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Chap. 8.] Nero ’s Water-Organ—Otkers in the Middle Ages.

water-organ. The elder Pliny refers to them in book ix, cap. 8. Speak-ing of dolphins, he observes, they are fond of music, especially “ the soundof' the Witter Instrument, or such kind of pipes.” We noticed, page 245,a representation of an hydraulic organ on a medal of Valentinian . Thesilver Triton , mentioned in the chapter on Fountains , that by machmerywas made to rise out of the lake and sound a trumpet, may be considereda modification of these instruments, and so may the whistling clock ofAthenseus mentioned in the last one.

Suetonius , in his Life of Nero, mentions an hydraulic organ which thatemperor took particular pleasure in. It must have been a magnificentaffair, since even Nero deemed it of sufficient importance to form theprincipal object vowed by him, when the empire was in danger from therebellion of Vindex. Inviting some of the chief Romans to a consultationon public affairs, “ he entertained them the rest of the day with an organof a new kind, and showmg them the several parts of the invention, anddiscoursing about the nature and difficultv of the instrument, he told themhe designed to introduce it upon the theatre, if Vindex would permit him.”In this passage Suetonius does not state that the machine was a water-organ ; but in a subsequent one he observes,—“ Towards the close ofNero ’s life, he publicly vowed that if the empire was secured to him (byovercoming the rebels) he would bring out at the games, for his obtainingthe victory, a water-organ, a chorus of Hutes and bag-pipes,” &c.

The author of a letter, attributed to St. Jerome , speaks of a large organ atJerusalem , the sounds of which could be heard at the distance of a tbousandpaces, or to the Mount of Olives. It consisted of two elephant skins, orrather perhaps resembled two of those animals. There were twelve largebellows and fifteen brass pipes. The two animals were said to representthe Old and New Testaments—the pipes the patriarchs and prophets, andthe bellows the twelve apostles. The particulars of its construction arenot known.

Organs were used more or less throughout the dark ages, during whichseveral were brought into Europe from the East.

In 757, the Greek emperor Constantine sent two Organs to Pepin, kingof France . Mezeray says, they were the first seen in that country.Another was sent from Constantinople to Charlemagne in 812; but nothingis known of their construction, except that the last imitated the sounds ofthunder, the lyre and cymbal.

In the ninth Century, Louis Debonnaire had a water-organ made for hispalace at Aix-la-Chapelle , by a Venetian priest named George. Anotherorgan, in which water is supposed not to have been employed, he erectedin one of the churches of that cily, and its sounds are said to have been soravishing, that a woman died in ecstacy under their influence.—(See Pre-face to L’Art du Facteur D’Orgues ; Arts et Metibres, folio edit. 1778.)

At page 401, we mentioned an organ made by Gerbert, in which steamwas employed instead of air.

We find, says Fosbroke, Organs with pipes of box-wood, of gold, andOrgans of alabaster and glass ; and some played on with warm water.Brass pipes and bellows are mentioned by William of Malmsbury. “ Themonks of Italy , of the Orders devoted to manual labor, applied themselvesto the fabrication of Organs ; and in the tenth Century, a maker was sentinto France , whence they insensibly spread over all the Western churches.”

Of modern hydraulic Organs it is unnecessary to enlarge. Several havebeen noticed in the chapter on Fountains . They have become nearlyextinct. See Kircher ’s Musurgia Universalis , Fludd’s Simia, Decaus’Forcible Movements ; Misson, Blainville, Breval , and Keysler’s Travels.