The Bass Drum Pedal: A Chain, a Segment and a Beater

Ludwig's objects are a device that "may be attached to a drum and so arranged as to operate drum and cymbal beaters by means of a hinged pedal", connecting the beaters with the pedal "in a direct and positive manner in order that the power may be transmitted instantaneously", with clamping means to attach and detach it and vertical adjustment for the beaters. The drum hoop is clamped between a bell-crank 8 and a hook 12 on an eye-screw 10, "one arm of the bell-crank" bearing on the hoop's edge and the other on its side. "The pedal 13 is pivoted at 16 to the pedal base 14 and is inclined upwardly toward the drum head 3 to meet a chain 17" which runs to "the grooved periphery of the segment 18 integral with the shaft 19." The shaft turns in members 20 sliding in tubular standards 6, set by bolts at any height. The drum beater arm 23 is fixed to the shaft; the cymbal beater arm 24 is at right angles to it, adjustable by a clamp 25; and "a wire spring 26 coiled around the shaft 19" holds the beater back.

Hinge a plywood footboard to a base. Mount a dowel shaft in two uprights above its far end, glue a plywood disc segment to it, and run a cord or bicycle chain from the footboard's end round the segment. Fix a dowel beater arm with a felt or cork head to the shaft, and a rubber band or spring to pull it back. Strike a cajón or a box drum with it. Film the beater with a phone at slow motion against a ruler to estimate its speed; then glue on a smaller segment and film again.

**William F. Ludwig** of Chicago filed US 922,706 on 8 February 1909 (the text layer misreads it as the 3rd); it was granted on 25 May 1909. **Honest limits.** Chain travel, stroke time, segment and arm sizes and beater mass are examples.