noseflute.org: 12/2/12

Dec 8, 2012

Historic Nose Flutes - Grierson's Whistle: Review

Some historic nose flutes have totally disappear or haven't even been produced or commercialized. Our goal, here, is to reconstruct them, as close as possible to the original, with the help of the patent drawings and descriptions.

[Sequel of the posts Grierson's Whistle: Drawing a template and Building the flute ]

Last step before the review, I nickel plated the Grierson's whistle. My replica was far from being perfect, and my electroplating is in accordance: a bit unveven :)

Here is the nose flute:

The Grierson's whistle is a huge piece. It is heavy and tall, which is rather unusual for a nose flute of the 1920's. But it also shows other singularities.
The large "hollow" front face has never been seen before, and will never feature again on another instrument.
But the most interesting novelty is the flute "elephant profile", with a rounded heel that need to be inserted in the mouth, just behind the lower lip. It is not uncomfortable, but it doesn't help "freeing" the mouth for sound effects, or even to reach sharp notes.

The Grierson has also an upper lip rest, with a more classical shape but rounded. I carefully sanded mine not to wound my lip, but one can reasonably wonder how harmful it could have been, stamped from the mouth hole, when (whether) industrially produced...

Despite these two lip rests, the Grierson is not a handsfree nose flute. It is too heavy and needs a hand or a rubber band to be retained tightly under the nose.

The front is hollow because Grierson wanted to create a amplification effect: indeed, the air duct top and the rounded base of the flute form a kind of horn shape, like a ear trumpet.

I am not sure that this feature is really efficient, and I must admit that the Grierson whistle is not a good nose flute.

The tonality range is rather limited and the sound is weak. I may have not been precise enough when building it, or have not respected the specifications... but anyway, there is no beveled labium but just a flat blade to split the air, like on the metal Humanatone. And we know this is not a performance solution. More, I really think that the bottom curves of the horn amp is a bad solution. At the "heel" (lower lip rest) place, they shape a front double chamber...
Finally, because of the air entrance design, half of the air blown leaks.

But as an historic item, the Grierson whistle is very interesting, particularly by it's design and shapes.

Here is a short sample in which you can notice the weakness, dullness and windiness of the sound.

And here a little stupid video, as usual:

PS: the template has been updated and is downloadable in PDF format.

And it's worth the (very alert) koala look!

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On the same topic :

- Historic Nose Flutes - The Nasalette: Template
- Historic Nose Flutes - The Nasalette: Building
- Historic Nose Flutes - The Nasalette: Review
- Historic Nose Flutes - Couchois' Whistle: Template
- Historic Nose Flutes - Couchois' Whistle: Building
- Historic Nose Flutes - Couchois' Whistle: Review
- Historic Nose Flutes - Grierson's Whistle: Template
- Historic Nose Flutes - Grierson's Whistle: Building
- Historic Nose Flutes - Grierson's Whistle: Review

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Dec 6, 2012

Historic Nose Flutes - Grierson's Whistle: Building

Some historic nose flutes have totally disappear or haven't even been produced or commercialized. Our goal, here, is to reconstruct them, as close as possible to the original, with the help of the patent drawings and descriptions.

[Sequel of the post Grierson's Whistle: drawing a template]

In his patent, Alexander Roxburgh Grierson specified his whistle was made of metal sheet. So I used (again) a 0.5mm thick tin plate, and glued my template.

I roughly cut the piece with a pair of shears, and began by the easiest: rounding the upper lip rest around a pencil :) Whether it had been manufactured, the Grierson's whistle would have been stamped, and this lip rest would have been the the "positive" of the mouth hole. I'm not able to stamp tin sheets, so I cut a separate part that I will solder at the right position.

Then I shaped the parts more precisely with a file. I also used a metal punch to cut the narrow curve of the wings, and also to remove metal from the mouth and nose holes, before finishing them with the file.

And I got all my parts ready for bending...

Bending the longest part was a very difficult task. I used pencils and rods of different diameters.

Then I began the soldering, and noticed 1mm was lacking at the very end of the curves. I had suspected that those curves would have "eaten" some length, but my cardboard model was made of a thinner material than the tin sheet, and I made this little mistake...

Finally, I soldered the upper lip rest.

Then I filed and sanded the instrument. It is far from being perfect... But it's been the most difficult replica I made so far. And I'm not proud of the quality of my solderings...

Dec 5, 2012

Historic Nose Flutes - Grierson's Whistle: Template

Some historic nose flutes have totally disappeared or haven't even been produced or commercialized. Our goal, here, is to reconstruct them, as close as possible to the original, with the help of the patent drawings and descriptions.

Grierson's Whistle: Drawing a template

Apr. 30, 1923, Mr. Alexander Roxburgh Grierson, « a British subject, of Craig Royston, Castle Douglas, Scotland » filed his invention regarding « Improvements in Whistles ». As you have already intuited it, it was a nose flute. The patent is registered May 1, 1924, under number GB 214,832. The flute has an unusual shape, with a kind of hollow front, so I decided to try to build a replica.

First step was to get an idea of the global dimensions. It was rather easy: I measured the distance between the tip of my nose (which should bizarrely fit the middle of the air entrance - see the green arrows below) and my upper lip while opening th mouth. I got more or less 4 centimeters. And thus, the nose flute should be around 9 cm tall... a huge piece!

Then, the job was to check the patent drawings and as usual, they appeared not to be consistent... The rear view does not fit with the side one, whatever the way to chose the line that was used as the reference for verticality.

Below are the 2 tests. Original side and rear views on left and right, and, in the center, the corrected rear view as it should have been designed to be consistent with the side view:

In the first case, the length of rear view fits the side one, but there are many mistakes, and the flute should be 10 cm tall.
The second position is more natural. There are less differences, and the instrument should be 8.8 cm long, which is quite near the 9 cm that were forecast.

So, I decided to use the second version, knowing that anyway, there are not much differences in the "functional parts" between the 2 versions.

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Then, I designed a pre-template for each parts and built a first cardborad model. What a strange and funny shape!

I made a second model then, after having improved the dimensional consistency.

I am a bit doubtful regarding the efficiency of the air entrance... It is designed with a sufficient size and positioned more or less for the tip of the nose to enter it and... to clog it! However, it is placed on my model exactly as shown on the patent design (the 2 green arrows on my previous drawing) and, as already said in this series, I do not intend to create the best nose flute of the world, but to build the most loyal replica, with the patent as source. So, even if the instrument is to be not functional, I wouldn't care (too much).

As you can see on the pictures below:

- this nose flute is hhhuge!
- the lower lip rest is made of the wavy contour of the base
- playing this flute will ensure you to look very, very intelligent.

Here is the template. You can download a full size PDF file here.

Looks like an angel, no?:

Dec 4, 2012

Mr Swing on TV!

A Radio Bremen TV documentary about artists with a portrait of Hans Christian Klüver, aka Mr. Swing. From 1'52", Hans Christian plays the Nasenflöte, and then explains how to whistle it. Nose flute again, then, with a jazz trio performing in a hairdresser' shop. Great video, don't miss it!

The Elevated

Here is a new video — let's better say a new audio track – by The Elevated, a band from Philadelphia.

« The Elevated is not so much a band as it is an outlet for creative music composition and art. Their music will change and grow and will not be restricted. The music will be free. »

« They are a collaborative music making machine without genres or boundaries. They are an eclectic gathering of talented individuals with many different backgrounds in music and art.»

In their description page, The Elevated also explains that « a simple pencil or kazoo stands as important as guitar or bass ».

Well, they will have to prove it, since the nose flute mixed with the kazoo solo is very very shy! Check it at 2'22"

Check The Elevated's website and download some music for free

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Dec 3, 2012

Review: Flapi!

Do you remember Froby, the fluorescent perspex nose flute from Piet Visser's collection? Here comes Flapi!

I got Flapi from Blanca Celestino, a lady from Donostia/San Sebastián, in the Basque region of Spain. She originally told me that she knew the factory where the Froby and Flapi were made, since a defunct good friend of her was from the makers' family. Finally, she sent me the little treasure: Flapi! Thank you a lot, Blanca!

Blanca especially made a funny box to protect and transport the nose flute:

And finally, the naked baby:

Flapi exactly follows the design of the ES 1,004,918 U patent, filed Mar. 7, 1988 and registered Oct. 10, 1988. The applicants were Uriarte Urbina and Antonia Maria, inventors, for the account of Papelaria Informal S.A., Donostia-San Sebastián.

Flapi was probably produced before Froby, because its design follows the patent (there is a subtle difference in the height of the "wings" though). However, Flapi and Froby are very close one to the other. The main difference lays in the large "wings" that grew on the sides of Froby's airway, providing its futuristic look. The other difference is that a huge injection point appeared on Froby's mouth shield, whilst Flapi featured 2 small and flat ones under the base of the "wings", plus a central one.

Flapi is a rather compact and functional nose flute, according to the fact that the "elephant ears" wings have been designed in order to provide a good grip. Flapi is a beautiful plastic nose flute, already modern comparing to the Schwan which was a plastic version of the antique tin Nasenflöten, but still "shy" when sit besides the Froby.

IMHO, he typo is the only choice that is debatable. It's really bizarre to find this Art Nouveau / 1970's Chewing gum typo on a rather technical product of the very end of the 1980's. More, it has not been typed with a professional font, but designed by hand, and looks really... lame.

The nose shield is a simple concave square with a rectangle hole. It is surprinsingly comfortable and efficient. The "elephant ears" are really ergonomic and provide a good grip for the thumb and the forefinger.

The mouth hole is very wide (2cm) and the labium is kind of rounded, with a "double bevel" made by the succession of 2 angles.

Those technical features are very efficient, as already noticed by Mr. Maikel Mei while trying Piet Visser's Froby. Indeed, the Flapi produces a very powerful sound, a great attack and response. Thanks to the nice ergonomics, there is no air leaking.
The tonality range is mid-bass oriented, and trying to reach very sharp notes entails unpleasant ultra-sharp parasitic whistlings. But in the mediums, Flapi is a very good nose flute.

Here is a sound sample. Notice the problem in the high sharps: