"16mm total depression, oversquare, non-axially bored valve section giving unit

[ariful199]

It may sound all "ovoids" to you, but to me, it is music in my ears - and to lots of other people too.

I suppose the idea surfaced light years ago during the second hour of Wagner's "Das Rheingold" in the orchestra pit of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. You know the bit - one of the exciting climaxes where Wotan transfers his spear from his right hand to his left, and when the brass section are beginning to regret that earlier pint of beer.

Sitting contemplating the genius of Sir Georg, and wondering what he'll do when he finds I've knotted his towel to the pit rail outside, I oiled one of my trumpet valves and whispered to Mr Dilly, the principal trumpet:

"Harry, I'm going to redesign these valves without bumps in the ports - they muck up the airflow."

"Shut up Denis, I was asleep - I don't play for another twenty minutes."

Which I suppose is when it all started.

Bumps impede airflow

One might at this stage imagine that a "bump" in the port of email database a trumpet valve is trivial (possibly: take a look if you haven't noticed one before). Perhaps though, this is not so: closer inspection will reveal that there are in fact two bumps in each valve and that each bump is a small mound about 2mm high.

photo

If we add the height of these little mounds together we've got a 4mm mound. And, as most of us use three valve trumpets, we now have an impedance to the airflow through the valve section of our trumpet of 2mm x 2mm x 3 (valves): this equals 12 whole millimetres.

This blockage in the valve section is then larger than the bore of the instrument. Have you ever wondered why the G# above the staff is a bit unsafe?