Wind lines

All week, Les and I have been constructing these wind lines destined for a church organ in Halifax. This has involved cutting wood at odd angles, and many hours of repetitive, finicky gluing.

We spent Tuesday tangling with an ancient band saw. Someone bolted it securely to the wall some years ago, so Les inherited it with the shop. Legendarily, one of the big wheels exploded, leaving an intimidating scar across the ceiling. The blades on old saws generally were not equipped with any guards to protect the operators, so an accident like that could easily have taken off a person's arm, or head. The mechanisms on this particular machine have since been soundly enclosed, but we still approach the thing with respect. It says it was built by Goldie & McCulloch Co., which is odd—I recently mentioned the Goldies, a historical family of local industrialists.

Wind lines carry air around the organ, like blood circulating. Metal or plastic pipes may be used. Wood is more traditional, but in this case it allows us to thoroughly insulate them to cut down on the deep-throated windy mutter that characterizes many church organs. Apparently it has been particularly distracting in the Halifax organ. That black hole interior is designed to swallow sound. These lines must all be finished and shipped east by the end of next week. The whole collection of lines is shown, in Les's shop, behind the cut; the largest of these is about two metres long.

Following the shipment, Les and John will fly to Halifax for nine days to install them. I won't get to see how they fit in the organ loft, but I'll have some time off.



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