Question: Why did flute makers go from the original wood to the metal flutes?
Pied Piper sez: Progress. If you build a better flute, they will come. That's what Theobald Boehm did and the rest is history.
Mostly, the reason was that the wood flutes of the baroque and classic era did not project all that well and chromatic note fingering was awkward. They also had difficulty competing with other orchestral instruments. Boehm developed a new fingering system and started building flutes from silver. The Boehm flute was then able to be better heard and they gradually replaced the simple system wood flutes.
Boehm wrote a book about his new flute system. It's highly recommended reading:
https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Flute_and_Flute_Playing.html?id=RYetl-gE4PAC
Pied Piper sez: Progress. If you build a better flute, they will come. That's what Theobald Boehm did and the rest is history.
Mostly, the reason was that the wood flutes of the baroque and classic era did not project all that well and chromatic note fingering was awkward. They also had difficulty competing with other orchestral instruments. Boehm developed a new fingering system and started building flutes from silver. The Boehm flute was then able to be better heard and they gradually replaced the simple system wood flutes.
Boehm wrote a book about his new flute system. It's highly recommended reading:
https://books.google.com/books/about/The_Flute_and_Flute_Playing.html?id=RYetl-gE4PAC