Crane Driver: "I really don't understand the original question - what does "*the* Concertina/Koncertina" mean?"

RE:To make it short: Neither do I! :-) I said it just to provoke the question.Never mind about the spelling, I return to that later, just let me say instead: What IS a Concertina? What is it that makes it different from other squeezeboxes? from Accordion or Melodeon? To make it easier to categorize the squeezeboxes - can we agree upon a definition for *concertinas* ?

CD:"I suspect that the name 'Koncertina' was Uhlig's, and that Wheatstone anglicised it to 'Concertina' when he started to fit bellows to his Symphonium..."

RE: Rather the other way around.Uhlig was not associated with the term as it seems.According to the Charles Roylance tutor a quote may be interpreted meaning that the name Concertina appeared in dec 1833. It does for sure appear in a Dublin newspaper in June 1834 in relation to Regondi's tour in Ireland.In Germany Maria Dunkel mentions the Industrie-Ausstellung in München 1869 talking about Concertina-manufacturers but I think there was an earlier event as well (in the late 1850s)

Concerning the "diatonic German system" it depends if we talk about its application on "concertinas" and then Uhlig may(below!) be relevant, otherwise we have to get back to Demian in Vienna 1829 who often is meant to be the initial squeezebox inventor ( or first patentee at least) along with some claims that Buschmann may have come first.

Concerning Uhlig's role some very interesting new stuff has turned up related by Dan Worrall in ICA "Concertina World" No 443.Uhlig's son in law Johann David Wünsch in his biographic notes 1890 said "When in our new acomodation, I still worked for the business of my father-in-law Uhlig...with whom I also invented the concertina..."

The claim can not be completely contradicted as it seems, so maybe some history has to be questioned here as elsewhere.There are no other known documents supporting the importance of Wünsch's claim but of course it would not be very surprising if Uhlig took some credit from his son-in-law.Wünsch did move on anyway to Leipzig and founded an enterprise for instrument manufacture although it seems as if he was occupied more as a musician himself.

Concerning the "improved ergonomic handle" as often is the case it is not much of "invention", possibly some "innovation", but like I have said before some of the principle of it ought to be selfevident and was published already 1861 in a patent application by William Wheatstone...

Concerning the name the spelling Concertina actually was used in Germany too in early years which indicates that it may have got there from England. Whether it came from the Wheatstones despite being likely to me is not prooved.Maria Dunkel mentions that J Alexandre 1839 used the term for a harmonium and Berlioz 1844 talked about "Concertina Anglais" and "Concertina Allemand". So, where the term actually came from is not definitely prooved. It seems not to have until in later decades of the 19th century that the German spelling Konzertina became commonly established, along with Bandonion - which by definition is a *concertina*? or?