{
  "patent_number": "US 1956350",
  "country": "US",
  "title": "How Laurens Hammond Invented the Electric Organ",
  "original_title": "Electrical musical instrument",
  "summary": "Laurens Hammond's 1934 patent for an electrical musical instrument that used spinning tone wheels to generate sound, forming the basis of the iconic Hammond organ.",
  "what_it_does": "The patent describes a system for generating musical tones using rotating electromagnetic tone wheels. As these metallic wheels spin near electromagnetic pickups, they create alternating currents that correspond to specific musical frequencies. These signals are then amplified and sent to a speaker to produce sound, effectively replacing the heavy pipes and air-driven bellows of traditional organs with compact electronic components.",
  "what_it_does_not_cover": [
    "Does not cover digital synthesis or software-based sound generation.",
    "Does not cover modern MIDI-based keyboard controllers.",
    "Does not cover instruments that rely on vibrating strings or reeds."
  ],
  "filed": "1934-01-19",
  "granted": "1934-04-24",
  "expires": "1954-01-19",
  "status": "expired",
  "holder": "Individual",
  "holder_url": "https://patentbrief.org/company/individual",
  "inventors": [
    {
      "name": "Hammond Laurens",
      "url": "https://patentbrief.org/inventor/hammond-laurens"
    }
  ],
  "times_cited": 35,
  "tags": [
    "mechanical",
    "consumer_electronics"
  ],
  "abstract": null,
  "url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/1956350/hammond-organ",
  "markdown_url": "https://patentbrief.org/patent/us/1956350/hammond-organ/md",
  "google_patents_url": "https://patents.google.com/patent/US1956350",
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}