Books › A descriptive catalogue of the musical instruments recently exhibited at the Royal Military Exhibition, London, 1890 …, 1891 › scan 204
Scan 204
A descriptive catalogue of the musical instruments recently exhibited at the Royal Military Exhibition, London, 1890 …, 1891
6 lines. Read by computer on 1 October 2026. Printed page 184. See the scan on archive.org.
1diameter, in which the passages in each piston were all disposed in one horizontal place. These valves, though still of clumsy form, presented advantages greatly in excess of any hitherto constructed, and were for a time in general use in brass instruments supplied to the French army.
3The desire to ensure a wind passage absolutely free from abrupt turns, and yet of the same sectional area throughout, led the French maker Halary to patent a system of valves consisting of revolving plates, instead of pistons. The original idea, however, was due to John Shaw, of Glossop, who appears to have been then a brass worker, and to have abandoned his former profession of farmer. The idea was eventually patented by Shaw in 1835, and in his instrument as first made, the air-way passed through a loop of tubing fitted upon an I-shaped plate. There were two plates of this shape placed face to face, one fixed and one moveable, rotating upon a pivot placed in the centre of the I. Upon the moveable piece were two separate loops of tubing of different lengths, the windway passing through the shorter of the two when the plate was in its normal position. By slightly rotating the plate, the longer loop of tubing was brought into use. For these I-shaped plates, circular discs were shortly afterwards substituted, and the principle was applied to instruments of all sizes. Two trumpets of this construction, one with the I-shaped plates, and one with the circular discs, were in this Exhibition, and were the work of John Köhler, of Henrietta Street. The latter instrument is elsewhere described in detail (see No. 405), together with a further development of the same principle. These patent lever instruments, as they were called, had but a brief existence, although their construction offered, in theory, many advantages. At the opening of the Crystal Palace, 18 of them were supplied for the band of that institution, which then was under the direction of Mr. H. Schallehn, afterwards Director of Music at the Royal Military School of Music. The difficulty of keeping the plates properly wind-tight was found practically insurmountable, and the system was consequently discarded by the makers.
5The principal improvements as regards a free air passage through the pumps are due to Dr. J. P. Oates, an English doctor of medicine and clever acoustician. Some of these improved pistons were exhibited
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