Some antique flutes (Turlach Boylan’s Chappell) and Asian produced flutes (those Eb’s on ebay) are made of it but what is it?
Cheers,
Aaron
It’s QVC’s answer to ebony.
Cf. Diamonique vis-à-vis diamond.
Stuart
“Insulating material made from a combination of vulcanized rubber and sulfur. One of the first synthetic plastics, was widely used to insulate electrical devices in the second half of the nineteenth century and in the first decades of the twentieth.”
I googled it.
BillG
Think old bowling balls.
Loren
Thanks, lads. I remembered the vulcanized rubber bit from a previous discussion.
The old bowling ball example is good for me as my grandfather has bowled a 300. This means next to nothing for anybody unfamiliar with American 10-pin bowling.
Cheers,
Aaron
My Georgi flute which was made out of vulcanite C. 1885 looks and feels exactly like glossy black plastic. Very light. It has been kept out of the light, I guess.
I often tease visitors with it, leading such an unexiting life as I do !
I have an old, very old, fife made out of it. It gets spotted - watermarks - in various places. Around the lower part of the embouchure hole especially. Watch out for some stuff on eBay being sold as Blackwood when it’s actually Ebonite. I recall playing an ebonite fife as a kid and not liking the taste it left in my mouth.
So, if you can’t play with it, bowl with it.
BillG
Ohhh! Sylvester’s playing a Blackwood Healy. bg
No 5 P’s
Poor posture prevents proper P’s.
I asked about ebonite some time back on woodieL. I remember being told
it was the plastic stuff that the oldest telephones were made of.
Lesl
I think that was more likely to be bakelite, another early synthetic material. You may remember bakelite too as the lid of electric jugs. Smelt funny if the jug boiled over.
Heh heh, we needed a jug to make tea back at Research School Physical Sciences. The Procurement Officer said we couldn’t buy one as tea was a staff matter, not a management matter (I wonder which part of Hell they have him in these days. Accounts, probably.). So we raised a purchase order for a 1.6KW Electro-thermal Energy Converter and went off and bought a jug.
I had to make an ebonite head recently to replace a missing one on a 19th century ebonite flute. I didn’t like working it - it’s very abrasive, blunting the tools almost on first contact, and it smells horrible - a vulcanising rubbery sulphurous smell. It’s also annoying, like Delrin, in that instead of falling in easily manageable flakes, the swarf - the shavings if you like - remains together in long ribbons, which spin around on the work, obscuring your vision of it. It polishes up better than Delrin, I feel, being harder. Still prefer the wood!
Terry
Ebonite is also the material most saxophone and clarinet mouthpieces are made of. When it’s new, it completely black and has no smell or taste. When old, it becomes brown-greenish, with a strange smell, especially if you don’t use it regularly.
According to Rockstro (1928), ebonite (also called vulcanite) “…consists of India-rubber, sulphur and lead, mixed with a black pigment and subjected to great heat.” He notes that Rudall & Rose made ebonite flutes starting in about 1872 and that they were quite popular.
I’ve been looking for a 19th century English-made keyed ebonite flute in D for several years now–does anyone have any leads?
Dick Abrams
Not sure I like that bit about lead, considering that this goes into contact with people’s mouths. Has anyone tested an old flute to see if it’s safe?
Scary, eh? Fortunately the lead he means is “black lead”, or “lamp black”, i.e. carbon, the stuff in the middle of the pencil (older readers may remember them as “black lead pencils”).
I thought that they added the carbon to act as “a black pigment”, so either Rockstro or I am wrong. Nothing unusual in that!
Terry