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Aeolian Orchestrelle Organ Restoration
By Richard Vance

I have posted three more chapters in the saga of rebuilding my Aeolian
Orchestrelle, at http://mmd.foxtail.com/Tech/AeoW/index.html

Even people who are not following this saga might find Chapter 4.4
interesting.  In it I followed D. L. Bullock and Craig Brougher's very
good advice, and tested bellows cloth from various sources, with
hilarious results (or tragic, depending on your point of view).

Also, Chapter 4.6 deals with the odd configuration that Aeolian used
for pressure feeder bellows.  Several months ago, Johan Liljencrants
posed the question in the MMD Pipes Forum; to paraphrase: "Can one make
a pressure bellows out of one piece of fabric, using some special
geometry to keep the folds properly aligned?"

I said no; some considerable discussion ensued, and I ended up writing
a piece giving the traditional methods of making gusseted bellows with
leather corners.  http://mmd.foxtail.com/Tech/vanceBellows2.html

But I was _wrong!_  The Aeolian Company, with its usual combination
of stinginess and cleverness, figured out a way to do that very thing.
A pressure bellows made from ordinary bellows cloth only, with no
sheepskin corner pieces.  Weirdest thing you ever saw, but it works.

Richard Vance

 [ See  http://mmd.foxtail.com/Tech/AeoW/index.html
 [ I'll place the new chapters there tomorrow.  -- Robbie



(Message sent Sun, 20 Aug 2000 20:47:26 -0400 , from time zone -0400.)

Key Words in Subject:  Aeolian, Orchestrelle, Organ, Restoration

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