The featured instrument this Tuba Tuesday is the Museum’s only silver plated BBb tuba, circa 1910, made by the maker VF Cerveny, which is shown below in a somewhat tarnished state.
Cerveny was founded in 1842 by Vaclav Frantisek Cerveny (1819-1896) in the city of Hradek Kralove, which is 100 miles east of Prague in what today is the Czech Republic. Cerveny was a mechanical genius whose tubas and helicons incorporated many of his inventions, including the side roller rotary valve system found on this very large, four rotary valve, silver plated Cerveny BBb tuba. The height is 39 inches and the bell diameter is 19 inches. It also has a graduated valve bore from .820” to .860” through the four rotary valves.
This tuba features an 1873 patented feature of Cerveny instruments, their Walzenventile, or “roller valves”. This roller valve mechanism is basically rotary valves that have been rotated 90 degrees from their typical position. This was done to simplify the mechanism, by increasing the mechanical advantage of the lever system. The 1873 patent also covered the spring tension adjusting screws, seen in this example as well. This mechanism was an extra cost option on their higher grades of instruments.
The Museum currently has 12 instruments in the collection made by VF Cerveny, but again, the one shown below is the only one with silver plating.
https://simonettitubacollection.com/ins ... -4-rotary/
