<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><div>On Sep 15, 2008, at 2:03 PM, Kendall Ross Bean wrote:</div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"><blockquote type="cite"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 255); font-family: Arial; font-size: 10px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: -webkit-left; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; ">It does however have "Wurlitzer, Reg. U.S. Pat Office, U.S.A," cast in the plate in the usual place you see the brand, in the treble aliquot section, (See photo) (although this piano has front duplex, but not rear aliquots.) I would be really surprised if there wasn't a patent for this tuning system somewhere in the patent archives, but I'm not sure where I would start looking or what search words to enter. Maybe you would know</span></blockquote></div> I don't know how to search patents efficiently.  The patent office <a href="http://patft.uspto.gov/">http://patft.uspto.gov/</a> has actual text only from 1976 on. Prior patents are filed by number and by some sort of classification. If you have a number, you can enter it and view the actual documentation, including drawings. They are available as gif files (a higher resolution than jpg, essentially just a digital photo). Those earlier patents are assigned some sort of category, but you'd have to know the scheme for it to be helpful. No way to search on text pre-1976.<div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>Searches done on Google and elsewhere call up several other sites, like <a href="http://www.freepatentsonline.com/">http://www.freepatentsonline.com/</a> . I have delved a bit into freepatentsonline, and find the search function rather clunky: it probably requires considerable expertise in boolean logic and whatnot to be successful. I tend to find the process frustrating, as there is so much chaff for the occasional kernel. They do have help pages, which would probably be very useful if I had the time to wade through them. I am not convinced they have patents before 1976 either, though I could be wrong.</div><div><span class="Apple-tab-span" style="white-space:pre"> </span>I'd be grateful for any help in such matters from anyone who has been successful in negotiating patent searches.<br><div><div><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><br class="Apple-interchange-newline">Regards,</div><div>Fred Sturm</div><div>University of New Mexico</div><div><a href="mailto:fssturm@unm.edu">fssturm@unm.edu</a></div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div></div></div><br><div></div></div></div></body></html>