Hi Touchweight enthusiasts Our freind Hans Velo is at it again with his magnent inventions. The latest issue of the European Journal carries a short where he describes the use of magnets to create a virtual hammer shank knuckle. This idea is rather fascinating because in addition to reducing friction at the knuckle, it claims to reduce the amount of counterweighting needed by the keys. Effectively, these two magnets add a second << virtual >> knuckle whippen interface that presumably alters the action ratio significantly enough to allow for less key leading. The reigning view that less key inertia is better (presumably to the absolute) is repeated, which you all know I dont agree with, or see has been shown. That being said it seems that our Hans Velo is well on his way to creating an action which relies principly on magnets instead of leads and phsyical lever interfaces to creat the leverage and balance of the action. The device itself consists of a screw resembling a drop screw that goes throught he shank just aft of the knuckle, the bottom of which has a magnet attached. Just under this on the repetition lever is a repeling counterpart. Both are fully adjustble and are angled such that the distance between them is maintained through the arcs of the two part through most of the key stroke. Claims made are : -- that this reduces friction between knuckle and jack top -- that that reduction in friction equates to less key leading needed -- that a further reduction in key leading is created by the << virtual knuckle >> effect described above. I suppose you could use magnets to operate the jack return as well... even do away with the jack stop... just have a magnetic feild set up that pulls the jack back into a specific position. Or... as I've been playing with... you could create a second < virtual > capstan and whippen heel to deal with the whole counter weighting issue from a ratio perspective instead of a counterleading (force) perspective. My idea here is adjustble opposing magnents just forward of the capstan on both the whippen and keystick. This would allow for placement of the capstan and heel to be farther backwards without loosing weight leverage advantages. Normally, weight advantage is gained at the expence of velocity and distance... and likewise the other way around.. This allows one to get around that problem. No patents... they seem to be more counter productive in the long run anyways. Cheers RicB -- Richard Brekne RPT, N.P.T.F. UiB, Bergen, Norway mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html http://www.hf.uib.no/grieg/personer/cv_RB.html
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