Bathyphone

Bathyphone (Ger. Bathyphon), *contrabass clarinet first built by Eduard Skorra of Berlin in 1839 to the design of Wilhelm Wieprecht, later built by C. Kruspe of Erfurt. Pitched in C, 2 octs. below the ordinary clarinet, the bathyphone had 2 parallel tubes of maple or brass united in a butt joint, an upturned metal bell, and S-crook. It looked rather like a Russian bassoon and had a compass E1–c1, its lowest tones being weak. A surviving specimen in Copenhagen has 17 keys. The bathyphone served…