Kathleen Schlesinger

“ C no longer needs to be 16 ft. long but only 8 ft. The older instruments, such as the saxhorns, with narrow bore, have therefore been denominated “half instruments,” because only half the length of the instrument is of practical utility, while the tubas with wide bore are styled “whole instruments.” [1] Bombardons are made in E flat and F of the 16 ft. octave, corresponding to the orchestral bass tuba, double bass in strings, and pedal clarinet and contrafagotto in the wood wind. ”

“ When the brass wind instruments with conical bore and cup-shaped mouthpiece first came into use, it was a well-understood principle that the tube of each instrument must theoretically be made twice as long as an organ pipe giving the same note ”

“ The intervening notes are obtained by means of pistons or valves, which, on being depressed, either admit the wind into additional lengths of tubing to lower the pitch, or cut off a length in order to raise it. Bombardons usually have three or four pistons lowering the pitch of the instrument respectively 1, 1/2, 11/2 and 21/2 tones (in Belgium, 1, 1/2, 2 and 3 tones) . The valve system, disposal of the tubing and shape and position of the bell differ considerably in the various models of well-known makers. In Germany and Austria [3] what is known as the cylinder action is largely used ”