Books › A descriptive catalogue of the musical instruments recently exhibited at the Royal Military Exhibition, London, 1890 …, 1891 › scan 226
Scan 226
A descriptive catalogue of the musical instruments recently exhibited at the Royal Military Exhibition, London, 1890 …, 1891
12 lines. Read by computer on 1 October 2026. Printed page 206. See the scan on archive.org.
1of the instrument. These plates are formed with perfectly true faces, which move freely upon each other. The fixed disc carries upon it two lengths of tubing, one for the normal position of the valve, and one for the supplementary wind-way, which latter is thrown in in place of the former when the disc is rotated by means of the depression of a lever or touch-piece. This valve, however theoretically perfect, was found not to answer: the difficulty of keeping the plates air-tight was too great to be overcome.
3Mr. Köhler made instruments constructed upon this principle for some years, and introduced a rather different disposition of the air-passages, thereby securing greater rapidity of execution. The valves employed were modifications of this. The difference consisted in the moveable discs having but two very short crescents of tubing fixed upon them, instead of the whole supplementary wind-way as before. The extra length of tubing was placed upon the fixed plate, which, in this case, was pierced with four openings. The outside appearance of the moveable valve plate was merely that of a flat plate, with two bulb-like excrescences. When the valve was rotated by means of a lever, the extra tubing was brought into use. The engraving, a facsimile of that in Mr. Köhler's original prospectus,
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7PATENT LEVER CORNET.
9shows a cornet constructed with the improved patent lever valves; and these valves were applied to brass instruments of all sizes.
11The jury of the Great Exhibition of 1851 apparently thought well of this principle, and remarked that "the ingenious contrivance for
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