[Trombone-l] Don't pull your F slide out too far

[Richardson, Timothy A Mr CIV USA IMCOM-Europe]

Dave,

B. P. Leonard does play trombone, though it's not his day job, and has
been a list member here and on OTJ.  His championing of the G attachment
makes a lot of sense for the amateur, at least to me; his constant bore
theories are a little more controversial.  Well, maybe a lot
controversial.  <grin>  But I had some private correspondence with him
and he seemed to be a pretty decent guy.

Somehow I don't see him getting rich on the Eb bass trombone!!!  Oh,
wait, it's assigned to University of Akron, guess they get the fees.
Look for a new football power very soon with all that income.  





-----Original Message-----
From: Dave Tall [mailto:davetall at btrb.com] 
Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2008 12:17 PM
To: trombone-l at samford.edu
Subject: [Trombone-l] Don't pull your F slide out too far

or you'll owe B. P. Leonard of the University of Akron some patent fees.


United States Patent  5,375,499
Leonard  December 27, 1994 

------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------
Single trigger perfect fifth slide bass trombone


Abstract
A slide trombone is provided which has an attachment that is activated 
by a single thumb trigger to lower the basic pitch of the trombone by a 
perfect fifth. This attachment configuration permits the player to play 
all the chromatic tones between the tenor range and the pedal notes 
using a standard length slide.


------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------
Inventors:  Leonard; B. P. (Akron, OH) 
Assignee: The University of Akron (Akron, OH)
 
Appl. No.:  08/064,961
Filed:  May 18, 1993

===============================================

I'm comforted to know that the USPTO's policy of granting trivial 
patents for inventions with prior art and/or obvious to someone skilled 
in the subject isn't limited to software and business process patents, 
but includes stunning and heretofore unimagined inventions such as a 
bass trombone with a single valve tuned to Eb.

Mr. Leonard also has a patent on an inline bass trombone with the thumb 
valve tuned to a minor third and the finger valve tuned to 
"approximately six semitones". 

These are nearly as impressive as patent 6368227, "Method of swinging on

a swing", and patent 5443036, "Method of exercising a cat" (using a 
laser pointer).

What a country!