<P>... stationed himself in the centre and had placed himself on a high seat, waving a golden staff, and the players on the flute and cythara were...placed in a circle around him...now when Pherekydes with his golden staff gave the signal, all the art - experienced men began in one and the same time...</P> <P> On 8 January 1687, Jean - Baptiste Lully was conducting a Te Deum to celebrate Louis XIV of France's recent recovery from illness . As was the common practice, he was beating time by banging a long staff (a precursor to the baton; the French word bâton actually meaning "staff") against the floor when he struck his toe, creating an abscess . The wound turned gangrenous, but Lully refused to have his toe amputated and the infection spread, resulting in his death on 22 March . </P> <P> The baton began to gain in popularity between 1820 and 1840 . The first batons were narrow and conical wooden wands that had an engraving of three rings near the bottom that indicated the handle . The Hallé Orchestra reported that Daniel Turk used a baton in 1810, with motions so exuberant that he occasionally hit the chandelier above his head and showered himself with glass . </P> <P> Louis Spohr claimed to have introduced the baton to England on 10 April 1820, while conducting his second symphony with the Philharmonic Society in London . Witnesses noted that the conductor "sits there and turns over the leaves of the score but after all, he cannot, without...his baton, lead on his musical army". It is more likely that he used his baton in rehearsal than in concert . It was 1825 when George Smart reported that he sometimes' beat time in front with a short stick' . </P>

What kind of material makes up the object labeled conductor