Organ matters - Organs matter!

Organ Builders => Organ Builders => Topic started by: OrganBuilderWannaBee on November 20, 2014, 07:05:14 AM

Title: Diaphone Pipes For An Organ Museum Exhibit
Post by: OrganBuilderWannaBee on November 20, 2014, 07:05:14 AM
I am interested in organ building and other forms of compressed air acoustic signaling devices (such as foghorns and ship whistles).

I'm giving thought to constructing a couple of operational "Diaphone" pipes which might be a novel display in an organ museum or a general science museum. The exhibit would work on low air pressure (3 inches H2O) supplied by a small blower and the operating mechanism would be visible inside a plexiglass chamber.

If you know of a museum or other agency that might be interested in acquiring such an exhibit, I can donate the diaphone exhibit to them for free. I can also provide some preview drawings of the exhibit.

Incidentally, the diaphone was invented by Robert Hope Jones as a "hybrid" pipe combining the operational principles of both a flue and a reed pipe. The diaphone generates sound by a reed valve, however it operates at the same frequency and the same waveform of the resonator. A few pipe organs have used them in the pedal division and the operate at 4, 8, 16, and 32 foot pitch.

However the most common application of the diaphone pipe was an heavy duty industrial version used in foghorns. There were two of these diaphone foghorns on the Golden Gate Bridge near San Francisco.