Electro-Mechanical Chests

Electro-Mechanical Chests | Electric Slider Chests

Introduction

Electro-Mechanical chests use an electro-magnet to control access of organ wind to the pipes. Typically there are two ways in which this mechanism is applied:

• Chests in which the magnets directly control wind access to individual pipes. The designation "electro-mechanical" usually applies to this type of windchest.
• Chests in which a smaller number of magnets admits wind to a slider mechanism, usually called "electric slider" chests.

Electro-Mechanical Chests

The strictly electro-mechanical chest, in which the access of organ wind to each pipe is controlled by an individual magnet, is usually associated in the United States with the Direct Electric^tm Action patented by the Wicks Organ Company of Highland, Illinois. ⁵⁷ In the diagram to the left, an animated drawing shows how their action works. The black rectangles are a portion of a topboard, and the blue area below them represents organ wind. The action consists of a hinged armature (red) with a pallet (magenta) attached, and a magnet (green) held in place by a metal frame. As the magnet receives the current (represented by a brighter shade of green), it pulls the armature down, and the pallet is pulled away from the opening in the topboard. Wind (represented by the blue arrow) can then exit the chest through the hole that leads to a pipe. When current is interrupted to the magnet, it releases the armature, and the pallet closes again. ⁶⁰

The photograph to the left shows a magnet of the type illustrated in the diagram above. A film of this magnet in motion is available. In the film, there is no audio component, because in order to open the chest and film the magnet in motion, wind pressure had to be released.

Some browsers will show a set of controls to begin the film. Others will require a click on the image to start the film. With some browsers, it will be necessary to use the "back" button to return to this page after viewing the film.

Windchests that use this type of electro-mechanical action are built as single chambers which contain the wind, without channels, chambers, or any other internal partitions. Windchests of this type are referred to in a general sense as "universal" chests, because there is only one space under pressure and its wind is available to all pipes on the chest - - "universally."

Because there is no further action required, other than the magnets, pipes can be placed at any point on the surface of the chest. The actual shape of the chest, and the pipe placement can be designed to take advantage of the available space, even when that space does not have a shape that would permit the installation of other types of chests. In the photograph to the right, a wooden Harmonic Flute is placed on a small offset chest perched on a wall over a somewhat freely arranged vox humana, making the best possible usage of a limited amount of space. ¹⁰⁹

Electric Slider Chests

The use of electro-magnets to control directly the access of wind to pipes is also found in a modification of the slider and pallet chest. In chests of this type, the pallet is controlled by an electro-magnet rather than by a mechanical tracker, as in the traditional form of the chest. Chests of this type are fitted with a slider mechanism that may also be controlled by some form of electric action, either a magnet in the form of a solenoid or an electric motor.

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