Boardwalk Hall Auditorium Organ

The organ of the Atlantic City Convention Hall in Atlantic City (New Jersey ) is the largest organ in the world. It was built, between May 1929 and December 1932 by the organ workshop Midmer - Losh.

She is a theater organ for PA of 420,000 m³ large room. The enormous volume required is generated by high-pressure registers. Almost all parts plants powered by wind pressures of 500 to 900 mm water column, which is six to ten times more than the usual values .

2.1 Specifications

Main Auditorium Organ

Architectural History

Planning for the organ designed in 1929 Senator Emerson Richards. The organ should sound for the hall of several pages behind decorative grilles with no visible Prospectus. The construction contract was for the price of $ 347,200 to the American organ builder Midmer - Losh ( Merrick (New York)). In a supplementary agreement, the price has been increased by a further $ 100,000. Due to the global economic crisis, went bankrupt in the course of Midmer - Losh, Richards and Atlantic City, there were delays. On May 11, 1932, the organ was eventually played for the first time in a public concert. The organ was mostly used for creating music for entertainment events and rarely used as a concert organ. When a hurricane in 1944, the organ was badly damaged. After the 2nd World War the damage was trying to fix.

The organ is in 2008 in a very poor condition and only partially functional. So for decades no longer works the combo system that never worked properly, already. The access to the two upper works Upper Left and Upper Right has been hampered by asbestos discoveries, so that maintenance could not be executed without a previous asbestos removal. A water damage other parts of the organ have become unusable. By and large, are only the right pedal, as well as the hardware Great, Great - Solo and Solo, all located in the Right Stage Chamber, playable.

Since 1998, there have been efforts to raise the funds for a renovation and restoration through donations.

Of the eight organ parts, only the Right Stage Chamber produce sounds, which is however not also voted for a long time. It has been missing for decades, the money for necessary maintenance and repair work of the gigantic organ, so that in 1998 only 96 registers and 131 ranks of pipes were playable.

In September 1998, the playable part ( the Right Stage Chamber ) and some individual registers for recording was prepared. The result is a recording of the record holder Diaphone - dulcian 64 ', and the 2540mmWS register Tuba Imperial and Grand Ophicleide.

After an extensive renovation of the now called Boardwalk Hall Convention Hall in 2001, the organ was for some time completely unplayable. By 2008, the Right Stage Chamber was brought back to the playable levels of 1998. Since October 2008, running a large-scale study of wind loading is not currently playable part works. The next stage is provided the part Swell work to make playable. In the meantime ( 2008) were also rehabilitated asbestos- affected areas and built in all parts of the organ works of a new lighting and a sprinkler system and a system for detecting water ingress.

Records

The organ is from the Guinness Book of Records as the " largest pipe organ ", "largest musical instrument " and a " loudest ever built musical instrument " out. Officially, it has 33,112 pipes, the exact number is not known and experts will appreciate this more below 32,000.

The organ is the only one in the world, the high-pressure register " has ( wind pressure and one of only three with registers of 1270 mm water column ( 50 with a wind pressure of 2540 mm water column 100) " wind pressure ), which is the usual wind pressure of an organ by more than 30 exceeds times. Even conventional high pressure registers are operated with 250 to 300 mm water column. The organ has four registers on 2540 mm water column and ten of 1270 mm water column:

2540 mm water column:

The register Grand Ophicleide 16 ' was run as the loudest organ stop in the world by the Guinness Book of World Records to October 2011.

The entire organ is (1000 HP) supplied with wind from seven blowers with a total capacity of 745.7 kW, which is also unique in the world. The Right Stage Chamber and the Chamber Stage Left each have two fans. One for wind pressures of 1270 mm water column and one for normal wind. The Centre Left Chamber and Left Upper Chamber share a fan, as these do not require such high wind pressures. It's the same on the right side. Only for the 2540 mm water column register is there still a particularly strong compressor available.

The organ has called one of only two fully developed 64' - registers of the world, the Diaphone - dulcian, also Diaphone Profunda. The largest pipe ( Subsubkontra -C ), an open Diaphonpfeife is over 20 meters long. The registry is available on a wind pressure of 850 mm water column and its deepest tones can not belong ( the lowest note C3 has a frequency of about 8.2 Hz), but are only perceived especially in the vicinity of the Right Stage Chamber as structure-borne noise. The other developed until C3 64' - register in the world that is Contra Trombone of the organ in the Sydney Town Hall is a reed stop with full cup length.

Diaphone - dulcian is overall a row of pipes, which is extended from C3 to g2. From this row of pipes are octave and fifth extensions registers Diaphone - dulcian in the footages 64 ', 422 /3', 32 ', 211 /3', 16 ', 102 /3', won 8 'and 4'. By the combination of the register 64 ' and 422 /3' is formed an acoustic 128' register.

The largest organ in the world

The Atlantic City Convention Hall Organ - has in comparison to the Wanamaker Organ fewer rows of pipes ( 449 as opposed to 462 at the Wanamaker organ). Also, it weighs almost half as much (150 tonnes compared to 287 tonnes). On the other hand, the Convention Hall organ has 5000 pipes more and has three entries in the Guinness Book of Records.

Given the fact that the Atlantic City Convention Hall organ is not completely playable and still has entries in the Guinness Book, the Wanamaker organ is often regarded as the largest playable organ in the world respectively. The Wanamaker Organ is in very good condition and has been recently overhauled.

Disposal

Placement in the room

The organ is like a surround sound system built around the public space and into eight parts to which the individual works are structured distributed.

Which works in which chambers are located and what they are playable Manual, is very complicated and not clear also from the disposition. The following diagram illustrates the arrangement in space:

Game table

The console is the largest in the world. He holds 1235 registers rockers to register the labial stops 587, 265 reeds, 35 and 46 unmelodious melodic percussion registers 164 paddocks, 18 tremulants and 120 combinations, six expression pedals and a crescendo - sill. He is also the only game table with seven manuals. The lower manuals have a greater range (up to seven octaves). The manuals from top to bottom: