In MMD 000126 D. L. Bullock wrote:

> My organ teacher, Joyce Jones, played a concert in Notre Dame
> Cathedral before the latest organ rebuild and reported that when you
> pressed the key you waited about 11 seconds before you heard sound.

Unfortunately, sound (i.e., the air pressure fronts of the sound
waves) doesn't always travel as fast as 340 m/s [1115 feet per
second].  In the air hoses of railroad brakes, the maximum speed (with
all sorts of tricks) is around 250m/s, and this is for a pressure
difference of about 3 bar!  The standard "speed of sound" there is more
in the range of 100 m/s.

Consider what happens in a train of 2 km length -- not uncommon in the
U.S. -- when the guy in front starts braking.  The often too-tiny pipes
of the pneumatic action of romantic organs probably have the same
effect.

But even the organ where I took lessons in my young days had a very
noticeable delay, although it had an electric action.  With some
registers, when playing a scale a little quicker, my fingers were
ahead at least a full octave and sometimes almost two octaves.  It was
a nightmare!  :-)

The only way I could play was by simply not listening to the sound --
which is, of course, not really what I should've done ...

Harald M. Mueller
Grafing, Germany