Sometime later, some makers switched to an arrangement whereby a silver claw protruding from the C natural key touch passed through a perforation in the C# key touch. Here's an image of such an arrangement on a Prowse Nicholson's Improved flute:
Not everyone adopted it though - for example Siccama, and therefore Pratten, adopted a different arrangement where the C key touch lodged in a cavity provided for it in the C# touch. You might be able to make it out in this original Pratten:
And later Rudall Cartes went back to something more akin to the earliest example.
Now, I'm aware that Prowse and Rudall & Rose both used "the Claw" - anyone have examples by other makers? It would be interesting to see if we can determine who started it.
Dave Migoya can probably tell us when RR started clawing, but it's harder to tell with Prowse as he stayed put in Hanway St, so we can't relate his serial numbers to dates with any precision. If we found a claw on a very low order serial number, we might assume he was the Creator of the Claw.
Terry
