Books › A descriptive catalogue of the musical instruments recently exhibited at the Royal Military Exhibition, London, 1890 …, 1891 › scan 209
Scan 209
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 189. See the scan on archive.org.
1cylinder, connected with a touch-piece placed at the side of the piston itself, and could be employed either as a compensator, or to extend the compass of the valve notes. The arrangement, shown in the engraving, being found in practice too intricate, was discarded.
3A method of correcting the intonation of the lower register, yet preserving the usual three-valve fingering, consists in substituting a duplicate set of tubings, of longer length, which are brought into use by the depression of a valve or lever. The invention of this arrangement has been attributed to Courtois, and the device was tried by Sax previous to his invention of the six-piston system. It is certain that the late M. Gustav Besson patented in 1856 a system having the same object. It consisted of a long horizontal valve, called a registre, which brought into use at the player's will other tubing, lowering the pitch of the instrument a semitone, and substituting at the same time a duplicate set of valve tubings of the necessary theoretical length. As applied to the ordinary three-piston instruments, the use of the registre enabled eight dependent positions to be produced. The following year M. Besson patented an improved registre, very similar in outward appearance, but which gave eight independent positions. The registre itself lowered the pitch two tones. Together with the three pistons and the open tube five independent positions were produced; the employment of the registre in conjunction with each of the three pistons separately, gave three others. The arrangement of the air passages is exceedingly ingenious, and is described at length in the French patent specification. The general appearance of the tubing of these instruments is shown in the engraving upon the opposite page.
5In 1858 MM. Besson and Giradin designed a compensating system, which they patented. It consisted of an addition of two pistons, placed below the others; when these pistons were depressed, the slides of the three ordinary valves were automatically lengthened proportionately. The mechanism was complicated, and too delicate to be of practical use. Accordingly, in the following year, M. Besson designed a system by which the same result was differently secured. This device he called his transpositeur, and it was equally useful as a compensator. A registre, as before, lowered the pitch two tones, and in conjunction with three pistons constructed with a duplicate set of
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.