Whether you’re a rabologist or a musician, walking stick instruments are rather fascinating. Rabology is the study and/or collection of walking sticks. The walking stick collector’s market is huge and walking sticks seem not to lose their value over time.From sticks to canesWalking sticks were originally simply sticks, as the...
Slide whistles or lotus flutes made of ebonite stamped Swanee often show up at auctions and for sale on websites. They can be great fun, but also challenging to play, especially if you want to get a decent melody out of one. People call them Swanee whistles, lotus flutes, slide...
A pitch pipe or pitchpipe is a small device that sounds one note or notes. It is used to establish the correct starting note or pitch reference for musicians or singers. Pitch pipes come in all shapes and sizes.Early pitch pipesEarly pitch pipes looked very similar to a recorder, but...
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...
So, what is an ocarina? It is the strange name of a wind musical instrument – and means ‘little goose’ in Italian dialect. Also known as a vessel flute, the ocarina’s chamber has between four and twelve tone-holes and also a mouthpiece which usually projects from the flute body. The...
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!
