Crew Starts Loading of Chamber

Written by Jim Henry Sunday, 20 January 2008 14:33

Installation of the Hegybeli Style 150 Wurlitzer got underway as the finishing touches of the chamber interior were completed. We were fortunate to be able to obtain a copy of the original 1928 Wurlitzer blueprint used to install the instrument in York, Nebraska from the Smithsionian Institution. While the new chamber is similar in size and shape to the original, we won't be able to follow the original layout exactly. Nonetheless the blueprint is a helpful guide as to sorting out the parts of the organ as it is installed and showing how they were made to go together.

In the above picture some of the offset chests that will hold the large bass pipes are shown against the wall roughly where they will be installed. At this point the crew is starting to move the chestwork into the chamber and putting it into position to check clearances and to sort all the related parts into groups for assembly. The original electropneumatic relay seen above will be moved to the back of the chamber once installation of the blower is completed in that area.

IETOS President, Steuart Goodwin, is seen gluing carpet to the chamber wall in the area where the blower, seen covered in plastic, will be installed. Normally the organ blower is installed at a substantial distance from the rest of the organ, frequently in a basement in original installations. Since we don't have the luxury of separating the blower from the balance of the organ, special measures will be used to minimize the sound from the 3HP blower. The blower will be at the rear corner of the chamber, the most remote location available. It will be enclosed in a sound deading box with two sides fromed by the chamber walls. The top of the box will be a muffler to damp out the sound from the outlet air before it travels to the front of the chamber in a 10" air duct. Later in the day the blower was moved into position in the corner where Steuart was working and placed on the original horsehair pads that are used to aborb vibrations before they pass into the floor under the blower.

To test the sound qualities of the new chamber, crew member Jim Henry set up his Miditzer virtual theatre organ in the chamber. Cambridge Soundworks speakers provided the sound. While speakers cannot provide the sound pressure levels that the pipes will generate, they were able to vibrate the walls. No resonances or vibrations were revealed by the testing. The results suggest that the chamber will provide a pleasing sound from the organ. It is often said that the room is the most important stop on the organ because the room plays such a large part in blending the sounds of the pipes to remove the harshness that is heard in the organ chamber. Organs in small spaces, and small means small relative to a 1,000 seat movie theatre, can take on an unpleasant "in your face" quality if attention is not given to taming them for their smaller surroundings.

Here is a view into the chamber through the swell shade frames showing the steady progress being made on the installation.