IMPROVEMENT IN SNARE DRUMS

WASHINGTON, D. C, August 8.—Patent No. 1,104,373 for a combined snare strainer and muffler was last week granted to Julius A. Meyer, St. Louis, Mo., which he has assigned to the Duplex Manufacturing Co., same place.

The object of the invention is to provide the ordinary snare drum with means whereby the snares or strings generally under tension and bearing against the bottom membrane of the drum may be instantly relaxed or loosened so as to muffle the sound of the drum. A muffled sound is frequently desirable and, in fact, necessary, particularly where a band or orchestra is engaged in playing Indian pieces, funeral dirges and the like, and where the tension on the snares must be momentarily released to give the drum a tom-tom effect.

A further object is to provide a combined strainer and muffler which will operate without binding as a result of warping of the walls of the drum; one which is simple, positive in action, reliable.