548
[Book V.
conjectured. The first Step was probably bag-pipes, and the second theaddition of keys or valves. In process of time, the Instruments, instead•of being made ofreeds or other natural tubes, were formed of metal; andtheir number, variety, and dimensions increased until Organs became themost powerful and harmonious, and consequently the most esteemed ofall musical machines. The Organs mentioned in the Bible were probablyportable ones, similar to the modern regal. The ancients divided theminto two classes —pneumatic and hydraulic, or wind and water Organs.The difference consisted merely in the modes of supplying the wind—inone it was by means of water, while in the other bellows were workedby men.
Water was employed in various ways in ancient hydraulic Organs.
1. By falling through a pipe, it carried down air into a reservoir, as inthe trombe or shower bellows, (No. 198.) Here it not only furnishedthe air but forced it through the pipes. According to Kircher, it was thendischarged on a wheel, and gave motion to drums on whose peripherieswere projecting pins, which depressed the keys of the instrument, as in themodern barrel organ.
2. It was discharged upon an overshot wheel, and by cranks and leversmerely worked common bellows. This may seem stränge to some readers,but it must be remembered that these instruments were often of enormousdimensions. Even so rüde a people as the Anglo-Saxons , had Organsthat required “ seventy strong men” to work the bellows.
3. Sometimes water was only used in an open tank or cistern, intowhich a smaller one constituting the air-chamber was inverted. The airwas then forced by ordinary or piston bellows into the latter, and dis-placing the water caused it to rise in the outer vessel, where its constantpressure urged the air through the organ.—See No. 110, and p. 245.
4. The vapor of boiling water or steam was also used, and which ofcourse supplied the place of both wind and bellows. The extent to whichsteam was used is unknown. It was probably confined chiefly to thetemples.
The details of the mechanism of ancient Organs that have come downare very imperfect. Their description by Vitruvius and Heron is obscure,and in some parts unintelligible; and they admit that the construction wastoo complex to be easily comprehended except by those familiär withthem.
The earliest distinct notice on record of any thing like a water-organ,is the musical clepsydra of Plato . There is no reason to suppose it wasinvented by him, but rather the contrary, for he contemned all mechani-cal speculations. He probably met with it in Egypt , and having intro-duced it to his countrymen, was (as usual with them) considered its author.
Tertullian , in a Treatise on the Soul, speaks of an organ invented byArchimedes , but of its construction little is known.
From Vitruvius ’ account of hydraulic Organs, and from the last twoProblems in Heron ’s Spiritalia, we learn that they were very elaboratemachines. Decaus has amplified some of Heron ’s devices for producingmusic by water.
Plutarch in comparing Cato and Phocion , after observing that theirseverity of manners was equally tempered with humanity, and their valorwith caution ; that they had the same solicitude for others, and the samedisregard for themselves ; the same abhorrence of every thing base anddishonorable, &c. observes, that to mark the difference in their charac-ters would require a very delicate expression, like the finely discriminated,sounds of the organ. This is supposed by Langhorne to have been a