Hi,
If you have a JPEG of the bell, of the engraving and the number, on a please send it to me and I'll see what I can come up with. If the number was in a little "pineapple" it would indicate the the year of manufacture was 1922.
Also, if the horn has a stop rod for the tuning slide with an adjustable nut on the end (like today's 3rd valve slide stop rods), it's purpose made sense in the 1920's!
The tuning slide adjustable stop rod was used in the early part of the twentieth century to CHANGE THE KEY OF THE HORN TO "A."
Back then some cornet/trumpet parts were written in the "darker" key of A (like "Fantaisie and Variations on Acteon" in the Arban's book)!
When a part for "A" cornet was encountered a player could quickly kick out his tuning slide in an instant . . . then pull out the 2nd valve slide a very tiny amount . . . the 1st valve slide twice as far . . . and the third valve slide twice as much as the 1st, and INSTANT "A" CORNET/TRUMPET!
Some vintage horns, such as the Holton Clarke cornet of the "teens" even had lines grooved on the inner slide tubes to let one know how far to pull the valve slides when playing in "A!"
Many fine cornets and trumpets, from the very early 20th century until the start of WWII, had some sort of way to pull the tuning slide out the correct amount to put the horn into "A" easily.
Conn seemed to favor the stop rod, as did most makers . . . including Vincent Bach on his Strads.
A DIFFERENT WAY . . . TO GET AN "A" . . .
My Boston 3-Stars from the early teens used a really cool, albit more expensive way to kick the cornets into "A" . . . they have TWO tuning slides! Here's how they did it:
After the leadpipe wraps around and comes back at the player there's a large "tuning slide" that faces back towards the player (like the current Wild Thing short model cornet) . . . but that's NOT where you mainly tune it! No . . . that big one has a threaded ferrule on it that STOPS the tuning slide at the "A" position when it is pulled out. It cannot go further without unscrewing the nut totally.
The cool thing about this idea is that one can quickly take their right thumb and kick the big slide in or out without stopping!
No . . . the MAIN tuning slide on a Boston made in the teens is the NEXT one after the big tuning slide. This second one points forward, and looks like an extra "3rd valve slide" pointing forward. This is the one where you tune the horn normally, and only pull out the larger one when making a quick change into "A!"
Doc Severinsen plays the same version and approximate year Boston 3-Star in his concerts as the two I have. Although the two photos on this link show the left side of the goldplated Boston 3-Star, you can probably see the "double" tuning slide idea:
http://www.cohenbrothers.org/cohenbr...nsen_horns.htm
Note: The earlier 3-Stars used an insertable leadpipe and didn't employ the double tuning slide. Like on other 1800's cornets with insertable leadpipes, you either inserted a LONGER leadpipe to go into "A," added a "bit" to the end of your leadpipe, or pulled the single tuning slide!
WHY INSERTABLE LEADPIPES BEFORE 1910???
Well . . . concert pitch wasn't standardized yet and mid-to-late 1800s instruments came in many different variations of pitch! Horns came with more than one length of leadpipe. Some had several . . . and this would allow a player with a new horn to be able to play with various ensembles where players might be using instruments pitched differently!
As a matter of fact, in the Civil War era a brass band usually bought all their instruments from a certain company to insure that they'd all tune to the same pitch! Concert "A" was generally higher than today's A = 440 Hz . . . sometimes almost exactly a half step higher!
Later in the 1800's probably the most popular pitch for "A" was A = 454 Hz. Today we call vintage brass instruments either "high pitch" (A = 454 Hz) or "low pitch" (today's standard of A = 440 Hz).
The difference between a Bb and an A trumpet/cornet sound-wise varies about as much as the difference between a D trumpet and an Eb! At the turn of the 20th century players really liked the slightly darker, more noble sound of the A cornet vs. the Bb cornet.
WHY NO "A" MECHANISM ON MODERN CORNETS AND TRUMPETS???
Interestingly . . . if one tune's his 1880's "high pitch" cornet correctly down into "A" to get that richer sound . . . the horn is just about where today's modern Bb cornet/trumpet is sounding when in Bb!!!
Trivia from a bygone age! . . .
Sincerely,
Tom Turner