SPECIFICATIONPipe organs differ greatly in sound based on what type of pipes are included in it. Specific to theatre organs in particular are also the addition of different sound effects, called "traps" which were originally used while these instruments were used to accompany silent films. The specification of this instrument is listed below.
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RANKS |
Percussions |
Traps |
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Harmonic Tuba 16'-4’ | 85 Notes
Open Diapason 16'-4' | 73 Notes Tibia Clausa 16'-2' | 85 Notes Clarinet 8’ | 61 Notes Salicional 8' | 73 Notes Voix Celeste 8' | 73 Notes Concert Flute 16'-2' | 97 Notes Flute Celeste 4' | 61 Notes Vox Humana 8' | 61 Notes Oboe Horn 8' | 61 Notes Kinura 8' | 49 Notes English Post Horn 8' | 61 Notes Brass Trumpet 8' | 61 Notes String 8' | 61 Notes String Celeste 8' | 73 Notes Orchestral Oboe 8' | 61 Notes Quintadena 8' | 61 Notes Saxophone 8' | 61 Notes |
Xylophone | 37 Notes
Glockenspiel | 30 Notes Chrystoglott | 49 Notes Cathedral Chimes | 18 Notes Baby Grand Piano | 88 Notes Upright Piano | 88 Notes (with mandolin attachment) Marimba Harp | 49 Notes Sleigh Bells | 25 Notes |
Areoplane (Kimball)
Acme Siren Bass Drum Bird Whistle 1 Bird Whistle 2 Buzzer Car Horn Castanets Crash Cymbal Fire Gong Hi Hat Kettle Drum Roll Cymbal Shuffle Siren Snare Drum Surf (Robert Morton) Tambourine Tap Cymbal Tom Tom Triangle Wind Chimes Wood Block |
The Console
This console began life in 1931 when it was installed in the Madison Gardens Rink. Opus 2165 was an 8 Rank organ, voiced on 20" of wind. In 1950, the organ was moved to the Hub Rink in Chicago where it was played by Leon Berry before getting removed by Leon to make room for their new three manual console. The console was then sold to Dale Williams and later to me (2016) by Dale's son Dave.
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The Blowers
The organ runs on air and 12 volts DC to power magnets which allow a series of pneumatics to operate, ultimately blowing air through a pipe or making a striker hit a bar (in the case of a xylophone or marimba). To generate the massive amounts of air (which is called wind in organ language), the organ is equipped with two 5 h.p. Spencer Orgoblo Blowers. Serial No. 21375 (left) was sold to the Wurlitzer factory in 1928 and Serial No. 16304 (right) is estimated to be built in 1924 based on records located of close serial numbers.
The Relay
Originally, organs would have had a relay room filled with large pieces of equipment which functioned as an early computer. The relay system would tell which pipe to speak at what time. They would also have a large board of springs and copper channeling. This board, called a setter board would allow organists to preset different combinations of sounds to be assigned to buttons on the console, called pistons. The system of setting sounds and pushing buttons to recall sounds is called a combination action. Both the relay and combination action is combined on this organ in a single computerized system called Uniflex. The photo below is taken of some of the console boards. The system consists of one computer in the music room which runs the software, two interface boards (one in the console and one in the chamber) and a variety of input and output boards. The computer and interface boards communicate over a high speed network and can be accessed by an app for tuning.
