Practical Organ Building

by W. E. Dickson

Fig. 24.

The present writer has further modified this arrangement by substituting a wide and shallow trunk for one of the cheeks. This trunk is screwed by its flange to the bottom board of the wind-chest, where the wind enters, and it is closed at the bottom, where it rests upon the cross-bearers of the frame. A lateral aperture is cut in it an inch or two from this lower end, and a short mitred trunk connects it with the bellows. All this may be sufficiently understood by inspection of Fig. 24.

Remark.—The late eminent builder, Mr. W. Hill, we believe, exhibited an organ at the London International Exhibition in 1851 which had hollow framework, serving as trunks. It is evident that by making one end of our bellows rest upon a hollow bearer we might omit the trunk-band entirely, since this hollow bearer might be directly connected by a mitred trunk with the hollow cheek supporting the wind-chest. And by making one leg of the bellows-frame hollow, and connecting it at top with a hollow cross-bearer, carrying the cheek on which rests the wind-chest, it is plain that we supersede the separate trunk altogether. Such plans as these may amuse some of our readers.

Fig. 25.

If the feeder is worked by the foot of the player such a pedal as that shown in Fig. 25 will be found convenient. It is made of hard wood—oak, birch, ash, or walnut—with iron or brass hoops and pivots, and is screwed to the floor of the room, independently of the organ-frame. The little roller should be covered or muffled with soft leather, and you will see that it rolls clear of the valve-holes in the feeder. By lengthening the middle piece or shaft we may work with the right foot, a feeder having its play on the left side; but in such a case the whole machine will be best made of iron by a smith. He will coat the pedal for you with india-rubber where the foot rests upon it—a much better plan than roughening it like a rasp. The pedal, as figured, is intended to be on the extreme right of the player, and to be clear of a pedal-board of two octaves.

The reader will see that by reversing the positions of the arms of the pedal it may be made to suit any little organ with a manual only. In this case the muffled roller will traverse the feeder not crosswise, but lengthwise.

We pointed out in a former page that the position of a bellows-blower must be considered in your plans for the finished instrument. If he stands close to the player on either side of him the lever will be easily poised upon a strong pin projecting from the frame. A piece of web or a leathern strap will be a better connection with the feeder than any rigid bar of wood or of iron. If the organ is not placed against a wall the position of the blower may with equal ease be precisely reversed. The lever, however, may be arranged parallel to the back wall by constructing your bellows in the first instance with a view to this, the hinge of the feeder being on one of its long sides, as we have explained in a former page. Or, with a feeder hinged as usual at its end, the lever may still be parallel to the back wall by acting upon an arm with a roller precisely similar to our foot-blower.