Triumphs & Trials of an Organ Builder
The Birth of the Electronic Organ
During the early 1930s, my radio projects taught me much about the emerging field of electronics.
This put me into a knowledgeable position regarding electronic oscillators.
As events in my life unfolded, this knowledge of oscillators was ultimately put to use in the development of the first commercially successful electronic organ.
As a youngster, I grew up hearing pipe organs in movie theaters and on the radio; I had always liked their sound.
Later on, while attending Muhlenberg College in Allentown, I enjoyed the mandatory chapel on Thursday mornings when Dr. Marks, the Chairman of the Music Department, played the organ.
The intricate patterns of sound created by the big, sustained chords especially fascinated me.
Of course, in those early days, I didn't have the facility to fully understand what I was hearing.
Deeper insight into sound structures in terms of their spectral components would come later.
Interestingly, the pursuit of an amateur radio operator's license indirectly introduced me to my first tone generator.
Getting the license required learning the Morse code.
I learned the code, as most people did, by practicing on a device consisting of a key-switch connected to a simple tone generator.
As I tapped out the code pattern on the key, the tone generator would beep back at me, faithfully generating an on/off pattern in synchronism with whatever patterns I chose to "key in".
That's when the idea hit me.
If I built a group of oscillators similar to those I built for my radio equipment but tuned to the various musical frequencies, I could connect these oscillators to the keys of an organ keyboard.
The whole thing flashed through my mind.
I could build an organ using electronic oscillators!
Some quick experiments with hardware convinced me that I was on to something, and I decided to find out more about organs and previous attempts at building "non-pipe" organs or organ-like instruments.
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