The STENGEL family and Bayreuth The Stengel family had a woodwind instrument business for almost a century in the German town of Bayreuth or Baireuth. Bayreuth is located in the north of Bavaria, on the Red Main river. Its roots go back to 1194. It is very famous, among other things,...
This spectacular and rare flute was made by George Leonhard LINTNER (1794-1859), who was trained and licensed as both a brass and woodwind instrument maker – very rare at the time. He worked with his father, Johann Georg LINTNER, originally from Tyrnau in Slovakia, in their hometown of Augsburg in...
In the 19th century, several inventors patented ideas to enable the flute to be played vertically. This meant that the flute is held vertically, but blown transversely. Enter the fascinating ‘Giorgi’ flute! The Giorgi flute was an 11-hole keyless flute to which keys could be furnished if required. The instrument...
The beginnings in Germany and move to Strasbourg Julius Max BÜRGER was born in Freiburg im Breisgau, Germany on 21 April, 1844. He completed a total of twelve years as an apprentice and journeyman in several woodwind instrument workshops across Europe. This training included some work in Munich for Boehm &...
Johann Georg STEINER had his workshop in Rottenburg am Neckar in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. He lived from 1783 to 1862. It seems that Johann Georg was one of two brothers who worked making woodwind instruments. His brother’s name was Johann Ignaz STEINER (who perhaps left to settle and work out of...
Ebonite was invented in 1839 by Charles Goodyear. He found that he could obtain a black material, which was rigid rather than elastic, by mixing together and heating latex and sulphur. The result was a hard rubber and it was given the name ebonite because both the colour and consistency were very similar to ebony (heartwood).
Ebonite would go on to be used in the manufacture of many objects including high-quality fountain pens, bowling balls, clocks, electrical insulating material or saxophone and clarinet mouthpieces.
Ebonite was also employed as an alternative material for making flute bodies. It seems it was first used in flute making in the mid-1800s by New-York-based Alfred G. Badger and other makers followed suit. It was thought to be very advantageous as a material because it did not absorb water, was durable and difficult to break. It was also a bad conductor of heat which meant that alterations in air temperature would not affect the pitch of the flute.
The famous ‘Giorgi Flute’ was made entirely of ebonite (with metal rings) rather than wood by the London firm Joseph WALLIS & Son Limited in around 1900. It was not only constructed in this new hard rubber material, but had no keys!
