The Spencer Turbine Company used to keep complete records of every
turbine they manufactured.  In the early 70's, I disassembled a theatre
organ that was installed in a church in Trenton, NJ.  I wrote to the
Spencer Company giving them the serial number found on the brass
plaque.  I was hoping to identify the little Style E Wurlitzer organ
and its original installation.  All of the numbers could not be found
on it, so I couldn't identify it through the Wurlitzer lists.

Spencer wrote back, (I still have the letter and plaque) and said it
had been sold to the Kimball Organ Co. and used in a theatre in
Burlington, NJ.  Dead end again!  I never found out where it (the
organ) came from.

The way I understood these installations, was that during the
depression when Wurlitzer was forced to repossess organs, they were
commonly sold to smaller organ people who rebuilt them for use in
church installations.

Getting back to Spencer, They also told me that the Orgoblo was
refitted with different turbines and even had the dates documented!
When Spencer moved, most all of the records were tossed out.  They said
there were rooms full.  What a shame!  Someone did save some of the
lists and all that they could store themselves but most all of these
historical records are gone forever.  This was also stated in Junchen's
book of Theatre Organs.  At any rate, it was great to have a little
history of my own to keep and been there-done that!

Julian Burke