EEED ORGANS. 



CG5 



desired. A European reed instrument differs 

 much from an American, each having been 

 made quite independently of the other. In the 

 European, the reed-block is nearly a quarter 

 of an inch thick, with the sides of the slot 

 straight. This block, pierced at each end, is 

 firmly screwed down upon hard wood. The 

 reed is tuned by scraping the tongue, and the 

 quality of tone modified principally by the 

 position of the reed, and by differences of 

 scale or size of the reeds in the different 

 registers. The bellows is a pressure one, in- 

 variably, while the effects produced, especially 

 in French and German instruments, are, and 

 are intended to be, orchestral. On the con- 

 trary, in the American reed organ, the reed- 

 block is about one sixteenth of an inch 

 thick, and has a wide groove burred out on the 

 under side, leaving thin edges to the slot. The 

 reed is held in its place by sliding the block 

 into grooves, cut in the sides of a cell made by 

 boring into the edge of a reed-board made of 

 soft wood. The reeds, easily drawn out by a 

 small hook, are voiced by bending or twisting 

 them more or less, and tuned by filing. The 

 American reed organ invariably has an exhaus- 

 tion bellows, drawing the air through the 

 reeds, and gives a softer, more pipe-like quality 

 of tone than its European relative. Indeed, the 

 differences between the two are so great, that 

 there are few points of resemblance, an Ameri- 

 can instrument being thought defective when 

 viewed from a European stand-point, and vice 

 versa. No European instruments are now sold 

 in the American market. 



The origin of the free reed is unknown. 

 The Chinese have certainly long used it. They 

 have an instrument with thirteen reeds. Each 

 reed is formed of a thin metal plate by cutting 

 around the tongue, excepting at the heel. This 

 plate is 'then fastened to the side of a small 

 tube of hard wood, which is inserted in the 

 end of a larger, longer tube of bamboo, having 

 a circular transverse hole near the lower and 

 a longitudinal slot near the upper end. These 

 tubes are arranged in a circular group, with the 

 reeds inserted through holes into a wind-chest, 

 that is supplied with wind by a mouth-piece 

 attached to its side. A flat ring of horn holds 

 the tubes firmly in place, and the whole makes 

 an instrument about three and a^half inches in 

 diameter, and fifteen inches in length. 



Although a few reed instruments may have 

 been made at an earlier date in this country, 

 it is believed that the first person engaged in 

 their manufacture, as a business, was Mr. 

 James A. Bazin, of Canton, Mass. As stated 

 by himself, he made a revolving instrument, 

 shaped like a pocket-inkstand, with nine reeds, 

 in 1822. 



Soon after, he made another, with a sliding 

 mouth -piece, called the harmonica. And, in 

 1824, a revolving reed trumpet, that could be 

 played in any key. It was as loud as a bugle, 

 and he played it in the village choir for years. 

 Between this time and 1832 he made several 



reed organs, with double alternating bellowH, 

 and foot-treadles like those in present use. 

 The accordeon seems to have been introduced 

 about 1830. Soon after, in 1832, Mr. Bazin 

 invented the instrument with a tilting bellows, 

 first called melodium,, afterward mclodeon, or 

 elbow melodeon. Mr. Bazin made larger in- 

 struments, some with sliding key-boards for 

 the easy transposition of music. 



This appearance of the accordeon and the 

 elbow melodeon marks an epoch in reed in- 

 struments and largely stimulated invention 

 and production. Abraham Prescott, of Con- 

 cord, N. H., who had been engaged for some 

 years in the manufacture of stringed instru- 

 ments, violoncellos, and double-basses, pur- 

 chased one of Bazin's elbow melodeons, and 

 began the manufacture of them, and of larger 

 instruments, about 1832 or 1833. This house, 

 under the title of Prescott Brothers, is now 

 the oldest in the country engaged in the busi- 

 ness. Charles Austin, working for Mr. Pres- 

 cott in 1833, made the first " seraphine " he 

 ever saw, and also made the first melodeon in 

 its present portable form with folding legs. 

 He has from that time been constantly engaged 

 in making reed instruments, or in making reeds 

 for the trade. 



M. O. Nicholls, formerly of Boston, Mass., 

 was early in the business. Having seen an ac- 

 cordeon, he made the first reed organs he ever 

 saw, and applied that name to them. He also 

 called them the " Ernmoen Organs M from the 

 initials, M. O. N., of his own name. He in- 

 vented the box swell over the reeds in 1839, 

 used tubes over them in 1840 ; curved his reeds 

 in 1842 ; made the first sub-bass reeds he ever 

 saw, and applied foot-pedals in 1844. In 1860 

 he made and advertised the bellows swell, since 

 called the " automatic swell." He sold his 

 business in Boston, and removed to Syracuse, 

 N. Y., where he again used his bellows swell, 

 finally abandoning it for the " knee-swell." He 

 made instruments containing from one to nine 

 or ten sets of reeds. He no longer manufac- 

 tures organs. 



Peter J. Jewett, a native of Granby, Conn., 

 in 1831 or 1832, saw at Professor Silliman's, 

 in New Haven, a small reed instrument that 

 he had brought from Europe. Not allowed 

 to examine its interior, he was told that 

 the tones were produced by free reeds. Re- 

 turning to Granby, he experimented upon 

 the free reed, and made a five-octave instru- 

 ment in 1832 or 1833, that he called an " Eolo- 

 phone." This, he believed, was the first five- 

 octave reed instrument made in the United 

 States. It was in the form of the present reed 

 or cabinet organ. Instruments made by Jewett 

 and Hilly er in 1833 are still in use. The firm 

 was dissolved in 1837, but the business was 

 continued by Mr. Jewett until his death in 

 1847, and afterward by his son, S. A. Jewett, 

 who has has been in the business ever since 

 1845, having worked for M. 0. Nicholls, and for 

 Prince & Co., and now being one of the firm 



