Northern Wisconsin advertiser. [volume] (Wabeno, Wis.) 1898-1925, 1904-06-02
ORGANS
Many Advances in Their Construction

NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS. E<l1~JG>11-lEzX14J
/ be a very expensive stop on the Or
gan"
Again the builder ran a quick finger
across the keys, as if he could not
avoid one more comment upon the deli
| cate perfection of his instrument
NO" he said, somewhat pityingly,
people forget all about the organ it.
self in their praise of the organist. In
the last five years more improvements
have been made in the organ than dur
! ing the preceding 100 years. Study,
experiment and genius have now com.
bined to place before the organist an al.
most perfect instrument, one which en-
ables him to give music any shading,
any effect he desires, to make any com
bination of stops with the very least
effort and distraction from his music.
He may set a combination or two OF
three of them, for use during certain
passage, and upon reaching that pas
sage throw the combination into use by
pressure upon one button alone, al
though the combination may involve
the employment often of fifteen stops.
Il am sorry people do not know more
about the mechanism OF the organ, be-
cause If they did they would be able to
appreciate, twofold, the brilliancy of
the organist. This is not meant TO de,
tract in the least from the superb skill
Of the organist; it is simply to say that
the organ-builder has been a great help
to him" He smiled broadly as he
drew the cotton cloth back ever the
keys. THE rapidity of response" he
continued, when the keys are touched
Is a boon to the organist. 1t may be
, effected in two ways: by having the
keyboard connected electrically with
the device which supplies air to the
pipes, or by the tubular pneumatic
system.
Both these systems are in use in
the churches in this city. In some in
stances, when, for example, the church
organ Is split into units, one on each
side of the chancel, and one in the
loft over the door, it is deemed better
/ to operate the remote unit, the loft or
gan, by means of electrical contact
/ than by the tubular pneumatic pro
cess. owing to the weighty mass OF
tubing this would require and the great
amount of friction which would be pro-
voked in the tubes. In the tubular
pneumatic system an electric motor
beneath the organ pumps air into a
main bellows where it Is reduced to a
compression of eight inches. Thence
Il is tubed in the various parts of the
organ, the wind chests, or reservoirs,
and applied at about four-inch pres,
sure.
From the reservoirs the air passes
TO the speaking pipes through a system
of supply pipes. A motor system or
small air-tight tubes, in which the air
is under compression. connects the
manuals with the wind chests of the
musical pipes. Where key is de-
pressed the pressure in the correspond
ing tube is instantly reduced by per-
hitting an escape of some of the con
fined air. communication with the
speaking pipe is instantly opened, and
the desired note is produced. This Is
the reason that the notes respond so
quickly when the keys are touched.
and the rapidity with which a scale,
for instance, may be run depends now
solely upon the skill. the manual dcx
tcrity of the organist.
Wood is used for about one.fourth
of the pipes in a large church organ
because there are certain tones which
cannot be produced by metal pipes.
The flute tones. for example. are al
ways made with wooden pipes, and, in
order TO save both weight and expense,
the large bass pipes are also of wood,
The largest of these pipes is 80 feet
long and about two feet by is inches
in section.
This is the pipe one feels rather than
hears when it is sounded The small
est pipe is half an inch long, and of the
diameter of a slender slate pencil. 1t
occurs in the piccolo stop. ami is very
like bird note. The tuning of this
mass of pipes is a very delicate oper-
atiuns as a siilful ear is required to de,