A friend at work has just made a new flute so here’s a photo of it next to my 1832 Hill/Monzani.
Now I’m not too sure that it’ll be that good for ITM as all those electronic bits might not take kindly to having Guinness spilled on them.
Cheers
Graeme
Wow. Can you tell us more about it?
I’m reminded of an article in the Galpin Society Journal, maybe sometime in the early 1970’s, where the author had replaced all the keys on a bassoon with solenoid-operated pads. The article was called “The Logical Bassoon”, and I think the impetus was to simplify the fingering of the bassoon, which is normally pretty complex. He used some simple logic (probably mostly steering diodes, but I imagine there might be a few places where more complex gates might be needed) and operated the instrument from a section of electronic keyboard.
Heh heh, and you’re right about the Guinness. A few drops among the brains of the thing and you’d have had a very illogical bassoon! Indeed, I’ve known live bassoonists like that.
Postscript. On a whim I googled “Logical Bassoon” and found:
On my trip to England last summer (August, 1969),1 had the pleasure of visiting Dr. Giles Brindley, a scientist, brilliant acoustician, and amateur bassoonist. Dr. Brindley is the inventor, designer, and builder of an unusual instrument which he calls the Logical Bassoon.
The characteristics of the instrument are as follows: 1) hand made of sapele wood (resembles maple), 2) Except for the crook and first 16 cms of the bore which changes from circular gradually to square, the bore of this instrument is square (for ease of construction). 3) The tube bends back twice for compactness. The instrument stands on the floor, is steadied between the player’s thighs, and rises in height approximately to his shoulder level. The crook is shortened and resembles an English horn crook in angle. 4) The range is from Low A1 to e", 5) Except for the high e" key, added later and functioning mechanically with little finger, all notes are played by depressing easy combinations of electrical switches - one for each finger and the thumbs. These switches are connected to an electrical circuit (two stages: recognition circuit and programming circuit) which activates the closing and opening of note holes, 6) There are eleven speaker holes which automatically operate to ease the playing of upper partials, 7) The electricity comes from mains current (probably a battery could also be adapted for outdoors) - and provides one further advantage: A nichrome wire heater extending into the bore and another heater wrapped around the crook provide variable pitch control of the entire instrument ranging from 'h step below A= 440 tuning to 1/2 step above A=440 tuning (any degree). In addition, because the inside temperature of the bassoon is higher than the temperature of the player’s breath (during performance) no water condenses in the instrument however long it is played, 
Playing is with regular bassoon reed, and normal resistance is felt. The tone quality is very close to that of a good German system bassoon, 9) Efficiency of sound is somewhat less than that of a good Heckel bassoon, but I attribute this at least partly to the unusual bore, 10) Adjusting intonation by lip control and/or breath intensity is the same as for normal bassoons (intonation of the bassoon is generally quite even) and 11) fingering is much easier than any other woodwind instrument I have seen. All A’s, B’s, C’s, etc. (any octave) have the same basic fingering, octave change being accomplished with either little finger(s) or thumb(s)). To sharp any note 1/2 step, finger the note and add the left thumb! This makes the trill Ab -Bb, for example, a variation of a G - A trill: finger G, add left thumb for G sharp (Ab), then trill the G and A “keys” with complete ease.
I listened to Dr. Brindley play several difficult passages on his “Logical Bassoon” with no fingering difficulty. I also played a few scales and passages myself and found the instrument quite easy to adjust to (with an almost “normal” bassoon feel).
For a more complete technical description of the instrument including photographs, all acoustical and electrical details, a fingering chart, and an excellent explanation of the instrument, I refer you to The Galpin Society Journal No. XXI. An article titled The Logical Bassoon by Giles Brindley, includes pages 152-161.
Although Dr. Brindley does not plan to market his invention, and it is difficult to see us playing on instruments of this type in the near future, I believe certain improvements found on the Logical Bassoon could be studied by today’s musicians. The extra speaker holes to ease formation of upper partials could reduce some of the complex cross fingerings we now use in the high register. Also, the electric heating system - if not practical immediately for bassoonists - might at least help clarinetists who pick up a cold A clarinet and play flat for the first minute or so until their breath warms the air inside the instrument.
How about that - tuning stabilised by changing the inside temperature of the instrument! Hmmm, I’ve come across a few flutes that could do with that, but might need an atomic power station to be able to supply the kind of power needed!
It is interesting to consider that a piano keyboard would enable the flute player to play with one hand only. What could you use the other hand for?
Or maybe you could have an effects keyboard, eg:
I think I’ll stick to making the plain wooden ones until a new direction becomes obvious! But do tell us more about the electronic one!
Terry
There’s a pressure sensitive lump for each finger and a velocity sensitive detector thing for the air you’re blowing. So it can be set up to detect not just what fingering you’re using but also how hard you’re pushing each finger, and how hard you’re blowing. So in theory it could be set up to play like a simple system flute as far as fingering goes, you could alter the volume by blowing harder and maybe you could alter the tone by squeezing harder - just think you could have the tone of both Molloy and Larsen available!
Personally I suspect it’s rubbish but some people are into this sort of thing. I liked the photo with the 2 flutes; 1832 model and 2009 model. It reminds me of a British MotorBike fanatic friend I had - when someone commented about a certain non-British bike sounding good said, “Japanese bikes don’t make a sound, they make a noise. British bikes make a sound.” I myself wouldn’t want to play this thing if it could be programmed to be the most expressive best sounding flute ever made. Cool tech toy however, it just needs some blinking flashing lights to complete it!
Cheers
Graeme