798 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



is the ancient form of the flute — with some differences — and is 

 also used very widely. 



The flute was first made acceptable for artistic requirements 

 by Theobold Boehm about 1834. Not only did this celebrated 

 inventor contribute to the flute, but his system of key adjust- 

 ment, fingering, and tube-boring materially assisted the further 

 development of the clarionet and other wood wind-instruments. 

 He was anticipated in this country, however, in many points by 

 Edward Riley, one of the earliest American musical instrument 

 makers of the century. Boehm was a native of Munich, Ger- 

 many, where he had a shop devoted to the making of wood wind- 

 instruments. Captain Gordon, a Swiss military officer of Scotch 

 extraction, was the inventor of the Boehm system of fingering, 

 but Boehm applied it practically with modifications in 1835, and 

 thus earned the credit of being the inventor. He crossed to Lon- 

 don in that year and introduced his instruments to musicians, 

 meeting with great success. These were made with the cylindri- 

 cal instead of the conical bore and created much attention. Their 

 appearance led to a revolution in the methods of flute-making 

 practiced up to that period. Boehm took out no patent, hence 

 the general adoption of his method of boring and other particu- 

 lars soon after their introduction. His system of fingering in 

 itself, however, involved a radical departure which musicians 

 and students were loath to take iip at once, but it is now firmly 

 established. 



Common flutes without keys were made in America before the 

 Revolution, but Riley was the first maker of standing to appear in 

 the field. He had a factory in Franklin Square, New York, as 

 early as 1810, where he produced wood wind-instruments of va- 

 rious kinds for orchestral and band purposes. The firm of Firth 

 & Hall came into existence about 1817, and was devoted to the 



Fig. 4.— Clarionet, with Impkoved System of Fingering and Key Construction. 



manufacture of wood wind-instruments and music-publishing. 

 Thaddeus B. Firth, of Maspeth, Long Island, a grandson of John 

 Firth, yet carries on flute-making as a special branch, in which 

 he has won some distinction. Flutes, flageolets, and piccolos of 

 excellent quality are manufactured by various makers in this 

 country at present, in connection with clarionets and other wood 

 wind-instruments. 



The clarionet, which plays a most important part in the domain 

 of musical art, is a product of Germany, where it was invented in 



