Hi All,  In addition to Bruce Clark's "Odd objects ..."  I remember
going to service and tune the 48-keyless organ we built for the late
John Carter that is fitted to the steam yachts.  Upon inspection we
found several lumps of coal (as expected, as the steam engine is
alongside the organ), and a well preserved sausage from a hot dog was
lodged amongst the pipework, presumably thrown in by a member of the
crowd.  They obviously didn't like organ music, or perhaps an amateur
tried to tune it with the sausage?!

Another organ we built around 20 years ago had a badly speaking pipe.
We had to remove the cap to see why it wouldn't speak and found a very
large moth, far too big and fat to have even crawled up the pipe foot.
It must have wriggled in as a maggot and hatched out into the moth.
I wonder how it managed to survive and what it ate in the pipe to grow
to be so big!

Bees are another frequent find, especially in reed pipes and brass
trumpet resonators.  They must like the golden glow of the brass or the
noise.  Whenever we go to tune 89-key organs, you can guarantee to find
at least one bee lodged in a reed block.

Among the odd objects we also find from "bad repair" or amateurs having
a go, masking tape has to be the favourite.  For some reason this seems
to be accepted by some organ owners as being a "permanent fix".  Old
socks or undergarments are another frequent find, being used to block
up pipe mouths or holes in chests and then forgotten about for many
years; I hope they washed them first.

Pieces of old plywood (nice and splintery) are another great addition
we find on a regular basis.  Again it seems the budding amateur likes
to screw these over holes to stop wind coming out.  Okay, if you have
nothing else on site and it's an urgent repair, but someone in one
organ had screwed a piece over the relief valve in the reservoir, so
all that pressure had nowhere to go.  Amazingly, the organ primaries
or puffs hadn't blown.  I wonder what they thought they were doing?

The last has to be _oil!  Who knows why -- maybe all that history in
engineering -- but some organ owners love to pour the stuff over
everything, particularly the keyframe.  We had one guy who oiled (I
should think once a week) every key in the keyframe for several years.
Can you imagine the mess?  How do you get leather to re-stick to the
pallets once contaminated with oil?

Still, it keeps us busy and very amused sometimes!

Regards from England.
Nick Dean - Dean Organ Builders
Bristol, England
http://www.deanorgans.co.uk/