Wesleyan Methodism at Rushden - A Splendid New Organ
A Worthy Instrument
A new organ has been installed in the Park-road Wesleyan Church, Rushden, by Messrs. Conacher, Sheffield, and Co. Ltd., of 51, Harborne Park-road, Birmingham, and it will be opened on Thursday next. In the organ there are several stops which are quite out of the ordinary. They are as follow:-

Each of these stops has been included for some special work, and is designed and voiced on quite special lines, thus the Diapason Fondemental gives great depth and dignity of tone to the Great Organ, etc. The Great Organ itself has been designed with the idea of producing organ tone proper, that is to say, its foundation is Diapason Tone.

The Swell Organ has, as its foundation, Reed Tone, while the Choir Organ provides that delightful quite singing tone so characteristic of old-time instruments. With regard to Solo Stops, these, considering the size of the instrument, are amply provided. In fact, the voicing of each Stop is so artistic that practically every stop on the Manuals of the Organ can be used for Solo purposes, and this has been done without in any way interfering with the general build of the organ.

Then, again, the Pedal Organ is unusual for an organ of this size. It will be seen that there are five Pedal Stops; the usual number is about two. Special pistons are provided to the Great and Swell Organs. With the pistons, are used moving tablets (underneath the music rest), to show exactly what stops are being used. These pistons also provide suitable pedal bases. This is a great help to the organist, particularly for recital work. Another advantage of this system is that the draw stops themselves, the moment the pistons come into operation, are cut out, so that any combination of stops can be arranged on either Swell or Great organ, these combinations not coming into operation until the piston release has been touched. This gives to both manuals the advantage of a free piston combination movement.

Again, as the tablets showing the stops worked by the pistons are immediately under the music rest, one can see at a glance almost without taking one’s eyes off the music which stops are being used. Although the Swell Organ itself is quite small, there only being five speaking stops of normal pitch, the effect of the full Swell Organ is such that it would be impossible for anyone who did not know the specification to guess anywhere near the quantity of Stops in that organ. In fact, the effect is such that any organist hearing it would think that there were at least 12 or more Speaking Stops, not so much on account of the volume as from the fullness of tone.