Description
(the photos were taken variously before, during and after restoration)
General
For general views of the whole instrument see Part 1. The serial number (perhaps) is 107 and the reservoir is signed internally “Prested Dec 1894″ (pics 1, 2). Dimensions are 163cm wide, 240cm high and 112cm deep excluding pedal board. The manuals are C-A 58 notes, with ivory naturals. The pedals are C-F 30 notes, with a concave and parallel board.
The stop action to each “tone unit” (qv) is one of two types: either the action is always “on” and the stop interrupts the wind , or the wind is always “on” and the stop interrupts the action.
The stops are: Woodwind 8′, Clarabella 8′, Diapason 8′ on the Great; Dulciana 8′, Cremona 8′ on the Swell; and Bourdon 16′, Violone 16′ (mechanical) on the Pedal.
The couplers are Swell to Great, Great to Pedal, Swell Octave and Swell Suboctave. The Swell also has a fan tremulant (Vox Humana) and a latch-down toe pedal for crescendo.
- 1. Signature inside reservoir
- 2. Signature close up
Bellows
The pressure bellows are worked by a hand lever which alternately compresses two single-rise rectangular (ie. not wedge) bellows feeding one single-rise rectangular reservoir (3, 4). The reservoir top-board, size 68 x 134cm, has four pig-iron weights stamped W H totalling 29kg.
- 3. Underside of feeders
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4. Partly re-leathered feeders, reservoir and weights. Above is the main table with part of the Gt-Ped coupler action attached.
Wind path
See Figure 1 and (5). A rectangular section wooden trunk runs from the treble end of the bellows to the underside of the main “table”. A tapering rectangular section wooden trunk runs from the topside of the table to the underside of the Great + Pedal (=main) wind chest. This trunk also acts as the treble-end support for the main wind chest and associated resonators (6, 7). A solid structure of the same dimensions supports the main chest at the bass end. Wind leaves through holes in the main chest floor at the bass end and enters the bass ends of the Swell tone units via ventils.
- Figure 1
- 5. General layout
- 6. Treble end lower wind trunk (furthest from camera) and matching solid bass end support rising from the bellows.
- 7. Lower and upper wind trunks. The latter also doubles as the treble end wind chest support.
Pedal Organ
See Figure 2. The action between each key and pallet involves 5 rods and 5 levers. All the rods in this organ push but are of so many shapes, sizes and materials that I hesitate to use sticker as a general term. Not all the levers are backfalls. The wind to the reeds is permanently on. The Bourdon stop-action is located outside the windchest and is effectively a unison on-off coupler formed, for want of better terminology, by a swivel-beam and see-saw. Drawing the stop causes beam to swivel into position to act as the fulcrum of a third-order lever formed by a horizontal bar pivoting at roughly its mid-point on the second rod; when the second rod is raised, the free end of the horizontal bar raises the third rod. When the stop is put away, the beam swivels out of position and no longer acts as a fulcrum, so there is no transmission of movement from the second rod to the third (8). Adjustment is by threaded buttons on two of the rods and by threaded studs on the swivel-beam. The Violone stop only opens up the resonator over the Pedal tone unit (9), so the Bourdon must also be drawn for it to sound.
- 8. Part of pedal action showing lower plain stickers (A), double backfalls (B), middle stickers (C), with attached see-saws for Gt-Ped (D) and Bourdon (E). Gt-Ped swivel beam (F) is off, Bourdon swivel beam (G) is on
- 9. Large hinged boxis the pedal unit. The rod connected to it opens the front flap wider when the Violone stop is drawn.
Great Organ
See Figure 3. The action between each key and pallet involves 2 rods, a lever fixed at one end, and three see-saw levers, one per stop, attached to the second rod (10). The wind is permanently on. The stop action is by swivel-beam like that for the Pedal Bourdon except that is located inside the wind chest: when the key is pressed and the stop is “on” the swivel beam engages one end of the see-saw and the free end lifts the tail of the pallet. Adjustment is by studs on the key ends and on the swivel-beams.
- 10. Great sticker with attached see-saws
Swell Organ
See Figure 4. The action between key and pallet consists of 2 metal rods for the Cremona and a third for the Dulciana; there are no levers. The Cremona unit sits over the Swell key-tails with the Dulciana unit sitting directly on top of it. The rods for the Cremona pass through the top of the unit to mate with the rods for the Dulciana (11, 12). Loops in the rods raise the Cremona pallets. Adjustment is by threaded studs and buttons on the rods. The action is permanently on. The stop action is by ventil to each tone unit (13).
Enclosure is by means of a wooden box placed over the front of the tone units (14). A lid on the top of the box is raised when the toe pedal is depressed. Inside the lid is a crank that allows a spring-loaded baffle over the Dulciana tone-qualifier array to open up as the lid is raised (15).
- 11. Topside of Cremona unit – studs on ends of pallet rods mate with those for the Dulciana
- 12. Inside the Dulciana tone unit showing two rows of staggered pallets
- 13. Swell ventil box
- 14. Swell units in their box; lid on top opened by rod at front right corner when swell lever depressed
- 15. Swell units dismounted. Cremona on left with vox Humana over, Dulciana on right with sprung baffle which opens up when lid of swell box is raised.
Couplers
Great-to-Pedal is by a system similar to, and is located in the same area as, the Bourdon stop action: engaged see-saws on the second Pedal rod raise the Great key-tails (16).
Swell-to-Great is by a swivel beam between the manuals that engages one end of the see-saws mounted on the Great keys so that their free ends raise the Swell key-tails (17).
Swell Octave and Suboctave are by the usual reed-organ zig-zag wire and stud assemblies.
- 16. At the back pedal stickers with captive backfalls (or see-saws). When the back ends are locked by the Gt-Ped swivel beam, the front ends push up the tails of the Great keys.
- 17. Swivel beam and see-saws mounted on Gt keys for Sw-Gt action.
Tone Units
All units have 2 rows of 29 notes, staggered to keep the reeds aligned directly over the keys (as seen in 10, 12). The Great and Pedal units are permanently glued and screwed together and to the main windchest structure (18). Their backs are open to the main chest, so wind passes directly to the reeds when the pallets are raised. The pallets are hinged at the inner end and are weighted by lead slugs let in to the wood. The Great pallet tails protrude into the chest to engage with the see-saws on the stickers (10, 18).
The bottom 30 notes (tonally) of the Great Diapason and Clarabella units have large reeds, the top 28 notes have normal-size reeds (19) and of these the top 14 are deeply recessed in their housings, with the divisions between reed cells cut back (20). In the Pedal unit the lowest 30 notes have large reeds; the remaining positions are sealed off.
Each Swell tone unit is a discrete, wind-tight assembly winded from a port at the bass end (21). They can (and indeed must) be dismounted for access to the keyboards underneath. They could be seen as precursors of the modular tone ranks developed in the US Vocalions. Normal size reeds are used throughout with the top 14 notes recessed and the cell walls cut back as before. The pallets are closed by small pipe-organ-style pallet springs.
All reed access slots are made wind-tight either by leather facings on the inner sides of the tone-qualifier arrays or by sprung leather-faced bars similar to American-organ mutes (22, 25) .
- 18. Gt tone units cannot be dismounted or dismantled.
- 19. Large Ped reeds on left, large and normal size Gt reeds centre, normal size Sw reeds right.
- 20. Top 14 reeds deeply recessed and reed cell walls cut back; butts of unrecessed lower note reeds visible on right.
- 21. A Sw tone unit = reed and pallet housing (R), tone qualifier (L) sits on top
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22. Mutes sealing off the reed access slots
Tone-qualifiers and other acoustic devices
All the Great units and the Swell Dulciana have qualifier arrays whose structure rather defies verbal description: photos 21, 23, 24, 25 show examples. A prominent feature toward the treble end is a pipe-metal sheet cut into “ears” which can be bent to fine-tune the tone (26). These arrays are hinged and clipped over the reed housings at the front of the tone units. The basses of the Diapason and Clarabella arrays are coupled to a structure resembling the cabinet of a bass-reflex loudspeaker, and possibly having a similar function* (27, 28, 29).
There is no tone-qualifier over the Cremona unit. The Pedal unit is covered by a large box containing various cavities and leather membranes. On the front of it is a hinged deep flap, also internally complex, whose position presumably affects the acoustic coupling. It is this flap which the Violone drawstop acts upon (9).
The entire main wind chest is sealed off at the back by a large hollow panel. It is hinged to the chest at the top and clipped shut at the bottom. It has a large port in the centre of the outer face and presumably acts as a resonator for the whole organ (30).
o*Perhaps we should credit BH as a progenitor of the hi-fi loudspeaker. Some years ago I came across a 1920′s catalogue for “The Vocalion “. This turned out to be a gramophone claiming superior acoustic qualities – perhaps this reincarnation of the Vocalion Company was using expertise from the days it made reed organs.
This essay will conclude in Part 3 with some observations on the design and tone of the instrument and perhaps a few photos taken during restoration.
- 23. Tone qualifiers for the three Gt (upper) and Sw Dulciana units.
- 24. Gt tone qualifier dismounted, outer face
- 25. Ditto, inner face
- 26. Tuning ears
- 27. Tone qualifiers removed; basses of two of them connect to holes in a loudspeaker-like resonator
- 28. A prototype bass reflex cabinet.
- 29. Ditto from the inside
- 30. The large hollow panel forming the back of the main windchest.
This essay will conclude in Part 3 with some observations on the design and tone of the instrument and perhaps a few photos taken during restoration.