New Ulm review. (New Ulm, Brown County, Minn.) 1892-1961, 1910-12-28
1000 PIPES IN
new YORK ORGAN
Instrument at Cathedral Of ST.
John the Divine a Marvel.
TOOK FOUR YEARS TO BUILD.

Cost $4,000, and Oraanist Has Two
Invaluable Assistants In Two Elec-
trio Motors of Twenty three Horse
poWer-Severa Tone CoIors pra-
duced For First Time in History.
The great organ which is being iil-
stalled in the Cathedral of st. John
the Divine is approaching completion
When it is actually finished New York
will be richer in great organs tkan any
other city in the world Four years
were required for it's constructions
In the opinion of Ernest M. Skinner,
the builder of this and other famous
instruments, the cathedral will pos
sess the browning achievement so fai'
in organ building. In the nu,obe: Of
stops this organ is slightly srcaller
than a few other instruments.
"But in point of completeness" says
Mr.. Skinner, both as regards tone
color and volume, it will have no su-
perior in the world and possibly no
equal. There are no compromises or
authorizations of any sort or DIES rip
ton
New Colors Are Used.
"Several tone colors appearing in this
instrument are used for the first time
in the history of organ building, and
nothing has been left undone to make
it 4 great work of art
There are people to whom this mix
of 'a great work of art'' will moan
less than the fact that the organ is
costing $4,000, that it has between
5000 and 1000 pipes, that the largest
of these is Il great wooden conduit
thirty two feet long and that the
smallest is a. thin reed of tin not even
so large as lead pencil.
These are the people whose mouths
will open in establishment if told that
in reality three organists must work
together to make the big instrument
speak. The real organist is Miles Far
row, but he would be pOWeress with
out his two assistants, the same be-
ing q fifteen horsepower electric mo-
tor opera ting the southern division of
the instrument and a seven and a half
horsepower motor for the northern di-
vision. These two divisions are placed
one on either side of the chancel or
choir of the cathedral, and fifty feet
above the main f1oor
Proportions Are Vast.
Each division occupies the space of
| good sized house, and each is packed!
with ranks on ranks of pipes, zinc,
| composition and wooden The largest
is the thirty-two foot pedal b0m5lrde.
the only one of its kind in the world
except the one in the College OF the
City Of New York. 1t is said that in
Westminster abbey there is an organ
pipe sixty-four feet long, laid hori-
zontally along the ceiling Of the choir
! loft. The thirty-two foot pipe up at
the Cathedral of ST. John tue Divine
gives the same tone because it has a
siNty-four foot stop.
1t is curious fact that these square
wooden organ pipes are tuned to a
pitch just an octave higher than the
note they are intended to give. A
wooden plug or. stop with handle
on 1t is then put into the end of the
pipe, with the consequence that the
pitch is lowered just one octave. in
this way the thirty foot pipe is made
to give the note Of an unstorpe2 one
sixty-four feet long.
Parts Are CIrrioreI,x
All the wooden pipes are made Of
pine. Some of the metal pipes are Of
zinc, others of a composition of lead
and tin. The difference in the amount
OF tin causes astonishing variations in
the quality of the vibration of the nine
and consequently of the tone it gives.
The names of the different PARTS of
pipe are interesting For Instance.
the air is forced in through {; hole in
the pointed toe of the pipe, goes
through the fiue (the slit cut Il, the
slde) and strikes the lip. In some
cases it then hits the beard "a metal
cylinder attached just below the open
lns) and rebounds against the liz, pro.
uuclng double vibration. There is
also tongue, and the upper part is
called the barrel.
EVERY one has seen the player on
an old fashioned pipe organ feverislllv
pushing in and pulling out stops white
with one hand he hangs on to the KEYS
SO that there shall be no blank hiatus
IN the music. Things are indeed diff
Ierent with this latest organ.
Ihere are thirty-three possible com.
blnatlons Of stops that can be secured
oy simply pushing the ivory pistons
alstrlbuted between the manuals.
rush one piston and out imp all the
stops of the desired combination. Push
another and a totally different group