Hall & Quinby Trombone with Box Valves
I saw this valve trombone listed on Ebay a few years back.
There are only a small handful of box valve instruments by Hall
& Quinby known to exist, making it quite a prize for many
collectors to go after. Benjamin F. Quinby was granted a patent
on this valve mechanism in 1872. Interestingly, they are
somewhat similar to some of the earliest valve mechanisms made
in Germany in the 1820s and it is hard to see the improvement
over other valves used at the time. I assume that explains why
they are so few of them extant. This trombone was in very good
original condition, without the usual damage that we must deal
with in our rare instruments. One major condition problem was
present, however: all three valve pistons and the valve cover
were missing. Not surprisingly, it sold for a price that was too
high for almost any other valve trombone. A few months later I
got a phone call from Steve Dillon, who was the lucky winner,
asking me what I would charge to make the missing parts. I
didn't have much basis for quoting a price, but I threw out a high
figure and agreed to put it on my waiting list. When the time
came, he sent it right off to me and I had to make a plan. I
contacted Tim Holmes, who has a close relationship with the
musical instrument collection at the Henry Ford Museum. He
was able to provide photographs of a Quinby Bros. Bb cornet in
that collection with the same valve design although actuated by a
system very similar to what Isaac Fiske called "key pistons" as
seen in Jeff Stockham's Eb cornet shown below. These photos
showed details of the design that were important to reproduce for
Steve's trombone. I was able to find tubing of the correct size
and cut and drilled the rectangular pieces from thick sheet brass.
These were carefully silver soldered together, resulting in valves
with slightly larger dimensions than needed in the finished valves.
The original valve casings have never been damaged and careful
measuring revealed that the sides were tapered. The pistons had
to be machined to a perfect fit resulting in an airtight seal. I was
very concerned that I would have difficulty measuring the taper
accurately and then making the cuts accurately enough on my
old, worn milling machine. To make the extremely fine surface
with tight tolerances, a machine must be extremely well
maintained without wear in the spindle or ways. I consulted my
good friend, Hermann Knechtle, who is an extremely talented
machinist who makes molds for aerospace clients. Lucky for
me, Hermann also loves antiques and history and wanted to take
on this project. It turned out to be an easy job for him. He is
accustomed to making extremely accurate measurements of
angles and keeps his machines in perfect working order at all
times. He returned these parts to me fitting almost perfectly.
Only the lightest lapping made them move freely while still being
airtight. For more explanation and demonstration of this
trombone, check out Steve Dillon's video featuring it.
Click on images to larger view.
There are only a small handful of box valve instruments by Hall
& Quinby known to exist, making it quite a prize for many
collectors to go after. Benjamin F. Quinby was granted a patent
on this valve mechanism in 1872. Interestingly, they are
somewhat similar to some of the earliest valve mechanisms made
in Germany in the 1820s and it is hard to see the improvement
over other valves used at the time. I assume that explains why
they are so few of them extant. This trombone was in very good
original condition, without the usual damage that we must deal
with in our rare instruments. One major condition problem was
present, however: all three valve pistons and the valve cover
were missing. Not surprisingly, it sold for a price that was too
high for almost any other valve trombone. A few months later I
got a phone call from Steve Dillon, who was the lucky winner,
asking me what I would charge to make the missing parts. I
didn't have much basis for quoting a price, but I threw out a high
figure and agreed to put it on my waiting list. When the time
came, he sent it right off to me and I had to make a plan. I
contacted Tim Holmes, who has a close relationship with the
musical instrument collection at the Henry Ford Museum. He
was able to provide photographs of a Quinby Bros. Bb cornet in
that collection with the same valve design although actuated by a
system very similar to what Isaac Fiske called "key pistons" as
seen in Jeff Stockham's Eb cornet shown below. These photos
showed details of the design that were important to reproduce for
Steve's trombone. I was able to find tubing of the correct size
and cut and drilled the rectangular pieces from thick sheet brass.
These were carefully silver soldered together, resulting in valves
with slightly larger dimensions than needed in the finished valves.
The original valve casings have never been damaged and careful
measuring revealed that the sides were tapered. The pistons had
to be machined to a perfect fit resulting in an airtight seal. I was
very concerned that I would have difficulty measuring the taper
accurately and then making the cuts accurately enough on my
old, worn milling machine. To make the extremely fine surface
with tight tolerances, a machine must be extremely well
maintained without wear in the spindle or ways. I consulted my
good friend, Hermann Knechtle, who is an extremely talented
machinist who makes molds for aerospace clients. Lucky for
me, Hermann also loves antiques and history and wanted to take
on this project. It turned out to be an easy job for him. He is
accustomed to making extremely accurate measurements of
angles and keeps his machines in perfect working order at all
times. He returned these parts to me fitting almost perfectly.
Only the lightest lapping made them move freely while still being
airtight. For more explanation and demonstration of this
trombone, check out Steve Dillon's video featuring it.
Click on images to larger view.