Triumphs & Trials of an Organ Builder
Getting to First Base
I had managed to make contact with the ball, so to speak, by devising and patenting a stable oscillator, enabling me to build experimental models of the electronic organ.
In actual ball playing, the base running occurs in a matter of seconds.
However, in the game of business, running the bases can take months, even years.
This is where I "was" back in the late 1930s in Allentown; trying to find and get to first base after my initial success.
After my parents moved to Allentown, in 1937, I took over their basement where I set up a workshop to work on my organ venture.
I was filled with excitement and all kinds of ideas.
Periodically, I made trips to the Masonic Temple in Allentown to rent time on their pipe organ.
As I recall, they charged a rather modest fee.
This service was set up in order for organists to be able to get their hands on an organ for practice.
It was ideal for my purposes, also.
I was able to learn much about how organs are supposed to work and how they are supposed to sound through this hands-on experience.
Because of the great complexity of most organs, my projects came to require more work than I could do by myself in a reasonable time.
I was able to get help from George Ehrig, a fellow ham radio enthusiast from Allentown.
At that time, getting help was relatively easy because the country was still in the grip of the Depression, and people were quite happy to help out for whatever I could afford to pay them.
Actually, the Depression influenced my progress in several ways.
As I just mentioned, I needed assistance to capitalize on my ideas; luckily for me, good people were available.
I also needed parts and materials.
I knew that some of the items I needed were probably lying unused somewhere because of the economic conditions.
With this in mind, I became rather adept at sniffing out sources of supply.
For example, I remember obtaining an unfinished organ console from a pipe organ builder in New Jersey.
He was happy to unload it for a few dollars; I was happy to latch on to it to keep the venture rolling.
On the electronics end, I needed large, air-core coils for the oscillators.
Today, it could take months to fulfill an order for these special coils.
There would have to be specifications written, quotations sought, purchase orders issued, lead times to consider, invoices to process, etc.
However, back in the late 1930s, things were different.
To get my coils, I drove to New York City to a shop where these large coils could be wound.
The owners, two brothers, had few orders.
Therefore, on the drive to New York I merely made some intelligent guesses as to the number of turns and, when I got to the shop, simply described what I wanted.
They wound my coils as I waited and took what I was able to pay after which I left for Allentown with the coils in hand.
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