Clairon Harmonique 4'

HiHo, i have to confess i am having difficulty finding the Strand typewriter. What i found is Ralph Steiner in NY Met Museum of Art Typewriter Keys from ca. 1921. http://www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/265186 And there are lots of images, same one, attributed to strand from ca. 1916. Not a single other image comes up by Paul Strand. I have looked in Center For Creative Photography collections, Boston, Philly, Chicago, SF and NY MoMA. No strand typewriter. I was certain there is one. Not in any of my books, but lots of references to the ca. 1916 image that has not been reproduced is shown anywhere, except mis-attribution of the Steiner. I have never heard of Ralph Steiner, and coincidentally it happens that a Steiner photograph is featured on the front page of the CCP. http://www.creativephotography.org/ I like this Steiner image very much, being an electrical engineer.

He, Michael. I saw the Steiner image & thought it had similar attributes. I liked it & suspect there wasn't much done w/ macro like it. That CCP shot they called electrical switches (looks like circuit breakers to me) was pretty cool. One of the 'misses' from the day was a carving on a rail that I tried to get in color. Its fairly monotonous - color-wise, but if I can get the light right, it would look good. I've not yet figured out how to post a small image in a comment section or I'd paste or add here.

(Warning -- it's not on film ...) For some hint at the larger scale instruments, I have a gallery on PBase taken in 2011 on the 100th anniversary of the Wanamaker Organ in the Philadelphia department store that is now part of Macy's. The instrument has approximately 28,000 pipes on a six manual console. John Wanamaker used to have a friendly competition with the owner of Steel Pier in Atlantic City back in the day. There was a relatively complete organbuilding shop in the store back then. One of the major events in the early 1900s featured Charles Corboin playing, with Leopold Stokowski conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra - to an SRO audience of 15,000! I have experienced a few concerts there in recent times, standing in the women's shoe department to view the the organist at the console across the grand court. (Retailing has never been the same!)

One of the first organ recordings i had heard was on one of the earliest DDD CD recordings pressed. Tocatta and Fugue in D-minor. I don't know who played, but it was an early Telarc recording with just amazing dynamic range, otherwise un-recordable and beyond vinyl. I lived in an apartment back then and used to get comments from neighbors on the rumbling, and i never played it loud. Whatever that organ was that was recorded, this one Dave that you photographed must literally suck the wind out! And the whole story behind it and the centenary concert...

sorry hi ho silver I should have linked to it i always thought that was paul strand's up close typewriter keys I didn't mean to throw a wrench in the machine ! your photograph has the same sort of raking perspective/pov and all those round shapes I should have explained myself keep up the good work!

DW Holy Shiznitz! For a department store?! My goodness - you had to be vibrating w/ excitement shooting that. The design & build - staggering acheivement. Fascinating. Thx. for posting. Wouldn't you love to get such a tour of the Grace Cathedral organ in SF? I got to hear that when 8 of us showed up and the organist gave us some detail info on the organ & then ripped out a couple pieces that shook the floors. J - not to worry at all about the photo. I appreciate the kind encouragement (alot!).

Well I have let my membership lapse (can only support so many potential obsessions), but I used to belong to the Organ Historical Society, a group which works to recognize and preserve old instruments. Each year they would have a "convention" in some part of the country which typically included a week of as many as 3 or 4 recitals a day on significant instruments. It was not unusual to have 6 or 7 busloads of people trekking around to the events. One in 1988, which My Faire Spouse and I attended, was based in San Francisco. We got to hear the organ in Grace Cathedral, but not to do an 'organ crawl' as they are sometimes called. We also heard organs at Stanford, the Palace of the Legion of Honor, the SF Municipal Auditorium, stuff up in the wine country -- it was quite a week. One year in Connecticut included an evening at Yale where we got to at least troup past some of the pedal division after the recital, as well as visit the Austin Organ factory where among other things we saw the casting of sheets to use in making pipes. (That's on film here "somewhere" -- one of these days maybe I'll manage to get it on the web.) There are/were other monster instruments in Philly at Girard College, U Penn and many churches too. The one at U Penn (which I have not heard of lately -- worrisome) was brought in after some World's Fair sort of thing and filled a dozen or more railroad cars. The largest wooden pipe is 30 inches square by 30+ feet long and the largest metal is 24 inches in diameter and similar length. In our current spreadsheet driven world, just the maintenance of such monsters is a bit problematic.

Wow. You've seen and heard more of the big beasts than any I've heard of. It had to be a scream. I imagine rolls of film foregrounding the scale, intricacy. Your shots of the various divisions were cool. I didn't know pipes could imitate strings. There's probably libraries of what I didn't know about them.

John i was as strongly convinced as you there was a strand typewriter photo that had those elements in common. Dang if i can find it. There are some internet references to a ca. 1916 image. All images that come up are the ca. 1921 Steiner. And i had never heard of Steiner! HiHo, that Steiner photo at CCP was definitely a panel of VERY BIG SWITCHes (as in Volt-Amps). i would never put my hands or face anywhere near much Volt-Amp potential and would not want to draw an arc on that puppy! You can call me the coward of the electrical engineering class... I didn't like the motors and generators lab at college either.