[Illustration: _Frontispiece_.]
PRACTICAL
ORGAN-BUILDING
BY W. E. DICKSON, M.A.
PRECENTOR OF ELY CATHEDRAL
_SECOND EDITION, REVISED, WITH ADDITIONS_
[Illustration: Capio Lumen]
LONDON
CROSBY LOCKWOOD AND CO.
7, STATIONERS' HALL COURT, LUDGATE HILL
1882
[_All rights reserved_]
LONDON:
PRINTED BY J. S. VIRTUE AND CO., LIMITED,
CITY ROAD.
PREFACE.
THIS little work is undertaken because it is believed that no treatise
on the construction of organs, at once short, practical, and accessible
by all classes of readers, is extant.
The bulky volume of Hopkins and Rimbault, worthy as it is of all
commendation, and abounding with matter interesting to the musician,
does not profess to enter into details essential to the workman. The
same remark may be applied to sundry treatises in the form of articles
contributed to Encyclopædias, or to periodicals of a popular kind.
The writers of these articles, probably fully masters of the subject,
cannot, from the very nature of the case, command the time, space, and
amplitude of illustration absolutely necessary for the full elucidation
of the mechanical processes involved in the construction of the most
elaborate and ingenious of all musical instruments.
Readers of the French language, indeed, may find all that they require
in a most admirable and exhaustive work, the "Facteur d'Orgues," by M.
Hamel, forming one of the series of the "Manuels-Roret," published
in 1849 by Roret of Paris, in three volumes, with an atlas of plates.
The author of this complete exposition of the organ-builder's art has
taken for the foundation of his book the great work of Dom Bedos, a
Benedictine monk, who printed in 1766-78, at Paris, two sumptuous folio
volumes, with plates, which leave unnoticed nothing which was known or
practised by the workmen of his period. The modern editor, however, who
displays a most intimate knowledge of his subject, together with an
enviable power of explaining it in all its minutest details, aided, as
he is, by the most accurate of all European languages, has produced in
his third volume a manual of the art of organ-building in recent times,
which covers the whole field of investigation, and of which it is not
too much to say that it can never be surpassed.
A somewhat indifferent translation of a German treatise on the "Organ
and its Construction," by Herr Seidel, of Breslau, appeared some years
ago. But this work, like the English publication first noticed, is
not for the dwellers in workshops, but for organists, choir-masters,
clergymen, and others entrusted with the care of existing organs, or
likely to be concerned in the erection of new ones.
The writer has lately perused, with much pleasure and advantage, a
tract of about forty pages on "Organ Voicing and Tuning," published for
the author (evidently a practical operator). He can warmly recommend
this unpretending introduction to the highest branch of the art, so
seldom mastered save by those who have had the advantage of early and
assiduous practice under skilled guidance. But it deals, of course,
with that highest branch only, and assumes previous knowledge of
mechanical construction.
He himself, several years ago, contributed a short series of articles
on the construction of small organs to a periodical publication now
extinct. The letters which he received from working men, urging him
to treat the subject in greater detail, furnished a striking proof of
the extent to which the leisure hours of many artisans are devoted
to the production of an organ in some one of its innumerable forms,
from the toy with two or three stops to the complete instrument with
as many rows of keys. Such inquirers will not be satisfied, he fears,
by the narratives of "How we made our First Organ," and the like,
in well-meant and otherwise well-written books for boys. The real
difficulties of organ-building (and they are numerous) are simply
evaded in some recent books of this kind, which convey the irresistible
impression that their authors are not themselves handlers of the plane
and chisel. The true workman knows full well that the very simplest of
organs cannot be put together in a few weeks, out of school-hours, and
side by side with other undertakings.
If the present work, in which the writer describes the results of
his own experience, and lays down no rules which he has not reduced
to practice in his own workshop, should have the effect of deterring
ingenious boys from attempting their "First Organ" until the possession
of a large stock of patience, as well as the command of leisure, and
of means moderately adequate for the purchase of good materials,
are abundantly and unmistakably assured to them, the author, once a
plodding and untiring boy-workman himself, will have reason to be
satisfied that his efforts to explain a complicated and intricate
structure have not been entirely fruitless.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION.
SINCE the publication of this work, the author has had reason to
believe that some hints as to the design and erection of small organs
in country churches may be acceptable to readers who occupy the
position, not of constructors, but of purchasers. He trusts that the
chapter now added, "On Village Church Organs," will be found to contain
the desired information.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTER I.
_PLANT AND MATERIALS._
PAGE
The Workshop--Tools--Lathe--Materials 1
CHAPTER II.
_THE STOPPED DIAPASON._
Tablature, or Names of Notes--Lengths of Pipes--Parts of
Stopped Pipe--The Scale--Two Methods of making Wooden
Pipes--Some Varieties of Pipes--Old English Organs 10
CHAPTER III.
_THE SOUND-BOARD._
Dimensions of Organs--Construction of Sound-board--Channels
--Sliders--Plantations of Pipes--Bars--Bearers--Upper Boards
--Rack-boards 27
CHAPTER IV.
_THE SOUND-BOARD._--(_Continued_.)
Grooving--Boring Holes--Conducting-boards--Conveyances 44
CHAPTER V.
_THE WIND-CHEST._
Running of Wind--Blacklead used--Pallets--Leather for
Pallets--Springs--How to make them--Pull-downs--Drilling--
Brass Plate--Front-board 55
CHAPTER VI.
_THE BELLOWS, TRUNKS, AND FRAME._
Shape of Bellows--Valves or Clacks--Cummins's Improvements
--Counter-balances--The Cuckoo-feeder--Hydraulic-power
Engines--Trunks--The Frame--Its general Dimensions--Hollow
Frame-work--Blowing Pedal--Blowing Lever 72
CHAPTER VII.
_PLANTATION OF PIPES._
Pipe-feet--Rack-pins--Symmetry 90
CHAPTER VIII.
_THE ACTION._
Definitions--Back-fall--Bridge--Square--Sticker--Tracker--
Tapped Wires--Cloths--Buttons--Rollers--Roller-boards--
Principle of Organ-action--Fan-frame--Keys--Roller-frame--
Double Sound-board Action--Thumping-board 94
CHAPTER IX.
_VOICING AND TUNING._
Metal Pipes--Their Construction--Nicking--Voicing--The
Wind-gauge--Defects in Pipes--Temperament--Regulation 115
CHAPTER X.
_THE DRAW-STOPS._
Four Methods of drawing the Stops described--Levers--
Bell-cranks--Trundles--Iron Trundles 127
CHAPTER XI.
_PEDALS._
Their Compass--Dimensions--Springs--Dip--Connection with
Key-board--Removable Pedal-board 135
CHAPTER XII.
_TWO-MANUAL ORGANS._
Remarks on the Swell-organ--Organs with Great and Choir--
Borrowing in Two-manual Organs--Chamber Organ by Schmidt--
The Swell-box--Its Construction--The Swell-action--Reed-stops
--Manual Couplers--Rising and Falling Bridges--Pedal Couplers
--Old Method of Coupling--A Combination Manual--The Pedal
Sub-bass of 16-feet Tone--Scale--Wind-valve for Pedal Chest--
Violoncello Stop--Terzo Mano 141
CHAPTER XIII.
_VILLAGE CHURCH ORGANS._
Principles of Construction--Suggestions for Designs--Objections
noticed--Care of Old Organs 165
ORGAN-BUILDING.
CHAPTER I.
_PLANT AND MATERIALS._
WE shall assume at once, and at the very outset, that our reader has
the fixed purpose of producing an organ which shall be creditable to
its builder, a source of pleasure to its players and their hearers, and
an ornament to the room or building in which it is erected: in short,
that he remembers the excellent maxim, "whatever is worth doing at all,
is worth doing well," and will not be content with rough workmanship,
inferior materials, and inharmonious results.
Assuming this as the basis and principle of all our suggestions,
we shall nevertheless bear in mind the necessity of adapting our
rules to the conditions imposed by slender purses, and the imperfect
appliances of humble workshops. Without attempting to quote the actual
market prices of the wood, leather, and metal required, or of those
important parts of the instrument which in most cases will be purchased
ready-made, we shall endeavour to show how economy may be consulted
by obtaining all these gradually, as our work advances with that
inevitably slow progress which attends all proceedings in which most
haste is found to be worse speed.
We shall buy nothing which we can make for ourselves. The common sense
of our readers may be trusted not to press the application of this
rule to a _reductio ad absurdum_. As we shall certainly buy, and not
make, our screws and nails, so in the course of the following pages
we may possibly recommend the buying of certain parts of the work, in
full remembrance of our rule. But even in these occasional instances
we shall probably point out how expenditure may be saved by patient
industry. We need not anticipate. Our readers will see for themselves
what we mean as we go on.
Our task will be somewhat simplified if we suppose that an organ is
desired for a room of moderate size. Such an instrument will commonly
have one manual, or row of keys, with four or five stops, or sets of
pipes. Pedals, with or without pipes of their own of deep bass quality,
must be considered essential in every organ making any pretension to
completeness, or intended to afford useful practice for learners.
Taking this as a rough outline or sketch of probable plans, it will be
easy to see hereafter how they may be indefinitely extended.
Our organ factory, then (with some such plan in our head), must be
a roomy, well-lighted, perfectly dry workshop, furnished with a
fire-place or stove for the glue-pot, with drawers or cupboards for
storing away skins of leather and other materials not in constant
requirement, and with shelves on which pipes may be stowed without
danger of rolling off. It must not be a mere shed or hovel in which we
might mend the cart or the wheel-barrow, and it should not be far from
our dwelling-house, if we are likely to work at our serious undertaking
in the winter evenings.
The shop must be fitted with a full-sized bench in good condition, that
is to say, with its top dressed truly, and not hacked by rough usage;
and good workmanship will be much promoted if the usual appliances of
such a bench are of the best kind and in complete order. True planing,
so vitally essential in organ-building, cannot be done upon a crazy or
worn-out bench. The bench should stand near a window, and it should
be so placed that boards much longer than itself may be occasionally
dressed upon it by temporary arrangements.
The tools required are chiefly those which are common to every joiner's
shop; notably and of first importance the three planes, the jack, the
jointer or trying plane, and the little smoothing plane. This last may
now be bought in a very handy form, entirely of iron, and fitted with
a clever adjustment by which the cutter can be set to any degree of
fineness. This little plane (an American invention) is invaluable for
many purposes involving extreme neatness and accuracy. The planes must
at all times be kept in first-rate order, and any defect which makes
its appearance must be instantly rectified by a careful use of the oil
stone. The latter, let us mention by the way, as we may have youthful
and inexperienced readers, should be levelled occasionally by being
rubbed on a flat slab with sand and water. The plane is emphatically
_the_ tool of the organ-builder, and no pains should be considered too
great to be bestowed on the care of these beautiful tools, or on the
attainment of dexterity in the use of them.
The usual saws, the ripping saw, the panel saw, the dovetail, the
key-hole or pad saw, will be required; and we may take this opportunity
of remarking that as the organ-builder must have a strong dash of the
smith as well as of the joiner in his composition, his shop must have
a stout vice fixed in a convenient part of it, and a few good files
always available for brass or for iron. (The reader is doubtless aware
that the same file must not be used for both these metals.) Drills
for metal, some of them of small clockmaker's sizes with a bow and
breast-plate for working them, will belong to this department, which
will also include a screw-plate for tapping wires of various sizes from
one-eighth of an inch downwards, and cutting pliers or nippers for
dividing the wire.
The tool-chest must contain a thoroughly good brace and bits; and
among the last should be some one of the various forms of adjustable
centre-bits for cutting large circular holes of graduated dimensions up
to 3 inches diameter.
In connection with this it may here be mentioned that most of the holes
bored with the brace and bits (though not the huge holes just referred
to), will be scorched or charred with a red-hot iron, in order to clear
them of splinters, and allow a perfectly free passage for the air which
will pass through them. A few pieces of iron rod, of sizes suitable
for this purpose, will therefore be required. Many of these holes will
be also countersunk, that is, rendered conical at their extremity,
in order to receive the conical feet of the pipes which receive from
these conduits their supply of wind. This countersunk portion is also
scorched or charred, and two or three conical irons will be wanted for
this purpose. But we have not yet come to this. When we are ready for
these irons, we can have them made by any blacksmith, or we may have
put aside some stout morsels of old iron from which we ourselves may
contrive to fashion them.
An important question must next be asked.
Is a turning-lathe absolutely necessary as part of the plant of our
factory? We must answer this. We should be sorry to deny that a small
organ certainly can be and may be built without the aid of a lathe.
We know that it has been done. But it is equally undeniable that
the absence of a lathe, or of access to a lathe, will necessitate
the purchase of certain parts (wooden pipe-feet for instance, and
rack-pins), at an outlay which will bear an appreciable proportion to
the first cost of a simple and inexpensive machine. Pressed, then,
to say if our workshop must include a lathe, we are bound to reply in
the affirmative, explaining, in the same breath, that all the purposes
of the young organ-builder will be answered by a lathe of humble
character and trifling cost. We ourselves, during several years of
early beginnings, used a small clockmaker's lathe by Fenn, of Newgate
Street, just capable of admitting between its centres the little billet
of wood ready for shaping as a pipe-foot, that is to say, about 7
inches in length, and from 2 inches down to half an inch in diameter.
We still possess this little lathe, and still sometimes use it for
small work. Some such simple lathe, or some lathe still simpler, being
voted as necessary, the usual turning-chisels and gouges will of course
accompany it, and we shall assume that our readers possess a sufficient
acquaintance with the wood-turner's art to require no hints from us on
the subject other than those which we shall give in regular course as
we proceed. If they are fortunate enough to possess a superior lathe,
with slide-rest and slow motion for turning iron and brass, they will
find the machine most conducive to good and durable workmanship, and we
shall not hesitate to point out, as we go on, how materially it will
assist us in giving strength, firmness, and finish, to various parts of
our work.
We have furnished, then, our workshop, or rather, let us say, we see it
in our "mind's eye" furnished as we should wish it to be. And now we
may lay in our stock of wood.
Several boards of half-inch pine, perfectly dry and sound, without
knots; these are of first necessity. Such boards are generally about 12
feet in length and from 12 to 15 or even 20 or more inches in breadth.
If a little stock can be laid in of such boards when an opportunity
occurs of obtaining exceptionally clean stuff, it will be well to have
them by us. A board or two of three-quarters stuff, and a board of inch
stuff, all sound and clean pine, must be provided.
And here we may pause for a moment.
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.