This would be a ineresting design for a metal Conical flute

[Jon C.]

There is even setting you can turn it too! Does this flute have AM or FM?

[Denny]

AM.....FM came later.

[rforbes]

That is SO cool looking!!

I'm getting into a real rut with the Philip Bate quotes:

"Ward's 'Patent Flutes' were furnished with graduated metal tuning slides, and to move the stoppers he provided, not a screw, but a sort of eccentric with a tiny connecting rod. An indicator mounted on the eccentric spindle outside the head showed the setting of the cork, and had to be matched with corresponding numbers on the slide."

Rob

[kkrell]

That is SO cool looking!!

I'm getting into a real rut with the Philip Bate quotes:

"Ward's 'Patent Flutes' were furnished with graduated metal tuning slides, and to move the stoppers he provided, not a screw, but a sort of eccentric with a tiny connecting rod. An indicator mounted on the eccentric spindle outside the head showed the setting of the cork, and had to be matched with corresponding numbers on the slide."

Rob

So a poor man's R&R patent head.

Kevin Krell

[Terry McGee]

Is that a fancy set screw for the cork?

Kevin Krell

Sure is. That's Ward's patented Indicator and Terminator, see:

http://www.mcgee-flutes.com/Ward_FE_8.htm

Essentially his version of Potter's markings on slide and stopper, or Rudall & Rose's Patent Head. All attempts to keep the stopper and slide positions synchronised over a wide range of pitches.

The keywork, as Jon remarked, is unusual. It's Ward's "bellcrank" system - when you operate a key, you pull a wire along the flute, which then lifts or closes a pad. Proved not that practical.

Terry

[Jon C.]

Is that a fancy set screw for the cork?

Kevin Krell

Sure is. That's Ward's patented Indicator and Terminator, see:

http://www.mcgee-flutes.com/Ward_FE_8.htm

Essentially his version of Potter's markings on slide and stopper, or Rudall & Rose's Patent Head. All attempts to keep the stopper and slide positions synchronised over a wide range of pitches.

The keywork, as Jon remarked, is unusual. It's Ward's "bellcrank" system - when you operate a key, you pull a wire along the flute, which then lifts or closes a pad. Proved not that practical.

Terry

I should have checked your site, figures that you would have a diagram how it works... I like the name, "The Terminator" Arnold would like that!

[I.D.10-t]

Your lip would not easily slip off of that plate.

[Cork]

These are lovely flutes, and I could sit here for hours admiring them.

However, in terms of a modern, A=440 version, apparently it could be a matter of just how many people could be willing to lay out, say, a few thousand dollars to buy one, to thereby create a market for such a thing.

Anybody?

Gee, all I did was mention a speculative pile of money. Hello, where'd everybody go?

[Denny]

uh, you were expecting a different answer, eh?

[Cork]

What ever happened to entrepreneurial spirit?

[talasiga]

the question is how these sound?

I guess this is one of those very substantial and segue questions that may escape comment in a flute topic.

I read, I think in Terry McGee's site, that Boehm considered a cylindrical bodied thin walled flute the apex.

[Cork]

This is a flute that is at the Dayton museum, interesting design, as a alternative to delrin...

@Jon C.

Of the above flute, what could a reasonable estimation be of the market value of a modern, A=440, all silver interpretation of such a flute?

[Jon C.]

I think it would cost about $3k to make something like that.

[Cork]

Somehow, $3K seems about right. However, considering the Research and Development costs, to determine an optimum configuration for such a flute, could you venture a guess as to roughly how many such flutes would need to be sold at $3K each to recover the R&D costs? Perhaps a couple of hundred? That is, perhaps a one-off, one only, of such a design could cost a lot more than $3K.

I don't mean to hold you to any account, but I am trying to get some sense of true costs, here, please.

[jim stone]

I MUST have one!