We intend to begin our organ by making a set of wooden pipes. Hence we need not provide ourselves with more timber for the present than we shall need for this first operation. But as in our imaginary furnishing of the workshop, we included several or many things which belong rather to future than to immediate use, so we may here place the reader in a position to form some idea of the further expense to which he will be put for the purchase of timber for his proposed small organ of four or five stops. The pine boards just enumerated will give us our first set of pipes; but when these are ready, we shall require some rather costly wood for the sound-board. This should be Honduras mahogany, often called "Bay wood," and of three thicknesses, say, three-quarters stuff for the table of the sound-board;[1] a full inch, or, still better, five-quarters, for the upper boards; and some very thin stuff, three-eighths or less, known as "coach-panel," for the sliders. The quantities, or number of square feet, of these mahogany boards will be determined by considerations discussed in a subsequent chapter. The wood must be carefully selected, for the grain of it is often tortuous and unkindly for the plane; it must be, like the pine, free from large knots, flaws, and cracks; and the completeness of its seasoning should be quite unquestionable and beyond the reach of suspicion.
[1] All these expressions will, of course, be explained hereafter.
It is not unreasonable to assume that the reader, who has contemplated for some time the building of an organ, has already by him some materials which he knows will be necessary; for instance, some boards of sound white deal for the framework, and perhaps for the bellows; and some scantlings of red deal, or pitch pine, or oak, or mahogany, or red cedar, for the blocks and stoppers of pipes. He will not need the aid of this book to be aware that old materials may sometimes be turned to excellent account in such a business as that upon which he is embarking. We have known the purchase (for a pound or two) of an old square pianoforte turn out a profitable investment. Its mahogany top was solid, not veneered; and the thin boards found in its interior dry as touch-wood, and perhaps one hundred years old, were made into pipes of charming sweetness.
The old organs before the days of mahogany were made chiefly of oak, often called "wainscot." We ourselves have made much use of this durable and trustworthy material, which may be obtained in the convenient form known as "coopers' staves," being planks about 6 feet in length, as many inches in width, and 2 or 3 inches thick. They may be divided, at any saw-pit or saw-mill, into boards of the desired thinness, and they work pleasantly under thoroughly sharp tools.
And now we may set to work upon our set of wood pipes.
CHAPTER II.
THE STOPPED DIAPASON.
Why do we begin by making a set of wooden pipes?