666 



KEED ORGANS. 



of Jewett & Goodman, of Cleveland, Ohio. S. 

 A. Jewett, in 1857, patented the "automatic 

 swell," and now uses it as well as Mason & 

 Hamlin, to whom he sold the right in 1862. 

 Mr. N. B. Jewett, another early maker, at 

 Worcester, Mass., in 1847, used four sets of 

 reeds with the upright exhaustion bellows, 

 and the organ form of case, and claims to 

 have made two of the most important im- 

 provements now in general use, for which he 

 , received no compensation, although, as he left 

 the business in 1861, he declines to name them. 



A. L. Swan, now of Cherry Valley, N. 

 Y., began the reed business by repairing ac- 

 cordeons, in Boston, Mass., in 1834. In 1839 

 he made a reed organ with tin tubes over 

 the reeds, and soon after, one with wooden 

 tubes. He seems to have been the first to 

 groove out the under side of the reed-block, 

 thus giving thin edges to the slot, and improv- 

 ing the tone. He is still in the business. 



Mr. 0. H. Packard, of Campello, Mass., 

 in 1839, was the first to apply regular keys 

 to the elbow melodeon. In 1840 he made 

 instruments in the organ form, and in 1841 

 made one with the bellows upright as now 

 used, with the reeds upright inside of tubes, 

 and the pallets over the ends of the tubes, get- 

 ting a strong tone with prompt response to the 

 touch. In 1846 he made the first four-reed 

 organ he had seen. Mr. Packard also mado 

 and used the divided swell, since patented by 

 Prince & Co. 



Mr. Nathan Farley, of Farley & Pearson, 

 was from the factory of Abraham Prescott, 

 Concord, 1ST. H. He began business at Worces- 

 ter, in 1846. Tubes over the reeds were then 

 in common use, usually made of thin metal. 

 The first exhaustion bellows he had seen was 

 made in Millbury, Mass. The- business is now 

 successfully prosecuted by Messrs. Taylor & 

 Farley, the latter a brother of Mr. Nathan Far- 

 ley. Mr. Taylor tuned reeds for seven-octave 

 seolian pianos in 1850. They used the manual 

 sub-bass in 1856, probably the first in use ; car- 

 ried up an octave and a half, and so arranged 

 that but one note of any given letter should 

 speak at once. 



About this time, 1846. or 1847, the whole 

 trade was revolutionized by the appearance 

 and introduction of Carhart's exhaustion bel- 

 lows. Previous to this the pressure bellows 

 had been in general use. Without stopping 

 to inquire who first invented the exhaustion 

 bellows, for it has been invented four or five 

 times twice at least in Massachusetts, once as 

 far back as 1818, as appears from -the testi- 

 mony given in the celebrated trial, Carhart, 

 Needham & Co., vs. Charles Austin, and once 

 in England, by Isaac England, of Wiltshire it 

 may be safely asserted that it was Carhart's 

 bellows in connection with his reed-board, that 

 came into general use and holds undisputed 

 sway to the present time. This idea, reaching 

 back to 1839, was perfected and patented in 

 1846, by Jeremiah Carhart, of Buffalo, N. 



Y. In 1846 he, with Mr. E. P. Needhain, 

 began the manufacture of melodeons at Buf- 

 falo, and sold the right to others to use their 

 patents. The melodeon, from its superiority 

 of tone, becoming popular, soon took the lead, 

 and the two forms of case, the portable and 

 the piano style, rendered the organ form of 

 case almost obsolete. Carhart & Needham 

 afterward sold out to George A. Prince & Co., 

 and removed to New York for the purpose of 

 making reeds and reed-boards for the trade, by 

 the very ingenious machinery invented by Mr. 

 Carhart. The two establishments, George A. 

 Prince & Co., Buffalo, N. Y., and Carhart & 

 Needham, of New York City, are well known. 

 The latter house have b'een indefatigable in 

 their experiments for the improvement of 

 the larger class of instruments, many of which 

 they have built. They were the first to carry 

 the bass down to the 32 feet 0. 



Mr. N. H. Goodman, formerly of Goodman 

 & Baldwin, New 'Haven, Conn., now of 

 Phelps & Goodman, Syracuse, N. Y., be- 

 gan the manufacture of reed instruments in 

 1849 or 1850. He had been an organ-builder. 

 One of his first instruments was a seraphine 

 with two blow pedals, and a super-octave cou- 

 pler. It is still in use. This was probably 

 the first octave coupler in a reed instrument. 

 June 28, 1853, he patented a double-bank me- 

 lodeon with one set of reeds in each bank, and a 

 manual coupler. These " organ melodeons," as 

 they were called, became at once so popular, 

 that all prominent manufacturers made them, 

 either buying the right to use his patent, or 

 making them regardless of the patent. 



With improved tone, came the desire for 

 greater resources. Larger instruments with 

 more sets of reeds were made by several man- 

 ufacturers, requiring more room, and, conse- 

 quently, a return to the square or organ form 

 of case. A few European instruments had been 

 imported. The earliest of much size, that we 

 have any record of, was a French four-reed 

 organ, brought over to Boston, in 1844, by Mr. 

 Eliphalet Baker. 



Mr. Emmons Hamlin, instructed by Mr. 

 Carhart in voicing and tuning, stayed with 

 Prince & Co. in Buffalo, when Carhart & 

 Needham came to New York City. He after- 

 ward went to Boston, Mass., and entered the 

 firm of Mason & Hamlin. Beginning with melo- 

 deons, they, in 1855, adapted the French style 

 of case, action, and manner of blowing as far 

 as possible, to the exhaustion bellows, and made 

 their harmoniums and organ harmoniums, with 

 from three sets of reeds in a single manual, up 

 to four sets in two manuals, with two addi- 

 tional sets in an independent pedal ; in all six 

 sets of reeds. Resolutely maintaining that 

 six sets were as many as could be of use in a 

 reed instrument, they have, so far as known, 

 made but a single large organ. In 1862 they 

 adopted the organ form of case for all of their 

 instruments, making single and double reed 

 harmoniums under the trade-mark "Cabinet 



