664 



EAPHALL, MORRIS J. 



REED ORGANS. 



RECAPITULATION. 



RAPHALL, Rev. HOKKIS JACOB, Ph. D., a 

 Jewish rabbi (or preacher) and author, born in 

 Stockholm, Sweden, in September, 1798; died 

 in New York City, June 23, 1868. His father, 

 a wealthy merchant, destined him for the Jew- 

 ish ministry, and gave him every advantage of 

 intellectual training. He was sent when a mere 

 child to the Jewish College in Copenhagen, 

 and there, at the age of thirteen, received the 

 Hebrew degree of Chdbir or Socius, analogous 

 to the "Fellowship" of the English universi- 

 ties. The next year he went to England, where 

 he spent some years, perfecting himself in the 

 English language and literature. In his twen- 

 tieth year he visited the Continent, and, after 

 spending two years in travelling in France, 

 Switzerland, Italy, and Germany, took up his 

 residence early in 1821 at Giessen, and spent 

 four years at the university there, but took 

 no degree. In 1825 he returned to England, 

 married, and made himself a home. He did 

 not commence his public life, however, till 

 his thirty-fourth year, when he delivered a 

 course of lectures on the biblical poetry of 

 the Hebrews. In 1834 he commenced the 

 publication of the Hebrew JReview, the first 

 Jewish periodical published in England, but 

 was compelled by impaired health to relinquish 

 it after seventy-eight weekly numbers had ap- 

 peared. Between 1834 and 1839 he translated 

 into English several of the works of Maimoni- 

 des, the Sephir Uclcarim, or "Book of Prin- 

 ciples " of Rabbi Joseph Albo, and Tain 

 Lebanon, a work on Ethics, by Rabbi Naphtali 

 H. Wesseley, and published a series of essays 

 on the Jewish festivals, entitled " Festivals of 

 the Lord." In 1840 he was secretary to Dr. 

 Solomon Hirschel, Chief Rabbi of England, 

 during the persecution of the Jews at Damas- 

 cus, and during that year again visited Ger- 

 many. On his return, he published jointly with 

 Rev. D. A. de Sola, of London, a translation 

 'of eighteen treatises of the " Mishna," and com- 

 menced a translation of the Hebrew Scriptures 

 with copious notes, which, however, proceeded 

 no farther than the end of Genesis. In 1841 

 he was appointed Rabbi preacher at the syn- 

 agogue, Birmingham, England, and by his 

 zealous efforts in behalf of the education of 

 Hebrew children, his earnest advocacy of 

 measures for relieving the civil disabilities of 

 his people, his eloquent defence of Judaism in 

 several controversies, and his vigorous efforts 

 in promoting education and benevolence in the 

 city, he won for himself high honors. In 1849 

 he left England for the United States, and at 

 his departure from Birmingham a purse of 100 

 sovereigns was presented to him by the mayor 



and principal inhabitants of the city, in ac- 

 knowledgment of his eminent services in the 

 cause of education and philanthropy. The 

 University of Giessen had conferred on him 

 the degrees of A. M. and Ph. D. after his 

 publication of the " Mishna." On his arrival 

 in New York he accepted the call of the First 

 Anglo-German Hebrew Congregation in the 

 city, then known as the Great Synagogue, but 

 since as the Congregation Bnai Jeshurun, to 

 serve them as Rabbi preacher, and, though of 

 late years in infirm health, retained that posi- 

 tion till his death. During his residence in 

 New York he published, "Devotional Exercises 

 for the Daughters of Israel" (1852); "Post- 

 Biblical History of the Jews" 2 vols. (1856); 

 "The Path to Immortality" (1859); "The 

 Bible View of Slavery " (1861). He had also 

 made considerable progress in his translation 

 of the Hebrew Scriptures, with notes. His 

 profound scholarship, and wide and generous 

 culture, as well as his great ability as a writer, 

 have made his loss a serious one, not only to 

 his countrymen, but to the cause of learning 

 generally. 



REED ORGANS. The manufacture and sale 

 of reed instruments rapidly grows in impor- 

 tance, in the amount of capital invested, the 

 number of men employed, and in its influence 

 upon the community, furnishing, as it does, 

 thousands of good musical instruments at 

 moderate prices. 



The little tongue of metal, known as the 

 reed, gives employment to thousands of work- 

 men, and millions of capital, making a branch 

 of industry second only, among musical instru- 

 ments, to the manufacture of the piano-forte. 



Placed over a slot, slightly smaller than it- 

 self, cut in the side of a tube or pipe, and 

 striking against the tube as it vibrates, it is the 

 Seating reed. Fastened to a thicker and larger 

 piece of metal, through which a slot, slightly 

 larger than the tongue, has been cut, and 

 vibrating over and into the slot, it is the free 

 reed. 



Reeds and pipes, unequally affected in pitch 

 by changes of temperature, do not stay well in 

 tune together. The beating reed, more easily, 

 tuned than its relative, is commonly used in 

 the pipe organ. The trumpet stop is a well- 

 known example. The free reed, though oc- 

 casionally found in pipe organs as a solo 

 stop, is almost entirely confined to instruments 

 of the reed-organ family. The small size of 

 the free reed, a tongue of inetal an inch wide 

 and a few inches long, giving a 16 -feet or even 

 a 32-feet tone, renders it admirably adapted 

 for use where economy of cost or space is 



