Robbie's description from the other day (of how a value-less organ
works) reminded me of an organ I once worked on.  It was a Kimball
residence organ, that had been donated to a church.

I had been working on the Minneapolis Auditorium organ, and at one of
the concerts a very nice lady came up, and was asking about the organ,
and then asked if I wouldn't mind stopping by the church where she
played, and have a look at the Kimball that was there, and said I would
love to.  (I am always keeping an eye out for Kimballs.)

I was not expecting what I found at the church.  The organ was located
up by the alter, and as I went around the console, I spied a roll box
in the middle of the music rack (with glass doors).  I did ask about
it, as was told that someone who had been taking care of the instrument
had done something to the "player switches".

As my look at the instrument continued, I entered the chamber, and
found 11 pristine Kimball ranks on two chests, one above the other,
with the swell shades across from the top chest.  At the back of the
chamber was the relay stack, Vox Humana, percussions, and offsets.
I noted that a couple of rows of contacts were dangling by their cables
from the relay.

After a though going over, to check tuning, and functions, I agreed
to work on the instrument.  One the first day I repaired many broken
wires, this meant I had to open up the console.  After finishing, the
days work, I returned my attention to the back of the console, so that
I could check out the player (I had never seen one before).  I retrieved
a roll from the cabinet,  and set it up to play (not closing the doors
on the roll box).  I started the roll, and sat back, and nothing
happened.

After another look at the mechanism, I found that the doors had to
be closed, so the roll box could be pressurized.  Here is the way it
worked.  When the roll box was under pressure, air was allowed to
escape through the holes in the roll, which was conducted to a set of
pneumatics, which were relays (hole open = switch closed).  This in turn
was sent to the main organ relay for decoding.

The instrument could change registrations, and operate the swell
shutters (with a really neat racheting device, that was set up like a
swell roller with no pedal), and the music was divided in to theme and
accompaniment.  Each group of notes was also able to "transpose" to
another area of the keyboard.  I also found that solo section, along
with the stop changes was not working.  This was because someone had
tried to remove the player, and not managed to get past removing those
contacts on the main relay.  I never did fix that section, but I bet it
would have sounded lovely.

I do wonder if this is the "standard" way in which player residence
organs operated.  Does anyone know?

Ed Copeland
http://www.ourmusicalhouse.com/
edcplnd@thebestisp.com