Triumphs & Trials of an Organ Builder
The Birth of the Electronic Organ (continued)
I found out that there were two electromechanical, organ-like instruments in existence at the time.
One was an experimental device I'd heard on the radio which was constructed and played by a former military man, Captain Ranger.
He referred to the instrument he played as the "Rangertone".
I found out that its method of tone generation was based on a complex arrangement of rotating, electromechanical disks.
The other was the Hammond Organ, which was just beginning to appear on the market and rapidly gaining a following, especially in the field of popular music.
It was also based on a variation of the rotating disk concept.
At that time, finding and hearing a Hammond presented a bit of a challenge because only three or four such organs existed in all of New York City in 1936.
However, I finally located one in a tavern in Queens.
In my judgment, the instrument had a very ear-tickling sound, but my ears were also telling me that the sound it made was quite different from the sound of a pipe organ.
I continued to work on my own oscillator-based idea not knowing exactly where it would end; my first attempts were most crude.
Eventually my apparatus functioned well enough for me to risk the scrutiny of some local organists.
Luckily, their remarks were quite encouraging.
They told me that my instrument "suggested" the sound of a pipe organ.
I remember, around that same time, talking to a boyhood friend, Bill Lenahan, who had become a church organist.
He took me to his church where I had my first chance to hear a pipe organ at close range.
Clearly, my rudimentary instrument sounded more like that pipe organ than a Hammond.
I pressed on encouraged.
My immediate goal became clear.
I was going to design and build a practical, electronic organ based on vacuum tube oscillators which would closely emulate the magnificent sound of the pipe organ.
I was driven mainly by my technical curiosity; however, admittedly, fantasies of someday marketing an electronic organ began fluttering through my mind at this point.
I learned that this idea had been approached by others but never marketed because of various technical flaws.
As I persevered, the main problem I encountered with the oscillator-based organ was tuning drift.
Pipe organs have a similar problem, but my early oscillator designs were so drift prone that the instrument would not stay in tune long enough to be practical.
Finally, after considerable effort, I discovered the solution to the tuning problem. A major breakthrough.
I applied for a patent on my "stable oscillator" on October 27, 1937.
The patent was granted on December 13, 1938.
The brand-new, electronic organ technology was in my hands.
I now was faced with what to do with it.
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