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MMD > Archives > March 1998 > 1998.03.25 > 08Prev  Next


Aeolian Residence Organ
By Ed Gaida

Sounds like you have what could be described as a "standard" Aeolian
residence organ.  We had two here in San Antonio in residences and they
both were in the basement and spoke up through "wells" into the upper
part of the house.  One had a Steinway Duo-Art connected to it to play
from the organ.

Those organs, at least the two here, could use two types of rolls.
Both had players as part of the console and separate player units that
sat in another part of the room.  The unit you describe took the
"reproducing" rolls and those had control perfs to turn things on and
off.  One of the players here had the Concertola roll changer unit, a
piece of machinery that, as one old timer put it, "Was designed to
fail!."  You can see a picture of a Concertola Unit on my home page:

    http://www.txdirect.net/~egaida/

By the way, does the organ you are restoring have cardboard wind lines?
Aeolian usually used cardboard.  Someone once told me that they used
cardboard because the fumes from soldering the galvanized wind lines
would tarnish the silver in the residence in which it was being
installed!  Just thought I would pass that along.

The rolls were perforated on very cheap paper, and since they were very
wide, tracking was always a problem.  If memory serves, the tracker bar
is segmented and each segment has its own tracking pneumatics.  Add to
that the tracking ears on the edges of the paper, and on a good day, it
could destroy a roll on rewind faster than you could shut it off.  I
know that for a fact!

As to a source of rolls, I cannot help.  Years ago in AMICA there was a
project to re-cut some of those rolls.  I do not know if it ever got
off the ground.

Good luck.

Ed Gaida


(Message sent Wed 25 Mar 1998, 13:07:36 GMT, from time zone GMT-0600.)

Key Words in Subject:  Aeolian, Organ, Residence

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