The Rochford Compton

News on new Diaphone and Vox Humana ranks.

Many Compton organs have a pedal stop called a Diaphone. This is a powerful rank and works on the same principle as a fog horn! The Rochford/Kingsway Compton has always been a bit weak in the Pedal department. It has the 16' Tuba but this can be a bit hard and unblending. A Diaphone is quite loud but not overpowering.

We have managed to locate one that was originally in the Astoria Cinema Finsbury Park. This was in the possession of Les Allitt, noted organ builder. We also obtained from him a Vox Humana rank complete with wind chest. This rank blends well with a Tibia and String rank and will be a useful addition to the organ. It will be installed in the Solo or upper chamber.

In the middle of May a very large trailer was borrowed from Charles Tabor's farm and Tim Wardley and Pat Dunham set out for Les's place in Boston Lincolnshire to purchase and collect the rank.

The Diaphone chest was collected from Les's store in Boston. It was a lovely summers day when we made the trip and Les showed us round his aladdins cave.

The Diaphone Chest was loaded onto the trailer together with the Vox Humana Chest.

The enormous Diaphone pipes were at another location in a barn. There are 12 pipes in the Diaphone set with the longest being 16 feet. After clambering over piles of organ parts we extracted the pipes and loaded the trailer.

We arrived back at the Barn after dark to unload. The Pipes and Chests were put into the chamber temporarily for storage.

There was not enough headroom in the lower chamber for the pipes so part of the floor has been removed in the upper chamber to allow the longest pipes to project through.

This picture shows Pat Dunham looking at the ceiling to see where the pipes will be positioned. There is a problem in as much as there is a ceiling joist smack in the middle or where the pipes will be mounted. The pipes were stood in place and some major carpentry on the floor above was done.

Connecting the new Diaphone involves Joining the chest that the pipes stand on to a wind supply. A wind manifold has been made and the photo shows it in place in the corner of the chamber. This takes wind from the regulator that supplies the Traps or percussion unit on the front of the organ. The box splits the supply between the Diaphone and Violin off chest.

Future plans are for a further extension of the Violin to 16' and this box will also supply this with wind.

The pipes were mounted and are shown projecting through the floor above.

Adding pipes to an organ involves more than just connecting them to a wind supply. In order that they can be played and controlled from the console additional components and wiring have to be added to the organ relay. This involves an additional stop key on the console and an additional stop switch set to the relay together with associated wiring..

Vox Humana
The Vox will be installed when we have finished fitting the Diaphone.
We will have to make an addition to the relay and add stop keys to the console. The relay modification will involve building a solid state (Transisorised) unit able to control this rank and any extra ranks we may add in the future.

Incidentally Vox Humana is Latin for Human Voice. Whether it does resemble a voice or not is a matter of opinion. You will be able to judge for yourself when it is fitted.