—How to Make It.
—This musical instrument is an organ pipe but it is played like a slide trombone, that is by pushing in and pulling out a slide that fits inside of it.
Spruce is the best wood to make the organ pipe of but you can use any other kind you have at hand. Saw off four strips of wood ¹⁄₄ inch thick and 16 inches long and have two of them 3 inches wide and the other two 2¹⁄₂ inches wide, as shown in [Fig. 110]. Saw off one of the 3 inch wide boards so that it will be 12¹⁄₄ inches long and plane down one end to a sharp edge as shown at [B].
Take another board ¹⁄₂ an inch thick and make it 2¹⁄₂ inches high and 3 inches wide as shown at [D]. Cut out a board for the end ¹⁄₄ inch thick, 2¹⁄₂ inches wide and 2¹⁄₂ inches long and bore a ¹⁄₂ inch hole in it as shown at [E].
THE PUSH
THE PIPE
BACK BOARD
TOP FRONT BOARD
LOWER FRONT BOARD
LIP
SIDE BOARDS
END
MOUTH PIECE
Fig. 110. parts of a musical push pipe
As you supply this pipe with air by blowing in it, take a common thread spool and trim down one end of it as shown at [F] so that you can get it into your mouth; then glue the large end over the hole in the bottom board. Next glue the sides together to form a square tube and make and glue into the lower end a three-cornered piece of wood 2 inches wide, 3 inches high and 2¹⁄₈ inches thick as shown at [G]. This will bring one of its sharp edges just under and very close to the sharp edge of the short side of the pipe.
Glue the thick piece of wood shown at [D] to the lower end of the pipe so that it leaves a ¹⁄₄ inch space between its top edge and the sharp edge of the short side of the pipe. Finally glue the mouthpiece in the lower end of the tube and this part of the push pipe is done.
If now you will place your hand over the open top of the pipe and blow through the mouthpiece, a soft note like that of a steamboat whistle will issue from it. To play a tune on the pipe it must have a range of an octave but if it will sound an octave and a half you can play many of the popular airs on it.