Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 17.djvu/766

Rh 708 O B R B S Basset horn. About the middle of last century the clarinet was lengthened and a key was added, S&=~=3, which filled the vacant space between the two registers. Two new keys were also added, tzizj^zzlEE-l, it is said, by Barthold Fritz of Brunswick (ob. FIG. 7. The Clarinet 1766). The sixth key, ISLzij =3, is attributed to the clarinetist Lefebvre, Paris, about 1791. In 1810 Ivan Muller carried the num ber of keys up to thirteen, in which state the instrument has come to us, and is the system most employed. It has been improved by the Belgian makers, Bachmann, the elder Sax, C. Mahillon, and Albert, who have collectively established the reputation of Belgian clarinets. In Paris, Lefebvre, Buffet-Crampon, and his successor Goumas in London, Kudall, P.ose, and Carte, justly own a high position among famous clarinet-makers. The firm of C. Mahillon, Brussels, have in vented the mechanism with double effect known by the name of C$ key. Invented in 1862, it is now universally adopted. In 1842 the Parisian maker Buffet, advised by a professor named Klose, adopted from Boehm s flute the invention of movable rings. His clarinet has consequently been ranked as of Boehm s system, although the lateral division cf the tube does not follow that which that clever maker applied to his flute. The clarinet was first employed in a theatre in 1751, in the pastoral by Rameau entitled Acante et Cephise. The imperfections of the instrument at that time obliged them to be made in nearly every key. To avoid the burden of this the 18th-century players varied the key of their instruments by added joints. About the middle of the 18th century the clarinet was introduced in military music and by degrees sup planted the oboe. The instruments used, at first were in C and F. About 1815 they were replaced by the Bb and Eb clarinets. Besides the high clarinets, the basset horn (Italian, corno di bas- setto) was soon known in Germany ; a clarinet in F with the grave fifth of the one in C, it was made to descend easily to ^9 1 H with the help of supplementary keys, and to diminish the length of the tube it was bent back upon itself in the part nearest to the bell, the curve being enclosed in a kind of box which concealed the artifice. The invention of the basset horn is attributed to a Bavarian maker at Passau, who was living about 1770, but whose name is now unknown. Obtaining the improvements given to it by Theodore Lotz of Pressburg in 1782, and Ivan Muller in 1812, and those of contemporary makers, the basset horn has become the beautiful alto clarinet which is generally used in the key of Eb. It would appear that the first idea of the bass clarinet emanated from Henri Greuser of Dresden, who made the first one in 1793. It was not used in the orchestra until 1836, when Meyerbeer made magnificent employment of it in the Huguenots. Clarinet The almost forgotten clarinet d amour was made in G and F, d amour the fourth and fifth below the clarinet in C. It differed from other clarinets in the bell, which, retracted in the lower part, affected the pear-shaped contour that distinguishes the modern cor anglais. Saxo- A few words remain to be said about the combination of the phone, beating reed with a conical tube, which goes no farther back than the beginning of this century. A fagottino in F, called &quot; dolcino,&quot; was at that time used, the air-column of which was more decidedly conical than that of the fagottino properly so called. The double reed was replaced in it by a beating reed attached to a mouthpiece like that of the clarinet but smaller. This instrument seems not to have had success. But the most important combination of beating reed and conical tube was accomplished in 1846 by Adolphe Sax, a Belgian established in Paris, who invented the family of saxophones. This instrument is a brass tube pierced to produce the following 4 567 89 10 11 12 13 14 15 In virtue of the principle previously explained, the saxophone &quot;octaves,&quot; and, setting out from the fourth fundamental, each note can be reproduced in the next upper octave by the help of two keys successively employed, which, by opening, form a loop. Four more keys disposed at the upper end permit the production of
 * =J, which completes the compass of the saxo

phone. Four instruments of the saxophone family are now used, viz., the soprano in Bb, a major second below the note written ; the alto in Eb, a fifth below the soprano ; the tenor in Bb, an octave below the soprano ; and the baritone in Eb, an octave below the alto. These instruments fill an important place in the military music of France and Belgium. The brilliant success which Ambroise Thomas has achieved by using the beautiful tone of the alto saxo phone in the ghost scene in Hamlet is well known. (V. M. ) O BRIEN, WILLIAM SMITH (1803-1864), the head of the &quot;Young Ireland&quot; party, was born on 17th October 1803, and received his education at Harrow and at Cam bridge. He entered parliament in 1826 as member for Ennis, and from 1835 to 1848 represented the county of Limerick. Although he spoke in 1828 in favour of Catholic emancipation, he for many years continued to differ on other points from the general policy of O Connell. He, however, opposed the Irish Arms Act of 1843, and in January 1844 became an active member of the Repeal Association. Though he was destitute of oratorical gifts, his chivalrous devotion to the welfare of his country secured him enthusiastic attachment as a popular leader. In July 1846 he with the &quot;Young Ireland&quot; party left the Repeal Association, and in the beginning of 1847 he established the Irish Confederation. The French Revolution of 1848 stimulated his hopes of success, and incited him to more extreme efforts against the English rule. In May 1848 he was tried at Dublin for sedition, but the jury disagreed. In the following July he established a war directory, and attempted to make a rising among the peasantry of Ballin- garry, but although he was at first joined by a large following the movement wanted cohesion, and the vacil lating crowd dispersed as soon as news reached them of the approach of the dragoons. O Brien was arrested at Thurles, tried, and sentenced to death. The sentence was commuted to transportation for life. In July 1854 he received his liberty on condition of never revisiting the United King dom ; and in May 1856 he obtained a full pardon. Hence forth he kept aloof from all political movements. In 1856 he published Principles of Government, or Meditations in Exile. He died at Bangor, North Wales, 18th June 1864. OBSEKVATOBY UP to a comparatively recent date an &quot;observatory&quot; was a place exclusively devoted to the taking of astronomical observations, although frequently a rough account of the weather was kept. When the progress of terrestrial magnetism and meteorology began to make regular observations necessary, the duty of taking these was often thrown on astronomical observatories, although in some cases separate institutions were created for the purpose. Of late years, as the work to be done in astro nomical observatories is increasing, there seems to be a general tendency to have the magnetical and meteoro logical observations taken in separate establishments ; but, as the exclusively magnetical or meteorological observa tories now existing are generally very small institutions and of recent creation, the astronomical observatories will be chiefly considered in this article. Up to about 300 B.C. it can scarcely be said that an observatory existed anywhere, as the crude observations