I'm trying to read an old handwritten German document from 1835 which describes the range of the newly invented tuba.
It says:
die Bass-Tuba hingegen 4 reine Octaven durch die chromatische Scala, und zwar vom eingestrichenem, bis zum Contra C, zurückrechnet.
When I run this through a translator, I get:
the bass-Tuba, on the other hand, calculates 4 pure octaves through the chromatic scale, from the bow down to Contra C
My troubles here is with "eingestrichenem" which could translate to "bow", but if I play with it a little, I also get "cross" or "paint". What octave is this referring to?
A similar phrase appears a little later in the same document.
This says:
Alle Bass-Blaseinstrumente als: 1) das englische Basshorn 2) der Serpente, (beide in einem Umfange von höchstens 2 1/2 Octaven brauchbar, und zwar vom kleinen G bis zum großen C, zurrück) und 3) die Baß-Posaune (in einem Umfange in 3 Octaven und zwar vom eingestrichenem C bis zum großen zurrück, konnten den fehlenden Contra-Bass nicht ersetzen, welchen die Harmonie-Musik nöthig bedurfte.
or in English:
All bass wind instruments as: 1. the English bass horn 2. the serpent, (both usable in a range of a maximum of 2 1/2 octaves, from small G to large C, back) and 3. the bass trombone ( in a range of 3 octaves, namely from the bowed C back to the big one), could not replace the missing contra bass, which harmony music needed.
In this sentence, they describe "small G to large C" which I think (thanks to this answer) describes G4 (middle of treble clef) to C3 (middle of bass clef), but I'm still not sure about "eingestrichenem C" or "bowed C".