newly invented pistons of Stoelzel and Bluemel patented in 1815. It was introduced into Great Britain and France about 1830. There were at first only two pistons—for a whole tone and for a half tone—from which there naturally resulted gaps in the chromatic scale of the instrument. The use of a combination of pistons (see Bombardon and Valves) fails to give acoustically correct intervals, because the length of tubing thus thrown open is not of the theoretical length required to produce the interval. A tube about 4 ft. long, such as that of the B♭ cornet, needs an additional length of about 3 in. to lower the pitch a semitone; but, if this cornet has already been lowered one tone to the key of A♭, the length of tube has increased some 6 in., and the 3-in. semitone piston no longer adds sufficient tubing to produce a semitone of correct intonation. To the performer falls the task of concealing the shortcomings of his instrument, and he therefore corrects the intonation by varying the lip tension. At first the cornet was supplied with a great many crooks for A, A♭, G, F, E, E♭ and D, but from the explanation now given, it will be readily understood that they were found unpractical for valve instruments, and all but the first two mentioned have been abandoned. The history of the cornet is a record of the endeavours of successive musical instrument makers to overcome this inherent defect in construction. The most ingenious and successful of these improvements are the following:—(1) The six-valve-independent system[1] of Adolphe Sax, designed about 1850, by which a separate valve was used for each position, thus obviating the necessity of using combinations of pistons. This theoretically perfect system unfortunately introduced great difficulties in practice, the valves being made ascending instead of descending, and each piston cutting off a definite length of wind-way from the open tube, instead of adding to it. The system was eventually abandoned. (2) The Besson Registre giving eight independent positions, afterwards modified as the (3) Besson compensating system transpositeur, patented in England in 1859, which was considered so successful that the idea was extensively used by other makers. (4) The Boosey automatic compensating piston, invented by D. J. Blaikley, and patented in 1878, a very ingenious device whereby when two or more pistons are used simultaneously the length of the air column is automatically adjusted to the theoretical length required to ensure correct intonation. (5) Victor Mahillon’s automatic regulating pistons (pistons régulateur automatique) produced about 1886, the result of independent efforts in the same direction as Blaikley, and equally ingenious and effectual.[2] Finally we have (6) more recently the Besson enharmonic valve system (fig. 3) with three pistons and six independent tuning slides which give the seven positions independently, thus realizing in a simple effectual manner all that Sax strove to accomplish with his six pistons. The enharmonic valves give all notes theoretically true; there are in addition separate means for adjusting each of the first six lengths, for although these lengths are theoretically correct there are always certain modifying conditions connected with brass instruments which render it essential to provide means for adjustment. All notes being true on this Besson cornet, they can be fingered to the greatest advantage for smoothness and rapidity. (7) Rudall, Carte & Co.’s cornet (fig. 4), with strictly conical bore (Klussmann’s patent) throughout the open tube and additional lengths from the mouthpiece to the bell, gives a perfect intonation and is at the same time easy to blow. There are no crooks to this cornet when constructed in B♭, but it may be instantaneously transposed into the key of A major by means of an undetachable slide guided by a piston rod. (V. M.; K. S.)
CORNETO TARQUINIA (anc. Tarquinii), a town of Italy,
in the province of Rome, 62 m. N.W. by rail from the town of
Rome, 490 ft. above sea-level. Pop. (1901) 5273. Corneto
probably arose after the ancient town had been destroyed by
the Saracens. In the 10th century it began to acquire importance,
and for some time was an independent commune. It is
picturesquely situated, and commands a fine view. It possesses
medieval fortifications, and no less than twenty-five towers are still standing in various parts of the town, which thus has a remarkably medieval appearance. The castle on the N. contains the Romanesque church of S. Maria in Castello, begun in 1121, with a fine portal of 1143, a ciborium of 1168 and a pulpit of 1209, both in “cosmatesque” work: the pavement in marble mosaic also is fine. There are several other Romanesque and Gothic churches in the town more or less restored. The oldest parts of the Palazzo Comunale date from about 1000. The Gothic Palazzo Vitelleschi (1439) contains remarkably rich windows. The municipal museum (which is to be transferred to this palace) and the Palazzo Bruschi, contain fine collections of Etruscan antiquities from the tombs of Tarquinii. Four miles to the S.W. is the Porto Clementino (perhaps the ancient Graviscae, the port of Tarquinii), with government saltworks, in which convicts are employed.
See L. Dasti, Notizie storiche archeologiche di Tarquinia e Corneto (Rome, 1878); for the cemeteries, Notizie degli Scavi, 1906, 1907.
CORNICE (Fr. corniche, Ital. cornice), in architecture, the projection at the top of a wall, which is provided to throw off the rain water from the roof, beyond the face of the building. As employed in classic architecture it forms the upper part of the entablature of an order, and is there subdivided into bed
mould, corona and cymatium. The term is also generally applied to any moulding projection which crowns the feature to which it is attached; thus doors and windows, internally as well as externally, have each their cornice, and the same applies to pieces of furniture (see also Masonry).
CORNIFICIUS, the author of a work on rhetorical figures, and perhaps of a general treatise (ars, τέχνη) on the art of rhetoric (Quintilian, Instit., iii. 1. 21, ix. 3. 89). He has been identified with the author of the four books of Rhetorica dedicated to a certain Q. Herennius and generally known under the title of Auctor ad Herennium. The chief argument in favour of this identity is the fact that many passages quoted by Quintilian from Cornificius are reproduced in the Rhetorica. Jerome, Priscian and others attributed the work to Cicero (whose De inventione was called Rhetorica prima, the Auctor ad Herennium, Rhetorica secunda), while the claims of L. Aelius Stilo, M. Antonius Gnipho, and Ateius Praetextatus to the authorship have been supported by modern scholars. But it seems improbable that the question of authorship will ever be satisfactorily settled. Internal indications point to the date of compositions as 86–82 B.C., the period of Marian domination in Rome. The unknown author, as may be inferred from the treatise itself, did not write to make money, but to oblige his relative and friend Herennius,
for whose instruction he promises to supply other works on grammar, military matters and political administration. He
