Amateur Photographer Magazine

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have you ever 'felt' a 64 foot gravissima being played?

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Where is there one? (A real one, not an electronic simulation). ISTR York Minster has one, but they daren't use it for fear of shaking the building down; IDSTR any others in the UK. So, if you know of an operational set of 64 foot organ pipes, please tell us where.

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Oh dear, I fear you have started me on something now.

AFAIK, there are only two 'real' 64 foot organ pipes in the world, one of which is at the Convention Hall, Atlantic City in the USA, and the other in Sydney Town Hall.

As you might imagine, 64 foot pipes are very costly to build, need a lot of space, and require huge amounts of wind to make them speak.

Consequently, all other 64 foot stops in the world (and many 32 foot stops) use what is known as 'Harmonic' or 'Resultant Bass' where a rank of 32 foot (or 16 foot) pipes is installed alongside a second rank which sounds at exactly an octave and a twelfth above the desired pitch. The beat frequency of the second harmonic from the two pipes then sounds at half of the fundamental frequency of the larger pipe (if that makes sense).

(See http://www.organstops.org/r/Resultant.html for a better explanation).

So in answer to your question, you won’t hear many 64 foot pipes being played, (York certainly doesn’t have one) but there are plenty of 32 foot pipes, from which bottom C sounds at just 16 Hz.

If you are interested, you can look up the specifications of most pipe organs on the National Pipe Organ register ( www.npor.org.uk ).

Curently, the two biggest instruments in the UK are at Liverpool Anglican Cathedral with 156 stops, and London’s Royal Albert Hall with 150.

I’m off now to get my anorak.

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Nigel CRIPN and Bar

Beware of the Dark Slide

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require huge amounts of wind

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Sorry, carry on as you were. I thought it had become a thread about Big Will for a moment...

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Nick

www.nbrphoto.com

Light and Shade II - the new blog

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require huge amounts of wind

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Sorry, carry on as you were. I thought it had become a thread about Big Will for a moment...

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Would Jerri believe Big Will if he told her he had a sixty-four footer hidden away?

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Nigel CRIPN and Bar

Beware of the Dark Slide

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So in answer to your question, you won’t hear many 64 foot pipes being played, (York certainly doesn’t have one) but there are plenty of 32 foot pipes, from which bottom C sounds at just 16 Hz.

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require huge amounts of wind

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Sorry, carry on as you were. I thought it had become a thread about Big Will for a moment...

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Would Jerri believe Big Will if he told her he had a sixty-four footer hidden away?

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I doubt if she would believe him if he said it was sixty-four millimetres...

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Nick

www.nbrphoto.com

Light and Shade II - the new blog

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So in answer to your question, you won’t hear many 64 foot pipes being played, (York certainly doesn’t have one) but there are plenty of 32 foot pipes, from which bottom C sounds at just 16 Hz.

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Thanks. I'm not expert in this area - but I'm sure I heard that York Minster has a rank of organ pipes which are unusable for safety reasons - maybe 32 foot?

In any case, 16 Hz is enough to defeat most "hi fi" systems!

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York has two 32 foot ranks, so that could well be true. NPOR York

Apart from the huge sound volume that these things produce, frequencies as low as 16 Hz (and their harmonics) can sometimes cause dangerous resonance in other parts of a building. Remember also that individual pipes are rarely played alone, so the beat frequency of two or more large pipes played together will be much lower still.

Digressing slightly, I once heard a story about a Christmas party at a bus depot, where the staff canteen turned dance floor was suspended above the bus garage. Everything was OK until the DJ played 'Rock Around the Clock', whereupon the everything started shaking violently and the building had to be evacuated.

Structural Engineers checked out the building and found everything to be safe, but they calculated the resonant frequency of the floor to be the same as Rock Around the Clock. Strange but true.

Now I really must go and get my Anorak and watch some trains.

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Nigel CRIPN and Bar

Beware of the Dark Slide

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Is it related to stories of couples getting the earth to move?

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No; but I often wonder what would happen if Jordan's silicone mountains ever hit resonant frequency.

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Nigel CRIPN and Bar

Beware of the Dark Slide

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Self indulgence .... on a shoestring.

Less fattening than chocolate


David

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Thank you David.

I posted this slightly 'tongue in cheek' (as I usually do), but it seems the humour fell on stony ground.

However, there was, and is a serious point to my post, as (for me at least), there is often more pleasure to be had from re-discovering an old friend like the OM as there is from spending £hundreds or even £thousands on new kit. Indeed, I am finding new digital kit increasingly boring to look at and use, in much the same way that computer motherboards and memory sticks do nothing for me, whilst good film cameras continue to fascinate me, and motivate me to go out and take pictures.

I don’t deny that modern digital equipment is technically very competent, (I am certainly happy with my mine), but somehow, and as much as I like my E1 and G9, I can never feel as ‘attached' to a digital cameras as I am to my film cameras. Each to their own I suppose.

Anyhow, regarding Kodachrome, I found the following statement on the Kodak website:

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The Kodak photo processing laboratory in Renens, Switzerland has been closed. Kodak continues to offer Kodachrome processing for European customers by shipping our 35mm slide film to Dwayne's Photo of Parsons, Kansas. There is no additional charge for this service.
European customers should continue to send their KODACHROME Film and mailers to the address below, as they have in the past.

Kodak SA
Laboratoire KODACHROME
Case Postale
Ch-1001 Lausanne
Switzerland,
CH

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Link to Kodak Web Page

One of the new rolls that I bought was dated September 2009, so presumably, Kodak intends to continue processing Kodachrome at least until then?

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Just to follow up on this post, my Kodachrome slides came back in just under two weeks, and looked stunning on the lightbox (IMVHO of course).

Given the comparatively short processing time, and the return address on the package, I suspect the film was in fact processed in Switzerland, and not in the USA.

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Nigel CRIPN and Bar

Beware of the Dark Slide

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