In the case of the organ, the pressure with which the keys are struck
does not need to be recorded or reproduced, but instead of this, we
have to operate the various stops or registers and the various swell
shades if we would obtain a faithful reproduction mechanically of the
piece of music played by an artist on the organ.

Automatic Players are attached to many pipe organs. They, for the most
part, consist of ordinary piano players so arranged that they operate
the keys, or the mechanism attached to the keys, of an organ.

This is a very poor plan, and the resulting effect is thoroughly
mechanical and unsatisfactory. Only one keyboard is played upon at a
time as a rule, and neither the stops nor the pedals, nor the
expression levers are operated at all.

The Aeolian Company, of New York, effected an improvement some years
ago when they introduced what they term the double tracker bar. In
this case, the holes in the tracker bar are made smaller than usual and
they are staggered--or arranged in two rows. Every evenly numbered
hole is kept on the lower row, and the oddly numbered holes are raised
up to form a second row.

Provided the paper be tracked very accurately, and be given careful
attention, this plan adopted by the Aeolian Company allows of two
manuals of an organ being played automatically; but still the stops and
expression levers are left to be operated by hand.

More recently a plan has been brought out by Hope-Jones that provides
for the simultaneous performance of music upon two manuals and upon the
pedals--each quite independent of the other. It also provides for the
operation of all the stops individually in a large organ, and for the
operation of the expression levers.

A switch is furnished so that when desired the stops and expression
levers may be cut off and left to be operated by hand. The Hope-Jones
Tracker Bar has no less than ten lines of holes--it is, of course,
correspondingly wide.

We look for a great development in the direction of organs played by
mechanical means.

The piano player has done a very great deal to popularize the
pianoforte and in the same way it is believed that the automatic player
will do a very great deal to popularize the organ.

Many people who cannot play the organ will be induced to have them in
their homes if they knew that they can operate them at any time
desired, even in the absence of a skilled performer.

We now give specifications of some of t