Many types of pistons and valves were developed in the first third of the 19th century, with patent-related legal struggles and wars included. The real origin of both the piston and the rotary valve is in doubt, but there is some data: Heinrich Stölzel and Friedrich Blühmel patented their “box piston” in Prussia in 1818 (a variant of the piston that Stölzel himself used 4 years before and which we don't have a precise description) and, in collaboration with W. Schuster, they created instruments equipped with
kastenventile (square box pistons); In 1823, surely inspired by a similar model developed by C.F. Sattler two years earlier, the Vienna double-piston valve, driven by a push-valve system (
doppelrohr-Schubventil), was patented by J. Kail and J.F. Riedl; The latter patented in 1835 a rotary valve similar to the one we see in modern tubas, although some sources claim that it was invented in 1824 by the American Nathan Adams and we found another Blühmel patent in 1828 (who would already be experienced with this system since a
decade earlier); Leopold Uhlmann patented in Vienna in 1830 an improved version of the double tube valve of Kail and Riedl; the Berlin piston will be created around 1828 by Wilhelm F. Wieprecht (precursor of the tuba next to Moritz); and the French manufacturer François Périnet will patent in 1838 the piston we find in today's tubas and euphoniums, with less pronounced tube curves than in the previous systems. The invention of the compensated piston system is attributed to the Briton David James Blaikley in 1874, with an 1878 patent.
W. Schuster trumpet with two square box pistons (ca. 1824, Karlsruhe). Germanisches Nationalmuseum.
Stölzel Piston (source: University of South Dakota).
Vienna double-piston valve (source: The Arizona State University Horn Studio).
Berlin Piston (illustration: Eric Ortner).
Rotary valve (source: Mogens Andresen).
Périnet Piston (source: Mogens Andresen).
Compensated system (source: David Werden).