Full Metal Jacket! (for flute)

[jemtheflute]

Aye. They all have their crosses to bear. The straight-jacket of history, eh?

[benhall.1]

@jemtheflute

Aye. They all have their crosses to bear. The straight-jacket of history, eh?

“Straight-jacket”? What’s one of them? Any relation to a straitjacket?

[jemtheflute]

Yeah. No restraint, some folk.

[Nanohedron]

Beats me how you guys can rack up the gags, so.

[Steve_Bliven]

@woodfluter

… some things about this are truly bizarre and mystifying.

Note that the upper body jacket is held together on the underside by three tightening bolts, and the lower body jacket by five of those. There are gaps on the underside to allow tightening or adjustment. Also a rather generous opening around each tone hole. That points toward something that could be added to various flutes, perhaps. But unless I’m mistaken, the post mounts for keys have to be either attached to the “jacket” or drilled through that and into the wood. So that points toward something made and fitted exactly to one flute design - or even one flute.

I contacted the seller about how the post mounts were attached. Her response was, “The mounting posts for the keys are all on the metal covering. There is nothing attached to the wood. If you loosen the screws, the metal will slide off the wood.” So the metallic thingies, including keys, come off like, well, like a suit of armor.

I’m almost tempted to put in a minimal bid, even if it might turn out to be an interesting paperweight. It’s weird enough that I could spend a bunch of time just wondering about it…

Best wishes.

Steve

[jemtheflute]

@Nanohedron

Beats me how you guys can rack up the gags, so.

Yeah, I expect it does. Take your “medicine”, and don’t choke!

[woodfluter]

@Steve Bliven

I contacted the seller about how the post mounts were attached. Her response was, “The mounting posts for the keys are all on the metal covering. There is nothing attached to the wood. If you loosen the screws, the metal will slide off the wood.” So the metallic thingies, including keys, come off like, well, like a suit of armor.

Thanks Steve, that confirms what the pictures suggested.
This really is a mystery. It doesn’t make much sense to me no matter how I think about it.
Maybe “if your flute cracks, just buy a less-expensive keyless body from W. Fischer and slide all your old keywork into place!”
Except of course that’s not the sections likely to suffer damage. The keys are more vulnerable.
Could this have been simply for show? So strange.

It says “Pat. Appl’d For”. I’m guessing US Pat. Off.
Would be interesting to find the application record online.
Generally they give an explanation for the benefits claimed of an invention.

• Bill

[jemtheflute]

For the sake of the posterity of this thread (and for the curious but lazy ), I have harvested and modified the eBay photos - main ones below, the rest here.

[monkeymonk]

Thanks for posting those pics Jem! I had seen this on ebay about 15minutes before your initial post but had not looked at the images of the back where it’s “laced up”.
It reminds me of a nice old, neglected Boston Victorian house that someone slapped aluminum siding onto 40 years prior. A mixture of curiosty and anxiety as to what you might find underneath all that metal.

I was not either able to find any information on Herr Fischer on a Google search but it would be nice to look up the patent as woodfluter said.

[woodfluter]

I forgot to add…
I did some searching too. Really don’t know for certain but my best guess is this:

W. Fischer is likely Walter S. Fischer, second son of Carl Fischer and later president of the firm founded by his father.
It started out in 1872 as a musical instrument repair shop in NYC, sold instruments from Europe also.
Later they got into music publishing and that became the mainstay at some point.

I could swear that I had, for inspection but returned, an old wooden 8-key flute marked Carl Fischer.
This was a while ago, early to mid-1990s. So recollection is fuzzy.
I’m thinking that the Fischer firm may have had flutes made to order and sold under their name.
If so, maybe his son Walter dabbled in flutish inventions. And came up with this strangeness.

I would love to see the purported advantages described in a patent.

[augurforever]

what do you think about this:

http://www.ebay.de/itm/370751477511?ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1423.l2648

[jemtheflute]

If it’s a double metal tube, those are a known quantity and not so closely comparable. If it is wood clad with metal, singly or doubly, then it bears very interesting comparison.

[jemtheflute]

So, it pulled U$145 - c £92. A fair price, I think, both as a nach Meyer for possible restoration and just as a collectable curiosity. Anyone here get it?