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A Mosque in Munich Nazis the CIA and the Rise of the
Muslim Brotherhood in the West Ian Johnson Digital
Instant Download
Author(s): Ian Johnson
ISBN(s): 9780547423173, 0547423179
Edition: Paperback
File Details: PDF, 4.95 MB
Year: 2011
Language: english
A M O S Q U E IN M U N IC H
 B O O K S BY I A N J O H N S O N

Wild Grass: Three Portraits of

Change in Modern China

A Mosque in Munich: Nazis, the CIA, and

the Muslim Brotherhood in the West
A MDSQUE
MUNICH
NAZI S, THE CIA, AND
THE MUSLIM B R O T H E R H O O D
THE WEST

IAN JOHNSON

HOUGHTON MIFFLIN HARCOURT

BOSTON N E W Y OR K

2010
 Copyright © 2010 by Ian Johnson

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book,

write to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company,
215 Park Avenue South, N ew York, N ew York 10003.

www.hm hbooks.com

Library o f Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Johnson, Ian, date.
A mosque in M unich : Nazis, the C IA , and the Muslim
brotherhood in the West / Ian Johnson,
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
I S BN 9 78 -0 -15-10 14 18 -7
1. Islam and politics — G erm an y— M unich — H istory— 20th century.
2. Mosques — G erm an y— M unich — H istory— 20th century. 3. Jam’iyat al-Ikhwan
al-Muslimin (Egypt) — History — 20th century. 4. Islamic fundamentalism —
G erm an y— M unich — H istory— 20th century. 5. World War, 19 39 -19 4 5 —
Participation, Muslim. 6. Ex-N azis — G erm an y— M unich — History — 20th cen­
tury. 7. Mende, Gerhard von, 19 0 4 - 8. Cold War. 9. United States. Central
Intelligence A gency — H istory— 20th century. 10. Anti-com m unist m ove­
ments — G erm an y— M unich — H istory— 20th century. I. Title.
BP65.G3J64 2010
297.30943'36409045 — dc22 2009035285

Book design by Brian Moore

Printed in the United States o f Am erica

DOC 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

“Ginkgo Biloba” from West-Eastern Divan by Johann W olfgang von Goethe.

Translated by Jacques-E. Fortin in “ The Arm ored K ey” by M onique Gaudry
and published online at http://archange.tripod.com/thearmoredkey123.html.
Used by permission from Pierre Fortin.
And there are those who built a mosque from mischievous
motives, to spread unbelief and disunite the faithful.
—Koran 9:107
 N 1947, M a r g a r e t D o l l i n g e r went for a swim in the Isar, the
Alps-fed river that runs through Munich. There she saw a bronzed,
vaguely Asian-looking man. He was Hassan Kassajep, a thirty-year-old
Soviet refugee hoping to start a new life. The two looked at each other
shyly. ‘T knew he was the man,” she said. They parted only at his death,
one year shy of their golden wedding anniversary.
This book is dedicated to the Kassajeps and other Muslim emigres who
fought this obscure war. Many of them faced impossible moral choices
and ended up thousands of miles away from home, living in countries
they didn’t really understand, hoping that their work would change his­
tory. It did, but in ways that they couldn’t have expected.
This is a common refrain in history—the story of unintended conse­
quences. But in this case I felt a special poignancy. I came to know these
people intimately through their letters, photos, and, in some lucky cases,
through meeting people like Margaret Kassajep in person —aged survi­
vors of another era. I was also struck by the sadness of a life lived in secret.
These people could rarely talk openly about what they had done. Some­
times it was because they were embarrassed by their actions —collaborat­
ing with an odious regime, for example, or betraying friends. At other
times they felt bound by a code of silence, either directly imposed or im­
plicitly understood in covert operations. Most had constructed an alter­
nate reality: that of the scholar or the freedom fighter, the religious activist
or the businessman. I wondered what remains of a life when it is stripped
of a public identity.
In the case of the people in this book, the answer is, a lot. Though most
of them are'dead and their life stories obscure until now, their actions re­
verberate today as we confront similar issues. Like light refracted from a
distant planet, they illuminate our own lives.
Berlin
April 2009
 CONTENTS

Cast of Characters xi
Prologue: On the Edge of Town xiii

HOT WARS
1. The Eastern Front 3
2. The Turkologist 13
3. The Nazi Prototype 22

COLD WARS
4. Reviving the Ostministerium 35
5. The Key to the Third World 65
6. Learning Their Lesson 76
7. “A Politically Smart Act”: The Mosque Is Conceived 91
8. Dr. Ramadan Arrives 104
9. Marriage of Convenience 125
ID. The Novelists Tale 139
II. Winning the Mosque 155
12. Losing Control 169
 MODERN WARS
13. The Brotherhood Triumphant i8i
14. Beyond Munich 192
15. Defining the Debate 202
IB. 1950s Redux 217

Epilogue: Inside the Mosque 236

Acknowledgments 245
Sources 252
Notes 262
Index 298
 CAST DF CHARACTERS

The M ain Actors

R O B E R T H. D R E H E R : C IA agent working in M unich for a front or­
ganization, the Am erican Committee for Liberation (Am com -
lib). Backed the M uslim Brotherhood.
GERHARD VON MENDE: Turkic studies expert who pioneered the
use o f M uslims against the Soviets in the Nazi era; ran a sim ilar
intelligence bureau after the war in West Germany.
SAID RAMADAN: Exiled senior leader o f the M uslim Brotherhood,
with close ties to Western intelligence. Led Islamists in the battle
to seize control o f the M unich mosque project.

Other major players, grouped by their prim ary allegiance:

The Am ericans
IBRAH IM GACAOGLU: Feisty M uslim leader; served the Germ ans
during World War II but later accepted U.S. aid.
AHMAD k a m a l : California author and M uslim activist who co­
operated with U.S. intelligence but ran a rogue operation in
Munich.
R O B E R T F. K E L L E Y : Head o f Am com libs M unich operations.
B. ERIC k u n i h o l m : Am com libs political director in New York
headquarters; strong backer o f using Muslims against the Soviet
Union.
X ll C A S T OF C H A R A C T E R S

Rusi NASAR: Uzbek activist supported by Am com lib and other

agencies in anti-Soviet activities.
SAID SH AM IL: North Caucasian leader close to U S . intelligence;
worked closely with Dreher.
G AR iP s u l t a n : Worked for von Mende during World War II and
immediately afterward; later worked for Am com lib.

The Germans
B A Y M i R Z A H A Y IT: Uzbek historian and von Mende s right-hand man.
ALi KANTEM IR: Dagestani leader, loyal to'von Mende.
HASSAN k a s s a j e p : Secretary o f M osque Construction C om m is­
sion; tried to mediate between ex-soldiers and students.
VELi k a y u m : Self-styled “Khan” o f the Uzbeks; m ercurial and u n­
reliable.
N U R R ED iN N A M A N G A N i: Uzbek im am o f an SS division; later em ­
ployed by von Mende to take control o f M unich’s Muslims.

The Muslim Brotherhood'*'

MAHDi a k e f : Current “supreme guide” o f the M uslim Brother­
hood; headed the M unich mosque for three years.
GHALEB H iM M A T: Syrian businessman and head o f the M unich
mosque for thirty years; lives near Nada in the Italian Alps.
HAj AM IN A L-H U SSA iN i: Form er Grand Mufti o f Jerusalem;
worked with von Mende and the Nazis during the war and with
Ramadan afterward.
YOUSSEF n a d a : Egyptian businessman who helped arrange fi­
nancing for the M unich mosque; helped set up the Brotherhood
in the United States.
YOUSSEF Q AR AD AW i: One o f the most influential spiritual figures
in the M uslim Brotherhood today; helped rebuild the Brother­
hood in the 1970s by focusing on the West.
IBRAH IM e l -z a y a t : Took control o f the M unich mosque associa­
tion from Himmat after the 9/11 attacks.

'^^People considered close to the group or its ideology; not necessarily formal members of the
Egyptian political party.
 PROLOGUE
On the Edge of Town

N TH E W IN TER OF 2003, I was browsing in a London book­

store that sold radical Islamic literature. It was the sort o f store
that had earned London the nicknam e “ Londonistan” : stacked
with screeds calling for the downfall o f free societies, it tested the
limits o f free speech —and unwittingly catalogued the troubles
plaguing Europe’s M uslim communities. I was a regular customer.
W andering the aisles, I noticed a peculiar map o f the world.
Countries were color-coded according to percentage o f M uslim
population. D ark green countries had a M uslim m ajority; light
green, yellow, and beige represented decreasing proportions o f
Muslims — a typical example o f political Islam, which divides the
world into us and them, the only criterion being religion. Famous
mosques decorated the edge o f the m ap—the Grand M osque in
M ecca (the yearly destination o f millions o f pilgrim s), the Dome o f
the Rock in Jerusalem (where M uham m ad ascended to heaven),
the wondrous Blue M osque o f Istanbul — and the Islamic Center o f
Munich. '
The Islamic Center o f Munich? That seemed odd. I had been
writing on religion in Europe and other parts o f the world for half a
dozen years, and had lived in G erm any even longer. I had heard o f
the mosque as the headquarters o f one o f Germ any’s smaller Is­
XIV P R O L O G U E

lamic organizations. But the mosque hardly belonged in such au­

gust company. M unich was no center o f Islam, and the mosque
wasn’t the biggest in Germany, let alone Europe. Still, it was im m or­
talized in someone’s pantheon. I was planning a visit to M unich and
decided to find out why.
A few weeks later, I drove along the old main road north from
downtown Munich, at first paralleling the sleek autobahn that led
to the new airport and the city’s futuristic sports stadium. Skirt­
ing these exemplars o f Germ any’s vaunted infrastructure, I wove
through neglected neighborhoods o f the Bavarian capital. The city
gave w ay to suburbs, then to patches o f countryside. Finally, the
mosque appeared, first just a slender minaret jutting above the
pines, a finger pointing toward heaven. Then the rest came into
view. It was an egg-shaped house, like a weather balloon held down
by a tarp — an ebullient, futuristic design straight out o f the 1950s.
I spied a janitor, thin and short, a man o f about sixty in a tradi­
tional white gown and sandals. I asked w hy the mosque was so fa­
mous. He shrugged without a glim m er o f curiosity and said it surely
wasn’t. I asked when it had been built. He said he didn’t know. I
asked who had founded it, but he could only apologize.
His answers surprised me. I had visited dozens o f mosques
around Europe. At each, proud worshipers had regaled me with the
story o f its founding, often by immigrants who had scraped to­
gether construction money. But this ignorance — or was it am ne­
sia?—was odd.
I looked more closely, and the mosque seemed to age. Built o f
concrete and tile, it had faded and cracked. The trees seemed to
swallow the buildings. One o f the world’s great mosques? I w on­
dered what had happened here.
That question launched a research project that has taken me to
unexpected places and consumed a great deal more time than I ever
imagined it would. I had supposed I would find the answer quickly
by talking to a few members o f Germ any’s M uslim com m unity who
had immigrated to Europe in the 1960s, part o f a great population
P R O L O G U E XV

shift that has altered Europe’s demographics. I guessed that the Is­
lamic Center of Munich had emerged during this era.
Instead, I found the answer much further back in time —the
1930S. I did interview many Germ an Muslims but spent most o f m y
time in U.S. and European archives. There, among boxes o f long-
neglected and newly declassified documents, I pieced together the
stories o f the remarkable people who laid the ideological founda­
tions for the mosque and then battled for control o f the building
itself.
Contrary to expectations, these founders had little to do with the
wider population o f immigrants. Instead, I found that three groups
supported the mosque in order to attain certain goals. Some were
Nazi thinkers who planned to use Islam as a political weapon dur­
ing World War II and then extended this strategy into the Cold
War. Others, prim arily members o f the Central Intelligence Agency,
built on the Nazis’ work, hoping to use Islam to fight communism.
A third group was made up o f radical Muslims — Islamists — who
saw the mosque as a toehold in the West. A ll had one thing in com ­
mon: their goal was to create not a place o f worship but rather a
center for political — and even violent — activity.
At first, the story had a fam iliar ring. The United States had tried
to enlist M uslims to counter the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1970s
and ’80s, fam ously contributing to the birth o f A 1 Qaeda. But the
M unich mosque was built thirty years earlier, during the opening
phases o f the Cold War, not near its conclusion, and the goals that
inform ed its foundation were also different. In places like A fghani­
stan, Islam was mobilized to fight a war with guns and soldiers. But
here in G erm any M uslims were drawn into a psychological war — a
battle o f ideas. I began to realize that the events in M unich were a
precursor to developments, both ideological and military, ranging
from Afghanistan to Iraq.
Then, as now, such tactics backfired. The battle for M unich’s
M uslims helped introduce a virulent ideology to the West: Islam-
ism — not the ancient religion o f Islam but a highly politicized and
XVI P R O L O G U E

violent system o f ideas that creates the m ilieu for terrorism. In the
attacks on N ew York and Washington in 2001 the West experienced
this violence firsthand, but it has a long history, having plagued
countries around the world for decades. Islam ism s most prominent
group is the M uslim Brotherhood, and it was the Brotherhood that
turned the mosque into a political cell for its partisan goals. Alm ost
all the Brotherhoods activities in the West originated among the
small group o f people who ran the mosque. M unich was the beach­
head from which the Brotherhood spread into Western society.
The parallels between the 1950s and today are striking. W hile our
societies remain consumed with on-the-ground events on battle­
fields like Iraq, it is the ideological war that will determine success
or failure. Now, like h alf a century ago in Munich, Western societies
are seeking M uslim allies, hoping to find people who share our val­
ues in the struggle against a persistent enemy. M unich shows the
danger o f doing so without careful reflection and scrutiny.
Western governments have made this scrutiny a difficult task. By
and large, intelligence agencies’ files on Islam are still closed; it was
only through some extraordinary luck that I was able to obtain the
documents describing this story. In the United States, it took an act
o f Congress to p ry open the CIA’s files on Nazis who survived the
war or were suspected o f war crimes; perhaps it will take a sim ilar
law to get a complete view o f U S. dealings with Islamist groups.
In the meantime, this book fills some o f the gaps. One reason for
writing it now is that eyewitnesses from this era are passing away.
M any collected remarkable personal archives, which are becom ing
scattered. As it is, most o f the people I talked to were in their eight­
ies and nineties. Several have died since. To wait another few years
would have meant forfeiting their insight and advice.
These people and the archives tell a story that takes us from H ol­
lywood to Jakarta, Washington to Mecca. But as so often seems to
be the case in Germany, the story begins on a World War II battle­
field.
HDT WARS

This leaf from an Oriental tree,

Transplanted to my gardens soil,

The secret sense does decree.

For the knowing man to uncoil

from “Gingko Biloba,”

GOETHE
 1
THE EASTERN FRONT

A R iP SULTAN LAY FLAT in a m achine-gun nest, his stomach

pressed to the ground. He craned his neck forward, looking out
into the grasslands for the enemy. His superiors had ordered
him to hold one o f the Red A rm y s forward positions outside the
Ukrainian city o f Kharkov. It was M ay 1942, and the Germ ans were
launching a giant counteroffensive. All around him he heard shells
roar and panzers rumble. The nineteen-year-old swept his binocu­
lars left and right across the Ukrainian steppes but saw nothing. He
felt doomed."^
He thought back unhappily to how he had ended up here. Sul­
tan was a minority in Stalins Soviet Union, a Tatar from the dis­
trict of Bashkir. Turkic peoples had settled this region when the last
great wave of nomadic invaders swept out of Central Asia in the
thirteenth century, under Genghis Khan. As Russia expanded, the
Tatars had lost their independence, becoming one of the many non-
Russian peoples who made up nearly half the vast country’s popu­
lation.
Under Soviet rule, oppression o f these peoples had increased,
especially for those like Sultans parents who had run small busi-

* This book is a work of history, based on interviews and documents. Unless explicitly noted in
the text, sources are listed in the notes at the back of the book.
 H O T W A R S

nesses. Soviet cadres called them capitalists and took everything.

They nationalized his fathers transport business and confiscated
the fam ily home. Even their horse was taken. The family, once rich,
was able to keep just two pieces o f furniture bought during a trip to
England: a mirror, now cracked, and a clock, now broken. Before
Sultans father died, he encouraged his son to join the Young Pio­
neers, then later the young peoples organization Komsomol, and
eventually the party. This was the only w ay to survive in Stalins So ­
viet Union, the older man had said. Sultan followed his father s ad­
vice. He joined Komsomol, attended high school, and had planned
to study metallurgy. He tried his best to become a new Soviet man.
Then came June 1941 and the Germ an invasion. The Red A rm y
wasn’t yet the formidable fighting machine that would eventually
destroy the bulk o f Hitler s armies. In the first year o f the war it suf­
fered enormous casualties and surrendered huge territories. Every
available man was called up and thrown straight into action. Sul­
tan was conscripted and quickly assigned to a ragtag group o f non-
Russians like himself, m iserably equipped and poorly led. They
were set to disintegrate upon contact with the enemy.
As his unit took up position outside Kharkov, Sultan keenly felt
his status as a minority. W hen the troops lined up for inspection,
the com m anding officer, a Russian, asked minorities to step for­
ward. The officer gave four o f them, including Sultan, the suicidal
task o f creeping across the no m ans land between the two armies
and throwing Germ an-language propaganda toward the enemy
lines. According to this quixotic plan, the Germ an soldiers would
read the pamphlets, revolt against their officers, and surrender. No
one anticipated that the Germ ans had set up tripwires. Sultans
group was cut to pieces by the ensuing m achine-gun fire; Sultan
was the only survivor. He hid for two days in the high grasses o f the
steppe before creeping back to his lines. For his bravery, his com ­
manding officer prom ised him a medal. But Sultan felt the honor
was hollow. His loyalty to the Soviet system, which he had honestly
tried to cultivate, was evaporating.
Then his unit was ordered to make ready for the Germ an offen-
Other documents randomly have
different content
not be quite in a line with its fellows, and therefore not quite
correctly above the hole in the plate, throwing the pull-down out of
a right line into an oblique one. Rectify all defects of this kind at any
expenditure of time and patience.
We have left all this time several inches of each channel open or
uncovered, since the wind-chest closes in only that portion of the
channels to which the pallets are applied. We may now finish our
work by gluing white leather, or parchment, or even only stout
paper, over the open part of the channels, taking care that it adheres
well in every part.
We may add that it is sometimes, or often, convenient to place the
wind-chest under the back part of the sound-board, and not under
the front; or to place it midway between the back and front, or a few
inches from either. This is done with an eye to arrangements
connected with the action or movement, which will be described in
detail. When the wind-chest is so placed care must be taken to
provide for the complete closing of the front board. A ledge of wood
should be glued and pinned to the bars in such case, to afford a
bearing for the front board and to receive the screws which secure
it; or the edges of the board may be leathered, and it may be thrust
in, with a tight fit, between the under side of the channels (roofed
with wood at that point for the purpose), the cheeks, and the
bottom board, cut an inch wider accordingly. Wedges are sometimes
used, driven in behind clasps or hooks of iron, to keep it in its place.
But in truth, when the organ is once well built and finished, several
years may elapse without a disturbance of the board.
 CHAPTER VI.
THE BELLOWS, TRUNKS, AND FRAME.
After all our minute operations with small drills and fine wires,
calling for a light hand and patient accuracy, we have to turn to work
comparatively rough and coarse. The business of bellows-making
presents no serious difficulty, and we hope we may pass rapidly over
it. We shall have no reader who is not already familiar with the form
of organ-bellows, which consist of three main boards, namely, the
middle board, the top board or table, and the feeder, and of thin
plates of wood called ribs, the whole united together with flexible
white leather forming hinges and gussets.
The shape or form of the bellows will of course be determined by
that of the organ; they may be long and narrow, or short and wide,
like the sound-board. Their capacity, or area, will depend on the
number and character of the pipes which they have to supply with
wind. A common rule is to assign two square feet of superficial area
for each stop in the organ; but this would be in excess of the
requirements of such a small organ as that which we are making. 3
feet 6 inches by 2 feet, giving 7 square feet of area, will be ample
dimensions in our case, and will work in conveniently with the size
which we have assumed throughout for the sound-board, namely,
about 4 feet or 4 feet 6 inches by 15 inches. In arranging your plans
in the first instance, allow room for a drop or play of the feeder of at
least 10 inches, free of all interruption from the pedal or other
contrivance for blowing, for it is upon the capacity of the feeder that
you must depend for the quantity of air supplied, the upper part of
the bellows being merely a reservoir in which the compressed air is
stored away, and from which it is distributed to the pipes as it is
wanted. The reservoir may have a rise or play of about 10 inches or
a foot. Get out the three main boards of deal or any sound stuff,
leaving the middle board some inches longer than the other two,
that its ends may rest upon the frame of the organ, or upon other
supports as you may arrange. Cut out pieces, also, to form a shallow
box, say 4 inches deep, upon the middle board, of the same size as
the top board. This is called a trunk-band, and is introduced to allow
of fixing the wind-trunks which are to convey the wind to the chest.
You will want also a light frame of three-quarters stuff, pine
recommended, to carry and support the ribs of the reservoir; the
four boards of which it is made will be of the same width as the ribs
themselves, namely, about 4 or 4½ inches. The ribs are of very thin
stuff, say ¼ inch, but they must be quite sound and free from
cracks. You will want sixteen ribs (eight pairs) for the reservoir and
six for the feeder; of these last the long ones will be of triangular
form.

Fig. 19.

Cut plenty of large openings in the feeder board for the admission of
the external air, and in the middle board for the transfer of that air
to the reservoir. These openings may be rectangular, say 4 inches by
1½, and there may be fully six of them in each board. After cutting
them, convert them into gratings by fitting little wooden bars across
them, 1 inch apart, let in flush with the board, and planed level.
Each of these gratings will be covered with a valve or clack of stout
white leather, two thicknesses glued together, and held down along
one edge by a slip of wood and brads. These leathern valves should
play with perfect ease, and it is well to thin down the hinge-flap, or
cut it half through with a sharp penknife, that the valve may fly open
at the slightest pressure of the wind, and may not throttle or retard
its passage. It is a common plan to make these valves without a
hinge, by attaching pieces of tape to the four corners, and pinning
down the ends of the tapes to the board. The whole valve then rises
and falls. We prefer the hinge. After cutting your ribs to the proper
shapes, in which you can hardly get wrong, sort them into pairs, and
glue a long strip of stout white sheep-skin along the edges of each
pair. Stout calico or linen may be substituted for leather on the
opposite side, namely, the side which will present the inner angle,
and in which the ribs will be in close contact when folded together. A
glance at Fig. 19 will show that the upper ribs of the reservoir are in
a position the reverse of that of the lower ribs. This inversion of the
ribs represents the result of a clever invention by one Cummins, a
clockmaker. Before its introduction, the air in the reservoir had
suffered a slightly unequal compression as the top board descended,
in consequence of the closing-in on all sides of the folds of the ribs,
which diminished the space occupied by the air. Cummins's
ingenious modification at once rectified this inequality, since the
upper ribs fold outwards, and allow more room for the air, precisely
in the same proportion as the lower ribs fold inwards and diminish
the space. An unpractised ear might not, indeed, detect the slight
change in the tone of the pipes caused by bellows made in the old-
fashioned way, but let us by all means follow Cummins's plan. You
will do well first to join the inner lower edges of the upper ribs to the
inner sides of the middle frame; then their other edges to the top
board at the proper distance from its margin; then attach the upper
and outer edges of the lower ribs to the outer edges of the middle
frame; lastly, the lower edges of the lower ribs to the trunk-band. All
this must be done quickly that the glue may not grow cold; it will
much facilitate a distasteful operation to use a small sponge with
warm water, passed over the outer or smooth side of the leathern
strips as they are glued on. The main hinge of the feeder will be
best made by passing pieces of hempen rope through several pairs
of holes bored obliquely for the purpose in the feeder board and
middle board, and wedged in with pegs and glue. Fig. 20 sufficiently
explains this. Two or three layers of the stoutest leather will be glued
over the line of junction formed by this hinge. There is no reason
why the hinge should not be on one of the long sides of the feeder,
instead of its narrow end, if your arrangements for the blowing-
handle or pedal render this form of construction desirable. (You have
doubtless well considered your blowing mechanism.) The ribs of the
feeder being worked in like those of the reservoir, and all the glue
dry, fix the bellows in a fully distended position by temporary
appliances, and fill up the open corners by gusset-pieces of your
best and most flexible leather. Material will be economised and
neatness consulted by preparing a paper pattern of the gusset-
pieces in advance. Those of the feeder must be very strong, and it
may be well, but it is not necessary, to put on a second pair over the
first, but not glued to them in the folding or crumpled part. All must
be perfectly tight and well glued down in every part. A mere pin-hole
will betray itself hereafter by a disagreeable hissing.
We had almost forgotten to say that a
valve 4 inches square, or thereabout,
must be fitted in the middle of the top
board to prevent over-blowing. This is
generally made of a small board of
wood, planed truly level, and covered
with two thicknesses of the pallet
leather, rubbed with whitening. It
Fig. 20. opens inwards, and is held closed by
any simple application of a stout
spring made of much thicker wire than the pallet springs. Fig. 21
suggests one of the very simplest of arrangements. A string,
fastened to the under side of this safety-valve, and to the middle
board beneath it, may be of such length as to pull the valve open
when the bellows are fully inflated; or the valve may be pushed
open from above by a wooden arm or catch attached for the
purpose to some part of the frame.
 Fig. 21.

The apertures for the trunks should be cut in the trunk-band,

according to well-digested plans, before the bellows are put
together, that there may be no sawdust or chips afterwards to get
under the clacks; and it is well to give the whole interior of the
bellows two coats of glue-size before the ribs are closed in.

Fig. 22.

The little contrivance a b c d, Fig. 22, is to ensure the simultaneous

rising of the top board and middle frame when the bellows are in
action. It may be conveniently made of hoop-iron, but oak or any
hard and strong wood will be equally good. If some such contrivance
were not introduced, the top board and upper ribs would rise first on
the working of the feeder, and the frame and lower ribs would follow
in their turn. This would cause inequality of pressure, since the top
board would not at once bear up the weight of the frame and lower
ribs. The little jointed apparatus redresses this by causing the whole
of the ribs to obey the first admission of air. A simpler form of it will
be found in Fig. 22a.
We are building a very small organ, but, desiring as we do to give as
much completeness to this treatise as circumstances will allow, we
here explain that in larger instruments two feeders are generally or
always introduced, unless, indeed, a "cuckoo feeder" is used, which
practically amounts to the same thing, being a long board hinged to
the under side of the middle board by a stout transverse piece in its
middle, and provided with two sets of ribs, each set filling up the
space from the middle hinge to the end of the board. This feeder
supplies wind with the upward as well as the downward stroke of
the bellows-handle, but it would not be suitable for an organ in
which the blowing is effected by the foot.

Fig. 22a.

We may have readers who are so fortunately circumstanced as to be

able to apply water-power to their bellows. In this case two feeders
should be fitted in order to utilise both strokes of the ingenious little
machine, which consists essentially of a piston moving water-tight in
a cylinder provided with a valve which admits water alternately
above and below it. This is not the place for entering on a discussion
of the conditions essential to the due working of the water-pressure
engine; they may be studied in any modern treatise on hydro-
dynamics; it is enough for our present purpose to say that a cylinder
not larger than a common wine-bottle will give ample power for such
an organ as ours, provided that the pressure on the piston be not
less than 30 lbs. to the square inch, and that the supply-pipes be of
ample size. Water, it must be remembered, does not expand like
steam when admitted into an empty space, or rather into a space
occupied only by atmospheric air; hence large pipes, large valves,
and large ports, or valve-openings, must be provided, that the
water-pressure, irresistible when properly applied, may be thrown at
once upon the point where it is wanted. But this is by the way, and
we will only add that the water machine should be in a room or
cellar below or adjoining that in which the organ is placed, as a
slight noise is inseparable from its action, and it should act on the
feeders by a wooden or iron rod brought up through the floor. Still
better if the whole apparatus, feeders, reservoir, and all, can be
down-stairs or in a neighbouring apartment, the trunks only passing
through the wall or floor. In very large modern instruments the
feeders, worked by steam or water, are commonly made to move
horizontally, in a way which will be understood if we imagine an
accordion or concertina laid upon its side. When the reservoir is fully
inflated it acts upon a valve, which reduces or cuts off the supply of
water or steam.
The trunks are rectangular wooden tubes made of half-inch pine,
and well jointed. In their course from the trunk-band to the wind-
chest right-angled mitres are permissible, for it is a mistake, though
a common one, to imagine that the wind rushes in an impetuous
stream along the trunks as it does (for instance) along a
conveyancing tube when its pallet is open. The trunks are simply
connecting links between the reservoir and wind-chest, but they
must be large enough to ensure an equality of wind-density in both
wind-chest and reservoir under all demands on the part of the
player. Our trunk may be 5 inches by 2, inside measurement; or it
may be 9 or 10 inches wide by only 1; or we may make it 3 or 4
inches square, as may suit our plans. The ends of the trunk should
not be glued into the openings cut in the trunk-band and wind-chest.
The ends, reduced by half the thickness of the wood, and brought to
a shoulder, should be glued into an opening in a small board, an inch
or two larger on all sides than the area of the trunk. Engineers
would call this a "flange." This flange being leathered, and the
aperture of the trunk cut out, it may be pressed with four or more
screws against the margins of the openings with which it is in
communication, and will thus be removable at any time if the organ
is taken down or altered. The interior of wind-trunks should be well
coated with thin glue, and the exterior should be painted. Some
builders prefer to cover the exterior of their trunks with paper, and
to line the ribs of the bellows with the same material, applied with
common paste. Trunks have been made, too, of zinc, and oval in
section.
The frame of the organ, whatever its form or plan, should be very
strong and solid, and should stand firmly in its place on the floor
without any tendency to vibration or unsteadiness. The pieces of
which it is composed should be of good deal, 1¼ inch thick, and
from 3½ to 4½ inches wide, according to circumstances, that is to
say, according to the weights which it has to carry. The essential
points are these, namely, that the keys, or manual, shall rest upon
firm supports at the proper height above the floor; that the sound-
board shall be borne upon bearers at a sufficient height above the
keys to admit the intervening mechanism; that the bellows shall be
carried on cross pieces far enough removed from the floor to admit
of the free play of the feeder.
You will take into consideration, in designing your frame, the
question whether you will have pedals, and the still more important
question whether you will have separate pipes for them, and how
they are to be connected with the lower keys. Room must be
provided for all the apparatus involved in these arrangements, and,
as in every part of our work, so in this, we say that the reader
himself must think over carefully all contingencies, and make a
preliminary drawing to scale for his own guidance.
Enough if we lay down here the following rules:—
1. The under side of the key-board must be 25 inches from the floor,
or from the upper surface of the pedal-board.
2. The under side of the wind-chest should, if possible, be at least
15 inches above the key-board.
3. The middle board of the bellows should be fully 12 inches above
the floor, or above any trackers or other mechanism connected with
pedals.
4. The front edge of the key-board should project about 1 foot in
advance of the panels closing in the lower part of the case.
5. Ample space should be secured for a large book-board by allowing
a still greater distance between this front edge of the keys and the
front edge of the sound-board above.
These are not quite all the considerations involved in designing the
frame. The draw-stops and their connection with the sliders must be
well considered, and room left for the requisite apparatus; and the
position of the bellows-handle should be determined, and the part of
the frame on which its fulcrum or centre will rest.
Fig. 23 gives, perhaps, the simplest form of frame usually adopted
for a small organ. It is made of four distinct frames, united at the
angles by screws, so that the whole can be easily taken to pieces. It
must be understood that the key-board is carried upon two cross-
bearers, leaving the under part of the tails of the keys accessible;
and the sound-board in like manner rests upon two bearers under its
extreme ends. If any longitudinal bar is introduced to assist in
sustaining the weight of the sound-board, it must be after careful
consideration of all the arrangements for the action or movements of
the keys. Similarly, the entrance of the trunk must depend on the
mechanism of the action and of the draw-stops. It is unnecessary to
screw down the sound-board to the bearers. Its own weight when
loaded with the pipes will keep it down, while a couple of dowels
(short wooden pegs), one in each bearer, fitting into sockets in the
bottom board of the wind-chest, will prevent it from moving laterally.

Fig. 23.
There is another form of frame well suited to small organs, and
which we ourselves greatly approve. According to this plan, which is
sketched in Fig. 24, the bellows are enclosed in a stout low structure
rising no higher than the level of the key-board which rests upon its
top. The sound-board is carried upon cheeks screwed or otherwise
attached to the bottom board of the wind-chest either at its extreme
ends or at points nearer to its centre, according to your plans for the
action and the draw-stops. Or the cheeks may be united by a stout
transverse piece or girder, the sound-board being then kept in place
by dowels only.

Fig. 24.

The present writer has further modified this arrangement by

substituting a wide and shallow trunk for one of the cheeks. This
trunk is screwed by its flange to the bottom board of the wind-chest,
where the wind enters, and it is closed at the bottom, where it rests
upon the cross-bearers of the frame. A lateral aperture is cut in it an
inch or two from this lower end, and a short mitred trunk connects it
with the bellows. All this may be sufficiently understood by
inspection of Fig. 24.
Remark.—The late eminent builder, Mr. W. Hill, we believe, exhibited
an organ at the London International Exhibition in 1851 which had
hollow framework, serving as trunks. It is evident that by making
one end of our bellows rest upon a hollow bearer we might omit the
trunk-band entirely, since this hollow bearer might be directly
connected by a mitred trunk with the hollow cheek supporting the
wind-chest. And by making one leg of the bellows-frame hollow, and
connecting it at top with a hollow cross-bearer, carrying the cheek
on which rests the wind-chest, it is plain that we supersede the
separate trunk altogether. Such plans as these may amuse some of
our readers.

Fig. 25.

If the feeder is worked by the foot of the player such a pedal as that
shown in Fig. 25 will be found convenient. It is made of hard wood—
oak, birch, ash, or walnut—with iron or brass hoops and pivots, and
is screwed to the floor of the room, independently of the organ-
frame. The little roller should be covered or muffled with soft leather,
and you will see that it rolls clear of the valve-holes in the feeder. By
lengthening the middle piece or shaft we may work with the right
foot, a feeder having its play on the left side; but in such a case the
whole machine will be best made of iron by a smith. He will coat the
pedal for you with india-rubber where the foot rests upon it—a much
better plan than roughening it like a rasp. The pedal, as figured, is
intended to be on the extreme right of the player, and to be clear of
a pedal-board of two octaves.
The reader will see that by reversing the positions of the arms of the
pedal it may be made to suit any little organ with a manual only. In
this case the muffled roller will traverse the feeder not crosswise,
but lengthwise.
We pointed out in a former page that the position of a bellows-
blower must be considered in your plans for the finished instrument.
If he stands close to the player on either side of him the lever will be
easily poised upon a strong pin projecting from the frame. A piece of
web or a leathern strap will be a better connection with the feeder
than any rigid bar of wood or of iron. If the organ is not placed
against a wall the position of the blower may with equal ease be
precisely reversed. The lever, however, may be arranged parallel to
the back wall by constructing your bellows in the first instance with a
view to this, the hinge of the feeder being on one of its long sides,
as we have explained in a former page. Or, with a feeder hinged as
usual at its end, the lever may still be parallel to the back wall by
acting upon an arm with a roller precisely similar to our foot-blower.

Fig. 26.

Another mode of effecting this is shown in Fig. 26. a b is the handle

turning on a strong pin at a, fixed to the back of the frame. c d is a
shaft which should be of iron, but might be of hard wood, hooped at
the ends, having two arms, e and f, projecting from it in opposite
directions. This shaft turns on stout iron pivots which enter holes in
stanchions securely fixed to the frame. These holes will be better for
being bushed with brass. g is a short wooden link connecting the
handle with the arm f; and h is a wooden rod which connects the
arm e with a forked lug screwed to the feeder. All these connections
are by stout turned pins of iron or brass. It is plain that every
downstroke of the handle a b will bring up the feeder. All this is a
matter of mere mechanical arrangement; the simpler you can make
it, by diminishing as much as possible the number of pivots or
turnings, the better it will be.
We conclude this chapter, and turn to the next branch of our subject,
with the assumption that the organ is thus far satisfactorily
advanced. When the new bellows are worked we assume that no
hissing is heard, and no escape of air perceived at any of the holes
when a slider is drawn, or at any part of the junctions of the trunk.
We assume also that when any pallet is opened by drawing down
the ring of its wire, a strong rush of wind will immediately follow,
and will be as instantly stopped by releasing the ring, when the
pallet will close with a ready and prompt snap. The sliders, too, must
glide to and fro with perfect smoothness and ease.
Pass over no serious fault. Remedy all defects with unwearied
patience, even if it involves a reconstruction of your work.
It is usual to paint the frame and bellows (leaving the ribs
untouched, however) with some dark priming. A dull red was
formerly in vogue; chocolate, dark brown, or a slaty black have now
found favour in the eyes of builders.
 CHAPTER VII.
PLANTATION OF THE PIPES.
We explained in a former page that it is well to plant all the pipes
upon the sound-board before the pallets are fitted, because dust and
chips are inseparable from the operation, and may be troublesome
and mischievous if introduced into the grooves and conveyances.
Some of our readers, therefore, having their stock of pipes by them,
have perhaps already perused this chapter and acted upon its
suggestions. It has been reserved, however, for this place in our
work, in accordance with our wish to meet the case of workmen and
young beginners who are under the necessity of proceeding by
degrees.
Possessing a turning-lathe, and resolving to turn the wooden pipe-
feet yourself, you will doubtless commence by boring four or more
holes in a bit of thin board with centre-bits of different sizes as a
guide or gauge for the diameters of the pipe-feet. If you mount this
little board at a height of 4½ inches above another board or stand,
by pillars or legs, it will represent a portion of your rack-board, and
as you rapidly throw off the feet in the lathe they will be as quickly
sorted by passing them into these trial holes. The billet of wood,
pine, willow, sycamore, or any other suitable stuff, should be bored
while still in the rough by a bit revolving in the lathe. The bore
cannot then fail to be central. It should ultimately be scorched with a
hot iron, unless, indeed, your borer has been so well suited to the
wood as to render unnecessary any further smoothing. The feet will
be slightly conical, the smaller end tapered off to fit the countersunk
hole on the board, the larger formed into a neck with a shoulder
(see Fig. 1).
The rack-pins should be of mahogany or oak, with a shoulder at
each end, the necks fitting tightly in the holes provided for them
already. These necks may be blackleaded, to facilitate removal.
All the holes may now be bored in the rack-board corresponding to
our two wooden stops (Nos. 2 and 4), at the points marked long
ago, when the grooving was finished; the board may be placed on
its rack-pins, and the feet dropped into their places, adjusted, where
necessary, with a half-round file. The pipes may then receive their
feet one by one, and if your calculations have been correct and your
measurements accurate they should stand in orderly array. Use the
spirit-level, square, and plumb-line in planting the pipes, to ensure
truly horizontal and perpendicular lines. The feet should not be
actually glued into the blocks until the last little adjustments have
been given.
In planting the metal pipes, holes 2 inches or more in diameter will
be required in the bass, while those in the extreme treble will be
little larger than a common quill. Adjustable bits may be bought,
clever contrivances producing beautifully true circular holes (see
Chap. II.). In the absence of these, we recommend you to use discs
of stiff paper or cardboard, representing the exact size, as
ascertained by callipers, of the conical foot of the pipe at about 5
inches from its lower extremity; from these discs the outline of the
holes may be traced on the board, and all the holes, great and
small, may be cut out with a pad-saw, or bored with common bits, in
every case a trifle smaller than they are ultimately to be. Then, the
rack-board being in place, each pipe may be adjusted in its position
by using a half-round rasp, and similar or rat-tail files. With these
you will easily give a conical form to the holes in the board.
Great care will be well bestowed in this operation. If, unfortunately,
you cut any hole too large, line it with a morsel of soft leather. But
every true workman will desire to resort as seldom as possible to
this expedient.
Probably none of the metal pipes will require to be grooved off. But
this you have attended to long ago. If any of them are grooved off,
take care that the grooves are of ample size, that the wind may not
be throttled.
When all the pipes are planted, whatever the arrangement which
you have adopted, they should gratify the eye by their perfect
symmetry.
"If they do not look well they will not sound well," was a good
maxim long ago impressed upon the writer by an ingenious German
workman, to whom he was indebted for much valuable information.
 CHAPTER VIII.
THE ACTION.
This important subject will be prefaced by a few definitions,
superfluous, perhaps, for some readers, necessary for others.
Backfall. A lever of any clean wood, ⅜ inch or less in thickness, 1
inch or 2 inches in width, and seldom more than 1 or 2 feet in
length, turning upon a wire as its axis or fulcrum.

Fig. 27.

Bridge. Backfalls occur in sets, corresponding to the number of keys

in a manual or of pallets in a wind-chest. They are arranged side by
side in notches formed by taking out the wood between saw-cuts in
a balk of mahogany or oak 2, 3, or more inches square. This balk is
called a bridge. Fig. 27 shows part of a set of backfalls and their
bridge.
Square. Squares are now usually of metal, but may be easily made
of wood, and consist of two arms, 2 or 3 inches long, united at a
right angle to each other, or cut at once from a single piece, and
turning on a wire as an axis passing through a hole at the
intersection of the arms. Like the backfalls, they may be arranged
side by side in a bridge, but the modern metal squares are screwed
separately in their places (Fig. 28).
Sticker. A slender rod of light wood, not larger than a common cedar
pencil, and from a few inches to a foot or two in length (Fig. 29).
 Tracker. A flat riband of pine,
sometimes several feet in length,
about ⅜ inch in width, and less
than ⅛ inch in thickness. Trackers,
however, are now frequently
slender round rods, like the stickers
(see Fig. 30).
Tapped Wires. Formerly of brass, Fig. 28.
afterwards of tinned iron, and now
generally of phosphor-bronze or
some other alloy. These are pieces of wire about
3½ inches in length, from No. 16 to No. 18 in
Fig. 29. gauge, and cut with a screw-thread upon about
half their length, with a ring or hook at the
untapped end.
Buttons. Round nuts of old and thick leather, or latterly of a
composition into which gutta-percha enters, pierced at their
centre to receive the tapped part of the wire.
Cloths. Little discs of woollen cloth, mostly red, used as
mufflers to prevent the rattling noise of wood against wood,
or metal against metal.
Roller. An axis or shaft of light wood (but in certain cases of
iron), turning easily on two wires as pivots, which enter
holes in studs fixed firmly. The roller has two (or more)
arms, 2 or 3 inches long, projecting from it, generally near Fig. 30.
its ends. It is plain that any motion given to the roller by
acting on one of these arms will be transmitted to the other
arm. Rollers are in sets, like backfalls and squares, and are arranged
symmetrically on a board called a roller-board (Fig. 31).
The nine articles just described are all brought together in the action
of an organ, even of a simple kind. We shall endeavour in this
chapter to show how they are combined in ordinary circumstances,
involving no peculiar complications.
A simple and rudimentary example of the principle underlying all
systems of organ-action may be seen in Fig. 32. a b is the key-
board, in which each key (as always in England) is balanced on a
pin-rail near its centre, and has a pin, c, passing through a little
mortice cut in it, while another pin, d, out of sight, near its fore end,
keeps it in its place, parallel to its fellows. At the tail of the key, e is
a sticker, having a wire thrust into each of its ends, and projecting
about 1 inch; one of these wires is inserted in a small hole drilled in
the key-tail, and conical beneath, or cut into a little mortice. A
"cloth" is slipped upon the wire to prevent the end of the sticker
from rattling upon the key-tail. The upper wire of the sticker slips
into a similar hole (a cloth interposed as before) in the end of f, a
backfall working in its bridge, g. The other end of f is connected at
once to the pull-down of the pallet by a tapped wire and button.
Clearly, if a finger is placed upon the key, its hinder end will rise and
will push up the back end of the backfall, which will draw down the
pallet; and by simply reversing the position of the backfalls as shown
in the cut, we may pull down the pallets in the wind-chest when
placed under the back of the sound-board.

Fig. 31.
If, then, we have fifty-four keys in the manual, a repetition of this
simple apparatus fifty-four times will be requisite to bring every
pallet, with the pipes controlled by it, under the command of the
player.

Fig. 32.

But this is taking no account of the fact that the pipes are not
planted in an unbroken chromatic series from bass to treble. In the
arrangement shown in Fig. 5 (and in its reverse or opposite plan) it
is plain that our simple backfalls would fail us; while in Fig. 6 some
of the bass pipes are planted to the right of the player, equally out of
reach.
Here we resort, then, to rollers. Fig. 33 shows a single roller, in
which i k is the roller, turning on pivots in studs, and having arms, l,
m, of wood or of iron, projecting from it. The sticker from the key-
tail pushes up the arm l when the key is depressed; the roller turns
on its pivots, and the arm m pushes up the tail of the backfall by
another sticker, the pallet being thus opened as before; and it is
plain that by arranging a set of rollers on a board, as in Fig. 31, we
may act with ease upon pallets to the right and left which could not
be reached in any other way.
 Fig. 33.

The roller-board as here described is placed above the key-board,

with action by stickers; but it might be as easily placed immediately
under the wind-chest, with action by trackers. In this latter case, the
key-tail will push up the end of the backfall, the other end of which
will draw down a roller arm by means of a tracker; the other arm of
the roller will be hooked to the pull-down of the pallet by means of
another tracker. If so placed, room must of course be left for the
roller-boards by fixing the wind-chest at a sufficient height above the
backfalls. Figs. 34 and 35 show, sufficiently for our purpose, but
without any pretension to exactness of detail, the two positions of
the roller-board, and it is easy to see that by reversing the backfalls,
and in Fig. 35 the roller-board also, we can act upon a back wind-
chest.
 Fig. 34.

Probably the reader has already surmised that the notches in the
bridge are by no means necessarily parallel to each other, or, in
other words, that the backfalls themselves are not parallel. The left-
hand pipes, as shown in Fig. 6, are reached by cutting the notches in
the bridge askew, so that while one end of the backfall is over the
key-tail, the other may be under the pull-down; and as this applies
to the whole set of backfalls, except those connected with the
rollers, the whole of the notches will be cut at varying angles to the
central line or axis, and the complete set of backfalls, when put in
their places, will present a fan-shaped plan. Hence it is sometimes
called a "fan-frame."

Fig. 35.

But parallel backfalls occur constantly as transmitters of motion from

the keys to the rollers, and in other positions which will be noticed.
The plantation of pipes shown in Fig. 5, for instance, and the reverse
of it, which has the larger pipes in the centre, can only be adopted
by having a roller for every pallet; and in this case the backfalls will
be parallel, whether the action be by stickers or by trackers.
Already, we hope, we have given explanations so far intelligible that
ingenious reader's might have no difficulty in devising for themselves
some one of the numerous distinct combinations which may be
made of the nine pieces or members which we began by defining.
Let us take, however, the very common arrangement of Fig. 6 as
that of our organ, and apply to it the rules already laid down.
1. The keys will be procured, of course, from a maker, unless the
cost—fifty to sixty shillings—can be saved by adapting an old set. We
ourselves are admirers of the old-fashioned claviers with black
naturals and white sharps, or sharps of bone or ivory with an ebony
line down the middle of each. We possess two specimens of double
manuals of this kind; one of them, taken from an organ by the elder
England, is extremely handsome, with a mahogany frame almost
black from age, purfled like a highly finished violin. It was presented
to the writer many years ago by the late excellent builder, Mr.
Walker. The other double set, in a plainer frame, was bought at a
sale for the sum of one shilling and sixpence! The chief objection to
the use of old claviers is that the keys, from long usage or from
original faulty construction, rattle audibly against their guide-pins.
This, however, may be quite obviated by bushing the little mortices
which receive the guide-pins with fine cloth, as modern piano keys
are bushed, or with thin leather—for instance, the kid of old gloves.
If the keys are handsome, a little patience bestowed in this way may
well reward the operator, who will find the movement of his old
manual when this is done as silent as he can wish it to be.
2. We shall assume that the front board of the wind-chest is above
the keys, and that the organ is to stand against the wall. Hence the
backfalls will be turned towards the player, as in Figs. 32 and 34. But
all that we shall say will be applicable to backfalls acting on a back
wind-chest.
The keys, whether new or old, will probably be 18 or 19 inches in
length from their front edges to the rear. Their position in the frame
should be such as to allow the front edge to project 10 inches at
least beyond the front line of the wind-chest, in order to allow room
for a book-board; hence our backfalls will be short. But their
shortness will not be an evil, since the extent of their play or
oscillation is extremely trifling. One-third of an inch will be a
sufficient descent of the pull-down; the other end of the backfall will
traverse a similar space, and it will easily be seen how small an arc
will be described by any point near the centre. Backfalls from 4 to 6
inches in length will, therefore, present no practical inconvenience.
At the same time it must be admitted that with such short backfalls
the obliquity of those to the extreme left will be somewhat
embarrassing, and we shall recommend the use of rollers for the six
pallets to the left as well as those to the right, especially since, as
we shall show, the width of the roller-board will not be materially
increased thereby.
The backfalls should be of oak or mahogany, and the bridge of the
same, or other hard wood. If the bridge is not sufficiently strong and
rigid, a disagreeable and perceptible yielding of the whole manual
will take place when the player presses down a chord. The backfalls,
if parallel, or if only at a moderate degree of obliquity, will oscillate
upon a single wire extending throughout the whole range. This wire
should be sunk in a score or channel made with a V-tool before the
notches of the bridge are cut; and it should be held firmly down by
small cross slips of oak screwed with very fine screws into the wood
of the bridge between every six or so of the backfalls. This is much
better than the common way of driving in little staples of wire, which
are apt to split the wood, and are not easily extracted in case of
repairs becoming necessary. The small holes for such screws may be
bored conveniently with a drill, revolving by means of the
Archimedean drill-stock, now sold in all tool-shops for the use of
fret-cutters.
Stickers may be quickly, easily, and neatly made by a bead plane.
Take a piece of three-eighth pine board of the requisite length and
dress it over. Then, with a three-eighth bead plane, strike a bead
along one edge, reversing the board when cut half through, and
using the plane as before. A slender wooden rod will be the result,
which will only require a little smoothing with glass-paper. To fit the
wires into the ends of the stickers, mark the centre of the rod with a
punch or other suitable pointed tool, and pierce a hole with a fine
drill revolving in the lathe. The wire may then be driven down
without fear of splitting the sticker or of entering it obliquely and
penetrating the side of it.
For trackers we prefer round rods, made precisely as above, but with
a ¼-inch bead. If tapped wires are to be inserted in the ends of the
trackers, it is well to flatten the inserted end of the wire by
hammering it, that it may not turn round in the wood when the
button is afterwards applied. A fine saw-cut is made in the end of
the tracker, the flattened part of the tapped wire inserted, and
strong red thread, well waxed, neatly tied round. The ends thus
whipped are sometimes varnished with a red composition. But this is
superfluous.
If flat trackers are unavoidable, they may be cut from a three-eighth
pine board with a gauge, armed with a cutting-point instead of the
usual scoring-pin. A smoothing plane should be specially prepared by
fixing two slips of wood to its face. These slips will prevent the plane
from cutting anything thinner than themselves. Then, the plane
being held firmly down upon the bench, an assistant, walking
backwards, draws the tracker beneath the blade until it is reduced to
the same thickness as the slips, say ⅛ inch. The tapped wires will
be inserted and the ends whipped as before.
The squares shown in Fig. 28 are cut from thin boards of oak or
mahogany. Perhaps it will be found less troublesome and laborious
to make each square of two distinct arms, halved together and glued
at the angle, or more effectually joined by tenon and mortice. Metal
squares can be bought ready made, or they may be cut with shears
from brass plate. But we should use wood ourselves.
The rollers will be of pine or deal. They are cut out and dressed up
as square or rectangular rods of the requisite length, but two of their
sides are afterwards rounded or curved. It follows from this that
when arranged side by side on their board the curved sides may be
nearly in contact. As our rollers are short, three-quarters stuff will
suffice for them, but rods inch or more square should be used when
rollers have a length exceeding 2 feet or 30 inches.
Iron roller-arms have some great advantages, and they may be
bought at a moderate price per gross, neatly bushed at the holes to
prevent a rattling of metal against metal. But we ourselves
deliberately prefer arms of wood, involving, as they do, much
greater labour. If these are used, they should be made of oak or
other hard wood, and let neatly into a little mortice in the flat side of
the roller. After they are glued in, the holes may be pierced in each
end of the roller to receive the wires or pivots on which it revolves,
and which should be stout and rounded smoothly at the external
extremity. One of the reasons why we prefer wooden arms is this,
viz. that the pivot can be driven into or through the arm, which may
thus be at the extreme end of the roller; while if iron arms are used
a margin or surplus must be left at each end of the roller to allow
room for the insertion of the pivot without interfering with the arm,
the screw of which passes through the axis of the roller. But it is
undeniable that iron arms abridge labour and save time.
The studs in which the pivots are supported are also among the
fittings which can be obtained from the shops; but we have always
made our own of oak, turning the peg or shank in the lathe. These
studs must be bushed with cloth. Drill the hole truly through the
stud, using a borer much larger than the pivot-wire. Cut a strip of
red cloth about ⅜ inch in width. Point one end of it, and draw it
through the hole in the stud. It will adapt itself to the circular hole,
and will take the form of a cloth pipe lining the hole, and effectually
preventing a rattling noise which would certainly be heard in its
absence.
The planning of a roller-board, so as to economise space as much as
possible, is one of those operations which call for forethought and
ingenuity. The forms which it may assume are numerous; we shall
indicate by one or two simple diagrams some of the combinations of
the fan-frame with rollers which occur in ordinary practice.
Fig. 36 shows the usual way of carrying the touch to the pallets on
the right and left in the common form of sound-board shown in Fig.
6. A set of backfalls is assumed as in situ under the wind-chest,
parallel to each other as regards the six pallets at each extremity,
but fan-framewise as regards the pallets from Tenor C to the top. As
the actual key-board (disregarding its frame) is about 2 feet 6 inches
in width, while the row of pull-downs on which it is to operate
extends to a length of 4 feet or more, we see that there will be an
overhanging margin or surplus of the wind-chest on each side of
some 9 or more inches, and it is probable that all the pallets affected
by rollers will be included in these overhanging portions of the chest.
 Take a piece of three-quarters or five-
eighths board, the full length of the wind-
chest, and wide enough for your twelve
rollers when placed as we shall now direct.
Dress it up, and give it two coats of
priming. At its lower edge mark the exact
centres of the key-tails from end to end of
the key-board. At its upper edge mark the
precise centres of the tails of the twelve
backfalls on which the rollers are to act,
fixing the board temporarily so that
precision may be secured. Along the two
side margins of the board (which has been
squared up true) mark rows of dots at
equal distances, say 1 inch or considerably
less, according to the scantling of your
rollers, which may be placed as close to
each other as possible without actual
contact when made to revolve through a
small arc on their pivots. You have now all
the data which you require, and may draw
pencil lines showing the exact place of
every stud on the board, the exact length of
every roller, and the exact spots on each
roller at which the arms must be inserted.
Fig. 36, in which x y is the key-board, the
rollers and stickers being represented by
lines only, shows that the longest roller, that
of CC sharp, is placed by itself at the top.
Fig. 36. This is done in order to enable us to use a
single stud, common to two rollers,
throughout the board until we come to the last, which will stand
alone. If the rollers of CC and of its sharp were thus placed in a line,
running into a single stud, there would be hardly room enough for
the latter, as the arms would be in immediate contiguity. By giving
the CC sharp roller a place by itself, we get the following pairs: CC
and DD sharp; DD and FF; EE and G; FF sharp and A; G-sharp and B
natural; A sharp will have its own two studs. Thus we obtain a
distance of fully 1¾ inch between the centres of the contiguous
arms of these pairs of rollers; and if iron arms are used, there is
room to drive in the pivot without meeting with the interruption of
the screw in the heart of the wood.
When these measurements have been made, and lines drawn in
pencil or chalk, the holes for the shanks of the studs may be bored,
and the board cleaned over and perhaps repainted. When the work
is complete, the cleanly planed rollers with their neat studs on the
dark background of the board should present a pleasing appearance.
Sometimes the roller-board lies horizontally. It is then usually called
a roller-frame. Fig. 37 is a slight sketch showing how a roller-frame
may be united with squares in certain cases. a b is a key-board,
acting by stickers on a set of squares, c, arranged in a bridge. d is
another set of squares in a longer bridge under the pull-downs of a
chest, e, let us say that of the second manual in an instrument of
considerable size, placed at the back of the case, and possibly some
feet from the player. f is a roller-frame, transmitting the touch by
trackers to the extreme pallets right and left.

Fig. 37.

If economy of height is no object, however, the roller-board will be

placed between the squares d and the chest e in the usual vertical
position, or it may be above the keys.
Sometimes space is saved by inserting the roller-arms on opposite
sides of the rollers, cutting apertures in the board through which one
arm of each pair may protrude. This plan may be regarded as a
compromise between the fan-frame and roller-board, the latter
doing duty as a set of backfalls.
This arrangement is sketched in Fig. 38.
The roller-board, g, is above the key-tails,
which act by stickers on arms brought
through openings in the board. The
opposite arms, h h, in front as usual, act on
the pull-downs by trackers. We have
adopted this plan in a very small organ, and
under the necessity of economising space
as much as possible, with complete
Fig. 38.
success, although every pallet had its roller,
the fan-frame being entirely absent.
Rollers are often made of iron, especially in the case of pedal
movements, where space is not abundant. It will easily be
understood that iron tubes of small calibre, plugged with wood at
the ends to receive the pivots, and having iron arms screwed into
drilled holes, would present no serious difficulties to the workman,
and might be arranged upon a board little more than half the size of
that required by a set of rollers in wood.
We must not close this chapter without explaining that the
plantations of pipes sketched or indicated in Figs. 8 and 9 may be
contrived without grooving by an arrangement involving no serious
difficulty or complication.
 Fig. 39.

In Fig. 39, a b c is a sound-board shown in section, divided internally

into two unequal parts by a longitudinal bar at b. The front part, b c,
nearest to the player, has 42 channels, and carries all the pipes from
Tenor C upwards. The hinder part has 12 channels only, and supplies
the bass octave. These two separate internal divisions will have their
pallets and springs as usual, and a single wind-chest may include
both sets of pallets, or two wind-chests may be united by a short
trunk, or separate trunks may be fitted to each, at the discretion and
convenience of the builder. We have now only to adapt a set of
backfalls in a fan-frame to the front pallets, and a roller-board acting
on twelve parallel backfalls to the pallets of the bass octave, and we
have a very compact and sightly arrangement of pipes without a
single groove, every pipe standing on its wind. If the back pipes
were these—Stopped Diapason, Bass, 4-feet tone, and open Flute,
wood, 4 feet; while the front pipes comprised a Dulciana, Stopped
Diapason, and Principal, or some equivalent—this little instrument
might be entirely satisfactory in all respects.
We may add that this arrangement of a double sound-board and
wind-chest has been successfully applied by the writer to an organ
with two manuals. The sound-board was about 5 feet 3 inches in
length. The front division had 84 channels, viz. 42 for each of the
two manuals from Tenor C to top F; the hinder division had 24
channels, viz. 12 for each manual bass octave. There were
practically eight stops, two of them grooved to each other in the
bass. Of this grooving, when there are two manuals, we shall have
something to say in a subsequent page. It is not quite so simple an
affair as the grooving already described.
When the key-board is in its place, the stickers adjusted, and the
keys levelled by attention to the buttons on the tapped pull-downs, a
heavy damper or "thumping-board" should be laid across the key-
board. In modern organs this is generally a solid bar of lead, about
½ inch thick, and about 1½ inch in width; it is covered with baize
on its under side, and a guide-pin, moving loosely in a little vertical
groove cut in the key-frame at each end, keeps it in position. Our
damper may be of oak or mahogany, very straight and true, and
loaded with lead, run when fluid into cavities made with a large
centre-bit. The damper, lying upon the keys, and supported by them,
helps to keep them level, and by receiving the blow or shock of each
key, as the finger leaves it, it prevents a tapping noise which might
be heard if the rising keys were stopped only by the board of the
key-frame.
The descent or fall of the keys when pressed by the fingers should
not exceed ⅓ inch.
 CHAPTER IX.
VOICING AND TUNING.
The time has now come when we may bring our little organ into
musical order, and reap some of the fruits of our toil.
If the processes described in previous chapters have been steadily
carried out, the instrument is now complete (so far as the manual
only is concerned) with the exception of the draw-stop action, which
we intentionally reserve, and the external case.
We shall insert here, therefore, a few pages on voicing, the
important and delicate operation by which the correct speech and
distinctive tone of organ-pipes is imparted to them.
Let us warn the reader at once, and with emphasis, that the process
of voicing metal pipes is so complex that a complete mastery of its
practical details is by no means uniformly attained, even after years
of steady practice under skilled guidance. A very sensitive and
educated ear, a delicate sense of touch in the handling of fine tools,
and a thorough familiarity with the tonal quality, or timbre, of the
best examples of the many varieties of pipes—these gifts are
essential to the successful voicer. Hence we cannot counsel
beginners to attempt the voicing of metal pipes, unless they are
fortunate enough to find themselves in a position to obtain lessons
from some clever operator willing to give them, or unless they can
gain permission to attend at some first-class factory, for the express
purpose of watching the pipe-makers and voicers at work.
We shall not be deterred, however, by these considerations from
describing, to the best of our ability, the business of voicing and
regulating an ordinary metal pipe, pointing out specially, as we go
on, all that may be necessary for the removal of defects and faults in
pipes already voiced by other hands. But we must acknowledge our
own obligations to the little treatise on voicing and tuning mentioned
in the preface to this work. Those who obtain and peruse this
thoroughly practical little tract will find all the information which they
can require.
Figs. 40, 41 show the well-known forms of metal organ-pipes as
seen in the Open Diapason, Principal, &c. Figs. 42, 43 give details.
The languid, Fig. 42, is a little enlarged. It will be seen that the
essential features of wooden pipes have their counterpart in those of
metal—the language, or languid, answering to the wooden block,
the conical termination to the wooden pipe-foot, the cylindrical body
to the rectangular wooden tube.
We have never made any metal pipes
ourselves, and we doubt if our readers
will do well to embark upon an
undertaking requiring special "plant"
and appliances in a separate workshop,
and calling for great dexterity and
neatness in a class of operations
familiar only to trained artisans. For the
information, however, of those who
choose to make the experiment, we
may explain that the metal sheets from
which the pipes are made are thus
produced:— "The ingredients (viz. tin
and lead in various proportions) are
melted together in a copper and then
cast into sheets, a process effected by
pouring it in a molten state into a Fig. 40. Fig. 41. Fig. 42. Fig. 43.
wooden trough, and running the trough
rapidly along a bench faced with tick.
The metal escapes from the trough through a narrow horizontal
opening at the back, leaving a layer of metal behind it as it
proceeds; and the wider the cutting is, of course the thicker will be
the sheet of metal produced. After being cast to an approximate
thickness, the metal is planed down to the precise thickness
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