804
A machine for making the musical instruments called ‘ocarina’ — a device for ocarinas · in the public record; the museum does not hold it
The third country Fiehn took the same machine into, and the entry names its own parent: “French patent, Dec. 18, 1877”, which is FR 121,675 on this page, held and read. So the content is probably already in hand; what the Belgian document would add is whether anything was changed for Belgium. Three offices in five months — France, Belgium, Britain — before his German patent of 1881. Music Trades Review, London, 1878, page 134
Music Trades Review, 1878, page 134, under BELGIUM“BELGIUM. – 44,804. H. Fiehn, for “A machine for making the musical instruments called ‘ocarina,’” April 8, 1878, French patent, Dec. 18, 1877.”
What would settle it: The Belgian record. Belgium’s historical brevets are not in the free indexes the museum uses: Google Patents returns HTTP 404 for BE44804A – and the control passes, so that is the digitisation floor and not an absence. BE 900,000 returns a record while BE 100,000 and BE 500,000 do not, which puts Google’s Belgian floor somewhere in the high hundreds of thousands, far above an 1878 number. The addresses are the Royal Library of Belgium and the Belgian intellectual property office, which published the Recueil officiel des brevets d’invention.
1880s
DE 16,668
Musikinstrument – an ocarina in baked clay, with a tuning slide — ocarina
Three of the four claims are lines he went on to sell. C. Bruno & Son of New York, wholesaling Fiehn’s range in 1890, prints exactly three lines above the plain one: a tuning-slide line at 103-108 1/2, a keyed line at 203-206, and an ivory-mouthpiece line at 303-306 — claims 4, 1 and 3, nine years later. The filing is German rather than Austrian, although Fiehn worked in Vienna; why, the document does not say. The Ocarina Workshop wrote in 2019 that Fiehn registered a patent in 1881 to rival Mezzetti’s tuning slide, with no number and no office. This is it: the face reads “Patentirt im Deutschen Reiche vom 15. Maerz 1881 ab”.
Face of the specification (German)“KAISERLICHES PATENTAMT. PATENTSCHRIFT No. 16668. KLASSE 51: MUSIKALISCHE INSTRUMENTE. H. FIEHN IN WIEN. Musikinstrument. Patentirt im Deutschen Reiche vom 15. Maerz 1881 ab.”Imperial Patent Office. Patent specification No. 16668. Class 51: Musical Instruments. H. Fiehn in Vienna. Musical instrument. Patented in the German Reich from March 15, 1881.
Opening sentence (German)“Die Neuerungen betreffen die unter dem Namen Ocarinas bekannten Instrumente, welche aus plastischem Thon oder anderem, sich erhaertenden Material mit Huelfe einer Excenterpresse und besonders construirter Formen hergestellt werden.”The improvements concern the instruments known by the name of ocarinas, which are produced from plastic clay or other hardening material with the help of an eccentric press and specially constructed molds.
On the tuning slide (German)“Der aus Metall verfertigte Stimmzug A B ermoeglicht, den Hohlraum des Instruments zu vergroessern oder zu verkleinern, wodurch der Ton hoeher oder tiefer zur Ansprache kommt und man in den Stand gesetzt wird, das Instrument mit jedem beliebigen anderen in Harmonie zu bringen.”The tuning slide A B, made of metal, makes it possible to enlarge or reduce the cavity of the instrument, by which the note sounds higher or lower, and one is put in a position to bring the instrument into harmony with any other whatever.
Patent claims, complete (German)“PATENT-ANSPRUECHE: Ein Musikinstrument in der dargestellten Form aus gebranntem Thon oder anderen erhaertenden Massen, welches gekennzeichnet ist durch: 1. Die Anordnung der in der Zeichnung mit fis und g bezeichneten Klappen zur Vermehrung des Umfanges und zur Erreichung der reinen Intonation der Kreuz- und B-Tonarten. 2. Die Anbringung von Ringen in dem Mundloch und in den Tonloechern zum Zweck des leichteren Abschliessens. 3. Die Anordnung eines in die Einblaseoeffnung eingesetzten Mundstueckes. 4. Die Anordnung des Stimmzuges A B zum Zweck der Veraenderung der Tonlage des Instrumentes.”Patent claims: A musical instrument in the form shown, of fired clay or other hardening masses, characterised by: 1. The arrangement of the keys marked f-sharp and g in the drawing, to extend the compass and to achieve true intonation in the sharp and flat keys. 2. The fitting of rings in the mouth hole and in the toneholes, for the purpose of closing them more easily. 3. The arrangement of a mouthpiece set into the blowing opening. 4. The arrangement of the tuning slide A B, for the purpose of altering the pitch of the instrument.
What would settle it: Whether Mezzetti ever filed, and when. Alberto Napoleone Mezzetti exhibited “The Improved Ocarina with tuning slide” at the International Inventions Exhibition in London in 1885, and his own tutor says he invented the slide, but no filing has been found. Google’s British coverage begins about 1892 and French about 1902, so a filing of the 1870s or 1880s would sit below the digitization floor rather than be absent.
FR 149,743
manufacture of a conical or cylindrical metal flute, called the young musician’s favourite – fabrication d’une flute metallique de forme conique ou cylindrique, dite la favorite du jeune musicien — not an ocarina
On this page because of the maker, not the instrument. Its own title calls it a flute: “flûte métallique de forme conique ou cylindrique, dite la favorite du jeune musicien”. Judging from the drawings it is close to the later ocariflute, which is the same maker’s instrument, and the two may belong to one line of work — but the text says flute and nothing more. The plate is signed “Nouzon, le 28 Juin 1882. Charles Mathieu”, the first name the register withheld, in his own hand and eight years before he appears in Paris. INPI, Archives historiques
The signature on the drawing plate (French)“Echelle variable. […] Nouzon, le 28 Juin 1882. Charles Mathieu.”Variable scale. […] Nouzon, June 28, 1882. Charles Mathieu.
What would settle it: A first name on the grant, which would join this Nouzon filing to the Paris ones or separate them.
FR 170,367
a new ocarina for concerts, with a double octave – nouvelle ocarine pour concerts, à double octave — ocarina
Two chambers with a switch between them. A for the low octave and B for the high, their branches meeting at one external orifice; two keys on a single rod pivoting at o, held by a return spring, and a finger spatula to work it. Each chamber keeps its own tuning piston, so the instrument has two slides and a switch, not one in place of the other. The wind goes to one chamber or the other, which extends range rather than sounding harmony. The claim covers two or more chambers, with or without the pistons. The museum learned of this filing from Claudio Cedroni’s “Il Settimino di ocarine”, which gives July 1885 and a double octave but no number and no country. INPI, Archives historiques, brevets d’invention 1791-1901
The two chambers, and the single outlet (French)“L’ocarine affecte la forme ordinaire, et elle comporte deux chambres A et B, la grande chambre A qui correspond aux notes de l’octave basse, et la petite chambre B qui correspond aux notes de l’octave élevée. Dans ces chambres débouchent les branchements C et D qui se rejoignent à un orifice unique O.”The ocarina takes the ordinary form, and it has two chambers A and B: the large chamber A, which corresponds to the notes of the low octave, and the small chamber B, which corresponds to the notes of the high octave. Into these chambers open the branches C and D, which rejoin at a single orifice O.
The switch – two keys on one sprung rod, worked by a finger spatula (French)“Le vent arrive dans une chambre ou dans l’autre suivant qu’on ouvre l’une ou l’autre des clefs a et b; ces deux clefs sont solidaires de la même tige c oscillant en o, avec un ressort de rappel d; on peut agir avec le doigt sur la spatule e qui est solidaire de la tige c.”The wind arrives in one chamber or in the other according to which of the keys a and b is opened; these two keys are fixed to the same rod c, pivoting at o, with a return spring d; the player acts with the finger on the spatula e, which is fixed to the rod c.
Each chamber has its own tuning piston (French)“Chacune des deux chambres est pourvue d’un piston qu’on peut enfoncer plus ou moins pour varier le ton; je puis établir d’après le même système des ocarines sans pistons.”Each of the two chambers is fitted with a piston that can be pushed in more or less to vary the pitch; I can also build ocarinas on the same system without pistons.
The claim, complete (French)“Je revendique, comme mon invention, la nouvelle ocarine à deux ou plusieurs chambres, avec ou sans pistons mobiles, l’une ou l’autre de ces chambres recevant à volonté le vent par l’un ou l’autre des branchements qui aboutissent à un trou extérieur unique, les branchements étant fermés par des clefs que manoeuvre l’exécutant. PARIS, le 28 Juillet 1885. P. Pon de Mr Mezzetti.”I claim, as my invention, the new ocarina of two or more chambers, with or without movable pistons, one or the other of these chambers receiving the wind at will through one or the other of the branches which end at a single external hole, the branches being closed by keys that the player operates. Paris, July 28, 1885. By proxy for Mr Mezzetti.
What would settle it: Whether any instrument built to this design survives. A two- chamber ocarina with a sprung key switching the wind between them is distinctive enough to recognize.
1890s
FR 209,823
a metal whistle system for flutes, flageolets and cane-flutes – systeme de sifflet metallique pour flutes, flageolets, cannes-flutes — a device for ocarinas
A stamped metal fipple soldered into the body from above: a capsule with a flat left in its rim facing the slot, closing the windway. The claim is the whistle alone, applied to metal flutes “sous quelque forme qu’elles se présentent”. Cannes-flutes are named in the text five months before FR 212,700 claims ocarinas as handles on canes, and the Library of Congress holds that walking stick. INPI, Archives historiques
The whistle itself (French)“[…] le sifflet a dont il s’agit est embouti pour presenter la forme generale d’une capsule sauf sur le devant ou je menage un meplat b forme d’une partie du bord de la capsule qui se trouve a cet endroit plus eleve et incline de dehors en dedans. Ce sifflet ainsi obtenu est introduit dans le corps de la flute par le haut puis soude par ses bords, le meplat b en regard de la fente c, ce qui ferme ainsi le conduit a air d.”[…] the whistle a in question is stamped so as to present the general form of a capsule, except at the front where I leave a flat b, formed from a part of the capsule’s rim which at that place is raised and inclined from outside inwards. The whistle so obtained is introduced into the body of the flute from above and then soldered along its edges, the flat b facing the slot c, which thus closes the air duct d.
And it is for cane-flutes too (French)“La disposition reste la meme pour les flageolets, les cannes-flutes, etc., mais je me reserve d’etablir mon sifflet de tout metal et de toutes dimensions, suivant le genre ou la disposition des flutes auxquelles il peut etre applique. En Resume, je revendique comme ma propriete entiere et exclusive l’application aux flutes metalliques, sous quelque forme qu’elles se presentent et a tous autres instruments de meme genre, d’un sifflet egalement metallique […] PAR PROCURATION DE M. MATHIEU, PARIS, LE 27 Novembre 1890.”The arrangement stays the same for flageolets, cane-flutes and so on, but I reserve the right to make my whistle of any metal and of any dimensions, according to the kind or the layout of the flutes to which it may be applied. In summary, I claim as my entire and exclusive property the application, to metal flutes in whatever form they present themselves and to all other instruments of the same kind, of a whistle likewise of metal […] By procuration of Mr Mathieu, Paris, November 27, 1890.
FR 212,700
a new kind of metallic ocarina and its various applications – nouveau genre d’ocarine metallique et ses diverses applications — ocarina
Mathieu’s metal ocarina, seven years before Mezzetti’s. The Library of Congress holds two instruments marked CH. MATHIEU / PARIS, one nickel-plated and one a walking stick whose handle is a metal ocarina — which is what “ses diverses applications” means in the title. The memoir is written on a patent agency’s letterhead and signed by the agent, so the address INPI prints is Chassevent’s office and not Mathieu’s. INPI, Archives historiques, brevets d’invention 1791-1901
INPI register entry, dossier 1BB212700 (French)“nouveau genre d’ocarine metallique et ses diverses applications”a new kind of metallic ocarina and its various applications
Face of the memoir (French)“ORIGINAL 212,700. Memoire Descriptif depose a l’appui de la Demande d’un Brevet d’Invention de 15 ans formee par M. Charles Mathieu pour: “Nouveau genre d’ocarine metallique et ses diverses applications.””Original 212,700. Descriptive memoir filed in support of the application for a patent of invention of 15 years made by Mr Charles Mathieu for: “A new kind of metallic ocarina and its various applications.”
The invention, in one sentence (French)“Mon invention a pour objet un nouveau genre d’ocarine qui est faite en metal fondu ou estampe, au lieu d’etre faite en terre comme cela a eu lieu jusqu’a present.”My invention has for its object a new kind of ocarina which is made of cast or stamped metal, instead of being made of clay as has been the case up to now.
Why metal – the same complaint four other patents here make (French)“Cette application du metal a la confection des ocarines a pour consequence l’obtention facile d’instruments tous identiques et bien regles, si le moule est convenablement etudie, resultat qu’on ne pouvait obtenir jusqu’a present par le procede de fabrication ordinaire au moyen de la terre. En outre, le metal donne des sons d’une qualite beaucoup plus belle que la terre.”This application of metal to the making of ocarinas has as its consequence the easy obtaining of instruments all identical and well in tune, if the mould is suitably worked out – a result that could not until now be obtained by the ordinary process of manufacture in clay. Moreover, metal gives sounds of a far finer quality than clay.
It plays like an ordinary one (French)“Les ocarines metalliques qui constituent mon invention possedent les memes trous et se jouent de la meme maniere que les ocarines ordinaires en terre; ils peuvent etre ornes de toute maniere quelconque et porter des dessins obtenus a la fonte, a l’estampage ou par gravure ou tout autre procede.”The metallic ocarinas that constitute my invention have the same holes and are played in the same manner as ordinary clay ocarinas; they may be ornamented in any manner whatever and carry designs obtained by casting, by stamping, by engraving or any other process.
The walking stick, in the patent’s own words (French)“Par exemple, je me reserve d’appliquer mes ocarines metalliques comme poignees sur les manches de parapluies, de cannes, d’ombrelles, de cravaches, de fouets et generalement comme poignees sur tous articles quelconques, de fantaisie ou autres. L’ocarine peut d’ailleurs, en conservant interieurement sa forme ordinaire, recevoir exterieurement des formes diverses, de maniere a representer par exemple, des oiseaux, des animaux ou des sujets quelconques.”For example, I reserve the right to apply my metallic ocarinas as handles on the shafts of umbrellas, canes, parasols, riding crops, whips, and generally as handles on any articles whatever, fancy goods or others. The ocarina may moreover, keeping its ordinary form within, take various forms without, so as to represent for example birds, animals or any subjects whatever.
The claims, entire (French)“EN RESUME, Je revendique par la presente demande de brevet: 1. A titre de produit industriel nouveau, une ocarine faite en metal fondu ou estampe, en principe comme decrit ci-dessus. 2. L’application des ocarines metalliques comme poignees sur les manches de cannes, parapluies, ombrelles, cravaches, fouets, et tous autres articles de fantaisie; en principe comme cela a ete expose plus haut. PAR PROCURATION DE M. MATHIEU, PARIS, LE 11 Avril 1891. [signed] CHASSEVENT.”In summary, I claim by the present application for a patent: 1. As a new industrial product, an ocarina made of cast or stamped metal, substantially as described above. 2. The application of metallic ocarinas as handles on the shafts of canes, umbrellas, parasols, riding crops, whips, and all other fancy articles; substantially as set out above. By procuration of Mr Mathieu, Paris, April 11, 1891. [signed] Chassevent.
What would settle it: Whether the figures match the two Mathieu instruments at the Library of Congress, which would tie the patent to surviving objects.
FR 217,002
an ocarina in cellulose or hardened rubber – ocarina en cellulose ou en caoutchouc durci — ocarina
A single claim: an ocarina in celluloid or hardened rubber, to increase its strength “sans par cela changer le timbre” against one made of fired clay — the objection answered before it is made. Signed for M. A. Detmering, who writes ocarina where Mezzetti’s agents write ocarine. Synthetic materials, patented in Paris in 1891, eleven years before Birk’s wood-pulp in Britain. The dossier is the worst photographed of the sixteen. INPI, Archives historiques, brevets d’invention 1791-1901
INPI register entry, dossier 1BB217002 (French)“ocarina en cellulose ou en caoutchouc durci”an ocarina in cellulose or hardened rubber
The claim, entire – it is one sentence (French)“Revendication: Une ocarina faite en celluloid ou en caoutchouc durci pour augmenter la solidite, sans par cela changer le timbre de l’instrument par rapport a celles faites en terre cuite. Paris, le 26 Octobre 1891. Par procuration de Mr A. Detmering.”Claim: An ocarina made of celluloid or of hardened rubber, to increase its solidity, without thereby changing the timbre of the instrument as against those made of fired clay. Paris, October 26, 1891. By procuration of Mr A. Detmering.
What would settle it: Who A. Detmering was. He appears nowhere else in the museum’s records.
FR 211,471
improvements to the musical instruments called ocarinas – perfectionnements aux instruments musicaux dits ocarinas — ocarina
Claim 3 applies a reed to an ocarina. Claim 4 is a curved tubular mouthpiece mounted so that it turns, changing its position relative to the instrument. Claim 1 covers bodies of wood, ivory, vulcanite or ebonite. The construction is four parts: a hollow cone, a lid with a concave base, a piston, and the mouthpiece. Signed for A. N. Mezzetti. Cedroni’s book pointed here, giving 1891 for a Mezzetti tuning slide; the year is right, and the number he prints, 1882, matches nothing in this filing. INPI, Archives historiques, brevets d’invention 1791-1901
INPI register entry, dossier 1BB211471 (French)“perfectionnements aux instruments musicaux dits ocarinas”improvements to the musical instruments called ocarinas
Claim 1 – the materials and the four parts (French)“Revendications. 1. La construction et l’emploi d’ocarinas faits en bois, ivoire, vulcanite, ebonite ou une matiere de meme nature, ou la combinaison d’une, de deux ou de trois parties, consistant en un cone creux, un couvercle a base concave, un piston et une embouchure, comme il est decrit en substance et represente aux dessins ci-joints.”Claims. 1. The construction and use of ocarinas made of wood, ivory, vulcanite, ebonite or a material of the same nature, or the combination of one, two or three parts, consisting of a hollow cone, a lid with a concave base, a piston and a mouthpiece, substantially as described and as shown in the accompanying drawings.
Claim 2 – an added key (French)“2. Dans les ocarinas faits d’une des matieres citees, ou d’une combinaison de ces matieres, l’application d’une clef additionnelle ou supplementaire a, comme il est decrit en substance et dans le but expose.”2. In ocarinas made of one of the materials named, or of a combination of those materials, the application of an additional or supplementary key a, substantially as described and for the purpose set out.
Claim 3 – a reed (French)“3. Aux ocarinas l’application d’une anche H, comme il est expose en substance.”3. To ocarinas, the application of a reed H, substantially as set out.
Claim 4 – the mouthpiece that turns (French)“4. Dans les ocarinas l’embouchure de forme tubulaire courbee, disposee de maniere a pouvoir tourner et a permettre d’en changer la position par rapport a l’instrument, comme il est decrit en substance et represente par les figs 6 et 7 des plans.”4. In ocarinas, the mouthpiece of curved tubular form, arranged so that it can turn and so allow its position relative to the instrument to be changed, substantially as described and as shown by figures 6 and 7 of the drawings.
Claim 5, and the signature (French)“5. Dans les ocarinas, les embouchures C quand elles sont combinees, arrangees et appliquees, comme il est decrit en substance et represente aux dessins ci-joints. […] P. P.on de Monsieur A. N. Mezzetti, le 17 Fevrier 1891. Bletry aine et Morel.”5. In ocarinas, the mouthpieces C when combined, arranged and applied, substantially as described and as shown in the accompanying drawings. […] By procuration of Mr A. N. Mezzetti, February 17, 1891. Bletry aine and Morel.
What would settle it: What the reed of claim 3 was, and whether any surviving Mezzetti shows one.
US D20,998
Design for a musical instrument — cannot be told from the text
An 1891 design patent sitting in the ocarina classes, though the specification never uses the word: it says “toy cuckoo”, and describes flute-holes in an ovoid body with a vent near the mouthpiece. Two examiners seventy and a hundred and nineteen years apart put it in front of ocarina applications — Johnson in 1974, Dietrich in 2010. What it is as an instrument needs the sheet in hand, so the verdict stays unknown.
Face of the specification“UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE. JOHN CALVIN LITZELLE, OF ROCKFORD, ILLINOIS. DESIGN FOR A MUSICAL INSTRUMENT. SPECIFICATION forming part of Design No. 20,998, dated August 18, 1891. Application filed June 15, 1891. Serial No. 396,377. Term of patent 14 years.”
What the inventor calls it“In the drawing the figure is a perspective view of my newly-designed musical instrument, otherwise called a “toy cuckoo.””
The body, in the inventor’s words“The body 1 of the instrument is approximately ovoid in form. The end or mouthpiece 2 is contracted at the sides thereof, and at 3, just in front of the vent 4, it is raised slightly above the level of the body. On the under side, below the mouth, it is curved downwardly at 5, but less abruptly than at the sides of the body. At the opposite end, and just beyond the flute-holes 6, the body contracts rapidly and has an upwardly-curved terminal 7, extending above the general level of the toy. The general appearance of this part of the design is something like that of a bird. 8 denotes a circular pedestal having a similarly-formed foot 9.”
The claim“I claim – The design for a musical instrument herein shown and described, consisting of the ovoid body 1, the raised head 2, the upwardly and laterally curved terminal, and the pedestal.”
FR 220,556
improvements in the manufacture of ocarinas – perfectionnements dans la fabrication des ocarines — ocarina
The first improvement is a tone, not a hole: the instrument gives “un ton de plus que l’ocarine ordinaire. L’ocarine donne ainsi 12 tons au lieu de 11” — twelve tones where the ordinary gives eleven. Then a body of two metal shells over a core, or without one, soldered, in any metal including white metal; and a kiln- fired enamel to improve the look, particularly of the clay ones. The two-shell construction is here six years before FR 279,380 works out how to fit a tuning pump to it. The register gives his trade as fabricant d’armes, recorded as printed. INPI, Archives historiques, brevets d’invention 1791-1901
INPI register entry, dossier 1BB220556 (French)“perfectionnements dans la fabrication des ocarines”improvements in the manufacture of ocarinas
Twelve tones instead of eleven“[…] ensemble donnent un ton de plus que dans l’ocarine ordinaire. L’ocarine donne ainsi 12 tons au lieu de 11.”
Two metal shells, soldered“J’etablis les ocarines en metal en deux coquilles, avec un bon noyau, avec le profil qu’on voit bien figs 3, 4 et 5. Ces deux coquilles etant rapprochees, on les reunit par soudure. On peut employer tous metaux, l’etain, le metal blanc, ou autre.”
And a baked enamel finish“Enfin, pour augmenter l’aspect decoratif exterieur des ocarines et en particulier des ocarines entieres, je les recouvre d’un email cuit au four; cet email, dont la couleur peut varier, donne a l’ocarine un aspect metallique. Tels sont les perfectionnements que j’ai apportes aux ocarines et dont je revendique la propriete par la presente demande de brevet. PARIS, LE 31 MARS 92. P.P.on DE M. MEZZETTI.”
FR 225,474
a system of flute or flageolet in cast metal – systeme de flute ou flageolet en metal fondu — not an ocarina
A flute, not an ocarina, and it is here for the material. Mathieu claims the process rather than a shape: the system “caractérisé en principe par l’application du métal fondu, et par suite des procédés de moulage usités”. He argues for casting on tone — “des sons plus nets, plus francs et surtout plus accentués” — the same case he makes for metal ocarinas eighteen months earlier. INPI, Archives historiques
What cast metal does to the tone, and the claim (French)“[…] fondu, me permet de plus d’en obtenir des sons plus nets, plus francs et surtout plus accentues. Je me reserve tout specialement l’emploi de cette fabrication pour les flutes a trous ou a becs en sifflet, ainsi qu’aux flageolets, quel que soit d’ailleurs leur genre d’embouchure. En resume, je revendique par la presente demande de Brevet, comme ma propriete entiere et exclusive, le systeme de flute ou flageolet, caracterise en principe par l’application du metal fondu, et par suite des procedes de moulage usites pour la fabrication de ces instruments. Par Procuration de M. Mathieu, Paris, le 7 Novembre 1892.”[…] cast, allows me moreover to obtain from it sounds that are cleaner, franker and above all more accented. I reserve most especially the use of this manufacture for flutes with holes or with whistle beaks, and likewise for flageolets, whatever their kind of mouthpiece. In summary, I claim by the present application for a patent, as my entire and exclusive property, the system of flute or flageolet characterized in principle by the application of cast metal, and consequently by the moulding processes used for making these instruments. By procuration of Mr Mathieu, Paris, November 7, 1892.
FR 234,095
improvements in the manufacture of the musical instruments called ocarinas – perfectionnements dans la fabrication des instruments de musique denommes ocarinas — ocarina
Roda wraps a clay body in celluloid, or replaces the clay altogether with celluloid or with rag-paper pulp pressed under hydraulic pressure, so that the instrument survives a knock. His claim word is “incassables” — unbreakable — and R. S. Williams of Toronto sold the result in 1911 as “earthen ocarinas covered with white celluloid making them indestructible”. The memoir is signed for M. E. Roda; that the E is Ercole is probable and not established. INPI, Archives historiques, brevets d’invention 1791-1901
INPI register entry, dossier 1BB234095 (French)“perfectionnements dans la fabrication des instruments de musique denommes ocarinas”improvements in the manufacture of the musical instruments called ocarinas
The celluloid cushion – what Williams later sold (French)“[…] j’ai represente a titre d’exemple dans le dessin ci-annexe une ocarina de petites dimensions dont le corps en produits ceramiques, comme de la terre de pipe, est enveloppe d’un revetement en celluloid pour former un coussin flexible qui protege le corps fragile de l’ocarina contre les chocs.”[…] I have shown by way of example in the annexed drawing a small ocarina whose body, of ceramic material such as pipe clay, is wrapped in a covering of celluloid to form a flexible cushion protecting the fragile body of the ocarina against shocks.
Or no clay at all (French)“[…] je prefere pour eviter tous risques de rupture remplacer dans sa fabrication le corps en terre par un corps fabrique tout entier en celluloid ou en papier comprime que je recouvre exterieurement, si besoin est, d’une couche de celluloid formant la couverte decorative de l’instrument.”[…] to avoid all risk of breakage I prefer, in making it, to replace the clay body with a body made entirely of celluloid or of compressed paper, which I cover on the outside, if need be, with a layer of celluloid forming the decorative glaze of the instrument.
And it names the tuning slide as an existing category (French)“Il demeure entendu que ce procede de fabrication peut s’appliquer a tous les genres d’ocarinas aussi bien aux diverses formes et grandeurs des ocarinas ordinaires qu’aux systemes d’ocarinas a pompe ou a tube telescopique.”It remains understood that this process of manufacture may be applied to every kind of ocarina, as much to the various forms and sizes of ordinary ocarinas as to the systems of ocarina with a pump or a telescopic tube.
The claim, entire – and the signature (French)“En Resume, je revendique par la presente demande de brevet comme ma propriete exclusive: Les divers procedes ci-dessus decrits et representes permettant de fabriquer des ocarinas en materiaux rendus incassables ou en materiaux incassables. Paris, le 15 Novembre 1893. PAR PROCURATION DE M. E. RODA. [signe] Maulvault.”In summary, I claim by the present application for a patent as my exclusive property: the various processes described and shown above, permitting the manufacture of ocarinas in materials rendered unbreakable, or in unbreakable materials. Paris, November 15, 1893. By procuration of Mr E. Roda. [signed] Maulvault.
What would settle it: Roda’s first name, which the register withholds and the memoir gives only as an initial.
FR 252,289
a celluloid flute with a metal whistle – flute en celluloid a sifflet-metal — not an ocarina
On this page because of the maker and the material. A celluloid tube, slightly conical, with a metal fipple pushed into the end; the reasons given are cost and manufacture rather than tone. The joint is the clever part — celluloid shrinks with age, “ce que tous les praticiens ont observé”, so a push-fit whistle is said to grow tighter rather than looser. Judging from the drawings it is close to the ocariflute, as FR 149,743 is. Roda claimed celluloid ocarinas in 1893, and Ullmann sold Roda’s system. INPI, Archives historiques
Why celluloid, and why a metal whistle (French)“Par mon invention, en formant le corps de la flute en celluloid et le sifflet en metal, non seulement je simplifie la fabrication, mais j’abaisse considerablement le prix de revient. En effet, le corps de flute, sans sifflet est aisement conforme et avec le moins de frais possible; d’un autre cote, le sifflet fait en metal est excessivement bon marche et de fabrication bien connue.”By my invention, in forming the body of the flute in celluloid and the whistle in metal, not only do I simplify the manufacture, but I lower the cost price considerably. The flute body without its whistle is easily shaped and at the least possible expense; on the other hand the whistle made in metal is exceedingly cheap and of well known make.
The joint tightens itself (French)“En assemblant les deux parties par emboitement, j’utilise pratiquement ce que tous les praticiens ont observe, c’est a dire la propriete que possede le celluloid de tendre constamment a diminuer dans ses dimensions, de sorte que si le sifflet est emboite dans l’extremite du corps de flute, l’assemblage sera toujours effectue d’une maniere parfaite.”In assembling the two parts by push fit, I make practical use of what every practitioner has observed – the property celluloid has of constantly tending to shrink in its dimensions – so that if the whistle is pushed into the end of the flute body, the assembly will always be perfectly made.
GB 7,088 of 1896
A New or Improved Toy or Game of Skill — not an ocarina
On this page because it is Mezzetti’s, eighteen years after his ocarina filing and through the same agents, Brewer & Son of Chancery Lane. The document settles what it is: a toy, with a transparent case, a curved guide of watch spring, a spring and trigger, and a ball or ring to be shot along the guide. Not an ocarina, and worth knowing that the man was filing toys in London in the 1890s.
Running head“No 7088. – A.D. 1896. Mezzetti’s New or Improved Toy or Game of Skill.”
What it actually is“According to my invention I provide a frame A, say of rectangular form, but without limiting myself absolutely to such shape, and with the opposite sides A1 of glass or transparent material. […] Near the lower corner of the frame and beneath the lower end of the curved guide there is arranged a spring D, with trigger E, outside the case […] K shows a cup for the ball, and H, a hook for the ring.”
The object“The object to be attained is to project the ball, ring or other device, onto the platform or hook by pressing or operating the trigger E, when not successful the projectile returns to the platform or seating B, and so on.”
Signed“Dated this 1st day of January 1897. BREWER & SON, London and Leeds, Agents for the Applicant.”
What would settle it: What the toy actually is. The specification was published 27 February 1897 and so falls inside Espacenet’s British coverage, unlike the 1878 question – so this one SHOULD be obtainable as a document, and is the cheapest test of whether Espacenet’s GB images are usable at all. If it works for 1896 it establishes the method; if the same lookup fails, that says something about the index rather than about Mezzetti.
FR 261,092
a composite flute called the multi-flute – flute composite dite multi-flute — not an ocarina
A flute in two detachable parts, body and beak, where the beak may be a recorder’s, a transverse flute’s or a flageolet’s, so that one body becomes several instruments — one of them, with the right head, played sideways. Judging from the drawings the body is FR 252,289’s with the heads changed. It is here for how it tunes: “en conservant le même bec que l’on enfonce plus ou moins dans le corps”, the sliding joint of Mezzetti’s obturateur applied to a flute. Filed by J. Ullmann alone, five years before the ocariflute. INPI, Archives historiques
The claims – one instrument that becomes several (French)“Je revendique comme mon invention et ma propriete exclusive: 1. A titre de produit industriel nouveau, un genre de flute en deux parties que je me propose de denommer “multi-flute” et qui constitue a volonte, une flute droite, une flute de cote, un flageolet ou tout autre instrument similaire, cet instrument comprenant essentiellement deux parties demontables, assemblees par emboitement […] le corps et le bec […] et le changement de ton etant rendu possible, soit en remplacant le bec rapporte sur un meme corps, soit en conservant le meme bec que l’on enfonce plus ou moins dans le corps. Paris, le 7 Novembre 1896. P.P. de Monsieur J. ULLMANN.”I claim as my invention and my exclusive property: 1. As a new industrial product, a kind of flute in two parts that I propose to call the “multi-flute”, and which constitutes at will a recorder, a transverse flute, a flageolet or any other similar instrument, consisting essentially of two detachable parts assembled by fitting together […] the body and the beak […] the change of pitch being made possible either by replacing the fitted beak on the same body, or by keeping the same beak and pushing it further or less far into the body. Paris, November 7, 1896. By procuration of Mr J. Ullmann.
FR 279,380
improvements in the manufacture of ocarinas in metal – perfectionnements dans la fabrication des ocarines en métal — ocarina
Mezzetti on metal ocarinas: two stamped copper shells soldered together, and a pompe d’accord — a threaded cap over a cork bush and a sliding tube — which he says cannot be fitted to the metal instruments made until now. Nine holes on the upper shell, two of them small and paired at D giving a semitone each, for a complete chromatic scale. His reasons for metal are weight and carriage, not tone. INPI, Archives historiques, brevets d’invention 1791-1901
INPI register entry, dossier 1BB279380 (French)“perfectionnements dans la fabrication des ocarines en métal”improvements in the manufacture of ocarinas in metal
The tuning pump, and what could not be done before (French)“[…] la capsule B qui sert a fermer le corps A de l’ocarine avec une ouverture cylindrique c a sa partie superieure. Cette couverture a un taraudage d pour recevoir et fixer une douille en liege dans laquelle peut coulisser a frottement le tube C appele pompe d’accord, ce qui ne peut se faire sur les ocarines fabriquees jusqu’a present.”[…] the cap B, which closes the body A of the ocarina, with a cylindrical opening c at its upper part. This cover has a thread d to receive and fix a cork bush in which the tube C, called the tuning pump, can slide by friction – which cannot be done on the ocarinas made up to now.
Nine holes, two of them coupled, and the chromatic scale (French)“Ces deux coquilles de forme semblable mais contraire recoivent: celle superieure 9 trous dont deux petits accouples a la note re, donnant un demi ton chaque, ce qui ne se fait pas jusqu’a present sur les ocarines en metal et qui est d’une grande utilite pour obtenir la gamme chromatique complete; la coquille inferieure a trois trous y compris le trou du sifflet.”These two shells, of similar but opposite form, receive: the upper one 9 holes, two of them small and coupled at the note D, each giving a half step – which is not done up to now on metal ocarinas, and which is of great use in obtaining the complete chromatic scale; the lower shell has three holes, including the whistle hole.
How the metal body is made (French)“L’ocarine peut aussi se faire en metal estampe […] Elle est formee par deux parties ou coquilles D E soudees ensemble. […] Ces deux coquilles peuvent etre estampees dans un metal quelconque, de preference en cuivre. […] Pour faire des ocarines en metal repousse, on forme trois parties […] Ces deux parties reunies ont la forme d’un fuseau.”The ocarina can also be made of stamped metal […] It is formed of two parts or shells D and E soldered together. […] These two shells can be stamped in any metal, preferably copper. […] To make ocarinas in repousse metal, three parts are formed […] These two parts joined together have the form of a spindle.
Why metal, in the maker’s words (French)“Cette ocarine a l’avantage d’etre tres legere ce qui est une economie pour le transport; sa grande legerete fait qu’elle ne fatigue pas les mains.”This ocarina has the advantage of being very light, which is an economy in carriage; its great lightness means that it does not tire the hands.
1900s
FR 310,679
an improved musical instrument called the ocariflute – instrument de musique perfectionne dit ocariflute — cannot be told from the text
The ocariflute, and the applicants are Charles and J. Ullmann rather than Mathieu, whose name is on the instrument at the Library of Congress. The claim explains the word: a tone midway between the flute and the ocarina, played by the ocarina method, with the mouthpiece in line with the body so that the posture is easier. Figures and note names are cast into the metal around each hole, keyed to a tutor.
The instrument, described (French)“a est l’embouchure, b le diaphragme qui forme sifflet avec l’ouverture c et d est le corps de l’instrument. Cet instrument porte huit trous sur sa face superieure et trois trous y compris celui c sur sa face inferieure. […] La longueur de l’instrument est generalement de 25 ou 26 centimetres et son plus grand diametre de 3 centimetres. L’ensemble de l’appareil est de forme ovoide, pointu et ferme a un bout et termine a l’autre bout par le bec ou embouchure.”a is the mouthpiece, b the diaphragm which forms a whistle with the opening c, and d is the body of the instrument. This instrument carries eight holes on its upper face and three holes, including c, on its lower face. […] The length of the instrument is generally 25 or 26 centimetres and its greatest diameter 3 centimetres. The whole is of an ovoid form, pointed and closed at one end and finished at the other by the beak or mouthpiece.
The numbers and note names are cast into it (French)“Autour de ces trous sont venus de fonte generalement les chiffres et les notes correspondantes a la methode pour apprendre a jouer des ocarinas.”Around these holes there are cast, as a rule, the figures and the corresponding note names belonging to the method for learning to play the ocarina.
Claim 1 – and what the name means (French)“En Resume, Nous revendiquons comme notre invention et notre propriete privative: 1. A titre de produit industriel nouveau, un instrument de musique que nous denommons “Ocariflute” et dont la sonorite nouvelle tient le milieu entre la flute et l’ocarina, lequel instrument se joue suivant la methode des ocarinas, mais presente son bec ou embouchure dans le prolongement de son corps de forme ovoide allongee, de sorte que la pose pour jouer de l’ocariflute est moins fatigante et plus gracieuse que celle de l’ocarina.”In summary, we claim as our invention and our exclusive property: 1. As a new industrial product, a musical instrument that we name “Ocariflute”, whose new sonority stands midway between the flute and the ocarina, which instrument is played by the ocarina method but presents its beak or mouthpiece in line with its elongated ovoid body, so that the posture for playing the ocariflute is less tiring and more graceful than that for the ocarina.
Claim 2 – the metal (French)“2. Le specimen d’execution de mon ocariflute en metal ou composition metallique de zinc, de plomb, d’etain de cuivre, ce qui permet de la mouler et d’obtenir avec une fabrication facile une bonne sonorite.”2. The specimen of my ocariflute in metal or in a metallic composition of zinc, lead, tin and copper, which allows it to be moulded and a good tone to be obtained with easy manufacture.
GB 190202296
Improvements in Ocarinas — ocarina
AN OCARINA PRESSED FROM WOOD-PULP, AND A TOWN THAT MATTERS. Johannes Birk gives his address as TROSSINGEN – the German instrument town, home of the harmonica trade – and describes himself as a manufacturer. His complaint is the one this registry keeps meeting: clay and porcelain ocarinas are heavy and break. His answer is compressed wood-pulp or cellulose, in two pressed parts. CELLULOSE IS NOT NEW HERE: DETMERING claimed an ocarina in cellulose or hardened rubber in France in 1891, eleven years earlier, as FR 217,002 on this page. What is new is a Trossingen maker patenting it in Britain.
Face of the specification“No 2296, A.D. 1902. Date of Application, 28th Jan., 1902 – Accepted, 10th Apr., 1902. COMPLETE SPECIFICATION. “Improvements in Ocarinas”. I, JOHANNES BIRK of Trossingen, Germany, Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention […]”
What was wrong with the ocarinas then in use“The ocarinas at present in use, which are made either of clay (earthenware) or porcelain (chinaware) have the disadvantage of being comparatively heavy and liable to break. The ocarina which forms the object of this present invention, is free from these disadvantages.”
The new material“The improvement above referred to consists in the adoption of a new material, namely wood-pulp or cellulose, out of which said parts a, b are pressed whereby the advantage is secured, that the ocarina made in this way, possesses an unlimited durability besides being very light. A further advantage is, that its tone is very clear whilst the costs of production cut of compressed wood-pulp or cellulose are exceedingly small.”
The claim, entire“Ocarina consisting of two parts a, b which are made from compressed wood-pulp or cellulose, substantially as described and for the purpose set forth.”
GB 190314428
An Improved Wind Musical Instrument Played by the Mouth — cannot be told from the text
Steinert of Freiburg in Silesia calls it a straight flute pointed at both ends, with a partition and an air outlet hole producing the sound in the well-known manner — a fipple. Eight holes and two thumb holes, which is an ocarina’s count. But the word never appears, and the claim puts a sound hole at the far end, where a closed chamber would not usually have one. Read, and it does not answer.
Face of the specification“No 14,428, A.D. 1903. Date of Application, 29th June, 1903 – Accepted, 14th Jan., 1904. COMPLETE SPECIFICATION. “An Improved Wind Musical Instrument Played by the Mouth”. I, GUSTAV STEINERT, of [address omitted], Freiburg, Silesia, in the Kingdom of Prussia and Empire of Germany, Manufacturer […]”
The shape, and the holes“My invention relates to a straight flute which is pointed at both ends, thus having the shape of a torpedo. […] At its upper side the flute has eight sound holes f arranged in a row, and at its under side there are two sound holes g in addition to the air outlet hole e. A sound hole h may be provided at the rear end of the flute.”
How it is held“In playing this flute the two sound holes g at the under side are under the action of the thumbs, and the sound holes f at the top side are designed for the eight other fingers.”
The claim, entire“A flute having both its ends pointed and one end provided with the mouth hole and the other end with a sound hole, the other sound holes being arranged in a straight line at its upper side and under side, substantially as herein set forth.”
1910s
US 1,106,249
Pitch-regulating device for ocarinas — a device for ocarinas
A tuning device made for ocarinas rather than an ocarina. Smenner’s answer to pitch was a screw – twenty-six years before Waterbury filed a pitch regulator of its own, and ninety-seven before a computer-controlled air valve.
Face of the specification“UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE. FREDERICK D. SMENNER, OF FORT WAYNE, INDIANA. PITCH-REGULATING DEVICE FOR OCARINAS. 1,106,249. Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Aug. 4, 1914. Application filed August 21, 1912. Serial No. 716,250.”
What the device is for“The invention embodies, among other features, a device particularly adaptable for use in connection with mouth instruments known as ocarinas and in the use of which it is necessary to open or close a vent in order to change the pitch of the instrument. To accomplish this result use is made of an apertured casing fitted over a vent of the instrument and having a member arranged to slide therein to close the openings in the casing, with means for adjusting the member in the casing in order that the vent may be increased or decreased for the purpose of adjusting the pitch of the instrument in connection with the pitch of some other instrument which may be played in combination or in harmony with the ocarina.”
Claim 1“A body of the character described having a vent-opening, an apertured casing on the body and encircling the vent-opening, and means movable within the casing to cover or uncover the apertures therein.”
US 1,369,381
Mold for making musical instruments — ocarina
Claims inner and outer mold members for forming a wind instrument. The document that establishes Bondi’s dates and his residence, and the starting point of the museum’s chronology of him.
Face of the specification“UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE. GUIDO BONDI, OF DAYTON, KENTUCKY. MOLD FOR MAKING MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS. 1,369,381. Specification of Letters Patent. Patented Feb. 22, 1921. Application filed September 29, 1919. Serial No. 327,098.”
Object of the invention“This invention relates to musical instruments, particularly to those of the wind actuated type, and has for its object the provision of a novel form of musical instrument and peculiarly constructed mold members for forming the same from plastic material.”
The instrument the mold makes“The instrument C will then be found to consist of a hollow body 24 of substantially torpedo shape and having a laterally extending mouth piece 25. The body will have extending through one side thereof a plurality of holes 26 of different sizes formed by the projections 19 on the inner mold member 18 and upon its other side the body will have a plurality of holes 27 formed by the projections 22 on the mold member 21. The holes 26 are adapted to be covered by the fingers of the operator and the holes 27 are adapted to be covered by the thumbs.”
On marking the instrument“It is preferable that the entire instrument be painted and it may also be advisable to have numerals and note indicia inscribed upon its surface adjacent the holes 26 and 27.”
US D55,806
Design for a doll — not an ocarina
A doll, and it is here for its assignee: “EDUARDO MALAVARCA, OF NEWARK, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO AMERICAN OCARINA & TOY CO. INC., OF NEWARK, NEW JERSEY, A CORPORATION” — an American ocarina company the museum did not have, incorporated by October 1919. The specification calls Malavarca a subject of the King of Italy resident in Newark. What the company made, and whether its ocarinas were its own or imported, is unknown.
Face of the specification“UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE. EDUARDO MALAVARCA, OF NEWARK, NEW JERSEY, ASSIGNOR TO AMERICAN OCARINA & TOY CO. INC., OF NEWARK, NEW JERSEY, A CORPORATION. DESIGN FOR A DOLL. 55,806. Specification for Design. Patented July 13, 1920. Application filed October 24, 1919. Serial No. 333,132. Term of patent 3 years.”
The whole of the text“Be it known that I, EDUARDO MALAVARCA, a subject of the King of Italy, and a resident of Newark, in the county of Essex and State of New Jersey, have invented a new, original, and ornamental Design for a Doll, of which the following is a specification, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, forming part hereof. The drawing illustrates a face view of the doll showing my new design. I claim: The ornamental design for a doll as shown.”
1920s
US 1,788,613
Wind instrument — ocarina
The Ocarina Network’s list dates this to 1931, which is the grant rather than the filing. Not yet read in full.
Face of the specification“UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE. HARRY BERNARD, OF CHAMBERSBURG, PENNSYLVANIA. WIND INSTRUMENT. Application filed June 26, 1923. Serial No. 647,895. Patented Jan. 13, 1931.”
Objects of the invention“This invention relates to improvements in lateral-vent instruments of the so-called wood wind type and ocarinas in starting an upper register at C as one of its objects. Another object of the invention is to provide an ocarina having a mechanical device for changing the size of the tone chamber whereby the tones may be quickly changed from full tones to half-tones, also to provide a vent having the same effect as “mechanical” device in nullifying a tone chamber for half-tones.”
A staff on the body, raised for the blind“A still further object of the invention is to provide an ocarina having a series of tone holes or ports with a staff formed in connection therewith in such a manner so that the hole will indicate the note in the staff. Another object of the invention is to provide an ocarina stamped from sheet metal, with integral wind-lay.”
How the staff is read“By intercalating the staff lines as raised lines between or adjacent to the vents the tones are indicated for the blind and beginners in music. As will be noted in Figure 9 the staff lines 22b are all raised in order that they may be read by the touch of a blind person, but it is intended to adopt any mode of marking the five lines of a single staff on the exterior of inst. with the holes intercalated between or on the lines as shown on the top half of Figure 2.”
On the common ocarina, and on this one“In the common type of ocarinas ten holes, in order to reach from “C” to “F”, are provided which must be manipulated with the fingers of the musician, whereas, in my instrument only five main tone holes are necessary in order to produce the full scale of chromatics by using a 6th finger or limb-motion on a vent or valve marked “Pat” flat.”
Claim 2, which settles what it is“An ocarina having a tapered body and a series of vents therein, and a vent in the larger end of the body for controlling the half tone steps of the chromatic scale while playing.”
DE 498,016
Doppelokarina – a double ocarina pressed from sheet metal — ocarina
Friedrich Stein, an engineer in Saarbrücken, makes the dividing wall and the pipe channels as separate pieces pressed from thin sheet metal, because double ocarinas formed in clay warped so badly in drying and firing that only rarely could a usable instrument be obtained. Ziegner Swanson makes the same argument in Illinois eleven years later. Whether the two chambers sound together is not stated, so this is not called a harmony ocarina.
Face of the specification (German)“DEUTSCHES REICH. AUSGEGEBEN AM 16. MAI 1930. REICHSPATENTAMT. PATENTSCHRIFT No 498016. KLASSE 51c GRUPPE 23. Dipl.-Ing. Friedrich Stein in Saarbruecken. Doppelokarina. Patentiert im Deutschen Reiche vom 5. Mai 1927 ab.”German Reich. Issued May 16, 1930. Imperial Patent Office. Patent specification No. 498016. Class 51c, Group 23. Dipl.-Ing. Friedrich Stein in Saarbruecken. Double ocarina. Patented in the German Reich from May 5, 1927.
What the invention is (German)“Die Erfindung betrifft eine Doppelokarina, deren wesentliches Merkmal darin besteht, dass die Scheidewand und die Kanalwandungen fuer die Tonerregerpfeifen oder auch gleich damit verbunden die Luftbrechkanten der Pfeifen, entweder ganz oder teilweise fuer sich hergestellt, an dem Instrument angeordnet sind.”The invention concerns a double ocarina, whose essential feature is that the dividing wall and the channel walls for the tone-generating pipes – or, joined to them, the air-splitting edges of the pipes – are made wholly or partly as separate pieces and then fitted to the instrument.
Why clay was the problem (German)“Die bekannten Doppelokarinen wurden bisher, wenn sie nicht sehr teuer werden sollten, nur aus Ton oder aehnlichen bildsamen Stoffen geformt, wobei die Luftkanaele fuer die Pfeifen in die weiche Masse vor dem Trocknen und Brennen eingestochen wurden. Die so hergestellten Instrumente veraendern sich beim Trocknen und Brennen infolge Schwindens und ungleichmaessigen Verziehens dermassen, dass nur selten ein brauchbares Instrument erzielt werden konnte.”Known double ocarinas have until now, if they were not to become very expensive, been formed only from clay or similar plastic materials, the air channels for the pipes being pricked into the soft mass before drying and firing. Instruments made in this way change so much in drying and firing, through shrinkage and uneven warping, that only rarely could a usable instrument be obtained.
What it is made of instead (German)“So koennen z. B. zwei Schalen, aus duennem Blech gepresst, die Luftraeume groesstenteils begrenzen. Die Scheidewand und die Tonerregerpfeifen lassen sich auch aus Blech pressen und am Instrument anbringen. Durch die Formbestaendigkeit der Einzelteile ist eine stets gleichmaessige Stimmung gewaehrleistet.”Thus, for example, two shells pressed from thin sheet metal can bound most of the air spaces. The dividing wall and the tone-generating pipes can likewise be pressed from sheet metal and fitted to the instrument. Because the individual parts hold their shape, a consistently even tuning is assured.
What would settle it: Whether any instrument survives. A double ocarina pressed from sheet metal in 1927 would be recognizable.
1930s
US D86,705
Design for a cover plate for musical instruments — not an ocarina
NOT AN OCARINA AND NOT ABOUT ONE. Cited by Liao’s US 6,255,570 at D17/13, which is a vessel flute with a hinged cap, so the citation is about the cover and not the instrument. Recorded to close the citation off rather than leave it looking like a lead.
US D97,852
Design for a toy dog — cannot be told from the text
A TOY DOG, AND THE ONLY PATENT CITED AGAINST ALL FOUR FRAZEUR OCARINA DESIGNS of 1947. Whether the examiner meant it as a shape or as an instrument the document does not say, and the title does not settle it: a figural whistle can be patented as a toy. What the drawing shows is for a reader with the sheet in front of them.
US 2,194,332
Musical instrument — ocarina
Titled only “Musical instrument”, but the first claim says what it is: “A musical instrument of the ocarina type, comprising a series of flat, superimposed sections secured tightly together” — a chamber built by lamination rather than by molding. Sumner assigned a third each to Lawrence H. McEwen and Iner Oliver Engebretson, so an index printing one other name is printing an assignee. Not the John S. Sumner of the Potato Bugs.
Face of the specification“UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,194,332 MUSICAL INSTRUMENT John S. Sumner, Minneapolis, Minn., assignor of one-third to Lawrence H. McEwen and one-third to Iner Oliver Engebretson, both of Minneapolis, Minn. Application March 16, 1938, Serial No. 196,194. 4 Claims. (Cl. 84-380)”
On the ocarinas then in use“Ocarinas have heretofore usually been molded or cast from clay and other materials, two complementary shell sections being formed by molding method, and the two sections then being adhesively secured together to form a hollow body. The tone qualities of such instruments have been poor due to the nature of the materials available for molding or casting, and furthermore such instruments are quite fragile and when dropped or struck, often break.”
A harmony ocarina, and the word it uses“Another object is the provision of an improved ocarina or similar musical instrument which will enable both a melody and an accompaniment or chords to be played simultaneously without shifting the mouth from the mouth piece provided with a pair of blow slits each communicating with a different sound chamber.”
On instruments in different keys, played together“Paper or metal patterns may be made up to enable the sections to be properly cut and shaped for instruments of different sizes and to produce tones in different keys and octaves whereby melody, tenor, baritone, bass and other parts may be played by a number of musicians utilizing my appropriate instruments in playing together.”
US 2,145,605
Ocarina — ocarina
A construction patent, and one of the five behind the Waterbury story.
Face of the specification“UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,145,605 OCARINA George A. Mausolf, Waterbury, Conn., assignor to The Waterbury Button Company, Waterbury, Conn., a corporation of Connecticut. Application June 30, 1938, Serial No. 216,711. 3 Claims. (Cl. 84-380)”
First object“One object of the present invention is to provide an ocarina constructed of two perforated molded halves tightly sealed together at their abutting edges and which are preferably made from a plastic molding compound such as “Bakelite”, cellulose acetate, etc.”
On labeling the finger holes“These openings may be labeled with suitable indicia such as the words shown in Fig. 6 to indicate which musical note will be produced when any particular opening and those preceding it are uncovered as in the usual ocarina. When all of the openings 13-20 are covered, the musical note “C” or “do” will be produced when the player blows into the mouthpiece. When the opening 13 is uncovered the note “D” or “re”, will be produced, and by additionally uncovering the opening 14 an “E” note, or “mi”, will be produced, etc.”
US 2,214,553
Pitch regulator for musical instruments — ocarina
Face of the specification“UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,214,553 PITCH REGULATOR FOR MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS Paul R. Gruber, Waterbury, Conn., assignor to The Waterbury Button Company, Waterbury, Conn., a corporation of Connecticut. Application September 23, 1938, Serial No. 231,334. 7 Claims. (Cl. 84-380)”
What it is for“Wind instruments, such as fifes, flutes, ocarinas, whistles, and the like, are generally provided with a resonant air chamber having a plurality of openings adapted to be covered and uncovered by the player’s fingers to produce the different notes of the scale. The air chamber is also provided with a mouthpiece and an outlet, but generally has no pitch control. By means of the present invention, an improved form of pitch control means is located on one side of the ocarina in position for convenient manipulation while the instrument is being played.”
The twistable cap“The edge of the cap member 20 is preferably knurled as shown at 22 to facilitate grasping it with the fingers when it is desired to turn it on the flange 17 to adjust the pitch of the ocarina.”
A word the museum has not explained, quoted as printed“The ocarina is also provided with a permanently open outlet 13 to permit the escape of air and to cooperate with a reed, not shown, within the air chamber 11 to produce a musical note when the player blows into the mouthpiece.”
US D112,623
Design for a musical instrument similar to an ocarina — ocarina
The office itself hedged, and the hedge is the title: “Design for a musical instrument similar to an ocarina”, claimed as “the ornamental design for a musical instrument similar to an ocarina, as shown”. Ziegner Swanson of De Kalb, Illinois also holds US 2,180,130 on the same instrument, filed four months apart. Neither document cites the other; the identification rests on the identical name and residence.
Face of the specification“UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 112,623 DESIGN FOR A MUSICAL INSTRUMENT SIMILAR TO AN OCARINA. Ziegner Swanson, De Kalb, Ill. Application September 26, 1938, Serial No. 80,095. Term of patent 14 years. Patented Dec. 20, 1938.”
The claim“I claim: The ornamental design for a musical instrument similar to an ocarina, as shown.”
US 2,180,130
Musical instrument — ocarina
Its own first sentence: “a closed tube wind instrument having a flute-like tone” with “means for tuning the pitch of the notes”. Closed tube is the phrase Rohner uses under class 84-380 for the ocarina family. Note the surname: US 2,209,427, Swanson’s bugle device, is already on this page and is not an ocarina. Whether the two Swansons are one man is not established.
Face of the specification“UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,180,130 MUSICAL INSTRUMENT Ziegner Swanson, De Kalb, Ill. Application September 26, 1938, Serial No. 231,621. 2 Claims. (Cl. 84-384)”
Object, and the quarrel with clay“The main object of the invention is to provide an instrument of the character described having means for tuning the pitch of the notes which may be produced by the player, thereby varying the pitch and increasing the usefulness of the instrument, especially for accompanying other instruments. […] My invention is preferably embodied in instruments made of plastic material molded in a steel die, which avoids the variations and inaccuracies resulting from the use of clay-like materials which are molded while wet and then baked until dry.”
Eight holes, then ten – and the two to be cut away“An instrument having the eight apertures shown provides a scale of nine notes, which is sufficient for playing by novices, and yet the instrument is not too difficult for the student to manipulate. In order to increase the compass of the instrument at the will of the player after he has learned to use the instrument as initially produced, I have provided in the body 10 two thin wall areas 29 and 30, surrounded externally by beads similar to the beads 28. Said thin areas 29 and 30 are intended to be cut away, whereby two additional apertures will be produced, one to be covered by the small finger of the left hand and the other by the thumb of the right hand. The maximum of ten apertures provides a scale of one and one-half octaves.”
A claim of novelty worth reading beside DE 16,668“[…] the tuning provided by altering the length of the body chamber by means of the movable mouthpiece lowers the pitch and enables the player to tune his instrument to accompany other instruments, – a result not heretofore obtainable in a closed tube instrument. […] Closed tube instruments have had limited usefulness heretofore due to the fact that they could not be tuned to put them in pitch with another fixedly tuned instrument.”
GB 532,244
Improvements in or relating to ocarinas — ocarina
The British twin of US 2,195,992, and the first evidence that Waterbury filed abroad. The face page gives a Convention Date (United States) of May 6, 1939 — the exact filing date of Mausolf’s US patent — so this is that invention carried into Britain under the International Convention. The disclosure matches almost word for word: two complementary hollow halves in Bakelite or cellulose acetate, eight finger openings, two thumb openings.
Face of the specification“PATENT SPECIFICATION 532,244. Convention Date (United States): May 6, 1939. Application Date (in United Kingdom): June 20, 1939. No. 17969/39. Complete Specification Accepted: Jan. 21, 1941. COMPLETE SPECIFICATION. Improvements in or relating to Ocarinas.”
Who filed it“We, WATERBURY BUTTON CO., a Corporation organised under the Laws of the State of Connecticut, United States of America, of [address omitted], Waterbury, Connecticut, United States of America, do hereby declare the nature of this invention […] This invention relates to ocarinas.”
First object – the same words as US 2,195,992“One object of this invention is to provide an improved form of ocarina constructed of two complementary hollow halves sealed together at their abutting edges and which are moulded from a plastic material, such as “Bakelite”, cellulose acetate, and the like.”
Why plastic, in the firm’s own words“Among the advantages of the improved ocarina of this invention are the facts that it is extremely light in weight; it may be made of coloured plastic material requiring no exterior coating of enamel, paint or the like; it has no metallic parts liable to corrode; and it has a smooth, non-chippable outer surface.”
Claim 1 of eight“An ocarina, comprising a pair of complementary hollow halves each having a complementary hollow mouthpiece portion, and including a rib located between said mouthpiece portions and adapted to provide an air-blowing passage between said rib and an adjacent opposing surface of one of the mouthpiece portions.”
US 2,195,992
Ocarina — ocarina
Mausolf’s second.
Face of the specification“UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,195,992 OCARINA George A. Mausolf, Waterbury, Conn., assignor to The Waterbury Button Company, Waterbury, Conn., a corporation of Connecticut. Application May 6, 1939, Serial No. 272,166. 10 Claims. (Cl. 84-330)”
Objects“One object of this invention is to provide an improved form of ocarina constructed of two halves sealed together at their abutting edges and which are molded from a plastic compound, such as Bakelite, cellulose acetate, etc. A further object is to provide an ocarina of the above nature in which the mouthpiece is formed entirely of plastic compound similar to that from which the body of the ocarina is molded.”
The holes“The top half 10 is provided with a semi-tubular mouthpiece portion 12, and an oval-shaped body portion 13 having a plurality (in this instance eight) of finger openings 14 which are adapted to be covered by the fingers of the user’s hands. The openings 14 are each surrounded by ribs 15 which are raised from the exterior surface of the body portion 13. The bottom half 11 is provided with a semi-tubular mouthpiece 16 and an oval-shaped body portion 17, having two openings 18 adapted to be covered by the thumbs of the user’s hands, and an enlarged outlet opening 19.”
US 2,209,427
Musical instrument for playing bugle — not an ocarina
A device for blowing bugle calls without an embouchure. It is on this page because a later patent the museum holds cites it as prior art, alongside Mausolf and Sumner.
Face of the specification“UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,209,427 MUSICAL INSTRUMENT FOR PLAYING BUGLE CALLS Ziegner Swanson, De Kalb, Ill. Application August 3, 1939, Serial No. 288,108. 1 Claim. (Cl. 84-380)”
What it is for“The object of this invention is to provide an instrument, simple in construction, capable of producing only a limited number of predetermined tones, preferably four tones of the harmonic scale, which enable the player to produce all tones regularly used in playing bugle calls. The invention enables a novice to play the instrument to produce pre-selected tones by blowing into the mouthpiece while controlling by the fingers a limited number of openings in the body of the instrument.”
The form it takes“The mouthpiece 11 is of the fipple type, having an air inlet 14, and in its top surface between the inlet end and body 10 is an orifice 15. […] By this arrangement, I am able to produce, for example, the tones D, G, B and D, in a G bugle, for playing tones regularly used in bugle calls, in a short instrument having the tone holes located near each other in a manner convenient to the player.”
A bell, and a horn“A bell 13 may be integral with or mounted on the body 10 to make the instrument simulate a horn type instrument.”
1940s
US 2,331,975
Melodica — not an ocarina
NOT AN OCARINA, on its own description: the player hums into it and a membrane-like disc pair amplifies the voice. It is in this registry because three ocarina patents cite it as prior art at class 84/330 – Johnson’s US 3,815,466, Dietrich’s US 7,816,595 and Liao’s US 6,255,570 – so a reader who follows those citations will arrive here. The title predates Hohner’s Melodica by fifteen years; that is a note, not a claim about either.
Face of the specification“UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,331,975 MELODICA Charles H. Hagopian, New York, N. Y. Application April 4, 1942, Serial No. 437,624. 1 Claim. (Cl. 84-330)”
What it is“My invention relates to a musical instrument into which the tune is hummed and amplified. Among the purposes and objects are to provide: A musical instrument which changes the tone and volume of the human voice. A means of changing the tone by manipulation of the fingers as well as the human voice in an instrument held in the mouth. The combination of a pipe and voice vibrating instrument.”
Why he calls it a melodica“I prefer to call my musical instrument a melodica because with it, it is easy for anyone, with slight experience, to carry a melody and to amplify a tune, as when humming, and to change the characteristics of the sound emanating from it by covering and uncovering the apertures of the pipe with the fingers in much the same manner as when playing a piccolo or flute.”
US 2,332,083
Clarinet — not an ocarina
A REED INSTRUMENT, and the control that the examiner lists are not all ocarinas. Register’s US 7,799,980 cites it at 84/382; the document itself says clarinet in its title and its first line.
Face of the specification“UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,332,083 CLARINET Martin Jauch, Newark, N. J. Application March 23, 1943, Serial No. 480,136. 4 Claims. (Cl. 84-382)”
The closed-tube passage an ocarina examiner wanted“The acoustics acting in the reservoir are controlled by the laws of closed tubes, and by a mainstream with lateral eddy currents. […] The air column extending from the mouthpiece to the closed end, acts under the principle of closed tubes, and sets up nodes at different points depending upon the length and pressure applied.”
US 2,460,931
Ocarina — ocarina
An ocarina molded from two halves with the airway and fipple formed in the molding. The one hard citation the Gretsch research rests on.
Face of the specification“UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,460,931 OCARINA William W. Gretsch, Forest Hills, N. Y., assignor to The Fred. Gretsch Manufacturing Company, Brooklyn, N. Y., a corporation of New York. Application December 4, 1944, Serial No. 566,611. 5 Claims. (Cl. 84-380)”
Opening sentence and objects“My invention relates to ocarinas and refers particularly to ocarinas composed of only two parts or elements. One object of my invention is ocarinas composed of only two parts. Another object of my invention is ocarinas in which all of the parts are capable of being molded from plastics or other suitable material.”
Why it is made of two parts“Another object of my invention is ocarinas in which the accuracy of the tonal effects is determined during the production of the device and which cannot be changed, or injured, by any displacement of parts through accident to the original construction. Another object of my invention is ocarinas comprised of as few parts as possible, thus enabling its construction to be simple and economic.”
The two parts, named“The particular form of a device of my invention shown in the accompanying drawings comprises a finger element 10, so called because the apertures therein are opened and closed by the fingers of the player; and a thumb element 11 so called because the apertures therein are opened and closed by the thumbs of the player.”
US 2,513,600
Musical humming instrument — not an ocarina
A KAZOO, by its own first sentence, cited by Register’s US 7,799,980. The assignment is the interesting part for the trade side – one third to GROSSMAN MUSIC COMPANY of Cleveland, a wholesaler, which is the same shape of arrangement as Thompson’s kazoo design US D142,799, one third of which went to the same firm.
Face of the specification“UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,513,600 MUSICAL HUMMING INSTRUMENT Josephus Thompson, Covington, Ohio, assignor of one-third to Grossman Music Company, Cleveland, Ohio, a partnership. Application May 25, 1945, Serial No. 595,666. 6 Claims. (Cl. 46-182)”
Opening sentence“This invention relates to musical instruments or toys and particularly to such devices which, by humming into, may be made to imitate or reproduce […]”
US D141,400
Design for a whistle — cannot be told from the text
Assignor to Sports, Inc., of Chicago. Cited by Mumford’s fipple- flute design US D258,364.
US D142,799
Design for a kazoo — not an ocarina
A KAZOO, by its own title, assignor of one-third to Grossman M[usic Company] of Cleveland – the same wholesaler that took a third of Thompson’s US 2,513,600. Cited by Ahrens’s US 6,348,647.
US 2,485,749
Musical wind instrument — not an ocarina
The inventor says it is not an ocarina. Ladd’s own second paragraph distinguishes the two instruments, and the construction bears him out: there are no finger holes at all, only a single slot along which one finger slides. It stays in the register because it resembles an ocarina closely enough that three later ocarina patents cite it, and a reader who meets it elsewhere should find the question already answered.
Face of the specification“UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,485,749 MUSICAL WIND INSTRUMENT Bernard G. Ladd, Manhasset, N. Y. Application December 13, 1945, Serial No. 634,664. 3 Claims. (Cl. 84-384)”
The inventor says it is not an ocarina“The outward appearance of the whistle of the present invention somewhat resembles an ocarina, but its construction and the art of playing are quite different although both instruments may be characterized as wind instruments.”
What it is instead“Another object of the present invention resides in the provision of an instrument wherein the usual series of finger openings are eliminated. […] The top wall of the tone chamber is provided with a tone displacement opening 28 which is in the form of an elongated transverse slot. This slot is adapted to receive one finger of the hand of the player which is moved along the slot during the playing of the instrument to produce the different notes of the musical score being played. The length of the slot is equivalent to one octave so that the entire scale may be played as the finger is moved from one end of the slot to the other.”
US D145,344
Design for a toy figure or similar article — cannot be told from the text
Cited by Kanamori’s Zen-On ocarina design US D306,454 of 1990, beside Frazeur, Mausolf and Gretsch – so a Japanese firm’s American examiner reached for it as ocarina art. The title says toy figure.
GB 628,268
Improvements relating to recorders — not an ocarina
One of four documents the UK Patent Office cited against GB 2,227,352 A, Langley’s molded plastic ocarina of 1988. The specification is held and read: Arnold Dolmetsch Limited, Carl Frederick Dolmetsch, a recorder in three parts of moulded thermo- setting plastic, eight to ten stopping holes, with twin holes for the semitones. A recorder, not an ocarina; the examiner reached for it as fipple-flute art.
US D156,069
Design for an airbrush — not an ocarina
Reached this page from an index hit that was a false positive: an airbrush, printed Cl. D62-2. It is kept for one line under OTHER REFERENCES — “Modern Plastics for August 1939, Toy Ocarinas No. 13, on page 25.” A 1939 trade-press article about toy ocarinas in plastic, cited by a patent examiner and therefore real. That predates everything the museum holds on the material, and it is recorded as a document to find.
Face of the specification“UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 156,069 DESIGN FOR AN AIRBRUSH. Robert B. Briggs, Newton, Mass. Application January 11, 1946, Serial No. 125,438. Term of patent 14 years. (Cl. D62-2) Patented Nov. 22, 1949.”
References Cited – a trade magazine, with a page“REFERENCES CITED. The following references are of record in the file of this patent: UNITED STATES PATENTS. D. 117,564 Held, Nov. 14, 1939; 2,362,784 Ward, Nov. 14, 1944. OTHER REFERENCES: Modern Plastics for August 1939, Toy Ocarinas No. 13, on page 25.”
US 2,478,323
Wind instrument — ocarina
Seven finger vents and a thumb vent. The first of the American attempts to put the ocarina into classrooms.md.
Face of the specification“UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,478,323 WIND INSTRUMENT Traugott Rohner, Evanston, Ill. Application April 3, 1946, Serial No. 659,220. 5 Claims. (Cl. 84-380)”
On the limits of the conventional ocarina“This invention relates to improvements in wind instruments of the closed tube type such as the ocarina, in which tone variations are controlled by fingering a series of vents or holes. Due to the limitations of the number of fingers that can be used in fingering such instruments (left thumb plus three fingers of the left hand and four of the right hand) instruments of this kind are usually limited to a range of intervals of a ninth. Thus the conventional ocarina or its modern counterparts, only have vents for the diatonic scale, and half-stepped intervals (sharps or flats) can only be produced by an awkward fingering of different combinations of vents, or by “half-holing” certain of the vents, both of which methods are undependable and difficult to master.”
The half-step vent“The principal object of my invention is to provide an improved form of instrument of the character described, wherein I make use of a novel discovery that an additional vent or hole placed at the proper position relatively close to the mouthpiece can be used to alter the tone of all of the normal intervals of the instrument by one-half step, thus giving a full chromatic scale throughout the range of the instrument.”
Why an ocarina cannot overblow“It will be understood that the instrument operates upon the closed tube principle of acoustics, rather than on the open tube principle inherent in wind instruments having an open end, such as the fife and flute. It is well known that pitch variations on a closed tube instrument are produced with vent holes spaced apart about one half the distance of similar vent holes of open type instruments. Another characteristic difference between the two types is the ability of open tube instruments to produce a successively higher octave range by “overblowing,” which cannot be done dependably with instruments operating on the closed tube principle.”
US 2,610,538
Mouth organ with fingering selector — not an ocarina
A HARMONICA, cited by Dietrich’s US 7,816,595 at 84/377.
Face of the specification“UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,610,538 MOUTH ORGAN WITH FINGERING SELECTOR Joseph Lederfine, Brooklyn, N. Y. Application September 13, 1947, Serial No. 73,861. (Cl. 84-377) 6 Claims.”
Opening sentence“This invention relates to improvements in wind instruments in the nature of harmonicas, mouth organs and the like.”
US 2,638,027
Wind instrument — ocarina
Printed (Cl. 84-380). “A simple wind instrument which can be played readily and with which control is accomplished by the hands which are applied to openings in the instrument”, and “without reeds”. The verdict rests on the printed class plus the finger openings; the text does not use the word vessel or chamber.
Face of the specification“UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 2,638,027 WIND INSTRUMENT Gaston M. Strobino, Chicago, Ill. Application July 17, 1947, Serial No. 761,544. 3 Claims. (Cl. 84-380)”
What it is – the word ocarina does not appear“This invention relates to a musical instrument and particularly to a wind instrument. It has for one object to provide a simple wind instrument which can be played readily and with which control is accomplished by the hands which are applied to openings in the instrument. Another object is to provide a wind instrument without reeds or other comparable members.”
How it is played“In the various forms shown the playing of the device is substantially the same. The device is held in one or two hands, the lips are applied to the windpipe and a blast of air is blown through this pipe toward the chamber in the housing in any of the various forms.”
US D153,273
Design for a musical instrument — cannot be told from the text
A fish.
Face of the specification“UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 153,273 DESIGN FOR A MUSICAL INSTRUMENT. Winfield S. Frazeur, Mason, Mich. Application October 20, 1947, Serial No. 142,025. Term of patent 3 1/2 years. (Cl. D34-15)”
The claim“I claim: The ornamental design for a musical instrument, substantially as shown.”
References Cited – and one of them is a catalog“REFERENCES CITED. The following references are of record in the file of this patent: UNITED STATES PATENTS. Number D. 97,852, Name Kephart, Date Dec. 17, 1935. OTHER REFERENCES: Montgomery Ward Catalog No. 71, 1903, Item H 9313, page 473.”
US D153,274
Design for a musical instrument — cannot be told from the text
A fish with a deep tail fan.
Face of the specification“UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 153,274 DESIGN FOR A MUSICAL INSTRUMENT. Winfield S. Frazeur, Mason, Mich. Application October 20, 1947, Serial No. 142,027. Term of patent 3 1/2 years. (Cl. D34-15)”
The claim“I claim: The ornamental design for a musical instrument, substantially as shown.”
References Cited – and one of them is a catalog“REFERENCES CITED. The following references are of record in the file of this patent: UNITED STATES PATENTS. Number D. 97,852, Name Kephart, Date Dec. 17, 1935. OTHER REFERENCES: Montgomery Ward Catalog, No. 71, (1903), Item H9313 on page 473.”
US D153,275
Design for a musical instrument — cannot be told from the text
An alligator whose tail ends in an open pipe.
Face of the specification“UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 153,275 DESIGN FOR A MUSICAL INSTRUMENT. Winfield S. Frazeur, Mason, Mich. Application October 20, 1947, Serial No. 142,028. Term of patent 3 1/2 years. (Cl. D34-15)”
The claim“I claim: The ornamental design for a musical instrument, substantially as shown.”
References Cited – and one of them is a catalog“REFERENCES CITED. The following references are of record in the file of this patent: UNITED STATES PATENTS. Number D. 97,852, Name Kephart, Date Dec. 17, 1935. OTHER REFERENCES: Montgomery Ward Catalog, No. 71, (1903), Item H9313 on page 473.”
US D153,343
Design for a musical instrument — cannot be told from the text
An alligator with a slim tapering tail. All four Frazeur sheets show a mouthpiece at the snout, a fipple window behind it, one straight row of holes down the spine and an OPEN BORE. They are tubular duct flutes in animal costume, not ocarinas – and they are what a patent search for animal-shaped ocarinas finds first.
Face of the specification“UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE 153,343 DESIGN FOR A MUSICAL INSTRUMENT. Winfield S. Frazeur, Mason, Mich. Application October 20, 1947, Serial No. 142,026. Term of patent 3 1/2 years. (Cl. D34-15)”
The claim“I claim: The ornamental design for a musical instrument, substantially as shown.”
References Cited – and one of them is a catalog“REFERENCES CITED. The following references are of record in the file of this patent: UNITED STATES PATENTS. Number D. 97,852, Name Kephart, Date Dec. 17, 1935. OTHER REFERENCES: Montgomery Ward Catalog, No. 71 (1903), item H 9313 on page 473.”
1950s
DE 761,436
Musical instrument in the style of an ocarina — ocarina
Swanson’s US 2,180,130 in Germany, claiming priority from the United States application of September 26, 1938. The applicant is the Chicago Musical Instrument Co., which is the first sign here of who was behind his filings. The subject is the sliding mouthpiece that lengthens the tone chamber and moves the pitch of every note. Granted December 1944 and printed only in 1952. Its prior art cites Fiehn’s DE 16,668.
Face of the specification (German)“REICHSPATENTAMT. PATENTSCHRIFT No 761436. KLASSE 51c GRUPPE 2303. Nachtraeglich gedruckt durch das Deutsche Patentamt in Muenchen. Ziegner Swanson, De Kalb, Ill. (V. St. A.) ist als Erfinder genannt worden. Chicago Musical Instrument Co., Chicago, Ill. (V. St. A.). Musikinstrument nach Art einer Okarina. Patentiert im Deutschen Reich vom 20. Juni 1939 an. Patenterteilung bekanntgemacht am 7. Dezember 1944. Die Prioritaet der Anmeldung in den V. St. v. Amerika vom 26. September 1938 ist in Anspruch genommen. AUSGEGEBEN AM 4. AUGUST 1952.”Imperial Patent Office. Patent specification No. 761436. Class 51c, Group 2303. Printed subsequently by the German Patent Office in Munich. Ziegner Swanson, De Kalb, Ill. (U.S.A.) has been named as inventor. Chicago Musical Instrument Co., Chicago, Ill. (U.S.A.). Musical instrument in the manner of an ocarina. Patented in the German Reich from June 20, 1939. Grant announced December 7, 1944. The priority of the application in the United States of America of September 26, 1938 is claimed. Issued August 4, 1952.
What the invention is (German)“Gegenstand der Erfindung ist ein Musikinstrument nach Art einer Okarina, bei welchem zwecks Veraenderung der Tonlage die Groesse der an einem Ende geschlossenen Tonkammer veraenderlich ist.”The subject of the invention is a musical instrument in the manner of an ocarina, in which the size of the tone chamber, closed at one end, is variable for the purpose of altering the pitch.
The sliding mouthpiece (German)“Demgegenueber besteht die Erfindung darin, dass der gleichfoermig nach dem geschlossenen Ende der Tonkammer hin sich verjuengende Koerper an seinem anderen Ende, welches in Achsenrichtung mit dem geschlossenen Ende liegt, zylindrisch ausgebildet ist und ein laengs verschiebbares Mundstueck traegt, durch dessen Verschiebung die Groesse der Tonkammer derart veraendert wird, dass die Tonhoehe aller durch das Instrument erzeugbaren Toene sich veraendert.”Against that, the invention consists in this: that the body, tapering uniformly toward the closed end of the tone chamber, is made cylindrical at its other end – which lies on the same axis as the closed end – and carries a longitudinally sliding mouthpiece, by whose displacement the size of the tone chamber is so altered that the pitch of every note the instrument can produce is changed.
US 2,944,459
Moulded plastic article — not an ocarina
Reached this page as prior art in Young’s US 4,104,948, which cites it at 84/380 C beside Mausolf. Read: it concerns “tubular wind musical instruments, such for example as recorders”, and the invention is a way of moulding the knife edge and wind passage in plastic to close tolerances. A recorder’s construction, not an ocarina’s. Charles George Simmonds gives a Chelsea address and is new to the museum.
Face of the specification“United States Patent Office 2,944,459. MOULDED PLASTIC ARTICLE. Charles George Simmonds, [address omitted], Chelsea, London S.W. 3, England. Filed Aug. 20, 1956, Ser. No. 605,008. 1 Claim. (Cl. 84-380)”
US 3,011,382
Musical instrument — not an ocarina
Reached this page as prior art in Young’s US 4,104,948. Read: “a musical instrument of a simple, flute-like kind… the instrument represents a modification of a flute”, consisting of a straight tube with seven or eight stops along its length and a mouthpiece of reduced diameter. A straight duct flute, not an ocarina, though it sits in class 84-384 with Rohner, Ladd, Bernard and Dietrich. Ho June Kim gives Pusan, Korea, and Maryville College, Tennessee — a Korean inventor filing from the American South in 1959.
Face of the specification“United States Patent Office 3,011,382 Patented Dec. 5, 1961. 3,011,382 MUSICAL INSTRUMENT. Ho June Kim, Pusan, Korea (Maryville College, Maryville, Tenn.). Filed Mar. 30, 1959, Ser. No. 802,888. 4 Claims. (Cl. 84-384)”
Opening sentence“This invention relates to a musical instrument of a simple, flute-like […]”
1960s
US D191,831
Musical toy whistle — cannot be told from the text
The text calls it a musical toy whistle and never says vessel, chamber or ocarina, so the document does not settle what it is. What makes it worth holding is the examiner’s cited art, which is not patents at all but two pieces of trade print: “Playthings, October 1939, page 13, Ocarina”, and “Sears Christmas Book, 1958, page 369, item F, Little Orby” — an American mail-order ocarina with a product name and a page reference.
The whole of the text“United States Patent Office Des. 191,831 Patented Nov. 28, 1961. 191,831 MUSICAL TOY WHISTLE. Felis T. Segui, Gorman, Calif. Filed Aug. 29, 1960, Ser. No. 63,412. Term of patent 3 1/2 years. (Cl. D34-15) […] I claim: The ornamental design for a musical toy whistle, as shown and described.”
References Cited – two pieces of trade print“References Cited in the file of this patent: Playthings, October 1939, page 13, Ocarina. Sears Christmas Book, 1958, page 369, item F, Little Orby.”
US 3,131,590
Musical whistle — not an ocarina
Reached this page by class: printed Cl. 84-330, not 84-380. Claim 1 is “a body in the shape of a bird” with “a resonant cavity therein”, a mouthpiece “in the shape of a bird’s tail”, and “a pair of members shaped like birds’ wings pivotally mounted” that open and close. No toneholes in the claim: the pitch is changed by moving the wings. A vessel whistle in animal form, which is why the class caught it.
Face of the specification“United States Patent Office 3,131,590 Patented May 5, 1964. MUSICAL WHISTLE. Hop Lee, [address omitted], San Francisco 8, Calif. Filed Apr. 27, 1962, Ser. No. 190,663. 4 Claims. (Cl. 84-330)”
A bird whose wings switch it off“An object of my invention is to provide a musical whistle which is in the shape of a bird. When the wings of the bird are in closed position the whistle can be used for making a tone. However, when the bird’s wings are spaced apart to simulate that the bird is in flight, the whistle is made non-active and no note or tone can be produced by blowing into the whistle in the usual manner.”
The chamber and the holes“The body of the whistle has one or more openings that can be closed by the fingers. The tone of the whistle can be changed by uncovering one or more of the openings. […] The cavity B acts as a resonance chamber and the air from the passage 2 and the passage extension formed by the grooves 8 and 8’ will strike the sharp edges 11 and 12 of the opening G, and the sharp edge 13 of the triangularly-shaped opening H to create air wave pulsations that will have a wave length in direct proportion to the length of the cavity B.”
1970s
GB 1,358,165
Recorders — not an ocarina
One of four documents the UK Patent Office cited against GB 2,227,352 A, Langley’s molded plastic ocarina of 1988. The specification is held and read: Arnold Dolmetsch Limited, inventor Carl Frederick Dolmetsch, a recorder moulded from plastics in a foot, body and head section with ten stopping holes. A recorder, not an ocarina — the examiner reached for it as fipple-flute art.
GB 1,301,575
Wind instrument mouthpiece — cannot be told from the text
One of four documents the UK Patent Office cited against GB 2,227,352 A, Langley’s molded plastic ocarina of 1988. The applicant is TOYAMA GAKKI SEIZO KABUSHIKI KAISHA of Itabashi, Tokyo, and the inventor Nobuo Toyama. The problem is condensation: the mouthpiece is built so that the wind slot takes the breath’s temperature quickly, “so preventing formation of a liquid film in the slot”. A mouthpiece for a fipple instrument; whether any of them was an ocarina the document does not say.
What would settle it: Whether Toyama Gakki made ocarinas, or only the mouthpieces. The firm is new to the museum’s Japanese records.
US 3,815,466
Fipple flute — ocarina
A FOUR-HOLE OCARINA, and the museum had no American four-hole patent at all. “An oyster shaped hollow body providing a resonant chamber”, a fipple mouthpiece, and “four pitch control openings… disposed at each side of a diametral plane… simultaneously engageable by fore finger and middle finger of each hand”.md.
Face of the patent“United States Patent [19] Johnson [11] 3,815,466 [45] June 11, 1974. [54] FIPPLE FLUTE. [76] Inventor: Paul Conrad Johnson, Austin, Tex. [22] Filed: Sept. 4, 1973. [21] Appl. No.: 394,363. U.S. Cl. 84/380, 84/330. 6 Claims, 13 Drawing Figures.”
Abstract“A fipple flute includes an oyster shaped hollow body providing a resonant chamber, a whistle type mouth piece in the rim of the body chamber communicating with the resonant chamber and with the exterior through a slit in the body, and four pitch control openings in the resonant chamber of differing sizes, disposed at each side of a diametral plane through the body intersecting the mouthpiece and perpendicular to the rim plane, the holes spaced so as to be simultaneously engageable by fore finger and middle finger of each hand of the musician, the pitch hole sizes and locations relative to the resonant chamber enabling a full octave western chromatic scale of thirteen notes to be sounded without overblowing, an eyelet at the rim opposite the mouthpiece being provided with a necklace for carrying the flute.”
A notation of its own“The four pitch control holes are disposed as at the corners of a trapezoid adapting same to a mnemonic musical notation consisting of a quartered square with shaded quarters corresponding to holes to be stopped.”
How it is made“The body is made in two halves initially separated along the rim and glued together; polyester resin being the body material and the glue of the same material. After joining the halves, the glue flash is trimmed and the instrument tuned by pitch hole reaming or filling. Decorative exterior finishes are applied.”
US 4,104,948
Fipple block for musical recorders — not an ocarina
A RECORDER FITTING, not an ocarina, cited by Ahrens’s US 6,348,647. It earns its row by its own references: it cites Mausolf’s US 2,195,992 at 84/380 C beside two patents this registry did not have – Simmonds 2,944,459 and Kim 3,011,382 – both of which are now above.
US D258,364
Fipple flute — cannot be told from the text
A NAME NEW TO THIS REPOSITORY, and an American fipple flute of the late 1970s. Cited by Dietrich’s US 7,816,595 at D17/10. It cites Johnson’s US 3,815,466 – the Austin, Texas pendant flute of 1974 – so the two sit in one line of American small fipple flutes that this registry had only one end of.
1980s
US D272,159
Flute — cannot be told from the text
ANOTHER NAME NEW TO THIS REPOSITORY. Cited by Dietrich’s US 7,816,595 at D17/10, and it too cites Johnson’s US 3,815,466. The cited advertisement is a trade document the museum does not hold.
Cited art that is not a patent“OTHER PUBLICATIONS. Wm. Kratt Co., Union, N.J., “Pitch Instruments” Advertisement […]”
US D306,454
Ocarina — ocarina
Titled Ocarina outright, with a field of search in the ocarina class, and assigned to Kabushiki Kaisha Zen-On Gakufu Shuppansha of Tokyo — the Japanese music publisher. Its own evidence of trade is cited on the face: “ZEN-ON Instruments & Music Catalog, p. 83, issued on Dec. 1, 1986”. Its cited art is three patents the museum holds — Frazeur, Mausolf and Gretsch — and one it has never seen, D 145,344, White, 1946.
Face of the patent“United States Patent [19] Kanamori. [54] OCARINA. [75] Inventor: Ryo Kanamori, Chiba, Japan. [73] Assignee: Kabushiki Kaisha Zen-On Gakufu Shuppansha, Tokyo, Japan. Term: 14 Years. Appl. No.: 95,068. Filed: Sep. 9, 1987. [11] Patent Number: Des. 306,454. [45] Date of Patent: Mar. 6, 1990.”
The claim“CLAIM. The ornamental design for an ocarina, as shown.”
References Cited – including the firm’s own catalog“References Cited. U.S. PATENT DOCUMENTS: D. 145,344 7/1946 White; D. 153,274 4/1949 Frazeur; 2,195,992 4/1940 Mausolf; 2,460,931 2/1949 Gretsch. OTHER PUBLICATIONS: ZEN-ON Instruments & Music Catalog, p. 83, issued on Dec. 1, 1986.”
GB 2,227,352 A
Musical instrument — ocarina
THE REGISTRY’S FIRST TWENTIETH-CENTURY BRITISH OCARINA DOCUMENT, and a name new to it. The British patent series is where the 2170 question lives and where this registry is thinnest, so the four GB numbers on its face page are the most useful thing about it. They are recorded below.
Face of the application“(12) UK Patent Application (19) GB (11) 2 227 352 (13) A. (43) Date of A publication 25.07.1990. (21) Application No 8823412.5. (22) Date of filing 05.10.1988. (71) Applicant John North Langley, [address omitted], Buxton, Derbyshire, United Kingdom. (72) Inventor John North Langley. (51) INT CL5 G10D 7/04.”
Abstract“A musical instrument, e.g. an ocarina, made of moulded plastics comprises a hollow body having two parts (12, 14) each of part spherical internal shape, a mouthpiece (18) leading from the exterior to the interior of the hollow body, an aperture (22) in the body, a knife edge (24) extending across the aperture and an insert (26) in the mouthpiece which defines with the body a windway (30) leading from the mouthpiece towards the knife edge. The insert can be integral with the body part (14), or a separate piece.”
Documents cited“(56) Documents cited: GB 1358165 A, GB 1301575 A, GB 0628268 A, GB 0532244 A, US 3815466 A.”
US 4,893,541
Pentatonic Ocarina — ocarina
The pentatonic ocarina, built so that a child cannot finger a wrong note — the second of the American classroom attempts, forty- two years after Rohner’s. Its six cited references gave the museum a German patent it did not have: “498,016 5/1930 Stein”, which is DE 498,016, the Doppelokarina. The other five are already on this page, and all six sit in class 84/380 C. The scan carries no text layer.
1990s
US 5,309,806
Woodwind musical instrument — not an ocarina
Read, and it is about a named product: “Modifications are made to the bore and to one tone hole of the instrument marketed as the Flutophone”, to improve its intonation and extend its range. The Flutophone is a plastic fipple flute, so this is not an ocarina. Its cited art is acoustics rather than instruments — three papers by Arthur H. Benade — and it also cites Toyama’s US 4,306,484.
US D389,855
Heart-shaped musical instrument — cannot be told from the text
THE CITED CATALOG IS THE FIND HERE. Targ & Dinner was a Chicago wholesaler, and an examiner read page 406 of its 1970 catalog and found an OCARINA QUARTETTE on it – a named set, with a page number, in a house the museum has no catalog from. Cited by Dietrich’s US 7,816,595 at D17/10.
Cited art that is a wholesale catalog“OTHER PUBLICATIONS. Targ & Dinner Catalog, 1970, p. 406 (Ocarina Quartette).”
Cited patents“2,388,495 11/1945 Osterholt 446/204; 4,180,537 12/1979 Danova 446/204.”
2000s
US 6,255,570
Vessel-shaped flute with a captive cap — ocarina
A vessel-shaped flute whose cap is hinged to the body so it cannot be lost, covering the mouthpiece and every finger hole. Cites Gretsch US 2,460,931 and Ladd US 2,485,749, both already on this page.
US 6,348,647
Fipple flutes having improved airways — ocarina
An instrument body “defining an interior resonating cavity” with toneholes and an airway shaped in a nozzle and a throat. The claim is about the AIRWAY, not the chamber. Cites the Pentatonic Ocarina, US 4,893,541.
Claim 1, the airway“A fipple flute comprising: an instrument body having an outer surface defining an interior resonating cavity, an airway extending from the outer surface of said instrument body into the interior resonating cavity having a nozzle section extending from the outer surface having an upper nozzle surface…”
US 6,872,876
Ocarinas with an inner liner and an outer shell — ocarina
Mountain Ocarinas. The assignee is Ahrens’s own company, so the filing is a maker protecting his own line rather than selling it on. An ocarina built as an inner liner inside an outer shell. The museum has no page for the maker, and this is the only primary document of his it holds besides his two others here.
The face page“(54) OCARINAS WITH AN INNER LINER AND AN OUTER SHELL. (75) Inventor: Karl P. Ahrens, Bloomfield, CT (US). (73) Assignee: Mountain Ocarinas Inc., Bloomfield, CT (US). (22) Filed: Apr. 15, 2003. (60) Provisional application No. 60/372,486, filed on Apr. 15, 2002. (45) Date of Patent: Mar. 29, 2005.”
US 6,914,179
Flutes with multiple chambers that share compound bisected toneholes — ocarina
THE ASSIGNEE IS A NAMED OCARINA COMPANY – MOUNTAIN OCARINAS INC. of Bloomfield, Connecticut – which is the first time a firm by that name appears in this registry. This is the fourth Ahrens document here, with US 6,348,647, US 6,872,876 and US 2004/0244562 A1, and the subject is multiple chambers sharing toneholes.
Face of the patent“(12) United States Patent (10) Patent No.: US 6,914,179 B2. Ahrens. (45) Date of Patent: Jul. 5, 2005. (54) FLUTES WITH MULTIPLE CHAMBERS THAT SHARE COMPOUND BISECTED TONEHOLES. (75) Inventor: Karl P. Ahrens, Bloomfield, CT (US). (73) Assignee: Mountain Ocarinas Inc., Bloomfield, CT (US). (22) Filed: Apr. 25, 2003.”
US 2004/0244562 A1
Ocarinas with chamber extensions that distance toneholes from the fipple window — ocarina
Titled and claimed as an ocarina outright: “An Ocarina, comprising: a sound chamber… and a recess disposed at an inner surface of said sound chamber”. Ahrens’s second on this page.
Claim 1, in full“An Ocarina, comprising: a sound chamber having a plurality of apertures that facilitate airflow communication through said sound chamber to produce a tone, and a recess disposed at an inner surface of said sound chamber, at least one of said apertures being in register with said recess.”
US 2007/0157792 A1
Ocarina — ocarina
Titled Ocarina. Three toneholes in a row held by three fingers, to widen the range and avoid changing the airway angle for chromatic passages. The earliest Korean filing the museum holds, against 70 Korean patents counted in this class.
Claim 1, the opening“An ocarina including a body 1 having a hollow 11 formed in, a mouth piece 2 projected toward one side of the body 1 and having an airway 21 into which air is blown, a fipple window 3 through which air outputted from the airway 21 passes so that the hollow 11 generates sound…”
US 7,534,337
Substrate before insulation, method of manufacturing substrate, method of … — not an ocarina
Reached this page by classification alone: a semiconductor process patent filed in the ocarina class. “A method for manufacturing a substrate by insulating an area except a part of a surface area of a base, which has electrical conductivity.” Not a musical instrument of any kind. It is kept as the plainest demonstration on the page that a classification is a candidate pool and not a test.
US 7,816,595
Methods of constructing and tuning ocarinas — ocarina
FOUR TONEHOLES AGAIN, and the fingering is named: “four toneholes positioned in said body to be stopped by the index and middle fingers of a performer such that the unstopping of said toneholes will produce a one octave major scale”, plus subholes and split toneholes. Its cited art includes STL Ocarina’s double.md records as absent from the museum.
Face of the patent“(12) United States Patent (10) Patent No.: US 7,816,595 B1. Dietrich. (45) Date of Patent: Oct. 19, 2010. (54) METHODS OF CONSTRUCTING AND TUNING OCARINAS. (76) Inventor: Jordan Reder Dietrich, Pittsburgh, PA (US). (22) Filed: Jun. 29, 2009. 10 Claims, 16 Drawing Sheets.”
Abstract“Improved methods for tuning ocarinas to extend their capabilities, musical ranges, and ease of use. Ocarinas having enhanced fingering patterns using subholes, split toneholes, additional tonehole(s), and/or an additional thumbhole. Enhancements to cross-fingered ocarinas with one or two chambers and linear-fingered ocarinas with two or more chambers.”
Cited art that is not a patent“OTHER PUBLICATIONS. STL Ocarina, 8 hole ocarina, with annotations, viewed Jan. 29, 2010 at http://stlocarina.com/8.hole.html, for sale date of Jul. 2005 provided a request to http://blog.stlocarina.com/. STL Ocarina, 8 hole ocarina fingering, rendered Jun. 12, 2009, viewed Jan. 29, 2010 at http://blog.stlocarina.com/storage/fingering-charts/8hole.pdf.”
2010s
US 7,799,980
Ocarina — ocarina
“An improved Ocarina… upper and lower surface defining a single cavity and single windway”, with “at least one first partial partition in said cavity”. Cites an Ahrens patent, US 6,914,179, which is NOT among the twenty-five this class returned – a lead the sweep did not find by itself.
US 2011/0226114 A1
Ocarina kit — ocarina
A SECOND HIND PATENT, twenty-three years after the first, and the museum did not have it. An ocarina sold as a kit: six planar pieces forming a cuboid chamber, with side pieces whose arms carry a planar mouthpiece and windway directed at a labium. J. Charles Hind is the co-filer of the Pentatonic Ocarina, US 4,893,541, already on this page, and the subject of the museum’s unpublished Hind chronology.md.
US 2016/0022547 A1
Sound soother — not an ocarina
Reached this page by classification: partly filed under G10D. “A pacifier or a teething device” with an instrument embedded in the mouth-guard. Not an ocarina.
US 2018/0033415 A1
Mute equipment capable of controlling a breath pressure and an adapter thereof — a device for ocarinas
A mute for controlling breath pressure, with an adapter – an accessory fitted to an instrument, not an instrument. Same verdict as Smenner’s pitch-regulating device of 1914. Assigned to Office Itsuki Agency Co., Ltd. The inventor is the ocarina player whose interview the museum publishes.md and is NOT published.
US 2019/0057675 A1
Instrument and Related Notation and Methods — ocarina
“A closed end woodwind instrument… formed of a body, which defines an internal cavity”, with a mouthpiece and windway into that cavity – and designed around a teaching method, notation system and repertory. A closed chamber with a fipple is an ocarina whatever the filing calls it.
2020s
WO 2020/218761 A1
Ocarina having dual sound hole — ocarina
One chamber, two voicings. The upper and lower bodies form a single resonance space, and a Y-shaped mouthpiece splits one breath into two outlets, each speaking at its own sound hole. So it is neither a harmony ocarina nor a multi-chamber instrument: both windows speak from the same cavity and sound the same pitch. The abstract gives the construction and not its purpose, and the museum does not guess at acoustics.
What would settle it: The description and claims beyond the abstract, for the stated purpose of the second sound hole; and whether the application entered any national phase, which would show whether it became a product.
Patents known only from descriptions
3 filings that somebody recorded and nobody here can link to. These are the reason this page exists: a number without an office, a system named on an instrument, a date from a book. Each says who reported it and where, so the next person can start where this stopped rather than starting over.
France
country not established
1860s
Donati, a patent claimed and never identified (1867)
Recorded as: claimed, never identified
an ocarina patent claimed for Donati — ocarina · described by a source; no document, no number confirmed
A claim the museum cannot support, recorded because it circulates. The 2024 Valladolid exhibition catalog calls Donati “the Bolognese settled in Paris, inventor of this instrument, which he patented in 1867”. Donati invented the modern ocarina and not the ocarina; nothing here places him in Paris; and his first set is dated 1863 with no patent recorded at all. If an 1867 filing exists, nobody here has seen it. the catalog that makes the claim
What would settle it: The INPI for a French filing, and the Italian registry for 1867 – both below the digitized floor, so both are archive requests. Until one answers, the row stands as a claim with its source named and its contradiction recorded.
1890s
Ullmann, the Roda system (France, 1893)
Recorded as: France, number not established
the Roda system, registered in Paris — ocarina · described by a source; no document, no number confirmed
Known from instruments, not from a filing. A Library of Congress ocarina dated Paris, 1893 is marked “ULLMANN-PARIS / SYST. RODA - BTE S.G.D.G.”, and the museum holds one carrying the same statement. So what is missing is not the existence of a patent but which patent it is: “breveté S.G.D.G.” says one was granted and does not say its number. FR 234,095 — Roda, Paris, November 1893 — is the obvious candidate and is not asserted, because a registration of this kind could as easily be a marque de fabrique, which INPI keeps in a base nobody has searched. the instrument, in the Dayton C. Miller collection
What would settle it: The INPI’s nineteenth-century brevets. French filings before about 1902 are not in the digitized sources, so this is an archive request rather than a search.
Mathieu, the Ocariflute (France, 1895)
Recorded as: France, number not established
the Ocariflute — ocarina · described by a source; no document, no number confirmed
Known only from objects. Two Library of Congress instruments bought together in 1930: a steeply tapered Ocariflute marked “CH. MATHIEU / DEPOSE PARIS / PARIS / OCARIFLUTE / BTE S.G.D.G.”, and a nickel-plated one whose toneholes are numbered and named in both English and solfège. The Stearns catalog of 1918 indexes three more. FR 310,679 of 1901 patents an ocariflute, and its applicants are Ullmann rather than Mathieu.
What would settle it: The INPI’s nineteenth-century brevets, and Stearns 512, 575 and 643 at the University of Michigan, whose signatures may carry a registration number the Library of Congress instruments do not.
If you know of one that is not here
The museum would be glad to hear of it, and glad to be corrected about anything on this page: theocarinamuseum@gmail.com.