noseflute.org: 9/23/12

Sep 27, 2012

A Belgian Christmas

Well, it is a bit early for Christmas... However, here is a video showing Mr. Jos Sweldens, from Belgium, playing with talent Stille en heilig nacht with his neusfluit. Some other nose flute videos on his channel MrLork50. Thanks to NosefluteJob for have shared the link.

Sep 26, 2012

An over-reactive cat

Let's go back to real values! Here is a funny video showing a cat who loves to sing along the nose flute... Thanks to Miss Birdy K. for having shared the link.

Sep 25, 2012

Historic Nose Flutes - The Nasalette: Review

Compared to our "modern" nose flutes, the Nasalette was designed with 2 particularities. Let's better say that 3 features totally and quickly disappeared from the posterior designs.

The first of this particularities is the nose hood, conical and enveloping the whole nose. Indeed, you'll read below it's not the best solution to capt the air that is blown. Also, this has a marked tendancy to produce condensation inside the tin hood, humidity that finally goes down the airway. Garrett J. Couchois, in 1899, has already adopted (invented) the concave nose rest system that is still used nowadays.

The second specific feature is the mouth tube. The player needs to insert it between his lips to be able to play, which is not really hygienic nor handy (but rather efficient to avoid air leaks). In his elegant design patent from 1899 [USD31876], Couchois still used the same feature, however with a circular tube, which is even more efficient than the Carter's rectangular one.

The "mouth insert" will however reappear in 1921, with a totally different shape in Ernest W. Klein patent [US1437317]:

The last, but not least, particularity offered by the Nasalette is its handsfree system. It's unbelievable (but true) that Carter immediately thought his nose flute would be probably played together with another instrument. He clearly specified that in his patent description. And the way he solved the need is quite funny or kitsch: with a rubber cord, not surrounding the whole performer's head, but attached to two "wire loops", like the temple endings of spectacles!
This feature has never been seen again, and more, the nose flute including a handsfree system (2 holes for passing a cord) are still very rare (H. Handler and M. Sommers only, as far as I know).

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So, the Nasalette is globally composed of 4 parts, the nose hood, the airway, the mouth tube and the handsfree system.

I must admit - with all due respect to this ancestor - that the Nasalette is not really comfortable nor ergonomic. It is made with tin sheet and, even carefully sanded, the edge of the nose hood is not pleasant when pressed on the face.

The mouth tube, rectangular, is a bit too big (I made it with a thickness between the one designed on the technical drawing (short and thick) and the one shown on the profile sketch (long and thin) in the patent).
Anyway, to be functional, it has to be a bit thick.

While playing, there is much air leaking from the nose hood: indeed, even "egg-shaped", the cap cannot fit precisely any type of nose. And since there is not direct way for the air from the nostrils to the air duct, there is a huge tendancy to leaking. The air blown from the nose goes straight to the bottom of the nose hood, then has to follow a severe angle to reach the air entrance, and then has again to draw a square angle to reach the narrow air way. So, the air has almost a shortcut by leaking over the nose :

So, for comfort and to avoid air leaks, I glued a felt pad around the top of the nose hood. This is not in the patent, but it's not a modification to the nose flute itself. I suppose Carter made a nasalette adapted to his own nose.

The handsfree system is a real pleasure. It is funny and handy, very efficient to hold the Nasalette in the right position. It would have been 100% perfect if only I had the ears implanted just one inch below their actual position, but it works very fine.

On the sound side, the Nasalette is really a sweet instrument. It has a nice clear sound, not powerful and loud, but soft and sweet. The range is "normal": it is rather difficulet to reach basses, because of the size and shape of the mouth tube, but the sharps are easily reachable, and according you press on the nose hood with a finger to stop any air leak, you can reach very high sharps.

Here is a short video, of a famous... irish tune:

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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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Historic Nose Flutes - The Nasalette: 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 The Nasalette: drawing a template]

Historic Nose Flute - The Nasalette: Building the Nasalette

I am not a tinsmith, and it was even the very first time I worked with tin sheet. I made 2 Nasalettes: the first one was disappointing, dented, with some ugly weldings. More, the first template gave a nosecap too large. I also redesigned some pieces during the first try (it was an evolutive process). This explains why the (three) pieces shown in the first pictures are not the same that the (four) ones visible in this definitive template :

By the way, if you want to build a Nasalette, please download here my template in PDF format and offer me a beer next time you see me.

First try

I cut the pieces of (the first version of) my paper template and glued them on the tin sheet with latex glue (easily removable). I had to buy a pair of shears, and cut the metal pieces, then filed and sanded their edges.

Then I had to bend the pieces. I didn't have the correct tools for that. Tightening them in my vise and bending them by force, would have driven to damaging them, because of the grooves on his jaws. But I found a "thing" (I even don't know exactly what it is) which is smooth, square angled, very strong and very tight, and of the perfect size to be hold by the vice (let's say the perfect tool for bending small tin pieces!).
So I bent my pieces by hammering them around the "thing"

So, I got my first pieces...

... and began the difficult nose cap. First, I marked the beginning of the bendings (it is bent at one end, and rounded at the other...), and use smaller and smaller bottles to round the properly the cap.

I got a first shape, and then ended to form it with pliers.

Then, I had to weld. On my first Nasalette, the results weren't at the quality level that I expected.

And so, I got the "whistle" (already working while blowing it and clogging the mouthpart), by welding the airway and the mouth tube, exactly like on the patent (the front plate of the air duct a bit forward the one of the mouth tube). I closed the nose cap by welding too:

I welded the cap and the whistle, then added the little tube for passing the cord... and got my first Nasalette.

Well, as told before, I was very disappointed with the result. Ugly weldings, nose cap dented and worst: my Nasalette didn't whistle. Indeed, the nose cap was too large (I had forgotten to pinch it in an egg-shape!), and there was a huge air leak. Because of the Nasalette design, the nostrils are far from the air entrance, which forms a real angle. So, to much space around the nose leads to a huge air leak.

So, I decided to redesign the template of the nose cap (make it a bit shorter), and this time, not to forget the "egg shape).

Second try

The process for the second Nasalette was clearly the same, apart of that I had gained experience about the "bad tricks" of tin sheet as a material. I was able to make clean weldings, and to avoid denting the parts with my pliers.

Sep 24, 2012

Historic Nose Flutes - The Nasalette: Template

Someone who looks at the patents drawings in the purpose of reconstructing the Nasalette should get into a lapse of perplexity. Indeed, when comparing the 2 profile pictures, it becomes obvious that the proportions are so different, that a choice will have to be done.
The "technical" figure, more detailed, should be the true one, but it clearly appear totally non-functional: if the nose cap is big enough to cover the nostrils, the air duct is so long that the mouth tube gets in front of the chin... The sketch presenting the player's head shows a poorly designed nose flute, but the draughtsman was obviously forced to respect true proportions.

There is no particular specifications detailed in the patent text that could help us, besides the description of the materials:

Since William Carter was a tinsmith, I decided to make my Nasalette with tin plate. To get a nice tin, easily weldable, I order some tin plates dedicated to model making. Very funny: the brand is "Albion Alloys" (the Nasalette was invented in Albion, NY.).

So, my choice was this one: to stay as close as possible to the technical drawing (notably regarding the ergonomical and technical details), but keeping the proportions of the profile sketch. I also assumed that the Nasalette was functional (else, would Carter have filed a patent?) and thus, I would change little details if they were necessary for the flute to whistle.
My goal is not to build the best nose flute in the world, no, but to build a Nasalette, the closest possible to the original. So I will not try to improve the model (by making the air duct slimmer at the end, etc.) No. It's archeology, not engineering.

Well, my first job was to draw a template for the nose cap. On the profile section, one can see it is a sort of truncated cone, with an ergonomical cut on its largest rim, in order to fit closely the nose and the upper lip.
On the rear section, we can see the "egg-shape" of the cone, and also a triangle (just below the mark "A"): this is the shape of the air exit.

So, the nose cap is not obvious to design and to shape, and it took me many tests and trials with cardboard to get the perfect cap template. And finally, it looks exactly like an hippo butt :)

The airway was easy to make, since it is a regular parallelepiped, with just a triangular scoop at the junction. However, I made it according to the external specs: my cardboard is much thinner that my tin plate (0.5 mm thick). So my cardboard air duct is not functional (doesn't matter) [I changed the template of this part afterwards]

Then the mouth tube. It is parallelepipedic. The real question is what were the specifications for the labium? Was the labium slanted? Well, the patent technical drawing shows that :
- the front plate of the air duct is lightly forward the front ot the mouth tube (bayonet) [see A in the pic. below].
- the labium seems to be beveled towards the front, but it surely is an artefact of the crosshatch drawing itself [see B in the pic].
However, the description use the word "reed", so it could have meant it was beveled. Anyway, this detail is really insignificant with a 0.5mm thick tin plate.

So, I completed my cardboard model with the mouth tube, and added a small rod on the end of the cone, plus 2 ear rounded wires connected to the flute by cords (they will have to be made of rubber on the definitive construction).