Organ loft

“ If so, we will begin and say the great cerebral system of arteries supply the brain of which it gives quality of all fluids and electric and magnetic forces, which must be generated in the brain. Then a question arises, if the heart, lungs, liver, pancreas, lymphatics, kidneys and all parts of the body depend upon the brain for power, what do they give in return? If they give back anything it must be of the kind of the organ from whence it comes; thus a kidney cannot give liver nor spleen. Each must help to keep up the universal harmony by furnishing its mite of its own kind. ”

“ This newly-developed connective tissue gradually contracts, and in so doing crushes the cells and obstructs the blood-vessels, making the organ much smaller than natural, and causing the surface to be covered with little projecting knobs, consisting of portions of liver-tissue that have been less compressed than the part that separates them. ”

“ The diaphragm is a musculo-fibrinous organ and depends for blood and nerve supply above its own location, and that supply must be given freely and pure for nerve and blood or we will have a diseased organ to start with; then we may find a universal atrophy or œdema, which would, besides its own deformity not be able to rise and fall, to assist the lungs to mix air with blood to purify venous blood, as it is carried to the lungs to throw off impurities and take on oxygen previous to returning to the heart, to be sent off as nourishment for the system. ”

“ The writer is not aware who first introduced into the organ a rank of soft-toned pipes purposely tuned a trifle sharp or flat to the normal pitch of the organ, so as to cause a beat or wave in the tone. Fifty years ago such stops were sparingly used and many organists condemned their employment altogether. Stops of the kind were hardly ever found in small organs and the largest instruments seldom contained more than one. ”

“ The general character of tertiary manifestations may be stated as follows: They attack by preference the tissues derived from the mesoblastic layer of the embryo—the cellular tissue, bones, muscles, and viscera. They are often localised to one particular tissue or organ, such, for example, as the subcutaneous cellular tissue, the bones, or the liver, and they are rarely symmetrical. They are usually aggressive and persistent, with little tendency to natural cure, and they may be dangerous to life, because of the destructive changes produced in such organs as the brain or the larynx. ”

“ Having no dilatation or contraction, deprived of the fluid which acts incessantly upon the lungs, and which, loaded with different foreign substances, can often alter the vital forces of these organs, so as to interrupt the passage of the blood, &c. The liver, having a solid and granulated substance, in which no extraordinary motion can take place, except those of the general locomotion of the organ, is evidently incapable of frequently interrupting the course of the black blood, which the abdominal system sends there. ”

“ The organs in almost all parts of the world show the Hope-Jones influence. Few builders have failed now to adopt the leathered lip.
Wedgwood, in his "Dictionary of Organ Stops," pp. 44, 45, says:
"Mr. Ernest Skinner, an eminent American organ-builder, [2] likens the discovery of the leathered lip to the invention by Barker of the pneumatic lever, predicting that it will revolutionize organ tone as surely and completely as did the latter organ mechanism, an estimate which is by no means so exaggerated as might be supposed. ”

“ The use of Swell boxes of this vastly increased efficiency permits the employment of larger scales and heavier pressures for the pipes than could otherwise be used, and enormously increases the tonal flexibility of the organ.
It also does away with the need for soft stops in an organ, thus securing considerable economy. Where all the stops are inclosed in cement chambers (as in the case of recent Hope-Jones organs) and where the sound-trap shutters are employed, every stop is potentially a soft stop. ”

“ He laid down the general morphological principle that the fundamental organs have essentially the shape of tubular cavities, as appears in the first form of the central organ of the nervous system, in the two muscular and osseous tubes which form the walls of the body, and in the intestinal canal; and he followed out with admirable clearness the steps by which from these fundamental systems the other organs arise secondarily, such as the organs of sense, the glands, lungs, heart, vascular glands, Wolffian bodies, kidneys and generative organs. ”

“ The anterior wall may be cut midway between the greater and lesser curvatures, or the cut may follow the greater curvature, extending through the cardia into the œsophagus. As the stomach is opened its contents are inspected and removed. They should not be allowed to escape into the abdominal cavity. When the organs are removed en masse the stomach may be opened from the cardiac end. The organ may also be opened by an incision through its posterior wall or along its lesser curvature, as occasion may demand. ”

“ In post-mortem examinations the liver has been found deeply indented by the constant and prolonged pressure of the ribs, in consequence of tight-lacing. The brain-organ, protected by a bony inclosure, has not yet been distorted externally by the contrivances of milliners and mantuamakers; but, lacing the chest, by interrupting the circulation of the blood, prevents its free return from the vessel of the brain, and so permanent congestion 413of that organ, with constant liability to headache, vertigo, or worse affections, becomes a "second nature." ”

“ Free motor organs can be none other than ribs that have become free.
2371. These free ribs must inclose the respiratory organ or the integument, which has become an organ of animal life; they are the members or limbs. If we think of ribs, whose office is no longer to inclose lungs, which must no longer be subservient to the uninterrupted vital motion of respiration, and which are no longer united by pleura into a closed cyst or sac—will not such simply retain the self-substantial voluntary motion in themselves? ”

“ The Hope-Jones method seems to be to construct the box and its shutters (in laminated form) of brick, cement or other inert and non-porous material, and to substitute for the felt usually employed at the joints his patented "sound trap." This latter is so interesting and of such import in the history of organ building that we append, on the next page, illustrations and descriptions of the device.
If a man should stand at one end of the closed passage (C) he will be able to converse with a friend at the other end of the passage (D) . ”

“ Its tone is directed to a cement reflector and from that reflector is projected through a metal grid set in the floor, till, striking the roof of the nave, it is spread and fills the entire building with tone. In St. Luke's Church, Montclair, N. J., he adopted a somewhat similar plan in connection with the open 38-foot pedal pipes which are laid horizontally in the basement. We believe that the first time this principle was employed was in the case of the organ rebuilt by Hope-Jones in 1892 at the residence of Mr. J. Martin White, Balruddery, Dundee, Scotland. ”

“ It will be seen that a skilful organist, with a knowledge of these tones, can produce effects from small organs not available to the ordinary player.
Reverting once more to our Flute, whose tube is shortened by lifting the fingers from the holes, it is not generally known that this can be done with an organ pipe; the writer has met with instances of it in England. The two lowest pipes of the Pedal Open Diapason were each made to give two notes by affixing a pneumatic valve near the top of the pipe. ”

“ Fifty years ago it was common to find the number of ranks of mixtures in an organ largely exceed the total number of foundation stops. Mixtures were inserted in the pedal departments of all large organs. Organists of the time do not seem to have objected and many of the leading players strongly opposed Hope-Jones when he came out as the champion of their abolition. ”

“ Robert Hope-Jones. * * * The researches in the realm of organ tone by Mr. Hope-Jones and others who are continually striving for excellence and the use of an increased and more varied wind-pressure (ranging from 3 to 25 inches) all combine to produce greater variety and superiority in the quality of organ tone than has ever existed before."
Elliston in his book on Organ Construction devotes considerable space to a description of the organs built by Hope-Jones in England and Scotland, and says: "The Hope-Jones system embraces many novelties in tone and mechanism." ”

“ The air-bladder is either more or less free in the abdominal cavity, or firmly attached to the vertebral centra and their rib-bearing processes by fibrous extensions passing between the two structures. Not rarely the organ extends from the abdominal {303}cavity into the tail, sometimes penetrating for a short distance into the expanded haemal canal of the anterior caudal vertebrae, or extending unsymmetrically along either the right or left side of the tail. ”

“ A further and great step in advance appears in recent organs built by the Hope-Jones Organ Company. The position of the swell shutters is brought under the control of the organist's fingers as well as his feet. Each balanced swell pedal is provided with an indicator key fixed on the under side of the ledge of the music desk, where it is most conspicuous to the eye of the performer. As the swell pedal is opened by the organist's foot, the indicator key travels in a downward direction to the extent of perhaps one inch and a quarter. ”

“ White, a man busy in so many other lines of endeavor, should exert such marked influence on the art of organ building, but it remains a fact that but for his artistic discernment and for the encouragement so freely given, the organ would not to-day be supplanting the orchestra in theatres and hotels, nor be what it is in the churches and halls.
Mr. White has for nearly thirty years helped, enthused and encouraged, not only artistic organ-builders like Casson, Thynne, Hope-Jones and Compton, but also the more progressive of the prominent organists.
All honor to Martin White! ”

“ As we are about to camp close to the abdomen for a season of explorations and a more reasonable knowledge of its organs and their functions, we will search its geography first, and find its location on the body or globe of life. We find a boundary line established by the general surveyor, about the middle of the body, called the diaphragm. This line has a very strong wall or striated muscle that can and does dilate and contract to suit for breathing, and quantities of food that may be stored for a time in stomach and bowels for use. The abdomen is much longer than wide. ”

“ Food should not be taken immediately after severe exertion, either of the body or mind. For all organs in action require and receive more blood and nervous fluid, than when at rest. This is true of the brain, muscles, and vocal organs, when they have been actively exercised. The increased amount of fluid, both sanguineous and nervous, supplied to any organ during extra functional action, is abstracted from other parts of the system. This enfeebles and prostrates the parts that supply the blood and nervous fluid to the active organ. ”

“ Thus heart trouble, lung disease, brain, liver, womb, tumors of the abdomen and through the list of ef [Pg 125] fects can be traced to the diaphragm as the cause.
I am strongly impressed that the diaphragm has much to do in keeping all the machinery and organs of life in a healthy condition, and will try and give some of the reasons why, as I now understand them. First, it is found to be wisely located just below the heart and lungs; one being the engine of the blood, and the other is the engine of the air. ”

“ Each organ has the shape of a biconvex lens, sunk to about half its thickness in the skin. The inner half is formed of radially-arranged gland tubes filled with small granular cells, and converging towards the centre of the organ. Into the connective-tissue walls of the tubes extend blood-vessels and nerves. External to the gland tubes there is a layer of long slender cells arranged perpendicularly to the surface, and more externally still a layer of ganglion cells. There is evidence that these organs multiply by division. ”

“ Hope-Jones makes a stop which he calls Gravissima, 64-ft. Resultant, in his large organs. Many contend that this system produces better results than if pipes of the actual lengths of 32 or 64 feet were employed. Indeed, a pipe 64 feet long would be inaudible; the human ear has its limitations and refuses to recognize tone lower than 32 feet (just as we cannot lift water by a suction pump over 32 feet) —but, these great pipes produce harmonics which wonderfully reinforce the tone of the organ. ”

“ The walls of the organ are composed almost entirely of a soft, tender parenchyma, formed, for the most part, of vascular ramifications, the trunks of which, three or four in number, communicate with the interior of the branchial heart, through the peduncle. The walls of these trunks and of the peduncle are composed of stout, tough membrane. The cavity of the appendage does not communicate with that of the heart, but opens, as we have seen, externally, or into the chamber within which the organ is placed, so that the fluid surrounding it will bathe its inner as well as its outer surface. ”

“ To most organs in this country, to many in Germany, and to a few in other countries, there is attached a balanced shoe pedal by movement of which the various stops and couplers in the organ are brought into action in due sequence. By this means an organist is enabled to build up the tone of his organ from the softest to the loudest without having to touch a single stop-knob, coupler or combination piston. The crescendo pedal, as it is called, is little used in England. It is the fashion there to regard it merely as a device to help an incompetent organist. ”