Organ Grinding

Last week I noticed a small organ (maybe three feet high, two and a half feet wide, and a foot and a half deep) that appeared to be from Roman times.  It was foot pumped and it had two pumping pedals.  So naturally I went over to play it, but it was awfully hard to play, since only one of the pedals worked.  This week when I got to my lesson, my teacher was with another student, so I told him I'd be right back.  I ran over to the house and I got my screwdriver and a few screws that might have worked, but I couldn't find the wood screws; I just did the Italian thing and took one from my bedroom door handle, and off I went.

After my lesson, I asked him if I could try to fix the organ because the pedal was broken.  He said, "Yeah, sure, whatever." So I flipped the organ onto its side, dug in, and saw that the bellows was moved by a rope attached to a pulley attached to the pedal.  The problem with it was the fact that the bracket which attached the rope to the pedal wasn't actually attached to the pedal properly: only one of the two necessary screws remained.

I discovered it was a soft wood when the first screw went in and I tried to use the pedal: the screw tore off a chunk of wood.  Thus I knew this wouldn't work.  So I then noted that the rope was actually two ropes that had been tied together in the middle.  I started to untie it, and my teacher said, "Let me just show you how to lock up." So he did, and then promptly left me alone in the building.

When I had finished re-tying the knot (this time tighter), I put the organ back upright, and started to play.  After a few minutes, I decided to lock up the music school and go home.

Love,

Jeremy




p.s. I remembered to replace the screw in my bedroom door handle.