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A ragbag of advice, news, views, can you help, philosophy, cartoons, jokes and whatever.
Advice
Official H.M. Government Health and Safety Executive WARNING.
Electronic organ construction can seriously damage your marriage.
Persons undertaking this activity are strongly advised to take an advanced course in Successful Wife Management.
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News
Sarturday 5th April saw the first 2008 London Symposium of the Society, at St Mary's Church Hall, Eversholt Street, NW1.
Although booked from 9.30am till 6.00pm, no one was available to unlock the hall, so the meeting did not start until 10.15, and consequently ran late
throughout the day. The proceedings were recorded by Peter Blackett and a full report will appear in the EOM in due course. Meanwhile,
here are a few pictures of the day's events.
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| The hall at St. Mary's, where the eocs symposium is held |
Chairman Martin Hickman talking about Power Supplies |
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| One of the many topics covered in Keith Tomkinson's slot |
David Marquis improvising on an implementation of ProgOrgan,
provided by Roger Lucas (seen in the background). |
| Saturday 5th April was cold and damp, but otherwise not
too unkind to us London-bound pilgrims. The following day was a different story entirely - this is "Chez Webmaster"
on the following morning, and it was much the same countrywide. |
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It pays to advertise!
EOCS members may advertise their FOR SALE and WANTED items on the MEMBERS' PAGE.
(this page not available to non-members)
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Did you know?
- that while the Atlantic City Convention Hall organ, with its seven manuals and over 33000 pipes
including ten 32 foot ranks and one 64 foot, is the biggest in the world, it is not the loudest.
The Heldenorgel at Kufstein on the border of Austria, where the river Inn turns north into Germany,
was built in 1931 by Oskar Walcker to commemorate German and Austrian troops who fell in the Great War.
Enlarged in 1971 to four manuals, 46 stops and 4307 pipes, the Heroes Organ is now dedicated to the
fallen of all races in all wars. It is situated under the roof of the Burgerturm on top of a bluff
high above the town and the river, and 300 feet above the hut accommodating the console! Running at an
extraordinary seventeen to eighteen inches w.g. (wind pressure, almost ten times the normal), it can be heard
across the surrounding countryside and even on the peaks of the Kaisergebirge the other side of the river.
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Technology marches on.
When the Electronic Organ Constructors' Society was founded, organs were built using lots of valves.
Then came transistors, then ICs and now soundcards, MIDI manuals and software. It's the same in all
fields, horse-drawn trains were replaced with steam trains, then diesel, then electric and what next?
Likewise, clay tablets were replaced by quill pens, then by steel nibs, then the fountain pen, the
Biro and now the wordprocessor. Were the earliest electronic organs built by eocs members anything like this?
From "The Grand Slam" by "Revoke" a satirical account of the craze for Bridge, published in Dublin by
Hodges, Figgis, & Co., Ltd. and London by Simkin, Marshall, & Co., Ltd. The following cartoon
(books in those days commonly carried advertisements in the back pages) appeared in the Fourth Edition, 1905.
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Can you help?
Can anyone please explain to me in simple language why a clarinet acts as a stopped (quarter-wave) resonator
(overblowing the twelfth to obtain the upper register), while the other woodwind instruments overblow the octave,
like an open pipe? Answers please to Dave May.
Many thanks to Colin Pykett and Peter Blackett, who both answered my request. Colin said that (unlike the flute, which acts as an open pipe
pipe half wave resonator and hence overlbows the octave) the reeded woodwind instruments act as closed quarter wave resonators. Thus the clarinet,
with its straight bore overblows the twelfth, as one would expect. But because the oboe has a conical bore, it overblows the octave, despite
being a closed resonator. Following up the link http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/clarinetacoustics.html which Peter gave me, from there I
got to http://www.phys.unsw.edu.au/jw/woodwind.html#bores, which gives some usefully explantory pressure and displacement diagrams for open and
closed resonators, cylindrical and conical. Colin says the maths behind the conical resonator is deep stuff, Bessel Functions and all that.
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Just a thought (from the EOM) -
Middle age is when broadness of the mind and narrowness of the waist change places. (Keith Tomkinson)
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Smile please -
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Little Jimmy, at primary school, says to Dad one evening
Tommy Johnston's got a new trike; can I have one please?
Sorry, son, no chance this year.
Not even if I pray very hard?
No, but if you pray very hard, in a few months time you may have a new baby brother.
For a month Jimmy prays, and then gives up. Two months later still he arrives home
from school to find Dad there, Mum in bed and a lady in nurse's uniform.
Look Jimmy, here's a new baby brother for you.
The nurse steps forward with another baby.
And here's a baby sister. Aren't you glad you prayed?
Aren't you glad I gave up when I did?
Your favourite story here?! Send it to rag-bag@ntlworld.com
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Have your say -
Letters, items, comments welcome from all.
Just email the rag-bag editor, rag-bag@ntlworld.com
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This page last updated 11th July 2008
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