Wind chests

[vaneramos]

I wired my first wind chest last week. A wind chest is the box that controls airflow to a rank, or perhaps several ranks, of organ pipes. Organ technology relies on several kinds of mechanism, all of which involve differences in air pressure, and I'm only beginning to understand them. For hundreds of years the mechanisms were purely mechanical, and

Comments

[bezigebij]

This is so fascinating - a world and technology I know nothing about. I love how it is modern and archaic at the same time.

[vaneramos]

For centuries pipe organs were the zenith of technology. Now they are something less than that. But while most musical instruments have a standard form, every pipe organ I've seen has been quite different from the others, built to suit the tastes and pocketbooks of their audiences. The variation is one of the things that makes working on them so intriguing.