The Recent Revolution in Organ Building: Being an Account of Modern Developments — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
The Recent Revolution in Organ Building: Being an Account of Modern Developments
John Stuart Mill · en
In Fig. 24 we illustrate the Diaphone in the Hope-Jones organ built for
Aberdeen University, Scotland. The action is as follows:
Wind from the organ bellows enters the pipe foot F, and raises the
pressure in the chamber C. The air in the chamber will press upon the
back of the valve V, tending to keep it closed. It will press also
upon the bellows or motor M, and as this bellows has a much larger area
than that of the valve, it will instantly collapse, and, through the
medium of the tail piece T, will pull the valve V off its seat and
allow the compressed air in the chamber C to rush into the resonator or
pipe P. Owing to the inertia of the column of air contained in the
pipe P, a momentary compression will take place at the lower end of the
pipe, and the pressure of the air inside the motor M will, in
consequence, be raised. The motor having now increased pressure both
sides, will no longer keep the valve off its seat, and the spring S
will open the motor and close the valve. The compression caused by the
admission of the puff of air into the lower parts of the pipe P will be
followed by the usual rarefaction, and as this rarefaction will exhaust
or suck the air from the inside of the motor M, the valve will again be
lifted from its seat, and the cycle of operations will be repeated as
long as the wind supply is kept up. A series of regular puffs of wind
will thus be delivered into the lower part of the resonator or pipe,
resulting in a musical note.
Figs. 25, 26, 27 represent the first Diaphone heard in a public
building in this country, namely that of a model sounded in St.
Patrick's Cathedral, New York City, in 1905. In this form of Diaphone
the pressure of air operating the Diaphone has been varied between 10
inches and 500 inches, without perceptible variation in the pitch of
the note emitted.
[Illustration: Figs. 25, 26, 27. Diaphone in St. Patrick's Cathedral,
New York]
Referring to Fig. 25, the chamber WW is supplied with air under
pressure whenever the organist presses a key or pedal calling into use
this particular note. The pressure of air enters through the circular
engine supply port S, thus raising the pressure in the chamber C and
forcing in an upward direction the aluminum piston P through the medium
of the division D (colored black), which forms a portion of the
aluminum piston.
When the lower edge of the piston has risen a certain distance it will
uncover the circular engine exhaust port E, and will allow the
compressed air to escape into the atmosphere. At this moment the rise
of the piston will have closed the engine supply port S.
The momentum acquired by the piston (see Fig. 27) will cause it to
travel upward a little further, and this upward travel of the division
D will cause a compression of air to take place at the foot of the
resonator or pipe R. This compression will be vastly increased through
the simultaneous opening of the eight circular speaking ports SP.