Tuba Tuesday - C. G. Conn EEb helicon
Posted: Tue Aug 25, 2020 6:48 pm
this one actually has a connection to our very own Mark Jones, so I'm going to let him post the rest of the story
Mark? you're up.
Mark? you're up.
This Tuba Tuesday we feature our newest addition: a very rare C. G. Conn EEb helicon, circa 1884 which has three of the earliest form of the piston valve, known as Stoelzel pistons, after the inventor Heinrich Stoelzel.
Heinrich Stoelzel (b. 1777; d. 1844). was a professional horn player who worked in Leipzig and Berlin, Germany in the late 18th and 19th centuries. In 1814, he created the first successful airtight piston valve which he placed on his own instruments. Circa 1817, he asked the German maker Griessling & Schmitt to make brass instruments with his new airtight piston valves.
Piston valves continued to Improve until 1839 when the French maker Etienne Périnet designed his version of the airtight piston valve, which is basically what is still being used today.
The Stoelzel valve differs from the modern, or Périnet, piston valve in that the air passage enters at the bottom of the piston (shown below on right). This type of valve, however, had inherent problems. It forced the air to double back on itself and the 90 degree turns disrupted the bore, causing significant undesired back-pressure.
C. G. Conn was founded in 1874 by Charles Gerard Conn in Elkhart, Indiana. His use of Stoelzel valves on a small number of his early instruments was probably due to requests from customers who wanted them.
Our C. G. Conn EEb helicon with Stoelzel valves, shown below, is the only instrument in the Collection with Stoelzel valves. It has a bell diameter of 14.5 inches and a valve bore of .570 inch.
I want to thank our good friend and fellow collector, Mark Jones, for helping us acquire this rare instrument.
