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No. 14 Contortionists

Sometimes it is necessary to get pipes into spaces too small to take the length,  such as in  swell boxes. Folding pipes is straightforward. You just cut the finished pipe, rotate the piece by 180 degrees and glue or solder it back to create an angle as determined by the cut. For wood pipes this is usually 45 degrees to make a right angle and you can do it as many times as you need. It does not affect the speech or tone.

The reed resonator sketched would have a total of eight joints to produce the 360 degree turn.  A useful side advantage for this treatment of reeds is the prevention of dust, bird and bat droppings getting into the important bits.

Do you remember Louis Pasteur’s experiment?

Portable organ at Swaffham Prior, with multi-folded wood bases.

Organ Notes

16ft Violones folded to fit in a cinema organ chamber