Interesting Rear-loaded Corner Horn Patents

[D-MAN]

Patent pics to follow in next post to this thread, for those interested in horn design.

An interesting couple of back-loaded designs from the same inventor, Warren Rice from Ypsilanti, MI. These date from 1956 and 1962, respectively. These designs feature a longer horn length than the usual (except for the Tannoys).

So, to me, these fill the niche between the "Shorthorn"-types and the large Tannoy rear-loaded designs in complexity.

These are quite different than what we are typically used to in that the horns exhaust into the corners differently than the Klipsch designs. Whether this is "better", who knows, but I was reading something about a horn that exhausts at a 30 degree angle into a corner is the most efficient for low frequencies. So these designs peaked my interest, although they don't appear to have anything to do with a 30 degree angle.

And of course, anything that goes in a corner is compared to the Klipshorn, so those are mentioned. He said that these were more than competitive with the Khorn. Granted, patents are not "official" in that everything in them is going to be true or even remotely repeatable in a scientific sense and the reader needs to exercise some discernment as to some things, but these are pretty good.

I've found that the patents can teach alot about practical horn stuff, and that the "old" guys definitely "knew their stuff" for the most part, and some of their ideas varied widely as do some of ours here.

These are some conversions from TIFF files, so they look rather bad, but those who are interested can look them up on the USPTO website by patent number. I enjoyed reading these, they are better than most patent texts because you can get a sense of the man behind it.

DM

[D-MAN]

Here's the first patent 1956. The horn mouth exhausts vertically upwards.

DM

[D-MAN]

The freq. response curve for the above (1956).

DM

[D-MAN]

In 1962, Mr. Rice patented this design. The horn mouth exhausts downward.

DM

[D-MAN]

Page 2 of the patent drawings for the 1962 patent. This is SO simple that it is very intriguing!

DM