Of Magnents and Ratio

[Richard Brekne]

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