Wooden organ pipe attached to a black painted wooden stand which frames the pipe. The pipe is stopped at both ends by stops inserted into the ends of the pipe; the pipe can be slid back and forth along the stops. The sides of the pipe include eleven wooden rotating levers for opening holes at nodal points. On top of the pipe is a narrow rectangular hole for attaching a mouthpiece (now missing).
Accession Number: 2016.ph.719
Alternative Name:
Primary Materials: Wood: Pine, Mahogany
Each of the rotating levers is labelled with a stamp on the pipe above it: labels variously read: “V3”, “V5”, “V2-4”, “V4”
On one of the levers, handwritten in ink, “106”. This refers to the pipe’s entry in Koenig’s 1873 catalogue.
On a beige sticker on the black frame, handwritten in ink: “PHY 1 LLLL”. This refers to a former catalogue.
Dimensions (cm): Pipe and frame: 123cm x 20 x 6
According to David Pantalony’s “Altered Sensations” (2009), “The mouth-piece and positions can be adjusted to make different sized pipes.” (pg 251)
Condition of the object is good, though the mouthpiece is missing and there are some scratches and wearing around the edges of the wood.
Associated Instruments: Koenig Acoustical Instruments
Manufacturer: Rudolph Koenig, Paris
Date of Manufacture: ca. 1878
These pipes are part of a collection of acoustic teaching apparatus purchased from Rudolph Koenig by University of Toronto professor of physics James Loudon. This pipe was possibly part of Loudon’s initial 1878 purchase, and formed part of a comprehensive selection of organ pipes “representing a… demonstration of every possible organ pipe effect.” (Pantalony, Altered Sensations. New York: Springer, 2009. Pg 119-122). These were likely used by students for investigations of acoustical properties at the university’s physics department teaching laboratory.
As listed on p.251 of “Altered Sensations” by David Pantalony (New York: Springer, 2009): “A long pipe, stopped at both ends, giving the sounds 1, 3 ,5 when the mouth-piece is fixed and the sounds 1, 2 ,3 ,4 when moveable.”
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