Books › A descriptive catalogue of the musical instruments recently exhibited at the Royal Military Exhibition, London, 1890 …, 1891 › scan 205
Scan 205
A descriptive catalogue of the musical instruments recently exhibited at the Royal Military Exhibition, London, 1890 …, 1891
10 lines. Read by computer on 1 October 2026. Printed page 185. See the scan on archive.org.
1by Dr. Oates in the 1851 International Exhibition, where they gained a prize medal. The improvements consisted, in the words of the inventor, chiefly in "equitrilateral valves, in which the apertures leading into the windways were placed upon the periphery of the piston, at the point of an equilateral triangle drawn upon the transverse sectional area of the piston." An improvement upon these pistons was made in 1852, and registered, becoming known as the "eclipse" piston. It was adopted by M. Antoine Courtois as the first piston in his celebrated cornets, the "equitrilateral" (slightly altered by placing the main windway too near the centre) being used as the second.
3Dr. Oates invented also, about the same time, a piston which had four straight windways, and which was afterwards patented by Alphonse Sax, in Paris, and can be seen upon some of this maker's instruments. It is much to be regretted that none of Dr. Oates' inventions were patented by him in his own name; he appears to have disposed of his ideas, and they were produced by various instrument makers as their own inventions, and patented as such.
5The rotary valve, or cylinder action, in which the pump is replaced by a brass cock, was of German origin, and was probably invented about 1820. It is certain that it was in general use some 55 years ago, and in Germany and Austria has retained its place to the present day.
7The French maker Gustav Besson, in conjunction with Rödel, patented, in 1851, a system in which the main windway was carried straight through the centre of the valves, and was circular throughout; but the openings in the second valve being of larger section than the corresponding wind-way, caused an angularity that was found detrimental to the tone of the instrument. An improvement upon this construction, by which a direct wind passage was secured for the first and third valves, was effected by the same maker in July 1854, and patented in France. These improved pistons were fitted to the instrument, No. 404, described in detail elsewhere.
9M. Besson, in 1855, produced a system of valves in which the same bore was preserved throughout all the windways, in every possible combination of the pistons; this was a very decided improvement upon any system previously constructed, and at the expiration of the
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