They provided a very acceptable imitation of the reed sound, and they stayed in tune. They were developed for the early tubular pneumatic organs that were often installed in rural locales where tuning visits were rare and heat in the churches was uneven at best. In fact, Estey built fine imitative reedless stops. Those organists who have had experience with the ubiquitous Möller Oboe Gambe might be tempted to misjudge this class of stop. William Haskell also developed a whole class of labial, or “reedless,” reeds.
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Haskell pipes were easier to install and more elegant than long miters that could break or tip pipes out of their toe holes. Haskell basses are often found in Estey’s string stops, but also in flutes, diapasons, or even reeds. Estey used this method, which they called the “patent bass,” extensively. Sadly, very few modern builders experiment with the unique tonal possibilities of these pipes. Haskell bases are still made today, and are often used to allow a long pipe to be placed under a low ceiling. An open pipe with this treatment is a bit longer than half its actual speaking length, with a compensating tube either inside or outside the pipe. Haskell as the inventor of the “Haskell bass”.
For Estey, the creative output of their resident genius would become “both a joy and a concern.” Tonally and mechanically, he was an innovator on a par with Robert Hope-Jones and Ernest M. Today, Haskell would be described as an “outside the box” thinker. Haskell as shop superintendent, in charge of pipe organ production. In 1901, the company was fortunate to hire William E. Competing with Möller, Kimball, Kilgen, and others, Estey would eventually build more than 3,000 organs. Shortly after the turn of the twentieth century, Estey naturally moved into the prestigious pipe organ business. Dennis Waring has documented the remarkable history of Estey, with particular emphasis on the reed organ business, in his 2002 book, Manufacturing the Muse: Estey Organs and Consumer Culture in Victorian America. On the way, Estey set new standards for humane industrial relations, including paying women and men equally for the same work, a novel and controversial policy at the time.
During those years of industrial growth and a blooming middle class, the company churned out an astounding one-half million reed organs, ranging from little parlor pump organs to serious, large church organs with many ranks of reeds. Nineteenth- and early twentieth centuries. The Estey Organ Company was an industrial phenomenon in the late The number of organists today who have experienced one of these organs is few and growing fewer, as are organ builders who have maintained or rebuilt them. So it was with Estey’s Luminous console, the storied “cash register” console, built in Brattleboro, Vermont during the 1920s. Sometimes, on the way to progress, however, innovation begets frustration.
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