BODHRAN LEXICON INSTRUMENTSThe Tin Whistle is a diatonic instrument, most of the time in D; however, you can also find the other keys for your whistles, as you can see on my picture. The tin whistle was invented in the village of Coney Weston (North-East London), in 1843. Robert Clarke, a farm labourer, played a small wooden whistle. He heard that a new material called tinplate (mild steel covered with tin) had been invented. So he tried to reproduce his whistle with the help from his friend, the village blacksmith. And as his new whistle sounded very well, he began to produce it.
Irish Whistles
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Down by the Salley Gardens (Low whistle D)
The Low Whistle has a recent history. It was created to find a low, wide and warm sound. These whistles are longer than the tin whistles and therefore play an octave below them. Like the tin, you can find the low whistles in several keys. The instrument is more difficult to play : the holes are bigger and therefore more difficult to close properly; the space between fingers is also more important and will require a different grip of the instrument; and the whistle needs more air to sound.
Then he heard that there were opportunities for manufacture in Lancashire : so he walked from Coney Weston to Manchester, pushing his tools and materials in a handbarrow. He met irish navigators on his way, and sold his tin whistles to them. These Irishmen took them back to Ireland, where the "English tin whistles" became Ireland's favourite folk instrument.