CTT

p299 - Chortle. I made it!

Fault books also?

Half drawn stops would be compatible with almost any type of action. If the soundboards were slider soundboards, it would work so long as there was some type of action to drawn one slide out of the slides for that particular stop. I guess one reason for half drawn stops on smaller instruments is that of space for the drawstop knobs. It provides the option for two stops with only one drawstop. With a larger instrument, there would be the space for two individual knobs for exactly the same result. (ie: a Twelfth and Mixture.

I understand that the stop is best heard in the morning for some reason.

No, the third manual is (literally) keys only. Try playing them and you will break your fingers as there is no travel on them at all.

A quick search of the England & Wales BDM Birth Index 1837–1915 lists a William Ralph Driffill, whose birth was registered in Luton, Bedfordshire in the last quarter of 1870.

Researching the life and times of Thomas Casson and the Positive Organ Company, had me looking up a back issue of 'The Organ', (Vol. 1 no. 3 p.183 January 1922). This had a section called 'Echoes from the Past,' that reprinted a Casson letter about the Swell Box from December 1888. This was annotated by someone using the pseudonym Mercurius Urbanus. Does anyone know who this referred too?

The Rotunda article on Wallasey Town Hall was vol1 no.4 page five. Unfortunately the archive copy I have access to starts at page seven.... (Oh the frustration...)

Discovered this old thread via a Google search. There is an instrument in New Zealand that goes by the name the Blitz organ. It is attributed to Willis, and is said to have been made of parts salvaged from bombed instruments around Liverpool and Wallasey, the bulk of it being from the Wallasey Town Hall. (One soundboard converted into two divisions). Prior to the Wallasey Town Hall the instrument was in Leinster House (Royal Dublin Society) and is said to be one of Father Willis's last instruments 1899. There are some photos of the damaged instrument in the Wallasey Town Hall, but no search showing the intact instrument. (In theory this should be linked to posting number 10, but it looks like if technology has outsmarted me yet again)

The same thing has happened here. One of the churches were unable to afford repairs to the whole instrument after the earthquakes, (a 1906 E. H. Jenkin's) so just the facade pipes have been repaired and restored and placed back in position at the front of the old organ chamber. The chamber has been opened up for added space for the congregation, and from what I have heard, musically there will be a digital organ to replace the pipe organ.

Did anyone notice the implications that the deputy was wearing his weapons during a church service... It adds a whole new meaning to the old term muscular Christianity. The only other occasion I recall of something like this happening was a report about three or four years ago when a naked man welding a sword disrupted a Sunday morning service (I think it was in the UK). An off duty policeman took up a front pipe to disarm the man!

If the measures are anything like what we are dealing with down here, the designs may well include the following: Diagonal building frame as well as horizontal and vertical members. Where rack boards are fixed down with rail blocks rather than pillars, there are brackets placed at right angles to avoid the rails snapping along the grain. Pipe stays for any pipe over a Twelfth 2 2/3" long. Half moon stays and brackets for the larger pipes, such as front pipes made T sectional. For pipe only fronts i.e.: with no rails in front of the pipes to prevent them falling forward, the pipes not only have hooks but steel wire lanyards screwed to the pipes and stays to stop them falling away. Ensuring that instruments situated within chambers are braced so that they cannot rock and smash themselves against the walls or roof. Fixing down larger items that would previously relied on gravity and location dowels, as the instruments were thrown upwards and halfway down met the ground coming up, (causing in some places soundboards being thrown off their rails and dowels). It would be interesting to know what other measures are being developed to make organs earthquake resistant.

There was a company in Canada, 'The Compensating Organ Company,' that put out hybrid free reed / organ pipe instruments. The mouths had a sliding top lip also and a mechanism that according to the advertising, "and its special device is claimed to keep pipe and reed in perfect pitch in any temperature." (Unfortunately the only local example got squashed and is in storage awaiting the paperwork for its restoration.) I have a vague memory that the regulation of the rank of pipes (wooden Stopped Diapasons) could be altered also from the console - which would mean that the theory and practice goes back to at least 1901.

Slightly later than the early 1900's, there is the Hill Norman & Beard 1919 example of electro-pneumatic in the Major Bathhurst travelling organ. Of course it was an abnormality in that it was transported from venue to venue, but still showed mastery of the medium. (It was the basis of the Dunedin Town Hall instrument - via Wembley Stadium)

Not for the Exhibition instrument, that was burnt in 1927, and the Melbourne Town Hall was destroyed (also by fire) in 1925. The replacement Town Hall instrument was an HNB - (the starting instrument for the Melbourne branch of HNB). The Durham Street Methodist was rebuilt and revoiced (by HNB Melbourne / Christchurch) in 1946 so any recordings will not be the original Ingram sound. The local Organists' Association are compiling a CD of recordings of lost instruments of Christchurch, and it will contain two recordings from Durham Street as a memorial to the three that died there.

The Melbourne Town Hall rebuild was designed by Edwin Lemare in consultation with Eustace Ingram. And now for a slight deviation from the subject at hand. Eustace Ingram (Jnr) travelled to Melbourne in 1904 on the ship Ortona. Some of the other passengers on this voyage were Paderewski and Alfred Hollins. Hollins was contracted for concerts on the Sydney Town Hall instrument, but while on the stopover in Melbourne was shown the Hill instrument by Ingram. Hollins was also hired to give a series of three concerts by Norman & Beard to open their first New Zealand instrument (in late October 1904) in St. John's Anglican Church, Invercargill, (the southernmost city in the world). It was Hollins only New Zealand concerts. As an complete aside, the instrument re-used the Lewis pipework from the former instrument, and according to the local reports, "Mr. T. C. Lewis, the maker of the present organ in S. John's is a member of the firm of Norman and Beard, who have been entrusted with the additions, and he is taking a keen personal interest in the business in consequence." Not only that, but the Invercargill organbuilder who installed the organ was one of Eustace Ingram's (Senior) first apprentices - N. T. Pearce. Now back to the subject of early 20th Century electro-pneumatic, Ingram & Co., also installed two instruments in Christchurch, New Zealand. A four manual for the New Zealand International Exhibition, ordered mid 1905 and installed by November 1906. It was used for factory recitals on June 12 and 13, 1906. It was billed as the largest organ of its class in the world, with the exception of the Melbourne Town Hall, and the second electrical organ in Australasia. It was destroyed by fire in 1917. This was followed in 1907 by a three manual instrument in Durham Street Methodist Church, Christchurch (job number 662).

Not to forget over this side of the world, that Ingram & Company (of Hereford) electrified the Melbourne Town Hall Hill organ in 1904-6!

Found it! Musical Opinion June and August 1943. Tales of the Sangro Valley - John Compton. (If you don't have it PM me, and I could send you images of the relevant pages.) CTT

This is ringing a vague bell in the back of my skull and there did not seem to be any reference to it in the topic thread. Was this during WWII when John Compton was held in Italy as an enemy national or something? There was an article(s) in the Organ World section of the Musical Opinion written by an English organbuilder who was paroled to an Italian village during the war. He spent his 'spare' time repairing the pipe organ in the local church in time for their Christmas Day Mass, (or it could have been Easter).

The only article in Organists' Review in recent years was by Martyn Lane in May 2007, and that dealt with just the first movement of Elgar's Sonata in G. CTT

Thank you both for your suggestions. As Tony has pointed out the information in the NPOR does not give the technical detail required to reconstruct a Bevington Mixture. (The closest that could be found was St. Mary the Virgin Gillingham in Dorset - and there the original III rank mixture was removed). Most of the III rank mixtures are 'Full Mixtures' 12.15.22 as the chorus work otherwise ends at Principal 4'. The BIOS holdings for Bevington are restricted to only the Work Book for 1905 - 1931. (It covers one of the other Bevingtons damaged in the quakes, but that instrument remains in storage as there is no longer any building for it to be installed in.) The hunt continues... Regards CTT

Do any of the members here have experience of Bevington Mixtures from the early 1870’s? The scenario is as follows. With repairs to an earthquake damaged 1872 Bevington (enlarged to 3 manual in 1896) there are some additions to be made. The Trumpet is to be removed off the Soundboard to make it an independent unit. This leaves the following original pipework on the Great. Open Diapason 8’ Claribel / St.D. 8’ Dulciana 8’ Principal 4’ Harmonic Flute 4’ Twelfth 2 2/3’ Fifteenth 2’ New spare slide - Adding a three rank mixture to this, would it be correct to assume that for the era (1872), it would have been a Sesquialtera (17.19.22) breaking back an octave at treble C? There is a tierce mixture at the top of the 'new' (1896) Swell chorus also – the 17th up to middle C. Not having any large Bevington’s with a full diapason chorus of that era around this part of the world, (and an in-depth research trip to the U.K. completely out of the budget ) I hope that someone here may be able to confirm or correct my assumption.

Oh I don't know about that - The way they're being thrown about at those who are fronting the demolition of the Anglican Cathedral we might be running out of bricks soon too!

It sounds similar to a unit that we got from a UK organ supply company (other supply companies are available) Except instead of using the main blower to blow the humidified air though the winding system and chests, the humidifier has its own blower that puts out about 1/2" wind. We've used them in a few jobs. The first one was put in in Christ Church Anglican Cathedral Christchurch - however I think humidity is the least of its worries at the moment. The dump valves were fun to put in - 'fun' being used advisedly. The valves need to be at the end of winding runs so that usually meant chests in the far corners of the chamber that were not the most user friendly to put in situ. CTT

The method differs depending on which way the screw is going. If the screw is going through the face of the MDF it can usually withstand being removed and put back in quite a few times (So long as no one is using an electric screwdriver and those self-boring pozi-drive screws). However if the screw is going into the edge of the MDF it is a different story. The expandable fastenings over time split the board, so the most suitable method that I've used so far is to bore a 1/2" - 3/4" hole into the board (set back slightly from the edge) under where the screw will go and glue in a dowel plug. This means that the screw is actually gripping into timber - across the grain. The kitset MDF kitchens use the same idea but with metal cams and fittings that cost a lot more than 3/4" dowel and glue! And if you wanted to be extra cautious, a punching of perfection leather glued on the inside of the chest covering where the dowel is, to insure that there is no air leak. Although if it is glued in properly there shouldn't be any gap in the first place. Christopher