Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIV.djvu/258

 242 REED BIRD REED INSTRUMENTS he was appointed chief justice of Pennsylvania, and named by congress a brigadier general; but he declined both offices, and continued to serve in the army as a volunteer, without rank or pay. He was present at most of the engage- ments in the northern and eastern portions of the Union. In 1778 he was elected to con- gress, and signed the articles of confederation. About this time he was approached by one of three British commissioners, Gov. Johnstone, with an offer of 10,000 and the most valua- ble office in America, if he would exert him- self to promote a reconciliation between Great Britain and the colonies. His answer was : " I am not worth purchasing ; but, such as I am, the king of Great Britain is not rich enough to buy me." He was president of the supreme executive council of Pennsylvania in 1778-'81, and was efficient in suppressing an armed in- surrection that occurred in Philadelphia, and a revolt of the Pennsylvania line. Ho aided in founding the university of Pennsylvania. His " Life and Correspondence " was published by his grandson W. B. Reed (2d ed., Philadelphia, 1847); and his grandson Henry Reed wrote his life in Sparks's " American Biography " (2d series, vol. viii., 1848). REED BIRD. Seo BOBOLIXK. REED INSTRl .HUNTS, among musical contri- vances, a numerous and diverse class, inclu- ding all those the tones of which are due to vibrations imparted to a body of air in a tube, throat, or chamber, by moans of the pulsa- tions of a thin lamina or tongue of wood or metal having one end fixed and the other lying over or within an aperture, and actuated by forcibly directing through this a current of air. Technically, such a lamina is termed a reed. It has two general forms. In the first, seen in the clarinet, the reed is larger than the open- ing through which the air is to pass, and in pulsating alternately closes and opens it, beat- ing against its margins. This form, among Eu- ropean nations doubtless the earliest known, is distinguished aa the beating reed. In the second, seen in the accordion, the dimensions of the reed are slightly less than those of the aperture, so that, in pulsating in consequence of an impulse and of its own elasticity, it moves within the current of air only, alternately al- lowing and interrupting its passage ; this is hence termed the free reed. It is proposed to consider in this place only those instruments involving the free reed. A small, short, me- tallic tube, containing a single tongue or reed of this form, fitted to yield upon blowing into one end the note A or 0, has long been known, and probably first in Germany and Holland, and is termed a pitch pipe. Pere Amiot, a French missionary to China, early described the crieng, or Chinese organ, a small instru- ment consisting of a series of tubes, each hav- ing its free lamina or tongue, and acted on by the breath of the performer ; and this appears to have been in common use in that country from an early period. The accordion was in- vented in Germany about 1829. The first reed organs, though imperfect, were made in the United States about 1818. Indeed, as early as 1812 Aaron Merrill Peasley obtained a patent for reed instruments ; the wording of his claim was sufficiently general to include any form of instrument in which the tones are produced by free reeds caused to vibrate by a bellows and played by a keyboard. This patent is now in possession of the Mason and Hamlin organ company. Mr. J. H. Bazin of Canton, Mass., in 1821, is named as the second inventor. At first the instruments attracted but little atten- tion, owing to their defective construction. Wherever the free reed may have been first applied to the making of a small or hand in- strument, the modifications thence arising, es- pecially between about 1825 and 1835, were in rapid succession and numerous. Among the earliest of these were Wheatstone's oeolina and concertina, the latter in form of a bellows with two hexagonal faces, on the upper of which were four rows of finger stops or studs ; by pressing down the latter, air was admitted to act on the corresponding tongues within. The attempts to improve the accordion, by enlarg- ing it and extending its scale, naturally ren- dered it unwieldy, and thus led to a form of organ with free reeds only, and without pipes, the bellows being worked by the foot. Such were Mr. Green's seraphine and the French melodium (in England and the United States, melodeon), one form of which latter, also termed the harmonium, appears to have been the invention of M. Debain of Paris, and im- proved by MM. Alexandre, father and son. The most improved form of this instrument is noV known in France as the orgue-melodium, or piano Liszt; in this country, as the Alex- andre organ. Other French instruments, of the earlier date above spoken of, were the poikilorgue and vymphonium ; of the German, some of which were small, and probably all ephemeral, were the ceolophon, phy-harmo- nica, eeolo-mvicon^ &c. In 1841 Mr. Evans of Cheltenham, England, produced a harmonium of two banks of keys and 2 J octaves of pedals ; but the instrument was not brought promi- nently forward till 1859. The objects of this inventor were to overcome the nasal and harsh quality of tone, and the slow speaking, then characterizing the French and English instru- ments ; and he is said to have produced ulti- mately a pure tone of fine quality, with rapid utterance, and without loss of power. This is the form of harmonium described in Eng- lish works. In it the several rows or series of reeds designed to give the different regis- ters or parts in the harmony performed are, as in the Alexandre organ, placed horizon- tally across the instrument, at the same level, and separated from each other by partitions ; the arrangement being such that the particu- lar compartments or series to which the air shall be admitted in performing are determined by the knobs or stops that have been drawn