I am just catching up with the MMDigest postings from October and
I noticed several regarding the instrument at Ruthmere in Elkhart,
Indiana.  [ http://www.mmdigest.com/Archives/KWIC/C/choralcelo.html ]

I have been fascinated by the Choralcelo for a number of years, having
been introduced to it by Art Reblitz.  I have spent many hours studying
the writings and photographs that Wade Jenkins assembled regarding the
instruments that he owned and the amazing installation at Lake Monhonk
Mountain House.  Being an electrical engineer, I have pored over the
Severy patents to gain an understanding of how the instrument worked.

I sympathize with Wade's agony over the amount of misinformation about
this pioneer musical instrument (and incorrect spelling of the name) on
the Internet.  This is what motivates me to write so late after the
original posts on here.

As the major article in the AMICA Bulletin indicated, it was an amazing
device, generating most of its sounds through the electro-magnetic
stimulation of piano strings, bars and "tuned carriage springs" at
their natural frequency of vibration.  The bar-type tone generating
units have resonators tuned to the frequency of each bar to provide
acoustic amplification of the sounds.

The console of a double-keyboard instrument also included a traditional
mechanical piano action which could also create sounds through the
usual method of hammers striking against the piano strings.

Electrically, the heart of the instrument was a DC generator connected
to a rather complex gear-driven pulse generator, which created pulses
of DC electricity at all of the frequencies of an equally tempered
scale.  Through a switching system, these pulses were delivered to the
individual electro-magnets mounted close to the piano strings and bars.

All of the photos of the Ruthmere installation that I have seen on-line
show a Choralcelo console with a player action, but the photos of the
remote chambers show what looks exactly like a typical residence pipe
organ.

I am left with two theories about this installation as it stands today.

1) It could have been a hybrid installation, with both traditional
organ pipes and a Choralcelo.  (We have something like that today with
the Rodgers pipe/electronic instruments.)  In that case, the Choralcelo
tone generating equipment should be operating in the chambers alongside
the chests holding the organ pipes.

However, this seems unlikely since none of the literature from Wade
Jenkins or in the patents mentions this as a possible configuration
and the Choralcelo actually competed against residence organs.

2) The more plausible theory is that once the electrical pulse
generating system of the Ruthmere Choralcelo stopped working, the owner
of the Ruthmere property had a local pipe organ firm remove the
Choralcelo equipment in the chambers and replace it with a standard
residence organ, wired to the Choralcelo console.

Once the Choralcelo factory could no longer provide support and spare
parts, maintenance of the pulse generator was very difficult, as
described in the story of the Lake Mohonk installation.  Personal
inspection of an extant Choralcelo confirms the complexity of the
apparatus and the decay of the critical electrical components over
time.

It would be helpful to know if any of the "back room" switching system
cabinets, DC generator, pulse generator and unique Choralcelo tone
generation units still exist at Ruthmere.  Then we can determine if
this is indeed a rare Choralcelo or just a residence organ using the
keyboards and stop tabs of the original Choralcelo console to control
it.

Larry Kerecman

 [ A condensed version of the AMICA article is presented at
 [ http://www.amica.org/Live/Publications/Past-Bulletin-Articles/Choralcelo/index.htm 
 [ -- Editor (Robbie)