Posted by AW on February 24, 2003 at 14:23:16:
In Reply to: Re: Re: A question of physics posted by Rick Denney on February 24, 2003 at 12:28:12:
Rick, you are right, of course. I appreciate the level of detail in your post. I'm in the electronic engineering racket, not the mechanical engineering one.
However, why should we let mere practicality restrict us? If ball bearings aren't good for back & forth, let's redesign rotary valves to go in one direction only. Perhaps we could use a bit of servo boost to get them spinning merrily. And, we could install those little rollers you see on some flute and saxophone keys, connected to yet more mechanism to operate valve slide triggers. Using fingerings not much more complicated than a bassoon's, we could have "perfect" intonation on every note. And then we could...
Allen Walker
pipes2000[AT]theatreorgans.com
replace [AT] with (AT)
P.S. I use Hetman "Light Bearing Oil" on my rotary valve bearings -- and they work quite well.