NMM 7073. Cornet in B-flat and A by E. G. Wright & Co., Boston, ca. 1865
Joe R. and Joella F. Utley Collection, 1999
Engraved on bell: Made by / E. G. Wright, & Co. / Boston.
E. G. Wright's focus turned from the making of keyed bugles to valve brass instruments in early 1864. This cornet resembles NMM 6884, attributed to Isaac Fiske, with the addition of a fixed leadpipe. The only other deviation from Fiske’s design is Wright's use of spiral-springs, instead of flat-springs, as the valve-return mechanism.
The fourth valve on the present instrument, as well as on NMM 6884, serves to switch the pitch from B-flat to A.
Body: Silver-plated brass with double-looped parallel tubing: leadpipe and first bow are one integral part; main tuning slide; third bow; valve segment; conical bell bow and bellpipe in one integral part to the right of the leadpipe; French rim.
Valves: Four side-action, string-operated rotary valves. Spiral-spring return mechanism; reciprocal driver pivot in the shape of a figure 8, with cork buffers stopped by two pins on a disc below rotor. Internal slide tubing. Windway: third, second, first, pitch-changing valve.
Accessories: Silver-plated mouthpiece with cable-stitch ornament.
Sounding length: 1345 mm; internal diameter, leadpipe: 9.6 mm; bore diameter (inner valve slides) 11.6 mm; bell diameter: 126 mm.
National Music Museum
The University of South Dakota
414 East Clark Street
Vermillion, SD 57069
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