by Trevor Wye with William Bennett and Eldred Spell.
while this is Boehm it is regarding the change in sounding length, hole size & placement.
An interesting development, Denny. You’ll probably remember Ralph Nader’s landmark book, “Unsafe at any speed”, that was a turning point in the US car industry. I think we might have just witnessed a Nader moment in the flute industry. I certainly hope so.
Let me draw attention to Eldred’s automated flute blower, pictured near the bottom of the first page. I hope we can convince him to tell us more about it, but in the meantime, I thought we might have some fun trying to work out what he is up to. Remember this is all pure conjecture at this stage!
The system seems based on a T-slotted metal bench, rather like a mill table. Very nice and stable! (We used to use marble grave covers at Earth Sciences for mass spectrometers. I thought they leant a suitably gloomy air to the laboratory, especially on stormy nights.)
We can see the head of the flute at the middle right, solidly clamped in place above and below the embouchure to the bench. The artificial mouth with lips is looming over the embouchure hole. A corrugated tube supplies the air, and is perhaps the same tube that comes around to the floating ball type airflow meter to the right of the flute cap. That airflow meter incorporates a needle valve (the black knob at the bottom) which could be used to adjust flow rate. The lower tube behind the needle valve probably is fed by an aquarium pump (?) on the shelf under the desk. A control valve in that line allows Eldred to easily shut off the sound to regain his wits after listening to C7 for over a minute while taking measurements! Although it’s possible that Eldred uses it to introduce some resistance into the airline so that the airline acts as a plenum to filter out pump pressure flutter. Alternatively, there might be some filtering behind the scenes.
A smaller poly tube also connects to the artificial mouth via a right angle bend. It perhaps is a control element of some kind, but perhaps more likely is a take-off to a pressure meter, probably one of the large round Magnahelic gauges on the plywood panel, allowing it to read “blowing pressure” just behind the lips. Another of the gauges may be set up to read flow more conveniently than the floating ball meter. The rest are probably unused at this time, but might be intended for some development, eg the ability to switch quickly or even automatically between pre-set-up notes. (Go on like this and who needs flute players?)
The position of the artificial mouth vis-a-vis the embouchure hole can be adjusted in the horizontal and vertical planes by the micrometer-style handles in those two planes. A microphone is supported via a gooseneck near the embouchure hole and connects either to the Korg-style tuning meter (seen behind the flute body) or to a preamp on the shelf below the desk or both.
The body of the flute is also clamped to the metal table, but via a rack & pinion positioning device, allowing the flute to be extended for tuning. Forceps style pad clamps appear to be closing the first two large pads, ie fingering xxo ooo. A digital readout such as you would find on a mill provides an accurate measure of the slide extension.
A laptop computer accepts input from the microphone via the preamp, and from Eldred via his fingers. Waveforms and/or spectra can be viewed on the oscillocope/spectrum analyser at bottom right. There is a heavy black piece of equipment to right bottom of picture which I can’t make out. The take-home message is that these guys are really serious!
Anyone anything to add or challenge?
Terry
As I was scrolling through a PDF the other day, I came upon a picture, that same picture.
My first thought was “I know someone that is gonna want that thing!”
Still fishin’ with the aquarium pump, eh? 
That is an interesting article, Denny. It mentions that both flutes and flute players have imperfections with regard to completely pure intonation on the flute, and I agree that it is a good idea to seek improvements for both the flute in terms of scale design and players in terms of acute listening and more accurate tonal performance. On the other hand, as I have mentioned before, quoting from the classic book “Music, Sound, and Sensation” by Fritz Winckel, “Although completely pure intonation is most difficult on the flute, it is also of least importance, for the (flute) tone is poor in overtone content, and a slight distuning can have a positive equalizing effect.” In reality, there is always another side of the coin.
That sounds like extraordinary excuse-making on Winckel’s part, rather reminiscent of advising overt sexual behaviour on the part of unattractive women! Your tone is boring, so tizz it up by playing out of tune! Clearly the professional flautists Wye and Bennett (Wibb), and Professor of Flute Spell do not share the same view - they have worked hard over years to improve the Cooper scale further and promote the need for change. They wouldn’t be wasting their time if they didn’t think it was needed.
Winckel is also misleading on harmonic structure. The flute might lack harmonics in the upper octaves, but the low octave notes are quite rich, especially when played in the reedy Irish style.
Terry
Yeah, you got me. I think it’s probably only a matter of time before I knock one up too, and between Neville Fletcher’s and Eldred Spell’s models I don’t lack for ideas.
What happens though if you build an automatic flute blower and then find it can blow your flutes better than you can?
Terry
aw, what’s one more disappointment?
I’m sure that Mr. Winckel was thinking about Boehm concert flutes with regard to his comment about flute tone. I do agree that wooden conical flutes, or silver flutes, for that matter, exhibit a much broader range of harmonics in the first octave when played in the “reedy Irish style”. However, most people who play flutes in the world do not play them this way because they are instructed not to do so. I do believe that the flute, when compared to other woodwinds, such as the clarinet, oboe, or bassoon, produces a more pure tone with fewer harmonics, not necessarily a bad thing, though.
Terry, if the deliberate distuning of the tempered scale was not enough already, I also question Winckel’s statement that playing slightly off-pitch could have a positive equalizing effect with regard to orchestral tone. As I said before, I agree that it is wise to use whatever means at hand to arrive at a more universally accurate flute scale.
Heh heh, we sound in furious agreement, Doug.
Interesting the matter of tone, even in the classical music field. I confident enough now to assert that the Nicholsonian tone was much closer to modern Irish style than we might have imagined, and we are also seeing a reversion in the Boehm world towards that style and away from the more sweet tone of my youth. Funny how things go round.
I was also reminded by the article to check my diary entry for Thursday, 19 September 1974:
In to Phillips, Son & Neale [now called Bonhams] auction and watched with interest. Bidding was brutal, and prices seemed high, although Paul [Davies, flute dealer] thought otherwise. Met Paul before auction, and we joined William Bennett (flautist) [one of the authors of the present article] for coffee after. He demonstrated the qualities of Paul’s flutes [bought at the auction], playing beautifully the 5th Brandenburg in the café.
Phillips, Son & Neale were at 101 New Bond St. Rudall Rose Carte & Co had been at 100, Willis at 119, and Chappell at 52. Goulding, D’Almaine, Cahusac and others also hung out in that street at various times. Holy ground!
Terry
Mr Galway sounds quite reedy on the low octave, more than most Boehm players I’ve heard anyway…