This unusual and rare embouchure or mouth-piece was designed and patented by William WHEATSTONE (1775-1854).  He was the father of Sir Charles Wheatstone (1802-1875), an English physicist and inventor. Charles was also deeply engaged with musical instruments throughout his life, most notably inventing the English concertina in 1829. He also had a music business with his brother William junior, C. Wheatstone and Co, at 436 The Strand.

Back to William Senior… He was a maker and professor of the German flute and music publisher in London. He was even known to have given flute and flageolet instruction to royalty, including Princess Charlotte (1796-1817), daughter of the George, Prince of Wales (to become George IV) and his wife Caroline of Brunswick (1768-1821).   He also published “Favourite Melodies of Various Nations, for the German Flute”.

We can date the invention of the Wheatstone embouchure to the beginning of the 1800s. It is already mentioned in the above published music in 1817. There’s also an entry (534) about it in Rockstro’s “A treatise on the construction, the history and the practice of the flute”.  

Another mouthpiece design has been patented by Charles Gostling TOWNLEY in 1808 (entry 508) which looked similar to a whistle attachment. Both these mouthpieces we employed when playing a flute horizontally, directly the air down rather than across the embouchure – like a fipple flute.

Rockstro was not at all impressed with either invention since the tone it produced was “poor and unequal”.

There is another example of the William Wheatstone mouth-piece (Flute Mouthpiece, DCM 1340) held in the Library of Congress Dayton C. Miller collection. It mentions that the mouth-piece serial number 631 once belonged to the flutist Pratten. William Wheatstone praises his own invention saying in his leaflet that “the Learner is put some years in advance, without fatigue or risk of health, and the Proficient enabled to add new beauties to his performance.”

This particular Wheatstone’s embouchure has the serial number 1980 – so quite a few were made. Unfortunately the idea really didn’t catch on. It was only useful for those who were incapable of getting that all important embouchure just right! Regular flutists obviously carried on with their natural embouchures risking tiredness and ill-health with no beauties in their performances! 😊

This Wheatstone’s embouchure is actually for sale…with a super combination instrument