The contrabassophone is a woodwind instrument, invented about 1847 by German bassoon maker Heinrich Joseph Haseneier.
[1] It was intended as a substitute for the contrabassoon, which at that time was an unsatisfactory instrument, with a muffled sound due to tone holes that were too small and too close together.
Haseneier's design made use of some of the same principles that went into the Boehm system flute, in which keywork was developed based on tone holes with acoustically optimum sizes and positions.
Alfred Morton, the best English bassoon maker of the time made 3 or 4 copies of this instrument some of which included improvements in the keywork.
[2] By this time the contrabassophone had been largely superseded by improved versions of the contrabassoon for orchestral use, and by the tuba in wind bands.