D.R.G.M. 232038

Date of Manufacture:

The horn shown above is an early example of the double horn first produced in 1904 by the firm of Ed. Kruspe and subsequently known popularly as the "Kruspe wrap."¹ The design was registered as D.R.G.M.232038 on July 23, 1904,² under the title Doppelzylindermechanik für Metallblasinstrumente, mit neben und parallel zu den Zylinderdoppelventilen angeordneten, zu einem Zylinder in einem Gehäuse vereinigten Stellventilen. [ Double cylinder mechanism for brass instruments, alongside of and parallel to the double cylinder valves, in one cylinder housing as a combined control valve.]

Zeitschrift für Instrumentenbau v.24, nr. 35, p.1043, September 11, 1904

It is interesting to note that this description is only for the change valve and says nothing about the "wrap" or routing of the tubing of the body of the horn. What was registered is a double ("two-story") rotary valve with six ports placed alongside and parallel to the three double rotary valves for the F and B♭ sides of the horn. This registration is a refinement of D.R.G.M. 182267 from 1902 which had a similar valve mounted perpendicular to the main valve set. Both of these new designs combined into a single rotor the functions of the two separate rotors used on the first Kruspe double horn (D.R.G.M. 84240, October 5, 1897) which had employed two rotary valves mounted on either side of the main valve set (see drawing at the bottom left of this page). The Kruspe single rotor change valve designs are also distinguished from the piston change valve employed by C.F. Schmidt in 1899.

Images from the 1929 Kruspe catalog, courtesy of Dirk Arzig,

The 1929 Kruspe catalog shows two different double horn models based on D.R.G.M. 232038. Above left, the Modell Fritz Kruspe differs from the subject horn as well as the familiar Modell Horner on the right by the absence of the secondary F-horn slide at the on the front of the horn. This slide is used primarily for emptying water that accumulates in the F tubing below the main valves. The Modell Horner differs from the subject horn by its larger bell and narrower garland. Mr. Horner also preferred the sound of a nickel-silver horn to those of brass: "For me, the German silver was best, and that horn with a large bell with small rim, and string valves became the Horner model, which Krüspe himself named, not I." Mr. Horner imported many of this model for his students, including the horn purchased for Mason Jones in 1935. The common factor is the thumb valve arrangement that was registered under D.R.G.M. 232038.

This horn is thought to be a very early example of D.R.G.M. 232038 for several reasons. First the engraving on the bell is of an ornate design associated with Kruspe horns in the early twentieth century. It certainly predates the familiar Kruspe eagle that appeared following World War I in 1918.

Second, the thumb valve rotor is mounted "upside down" from the modern Kruspe-wrap horn. That is the string linkage from the valve lever to the rotor is on the front of the horn instead of on the player's side like the other three valves. Actually, this is not necessarily an indication of this horn's antiquity since Kruspe was producing D.R.G.M. 232038 with the thumb valve mounted either way well into the 1920s.³

The most interesting feature of this horn is the way the primary F tuning slide is wrapped inside the very wide main tuning slide coming from the mouthpipe. On nearly all Kruspe-wrap and most other double horns the F-tuning slide is placed to the right of the main tuning slide (see photos below). Interestingly, it was located there in the illustration from 1899 description of first Kruspe double horn (D.R.G.M. 84240, 1897), as well as the Modell Horner.

The original Kruspe double horn of 1897 is shown in the drawing below left. The tandem change valves were connected by a rod attached to the thumb lever so that they moved together in tandem. The upper rotor selected the F or B♭ valve slides and opened or bypassed the F-extension tubing; the lower rotor routed the air path from the selected valve slides to the first branch and bell. In the 1904 design these functions are combined into a single rotor mounted parallel to the three normal valves. The horn was designed by Fritz Kruspe and Edmund Gumpert, third horn in the court orchestra in Meiningen and nephew of Friedrich Gumpert. Both Anthony Baines (1976, p. 224) and Herbert Heyde (1987, p.182) incorrectly state that this was a compensating horn. Dr. Heyde compounds the error even further by stating that the unsigned example in the Deutsches Museum in Munich (Nr. 15265) and the article by Hermann Eichborn (ZfI, 1899, p. 981) actually pertain to the patent (DRP 117592) by Friedrich Butti from August 13, 1899. Inspection of the actual D.R.G.M. 84240 document filed by Firma Ed. Kruspe, however, clearly shows that this was a full double horn. Unfortunately this error has since been spread throughout subsequent publications and the Internet.

Special thanks to Dirk Arzig, BrassTacks.De for permission to use his images from the 1929 Ed. Kruspe catalog.

1. A horn's "wrap" refers to the way the tubing is bent and, in the case of double horns, the placement and type of F-B♭switching valve. For example the "Kruspe wrap" shown here places the thumb valve rotor above the three main valves, whereas the "Knopf-Geyer" wrap places the rotor below the third valve and connected to the thumb lever by a long rod. The "Schmidt wrap" employs a piston valve mounted under the keys of the three regular valves.
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2. D.R.G.M. stands for Deutsches Reichsgebrauchsmuster, a registration created in 1891 for the purpose of protecting for three years the design or function of an item throughout all of the German states. D.R.G.M. registered products were protected either for their way of intended use or design, but this did not include patent protection. Patent rights were secured by applying for a Deutsches Reichspatent (D.R.P.). No D.R.P. has been found for this Kruspe horn, nor have the documents filed for D.R.G.M. 232038 been found and are presumed lost.
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3. Mr. Tomohiro Yamamoto, who is a member of the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra, has a fabulous collection of Kruspe horns which he describes in detail in his blog (in Japanese). He calls this model with the upside down thumb rotor "Purehona" [「プレホーナー」] which he claims is the common designation in the United States and which he described on his blog on February 21, 2011 (bottom illustration) and again on February 14, 2012 .
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