A clear coupler for the organ

[Denis O'Connor]

In 1899 John Watson Warman read a paper to the Royal Musical Association on his invention. I cannot access this article without paying an inordinately large sum of money to the commercial enterprise which controls access to the journal. Similarly, I cannot trace the patent via the internet. Could any member enlighten me as to the patent number or give a brief description of the mechanism? I would be most grateful.

 

 

 

 

[Contrabombarde]

I think I can help!

 

JWW wrote a number of rivetingly tedious books on organs, one of which is available as a pdf to download here:

http://hdl.handle.net/1802/26524

 

On page 286 he says that he also describes his invention the Clear Coupler in Musical Opinion June 1886 pages 486-7 and in English Mechanic volume 69, 30 June 1899.

Unfortunately for you volume 69 hasn't been fully digitalised so the only tantalising glimpses of a mention are below:
http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=gUI_AQAAMAAJ&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=clear+coupler

However, another of his books is available online in full, namely "The Organ, its compass, tablature and short and incomplete octaves" published 1884, in which Warman describes himself as "late organist of Quebec Anglican Cathedral", now seemingly based in Canterbury. There is a description without pictures of the Clear Coupler on pages 120-121 but in essence it seems that it is merely a Great to Pedal coupler that acts on the Great action distal to the key, so that if Swell to Great is also drawn, the depressing of a pedal note sounds the Great without pulling down and sounding the Swell key that is coupled through to the Great key: His reasoning was that when Pedal divisions were poorly developed, Pedal to Great with Swell coupled through might be too overpowering for the manual balance.

 

Full text:
https://archive.org/stream/organitscompass00warmgoog#page/n4/mode/2up