644 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



bent, a better quality of tone could be produced. This discovery- 

 was made in 1848. Subsequent exj^eriments yielded remarkable 

 results, and a new instrument was practically introduced. Mean- 

 while the discovery of the method of reed structure referred to 

 has been a subject of dispute for years, the late Mr. Riley Bur- 

 dette and others claiming to have anticipated Hamlin. As neither 

 took out a patent, I can only give the version most generally ac- 

 cepted. In 1847 the two leading American firms devoted to the 

 melodeon were Prince & Co. and Carhart & Needham, both 

 located in Buffalo, N. Y. Hamlin was a clever workman and 

 tuner in the employ of Prince & Co., to whose benefit he turned 

 his discovery up to 1854, when he joined the celebrated Dr. Lowell 

 Mason and founded the eminent Boston firm yet bearing their 

 names. Other makers were not slow to copy the invention, and 

 it became a commonly accepted principle in the melodeon within 

 a few years. 



The use of these instruments became wide-spread from 1850 

 upward, many patented improvements being brought forward in 

 the interval in the acoustic and other departments. Of these, 

 Jeremiah Carhart's invention of the exhaust or suction bellows in 

 1846 was the most significant. Harmoniums, so called, were also 

 produced in this country similar to those of Alexandre, of Paris, 

 but they varied little from seraphines and melodeons except in 

 matters of detail. Carhart's bellows became generally adopted 

 subsequently, and at this period is used exclusively in American 

 organs. The old method of playing air upon the reeds yet ob- 

 tains in Europe, owing to the claim that it secures more prompt 

 speech, while the opj^osite method is employed in this country. 



Toward 1861 the first instruments resembling the modern par- 

 lor-organ appeared. The case became individualized, new tone 

 effects were added, two or more sets of reeds employed, and the 

 name of " organ " aj^plied formally. Mason & Hamlin first 

 used the term in instruments of that improved order in 1861 

 which they named "organ harmoniums," to distinguish them 

 from melodeons and harmoniums. In a few years it became " or- 

 gans." Prince & Co., Carhart & Needham, and other makers 

 contributed to the later developments in special directions, but to 

 the firm of Mason & Hamlin is conceded the claim that they were 

 the first to introduce the parlor organ in the year designated. 



The organ business grew so rapidly that a great many new 

 firms entered the field before 1870, some of them yet existing. 

 Among the older houses yet devoted to this industry are Clough & 

 Warren, of Detroit, and Estey & Co., of Brattleboro, Vt., both be- 

 ing founded about 1850. In the organs of both of these firms tech- 

 nical and acoustic ideas of a special nature are to be seen. This 

 must also be said of instruments produced by more modern 



