Hi All,  I would like to thank all of you who have sent messages to me
and the MMD about the simple organ pipe.  It seems a similar design has
been used before, but I suspect not with a simple round hole!  Here
is a quote Ed Gaida sent me that he found in the book "Organ Stops" by
Audsley:

 "The pipes which produce tones most closely resembling those of the
  orchestral Flute are formed of circular tubes of hard wood having
  small mouths placed in relation to their blocked ends just as is the
  embouchure of the orchestral Flute.  Their caps are formed so as to
  direct the wind-stream across their mouths just as the wind from the
  human mouth is directed across the embouchure of the orchestral
  instrument."

I have done some more building and testing.  The design also works
using a section of 3/4" PVC pipe with a 3/8" hole.  The channel on the
fipple is cut to 3/8" wide.  A section of PVC plastic around 12" long
open ended produces B below Middle "C".  I made a WAV file of the pipe
if anyone wants a copy.

I also made a 3/4" pipe with a 1/2" hole with a fipple channel 1/2"
wide.  This pipe also sounds.  I have added a small nail on the back
of the pipe that holds the fipple in place.  On penny whistles they make
small dents in the metal tube.  The pipe can also be folded using
elbows as Hans van Oost has mentioned.

The pipe needs to be tuned using a constant air source.  Up until
this point I have been blowing the pipe with my mouth.  I reasoned
that because the design is part penny whistle this would be okay.  Well,
after blowing the pipe for awhile the pitch starts to change.  Then the
pipe starts to squeal.

I made a fipple out of Lexan but that only lead me to the problem.  The
surface of the fipple gets a very fine coating of moisture.  As minor
as this seems the pipe is affected drastically.  Ed Gaida also told me
some pipes will sound if you blow on them, but if you hook them to a
constant air source, they will not.  It seems there is a feedback
between the sound and you breath control that keeps the pipe sounding.

My next step is to build a folded bass pipe.  I need a low G or the
monkey organ project is doomed!

John Conrad Kleinbauer