Windchests: Introduction

Samford University, Beeson Chapel, LeTourneau Organ

Introduction

Windchests (usually referred to by the shorter form "chests") store the wind that is used to generate sound from pipes. Most chests are rectangular wooden boxes, eight or nine feet in length and varying form twelve inches to more than six feet in width. Usually a chest is no more than twelve or eighteen inches deep, but one form, the "Universal Air Chest"^tm made by the Austin Organ Company, can be made as deep as seven or eight feet.

The top surface of a chest is the toe board, which has holes drilled through it to allow wind from the chest to enter the pipes. Ranks of pipes are placed on top of the chests, supported with a system of racks, and their toeholes line up with the holes in the windchest.

The actual working part of a chest is hidden from view, and it may take any one of several different forms. Although several different types of chests and associated actions can be found on organs the world over, there are three primary types of chests and actions which are commonly found on US organs today:

Pallet and Slider chests.
Electro-pneumatic chests.
Electro-mechanical chests.

The associated pages listed on the menu CHESTS AND ACTIONS describe the structure of each type, and where possible, a photograph of parts of the action are included. Since most of the working parts of all types of actions are internal, it has not been possible to show most of them without recourse to diagrams.

The pallet and slider chest is the oldest type of wind chest in common use today, and several types of chests developed from those, particularly those that first used pneumatic or electrical power. For that reason, the pallet and slider chest is described in greater detail. A separate page describes two forms of electro-pneumatic chests, and another describes the application of electromagnets to organ chests.

The term action is used to describe two elements in the working part of an organ:

Moving parts within a windchest
Connections between the key and the windchest

In the pages on chests, any part that is contained within the chest is included in the discussion of the chests themselves. Other parts of an organ's action - - those that are found between the key and the chest - - are treated separately.

Mechanical action is the oldest type of organ action that links key to chest, and in some ways its mechanics are easier to illustrate and understand. For that reason, it is described in detail on a separate page. Unit actions and unification are also treated on a separate page.

For detailed descriptions of elements listed above, make a selection from the menu CHESTS AND ACTIONS.
To see a list of other options, select Return to Definition and Description Menu or Return to Main Menu.