some
occasions all night. Certain of these men and boys are to-day
occupying responsible positions with the Hope-Jones Organ Company.

All this merely formed occupation for his spare time. About the age of
seventeen he began his business career. He was bound apprentice to the
large firm of Laird Bros., engineers and shipbuilders, Birkenhead,
England. After donning workman's clothes and going through practical
training in the various workshops and the drawing office, he secured
appointment as chief electrician of the Lancashire and Cheshire
(afterwards the National) Telephone Company. In connection with
telephony he invented a multitude of improvements, some of which are
still in universal use. About this time he devised a method for
increasing the power of the human voice, through the application of a
"relay" furnished with compressed air. The principle is now utilized
in the best phonographs and other voice-producing machines. He also
invented the "Diaphone," now being used by the Canadian Government for
its fog signal stations and declared to be the most powerful producer
of musical sound known (in a modified form also adapted to the church
organ).

About 1889 he resigned his connection with the telephone company in
order that he might devote a greater part of his attention to the
improvement of the church organ, a subject which, as we have seen, was
beginning to occupy much of his spare time. He had private practice as
a consulting engineer, but gradually his "hobby"--organ
building--crowded out all other employment--much to his financial
disadvantage and to the gain of the musical world.

His organ at St. John's Church, Birkenhead, became famous. It was
visited by thousands of music lovers from all parts of the world.
Organs built on the St. John's model were ordered for this country
(Taunton, Mass., and Baltimore, Md.), for India, Australia, New
Zealand, Newfoundland, France, Germany, Malta, and for numbers of
English cathedrals, churches, town halls, etc. Nothing whatever was
spent on advertisement. The English musical press for years devoted
columns to somewhat heated discussion of Hope-Jones' epoch-making
inventions, and echoes appeared in the musical periodicals of this and
other countries.

In spite of every form of opposition, and in spite of serious financial
difficulties, Hope-Jones built organs that have influenced the art in
all parts of the globe. He proved himself a prolific inventor