Looking Inside the Philipps Modell 3 Paganini

(Photograph courtesy of Ken Goldman)

From top to bottom the Paganini Modell 3 Geigen Piano is a marvel of skilled mechanical engineering and musical perfection. From vacuum and wind-pressure feeder bellows at the bottom, all the way up to the carefully crafted pipework at the top, the complexity of the Paganini's interconnections and mechanisms can be easily overlooked, unless one pauses a moment to truly examine and appreciate the instrument. Now fully erected and proudly situated in the Goldman music salon, probably the most obvious and eye-catching feature is the centrally located set of duplex roll changers, which afford a long and uninterrupted repertoire of refined music before any music rolls need be changed. The roll changers were, no doubt, an essential attribute for the music connoisseur who demanded an enjoyable evening of uninterrupted violin music with expressive piano accompaniment. Other mechanical and musical attributes of the magnificent Paganini Geigen Piano are detailed in the image panes that follow.

(Photograph courtesy of Ken Goldman)

In this interior view of the lower part of the Paganini the two distinct groups of feeder bellows (pumps) are visible. At the bottom is the vacuum pump, with three side-by-side sections, each of which contains a top and bottom bellow, making up a set of two bellows per section and a total of six bellows for the complete pump. Above, and a bit shorter in length, is the two side-by-side bellow wind-pressure pump, for a total of two bellows for the complete pump. The vacuum pump has two reservoirs, one on top and one on the bottom, one of which provides a modest vacuum to sound the harmonium reeds, the other then providing a much stronger vacuum to power the piano, secondary pipe chest valves and all control functions. The wind-pressure reservoir is located on top of the wind-pressure pump, and is used exclusively to feed the pipework.

For the vacuum pump, the six vacuum bellows are divided into three side-by-side sections, with one double acting set at the front, one set in the middle, and the third at the rear. Each double acting set consists of an upper and lower bellow fastened to the same movable center board, so that with each stroke of the crankshaft a vacuum is first developed in the one bellow, as the opposing bellow is exhausted, and then vice-versa. With three sets of double acting vacuum bellows a large volume at a fairly constant vacuum level is developed, the flow somewhat equalized due to each crank on the crankshaft being offset by 90 degrees. The piano, harmonium, and all control functions are vacuum powered.

The two wind-pressure bellows are single acting, I.e., one bellow per movable board, but their operation is offset by 90 degrees for a more or less constant flow of air. Because of the pressure reservoir and various regulators the pressure feeder generates a sufficient volume of air pressure to allow the pipes to speak clearly and with even tone.

(Photograph courtesy of Ken Goldman)

This interior rear view is of the bottom section. At bottom the back side of the vacuum and pressure feeders are visible. Above the feeders is the main stack (or wind-chest), with the individual motor pneumatics and vertical stickers that contact the piano action whippens clearly visible. At the right side of the main stack is a built in register section that controls piano expression and the harmonium, but the only visible indication of this is the tubing manifolds with metal tubing that reaches out and makes connections with other parts of the mechanism. To the rear of the roll changers (and above the main stack) is the tracker bar lockout pouch board that extends from one side of the case to the other. A tube from each of the 130 tracker bar positions, on each tracker bar, feeds into the lockout pouch board, which serves to determine which tracker bar is active and functional. Above the lockout pouch board is the speed adjustable wind-motor that provides the rotational torque necessary to drive the music rolls forward for each of the two roll changers during their play cycle.

(Photograph courtesy of Ken Goldman)

Immediately above the duplex roll changers is the support shelf for the pipe chest and wind-pressure regulator. When the tremolo is active the wind-pressure regulator's movable top board is shaken (by the tremolo action mounted to the side of the case just above it) to induce a tremolo effect in the pipework. The 44-tone vacuum played harmonium is visible behind the pipes and is fastened to the back side casework structure. The pipework consists of two ranks of violin pipes, one rank of flageolet pipes, and a short high-octave set of violin pipes, although in the above photograph it is very difficult to discern the layout and number of ranks. At the right side and built into the pipe chest are the ventil and quick change valves that control the various pipe ranks, and further to the right are controls for the tremolo operation, swell shutters and harmonium. Once activated the tremolo gradually increases in speed to a maximum value, and the swell shutter control can be set to slow or fast operation, and a position stop can be set to 1/2 open or full open mode.

(Photograph courtesy of Ken Goldman)

This interior view looking down on the pipework helps to show the odd pipe rank layout utilized in the Modell 3 Paganini, a layout not easily recognized from a frontal view alone. Notice that there are 29 wooden (pouch type) valve blocks spanning the width of the pipe chest, the length of each valve block approximately matching the depth of the chest. Each block is bored with toe holes in which the toe of individual pipes are fitted. Each of the lower 19 valve blocks (starting at far left) represent one musical note, i.e., each pipe inserted into that block being of the same musical note, albeit possibly with one of the pipes being of a higher pitch. The top ten valve blocks differ in that they each hold pairs of pipes representing two consecutive musical notes, the pipes in each pair standing side-by-side. The chest base, upon which all of the valve blocks are screwed, contains four wind channels, each one being for a different pipe register. Whether, or not, a particular pipe on a valve block speaks depends entirely upon whether the wind channel under that pipe is pressurized. Each wind channel is controlled by a separate ventil valve. Behind the pipework is the 44-note vacuum played harmonium.

Of possible interest, the two pneumatics that control the ventil for the flageolet pipes are partially visible to the right of the highest pitch pipes. The bottom pneumatic is connected to the flageolet on-off register control, while the top one is connected to the flageolet quick change control. Both pneumatics serve exactly the same function, to lift the ventil that pressurizes (and/or conversely vents) the flageolet wind channel. The enclosed quick change ventil for the high octave violin pipes is directly behind the flageolet control.

The pipework ranks consists of what might best be described as four rows of pipes. The front row consists of 39 loud violin pipes, with the top 20 pipes arranged in pairs sitting side-by-side. The second row consists of 39 soft violin pipes, with an offset or jog toward the front of the pipe chest at the thirteenth valve block, and with the top 20 pipes arranged in pairs sitting side-by-side. The third row (beginning at the offset for the soft violin rank—the thirteenth valve block) is made up of 27 flageolets, with the top 20 pipes arranged in pairs sitting side-by-side. The flageolet pipes look very much like regular violin pipes, but they are voiced differently and each flageolet has a nodule hole midway along the speaking length. Only a few pipes in the fourth and back row are visible, a rank that consists of 12 very short high-octave violin pipes arranged in pairs sitting side-by-side. Please refer to the pipe chest layout drawing located on the Paganini's main page for additional information.