{"id":31066,"date":"2012-03-26T08:22:20","date_gmt":"2012-03-26T15:22:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/?p=31066"},"modified":"2024-05-29T16:26:32","modified_gmt":"2024-05-29T23:26:32","slug":"martins-bell-brace-patent","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bassic-sax.info\/blog\/2012\/martins-bell-brace-patent\/","title":{"rendered":"A Design Patent For A Bell To Body Brace"},"content":{"rendered":"

I spent a couple of hours looking through Google Patents this morning. It never ceases to amaze me what kinds of things receive patents, and how many of those things never seem to get picked up by financial backers. A whole lotta’ money gets spent on patent applications with little return.<\/p>\n

Then there of course those things, such as the following bell to body brace, which were invented by employees of companies. Those investments generally tend to pay off.<\/p>\n

In this particular case the US Patent office received an application for a Design Patent<\/a> from inventor Earl J. Ghlespie. At the time Ghlespie worked for The Martin Band Instrument Company. Martin applied for the patent in February 1945, and it was awarded in November 1946.<\/p>\n

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     Source: Google Patents<\/a><\/h6>\n

In his patent application, Ghlespie wrote the following about his unique design:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This famous design was of course used in Martin’s Committee III, AKA The Martin, saxophones. According to The Martin Story<\/a>, the Committee III production began in 1945.<\/p>\n

\"Martin<\/a><\/p>\n

     Committee III Tenor Serial # 160XXX  Photography by H. Kahlke<\/h6>\n

It’s interesting how something so basic as a bell brace can be so distinctive. Although these bell to body braces started out very utilitarian<\/a>, over time they have become one of the features that allow us to identify brands of horns.<\/p>\n

Take for example, the famous Selmer bell to body brace<\/a>. Although Selmer has made minor changes to their design, the circle has remained a constant. Sadly, like the rest of Selmer’s innovations, it’s been copied by almost every other saxophone manufacturer out there.<\/p>\n

To my knowledge the patented Martin bell brace design was never copied. Having said that, I can’t think of any other Martin characteristics that have been copied by other companies either. Certainly the unique tonal qualities of the brand have never been duplicated.<\/p>\n

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…this is just my blog<\/em>. <\/span> My \u201creal\u201d <\/b> website is<\/span> www.bassic-sax.info.<\/a> If you\u2019re looking for <\/span> sax info<\/strong>,<\/span> you should check it out too.<\/span>There\u2019s lots<\/em> there! <\/span><\/div>\n
 <\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I spent a couple of hours looking through Google Patents this morning. It never ceases to amaze me what kinds of things receive patents, and …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[383],"tags":[150,639,633,683,644,629],"class_list":["post-31066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-patents","tag-american-saxophones","tag-martin","tag-musings","tag-patents","tag-photos","tag-selmer"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t