weird *** valves !

[windshieldbug]

Geometric volume. I suspect it's not quite that simple, but it's got to be something along those lines.

Sorry, I didn't recall having the conversation before.

Since you lasted asked about the cornet, I dug it out and have actually been using it quite a bit more. Now that I know that the 4th valve was intended for H/L pitch, I don't feel like I'm using it other than what it was intended for.

Modern manufacturing and use of plastics, etc may make the idea of a short action valve a lot more practical now.

[bbocaner]

Not to be rude here, but that doesn’t make any sense to me at all. If circuit length didn't change the tuning; we're wasting a lot of tubing on it !

There's only one thing that determines the pitch that's coming out of your bell: the frequency at which your lips are vibrating. Now, having all that tubing of a specific length and specific taper works to create resonances at specific frequencies to guide your lips into doing the right thing, creating slots at certain pitches where things lock right in and sound big and beautiful and making other pitches difficult to achieve, but at the end of the day, your lips are what does it.

[Dan Schultz]

Not to be rude here, but that doesn’t make any sense to me at all. If circuit length didn't change the tuning; we're wasting a lot of tubing on it !

There's only one thing that determines the pitch that's coming out of your bell: the frequency at which your lips are vibrating. Now, having all that tubing of a specific length and specific taper works to create resonances at specific frequencies to guide your lips into doing the right thing, creating slots at certain pitches where things lock right in and sound big and beautiful and making other pitches difficult to achieve, but at the end of the day, your lips are what does it.

Sort of makes sense to me. At least this explains why a tuba mouthpiece won't work in a trumpet and vice-versa.

[Art Hovey]

Did anybody notice that it is actually a raincatcher sousaphone with its bell turned forward?
I don't see any reason why this valve system couldn't work, but I would expect it to play a bit more on the stuffy side. Although the cross-sectional area of the valve tubing is not sacrificed, the wall surface area is increased by about 41%. The vibrating air has to rub against that surface.
The cost of manufacturing the pistons would be practically doubled too.

[windshieldbug]

Let me ask you the $64.00 question; can you slur notes comfortably, can you crack the valves to bend notes, if you move the valves slowly while
slurring from note to note, is all that Garbage that you hear any different then the noise you would hear from any other rotary cornet ?
Oh yeah, one last question, do these valves seem "hair triggered" at all ? That's what Peter Hurshburners' similar valves were said to be.

No real difference between the Allen an "normal" rotaries.
And no, they don't feel "hair triggered". With the side action, the travel may be a little less, but unless you've developed bad habits with your fingers, I don't know why they would. Of course, I'm used to playing many different instruments with different thows in the action, or perhaps I don't understand the question.

I don't remember if we've talked about this, but something to consider is Holton's version of the short-throw.
It used "pinched" ports, as well, but the air column makes a U-turn, making the piston valves as uncomplicated as a rotary...