Page:The story of the flute (IA storyofflute1914fitz).djvu/62

 this defect Quantz had a number of rings of wood of various widths to slip into this cavity and fill it up. These rings are still occasionally used in old flutes, but they are unsatisfactory and troublesome. The adoption of a thin metal slide, leaving a very trifling cavity, has practically remedied this defect. Böhm objected to a metal slide on the ground that the close combination of metal with wood caused unequal and disturbed vibration, and produced a disagreeable harshness of tone. On his flute of 1832 he therefore used wooden rings. Theoretically, in order to alter the pitch correctly throughout the entire instrument, the position of each hole should be varied, which is, of course, impossible. By means of the slide the pitch can be varied about the eighth of a tone without putting the flute appreciably out of tune. In most modern flutes the tuning slide is formed by a projection at the top of the second joint.

In 1726 Quantz added a second hole and closed key (Page 31, Fig. 2), which, he claimed, produced the E♭ more correctly than the D♯ key, and thus rendered the common chords of E♭ and B♮ more perfectly in tune. One hole had an aperture larger than the other, and by using one or other the tone and tune of certain defective notes was corrected. This additional key, though adopted by Tromlitz, was of no practical value. It never became general, and was only used in Germany, where it survived for about eighty years. Tromlitz credits Quantz with the invention of a screw-stopper at the head of the