Dabbling in pump organ repair

[Bob Womack]

As I've mentioned before, I inherited a Chicago Cottage pump organ that my great grandfather purchased for his church. After some research I originally thought it was built around 1890, then 1900, but eventually I found a serial number dater and found that the serial number has set it at about 1904-1905. It is a Chicago Cottage Style 96 that was ordered from Chicago and delivered to my hometown, Knoxville, TN, via a Midwestern railroad and then probably on the Southern Railway where it was ferried to the church on a horse-drawn wagon.

It was gratefully returned to my great-grandfather when the church outgrew its building. When he died it followed my great-grandmother to a mother-in-law suite in my great uncle's house and from there to my grandparent's house. When I was a kid, my family used to visit my grandparents about every Sunday. As a five year old I needed something to occupy my time while there and was introduced to this organ. I would play at it and listen to the growl of its low reeds as I put together mysterious dissonant chords. Each visit I played the darn thing until I drove everyone crazy and was thrown off it. It was the first instrument I ever played.

Well anyway, it is now a year short of 120 years old. I've been assessing it to see what repairs I could easily affect, short of the complete tear-down it will eventually need. The first repair was reconnecting the Vox Humana linkage. Vox Humana Stop is merely a little rotor with blades that rotates in front of the upper-end reeds. It is held in check by a fabric loop brake over the drum at one end. When the stop is pulled the loop is loosened. The linkage to loosen it was detatched and I simply reconnected to get the lovely little physical tremolo from Vox Humana.

There was a mechanical part in a plastic bag stuck under the music easel so I had begun wondering where it came from. I knew that the right knee lever, the "Grand Organ" lever that opened all the stops at once for a grand finale swell, wasn't working. So, last night I got down on the floor with a flashlight and looked up into the Grand Organ lever mechanism and tried to figure out how it had originally been assembled. After a bit of blind staring it all of a sudden popped into focus and became clear how the separated part fit in like a jigsaw puzzle piece and would make it all come together again. A screw had worked itself loose and dropped out at some point and the oddly shaped and pointed linkage piece hung down and got in the way - perhaps it even ripped a lady's hosiery. Someone just yanked it out and put it in the easel. I found a reasonable screw replacement, reassembled the linkage, and mounted the part back in place.

Lo and behold, the Grand Organ lever is working again! Blast out those stops! Getting that first repair step out of the way is making the rest seem a little more... um... doable.

By the way, for those who are fascinated with alternate tuning standards, coming from 1905, this organ had no idea of the A440 standard. I checked the tuning and found that it is tuned to A430. So, not orchestra standard and not cosmic pitch either. That'll have ramifications.

Bob

[waterboy]

Great story Bob! Thanks quite a piece of history.
I need try to spend some time to see if I can get my wife’s hand pumped harmonium to work properly…. Swollen keys from the look of it.

[Bob Womack]

Originally Posted by waterboy

Great story Bob! Thanks quite a piece of history.
I need try to spend some time to see if I can get my wife’s hand pumped harmonium to work properly…. Swollen keys from the look of it.

If you've got the time, go to YouTube and look up Old Delhi Music. Owner Nic Dillion has a bunch of instructional videos that show how to maintain a harmonium. For that matter, here is possibly the first one you need to see:



They cover keys that stick open or closed, buzzing reeds, leaky reed chambers, how to open up a harmonium action, how to resolve noises from the hand bellows valve, how to remove a reed, and how to fix folding mechanism. They also teach you about the types of harmoniums, stops, drones, couplers, how to not over-pump, etc. The videos are a little rough but they do demystify the harmonium nicely.

Bob

[Rumblefish]

What a great story! Thanks for sharing. I worked for a guy in NYC in the 80s repairing pipe organs in churches. I was hired mainly because I was small enough to climb the internal ladders to release the pipes.

[frankmcr]

Originally Posted by Bob Womack

By the way, for those who are fascinated with alternate tuning standards, coming from 1905, this organ had no idea of the A440 standard. I checked the tuning and found that it is tuned to A430. So, not orchestra standard and not cosmic pitch either. That'll have ramifications.

Bob

Oh, the Choir Director must have loved that!

[waterboy]

Thanks for linking the video Bob! I’ll take a look at that and see what I can do with that harmonium