Flute
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Flute. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
in music sic, a popular instrument, the use of which, under various to the most remote forms, may be traced ages. Of its origin no direct account can be given. In its primitive state the flute modern flageolet, was played like the with a mouth-piece at the upper end; and from the shape of this mouth-piece, which resembled the beak of a bird, it received the name of flute à bec. In this form, with slight alterations, it continued until the beginning of the 18th century, when it was gradually superseded by the flauto traverso, or transverse flute, so called from its being blown at the side, and conin horizontal position. sequently held a At its introduction this instrument was about 18 inches in length, and had but one key. Shortly after, a movable headjoint was invented, its length being increased, and more keys added, some flutes at the present time having more than a dozen keys, and a few less than six. By means of these they are able to execute any music, however chromatic, if within their compass, which extends from C below the treble to C in altissimo. In December, 1832, a flute of an entirely new construction was invented by Mr. Behm, of Munich. It, however, remained in obscurity until 1837, when it was adopted and introduced to the French professors by Mr. Cadmus; but they considered its adoption would be attended with too much trouble, in consequence of its having an open G-sharp key. This, however, was soon afterward remedied by Mr. Dorus, who put a shut G-sharp key in its place. It now became universally adopted. In architecture, an up upright channel on the shaft of a column, usually ending hemispherically at the top and bottom. Their plane or horizontal section is sometimes semicircular, or segmental, or ellip tical, as in some examples of Grecian architecture. The Doric column has 20 flutes round its circumference; the Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite have respectively 24.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a wind instrument of the pipe kind. It belongs to the same class as the fife, flageolet, piccolo, and boy's whistle. The sound is produced by a current of air striking the edge of a hole in the side of the tube. Scientists are not agreed as to the correct explanation of the vibrations of the air. The more ancient or direct form, well known to the Hebrews and to the Greeks, was held straight away from the player, who blew through a mouthpiece at the end. The modern or transverse flute is played by blowing through a mouthpiece in the side of the tube. The so-called German flute has six finger holes, and from six to twelve keys for semitones. Its compass is three octaves ranging from middle C upward. The piccolo is an octave higher. The tube of the flute is about twenty-seven inches long, and may be made of boxwood, ivory, ebony, silver, and even glass. The mountings are, of course, as expensive as the buyer may care to pay for. The flageolet is a small, direct flute. The fife is a single octave flute of the transverse sort. A skillful fifer, however, can reach two or possibly three octaves. By French writers, the direct or end flute is called the flute-a-bec, or the flute with a beak, in allusion to the beak-like mouthpiece at the end.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The instrument Collier's described in 1921 is essentially the one played today: the design credited there to "Mr. Behm, of Munich" — Theobald Boehm, whose 1832 keywork and 1847 cylindrical tube are the basis of the modern flute — remains the standard, with the closed G-sharp fitted by Dorus still normal. What has shifted is material and range: silver, gold and nickel have almost wholly displaced Aiton's boxwood, ivory and ebony, and a B foot joint extending the compass a semitone below middle C is now common. Aiton's 1910 note that "scientists are not agreed as to the correct explanation of the vibrations of the air" is no longer true; the coupling of the air jet to the tube's resonances was worked out in detail during the twentieth century. The biggest surprise for both writers would be the flute a bec, which they treat as obsolete: the recorder was revived from the 1920s onward and is now the instrument on which millions of schoolchildren first learn to play.
Written for this edition, 2026.