REED INSTRUMENTS. 



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The melodeons made on this plan by Carhart, 



!.v lY'ince it Co., w. 

 -mall, having only tour octaves of reeds, 

 and were uniform in si/.n and in th.'ir extreme 

 plainness of htvlc. Tjie meiodeon of that day 

 ily un ugly, ublong box, with a dependent 

 Idle like that of the old- 

 fashioned small spinning-wheel, and four very 

 small, rickety I -L-. After two or three years, 

 increased in size and extended to 

 , !.:df and live octaves, with two sets 

 llio form of the hellows was also 

 changed, the exhauster being placed on the 

 upper Mde of the reed-hoard instead of under- 

 neath the bellows. The result of this change 

 I decided improvement in the means for 

 operating the bellows. 



v was still, however, a difficulty in re- 

 gard t. the tones of the instrument. They 

 . and, though improved by curv- 

 ing the reeds, had still too much of the harsh 

 and metallic sound. In 1849 Mr. Emmons 

 Ilamlin, now of the firm of Mason & Hamlin, 

 but then with Prince & Co., made and patented 

 the discovery that, by slightly twi&ting each 

 already curved reed, or as it is now technically 

 called, "voicing" the reed, this harshness of 

 tone could be entirely obviated. The cut shows 

 the appearance of the reed after " voicing." 



This great improvement increased the popu- 

 larity of the instrument, and was adopted at 

 once by all the best manufacturers. Another 

 difficulty, however, in the use of the melodeon 

 for any tiling except church music, or the sim- 

 Iier tunes of secular music, was its want of 

 . It was believed impossible, and- prob- 

 ably was so, without material changes in its 

 mode of construction, to extend it much beyond 

 four and a half or five octaves, and two sets of 

 . A few instruments were manufactured 

 having two manuals, or key-boards, but they 

 were not popular. In 1855, Messrs. Mason & 

 Ilamlin, who had commenced the manufacture 

 of mclodeons the previous year, completed their 

 first " organ harmonium" introducing for the 

 first time four sets of reeds, and having two 

 manuals of keys. The reeds extended from 

 CCG in the "bourdon " to 0"'" in Alt, or seven 

 octaves. To this instrument were applied two 

 blow-pedals, which gave to the performer a 

 better control of it, and enabled him to produce 

 cticets not hitherto attained by any reed instru- 

 ment in this country. Its fine, sonorous tones, 

 and the increased power and variety of its 

 stops, brought it at once into popular favor, 

 and removed much of the prejudice hitherto 

 entertained against reed instruments, 

 i In 18G1, after numerous experiments and 

 modifications, the same firm offered to the pub- 

 lic their "school harmonium" an instrument of 

 great simplicity of construction, but retaining 

 all the good features of the organ harmonium. 



The same year they adopted the vertical, in the 

 place of the horizontal position of the bellows, 

 which gave the opportunity for a more elegant 

 and tasteful form to the instrument, which 

 thenceforward became as elegant an addition 

 to the furniture of the parlor as it had 

 been previously ungraceful and objection- 

 able. The simpler construction, the v- 

 bellows, and the improved form, were at 

 once applied to the organ harmonium, and 

 greatly improved its appearance and power. 

 To this remodelled instrument, the name of 

 cabinet organ was given in 1862. Many of 

 those improvements have since been adopted 

 by other manufacturers, who have taken the 

 name of organ with some other prefix, as Cot- 

 tage, Gem, or Monitor, and have been enabled 

 by the use of these improvements to manufac- 

 ture melodeons of much better quality than 

 they could make six or eight years since ; but 

 Messrs. Mason & Hamlin, who, by their enter- 

 prise, have become much the largest manufac- 

 turers of reed instruments in the United States, 

 Lave been constantly adding other improve- 

 ments, most of which are peculiar to their in- 

 struments. Of these the most important are 

 the double-bellows, which greatly increases the 

 power of the instrument, the improved self- 

 <"('l noting reed-valves, the automatic li.lloicg 

 swell, a simple affair, but one of the mo^t val- 

 uable additions made to the instrument; it is a 

 simple hook attached to the bellows in such a 

 way as to graduate the opening or closing of 

 the swell automatically. Its action will be 

 seen in the cuts. 



Other improvements, introduced by them, are 

 the sounding and tube boards, which increase 



the resonance of the tones of the organ : 



