20-note Street Organ enclosed in glass

This is a homemade 20-note street organ. This organ is completely enclosed with 1/4" plexiglass so all the mechanical movements can be observed while it is playing. There is a rack of whistles mounted on the front of the organ. 18 of the whistles are mounted on the front. The remaining two whistles are the largest bass whistles and are mounted on the back. In order to get the whistles to fit on the back, they are bent into a "J" or "L" form. Holes were cut into the front panel to form windows for the tone to exit out the front. There are two pneumantic air pumps on the bottom which supply the air. Both pumps feed into a common air reservoir. Air pressure is maintained at about 5 Water Column Inches. A relief valve is mounted on top of the reservoir to control the air pressure. Two large clear vinly tubes are used to transfer the air from the reservoir to the spool box. In the spool box, the only escape for the air is through a "tracker bar" which has 20 holes. Each hole is connected with clear plastic tubing directly to a specific whistle. As the paper is pulled over the tracker bar, air is allowed to escape through the hole in the paper down through the tracker bar to the appropriate whistle.
Movement is provided with a hand driven crankshaft on the tail-end of the spool box The crankshaft provides motion for the take-up spool and the two connecting rods for the pump. An idler wheel is used to provide a clutch to release the take-up spool during the paper rewind. Music is supplied on a paper roll which has holes punched in 20 different rows corresponding to the song selection.
The cart is made from standard 2 x 2 and uses 12" wheels. The cart tray is simply a board with a decorative rim around it. The tray just sits on top of the 2 x 2 frame.The cart skirt was hand made and allows sufficient storage for all the music rolls, hat, etc.

I have taken about 250 photos during construction and have drawn ~100blueprints of all the parts. I now have a complete instruction manual available on Amazon.com. The title is "20-NOTE STREET ORGAN". It is available only in ebook form.

If you would like to build one of these organs or have questions you can contact me at:

Calliopeguy@hotmail.com

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Street organ
• wood working
• musical instruments
• hurdy gurdy
• calliope
• busker organ

[GermanStreetOrgan]

If I were you, I would remove the glass at the front of the organ.

[calliopeguy]

@GermanStreetOrgan The glass just helps keep foreign objects away from the whistle openings.

[calliopeguy]

The name of the song is "The Happy Wanderer"

[calliopeguy]

There are many tunes available from vendors in the U.K., all available on paper tape.

[calliopeguy]

I have to take the blame for poor preparation for the video. It was a last minute decsion to be able to enter it into a contest.

[deviatus]

If this guy ever learns robotics, we are all screwed.

[arburo1]

@Musicanic It does work. Keep the stroke the same and build another bellows below the existing one, closed when the one above is open. You then have a moveable board between two fixed boards, at an angle. The two cranks then need to be at 90 degrees. Look in the books and see how to make feeders. The Fairground Organ by Cockayne is recommended for beginners.

[Musicanic]

@arburo1 Does that really work !? Surely, within the same space, each half of the double feeder will pass half the volume of a single feeder, so you don't actually get a greater volume of air. The only thing it will do, if you get the crank timing right, is to even out the air supply a little, which is only worthwhile if you have a small reservoir which may not handle the pulses from two full feeders.

Musicanic

[arburo1]

You really ought to replace the two feeders with two double acting ones, ie, each feeder provides air on both the up and down stroke. That way you'll get four feed strokes per rev and you'll be able to halve your turning speed ( obviously change the roll drive pulleys at the same time! ). The majority of small street organs use double acting feeders and they take up hardly any more space.

[petermackett37]

They are not whistles,they are stopped flute pipes,organs have pipes and Calliopes have whistles!

[GermanStreetOrgan]

You should make a CD.

[GermanStreetOrgan]

See my videos of this song. Arranged by melvyn wright.

[webdext]

I know it would take away a lot of the charm, but it'd be fun to adapt this to use rc servos /w arduino to control the air valves... then you could play MIDI with this thing!