Practical Organ Building

by W. E. Dickson

It may be taken as certain, moreover, that the reader who takes up this book to assist him in the arduous work which he has undertaken, and in the hope (which we trust we shall not disappoint) of finding rules laid down in it which he can readily reduce to practice, has long ago decided upon the position which the projected organ is to occupy, and has measured with his eye, if not with his two-foot rule or tape, the breadth, depth, and height which can be fairly allowed to the finished instrument.

Great diversity of dimension and design is one of the peculiarities which distinguish organs from all other musical instruments. Our organ may be wide and shallow like a book-case, or it may be of little greater width than its key-board, but deep like a wardrobe; it may be carried up nearly to the ceiling of a lofty apartment, or may be kept down to suit the low-browed rafters of a country farmhouse or a workman's cottage.

The site chosen for the organ may allow of convenient access to the back of it for tuning purposes; or it may compel us to arrange the interior so that the back may always remain in close contact with the wall. The projection of the keys, too, from the front, and therefore the position of the player when seated at the instrument, possibly in a small room; the place for the blowing-handle and for the person who works it, so that convenient space may be left for him to fulfil his irksome duty—these are matters of detail admitting of great variety of treatment.

There are cases in which it may be possible, and very advantageous, to separate the bellows from the organ which they supply, and to establish them in an adjoining room, or beneath the floor or platform on which the organ is placed.

All these considerations must receive full attention, and drawings or rough sketches sufficiently intelligible to the workman himself must be made in accordance with the decisions arrived at. Then, and not till then, we can launch ourselves upon the very serious business of designing and constructing the sound-board.

A serious business, we say, making a large demand upon our industry and perseverance, and calling for adroit use of tools of several different characters.

To facilitate our own task in describing the process of constructing a sound-board, we shall divide this chapter into short sections, with intervening remarks.

1. The sound-board is a shallow box, divided internally into as many transverse grooves or channels as there are notes on the key-board. The pipes stand upon holes bored through the top of the box into these channels; and it is plain that if air is made to fill these channels, and to issue from these holes in a constant stream when we please, all the pipes which stand upon the holes will give their sounds according to their pitch and character.

Remark.—Thus if one channel, say the channel corresponding to Tenor C, have five holes bored into it through the top of the box, then five pipes standing upon those holes may be made to speak at once, or in chorus, by pressing down the one key on the manual.

2. It is plain that we must possess the power of opening and closing these holes in sets or classes at our pleasure, so that the air may be directed into those pipes which we desire to hear, while others are silent. The top of the box is therefore made double, or of two layers of wood; and between the two layers long strips of thin wood are introduced, lying lengthwise, that is to say, at right angles to the channels beneath or within. The holes are bored down through all these three layers of wood forming the top of the box; and we see that by sliding the thin slip an inch or so to the right or left, we can cut off at once the current of air from the pipes standing on those holes, since the apertures in the three layers will then no longer coincide.