How does the organ read the holes in the music?
Basically, there are two systems for doing this: The Keyless system and the Keyed system. On a keyless system the music passes over a row of holes in a ‘Tracker Bar’ which are filled with air under pressure. When a hole in the music passes over, the pressure is released and this operates an air valve in the mechanism of the organ. On a keyed system the organ has a row of metal keys bouncing up and down through the slots in the music (don’t laugh). As a key rises up in the slot it operates an air valve in the mechanism of the organ. In both systems, the air valve operates another air valve, which operates another air valve, which admits compressed air to blow the appropriate organ pipes (eventually). Q) If your answers to the previous correspondents are true (which I very much doubt) then I think it is a scandal. People pay good money to get into these steam fairs, under the impression that they are listening to real organs being played by real musicians. How can this mass deception of
