Dealing with the heat!
It's that time of year again, the organs get worked their hardest, with long days playing in the sun, and action and tuning goes a bit off! So anyone got any tips on keeping the organ playing smoothly? I brought a humidifier with produces steam a bit like a boiling kettle, and tried that beside the blower at an event yesterday, but I am not sure if it made the situation a bit worse! Anyone else had success with a humidifier or anything else?

My own personal experience is NOT to feed water or steam into an organ blower. You may well do more harm than good.Remember that already this Summer the air temperature is well into the top 80s and by the time you have compressed it in the blower the temperature will be nearer the 100. It will not sound as sweet as if the air was cooler but adding water does not cool the air. regards, Bob

Don't forget that during the last few days the general humidity has been high, resulting in us all feeling not only hot but sticky too, even at night. This means that there is already too much water in the air, so more will only do harm. This includes softening the glue! Regards, John

That's the reason I always have a humidity sensor with me John, to tell exactly when damage from dry air might occur. Being noticably humid at the moment water is the last thing to be adding to the air (good point about the glue too), but on the dry hot days it can help. "De Toren" has a fixed dial humidity indicator built in the brass-cased ship's thermometer above the right-hand book storage cupboard (under a matching clock and barometer) so it's very easy to work out the weather conditions, as well as create something interesting for the public to look at. I'll be doing something similar inside the Chiappa's lorry too. All the best, Nick

Hi, When my uncle (Steve Postlethwaite) was a custodian of the A & R Marenghi they used to put dampened rags down on the floor of the trailer to try and help the organ cope with 'dry' heat. Also as a church organist heat of the summer effects us too even indoors! although it isnt quite as bad. Last summer I had trouble with sticking pipes and the organ drying out I have been told that putting a bucket of water carefully placed inside the organ is a good remedy during hot, dry weather. Some organs seem to cope well with heat and others don't. Ian P.

It appears, from my own researches, that the thing that makes organ pipes speak badly is hot air. Hence the attempts in church buildings to keep everything cool. Hot air appears to be much less elastic than cold air and the necessary vibrating columns in the pipes and around the labia are stifled, hence the poor sound. The use of water, and water soaked cloths etc is something of a red herring. The improvement in playing is not so much due to the presence of moisture; it is due to the effect of the Latent Heat of Vaporisation effect which cools the air. As water evaporates, changing state from liquid to gas, it draws 100 calories per gram of water from the surrounding air, thus cooling it. This is the effect you get when you use a damp cloth to cool an object standing in the sun. A similar effect is used in refrigeration systems and this gives rise to the best idea yet. A refrigeration unit from an old fridge or a dehumidifier could be placed in front of the air inlet. Moisture would be condensed on the cold element and cold, dry air would go into the organ. Certainly the use of steam; hot, moist air, is the opposite of this and is certain to do the organ no good at all. Organically yours Bob Essex

Hi John, Thanks for the advice, I did have my doubts about it and I'll pass it on to the other organist. So some sort of coolent on the blower inlet would help? The heat has certainly given the organ a tough time at the moment, plus the fact that the swell shutters are jammed so the swell pipes are out of tune from the main exposed pipes. I try to explain to the verger why the organ is like it, but I still get odd stares and sighs of relief from the congregation after the last verse of a hymn! Ian P.

Hi there Try an ultrasonic humidifier. This produces a mist of cold water droplets. They generally have a humidity sensor on them as well, so you can set this to 50-60% humidity, and it will only switch on when the humidity drops below this. On old fair organs with blower, and relief valve, a humidifier will help slightly to keep the old wood closed up. When you consider that the blower can be moving about 200 cubic feet of air every minute, the output from a small humidifier will not do any harm. The other problem with very dry air is the fact that the pallet leather dries out, and every pallet will leak air slightly. This can be exacerbated by having the puff rail too close to the chest. When the pouch leather dries out, it tightens up, thus tending to push down the push rods slightly. All these slight leaks individually are not much, but added together, will drop the pressure of the organ, and will cause both the pipes and the action to be starved of wind. Incidentally Bob, I do not think you are quite correct with the fact that it is coldness and not dampness that alters the speech of the pipes. An organ can sound better in moist air than dry air, even though the temperature is the same. Sound carries better in moist air as well. A classic example of this is where I live. In summer when the air is dry, sound does not carry across the valley very well in the evening. However, in autumn when the air is more damp and the temperature is still fairly high, the sound echoes around the valley. Cheers Peter Griffiths