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e in 1835. It was designed upon the exhaust principle. [2] Dr. Gauntlett's idea was to play _all_ the organs shown in the Great Exhibition in London, in 1851, from one central keyboard. He proposed to place an electro-magnet inside the wind-chest under each pallet, which would have required an enormous amount of electric current. The idea was never carried out. This plan seems also to have occurred to William Wilkinson, the organ-builder of Kendal, as far back as 1862, but, after some experiments, was abandoned. An organ constructed on similar lines was actually built by Karl G. Weigle, of Echterdingen, near Stuttgart, Germany, in 1870, and although not at all a success, he built another on the same principle which was exhibited at the Vienna Exhibition in 1873. Owing to the powerful current necessary to open the Pallets, the contacts fused and the organ was nearly destroyed by fire on several occasions. [3] Sir John Stainer, in the 1889 edition of his "Dictionary of Musical Terms," dismisses the electric action in a paragraph of four lines as of no practical importance. In that same year the writer asked Mr. W. T. Best to come over and look at the organ in St. John's Church, Birkenhead, which was then beginning to be talked about, and he laughed at the idea that any good could come out of an electric action. He was a man of wide experience who gave recitals all over the country and was thoroughly acquainted with the attempts that had been made up to that time. He did not want to see any more electric organs. [4] Console--the keyboards, pedals and stop action by which the organ is played; sometimes detached from the instrument. [5] from Matthews' "Handbook of the Organ," p. 52 _et seq_. [6] Organ built by the Ernest M. Skinner Co. * * * * * * [Illustration: DR. ALBERT PESCHARD. Inventor of Electro-Pneumatic Action.] Dr. Albert Peschard was born in 1836, qualified as an advocate (Docteur en droit), and from 1857 to 1875 was organist of the Church of St. Etienne, Caen, France. He commenced to experiment in electro-pneumatics in the year 1860, and early in 1861 communicated his discoveries to Mr. Barker. From that date until Barker left France, Peschard collaborated with him, reaping no pecuniary benefit therefrom. Peschard, however, was honored by being publicly awarded the Medal of Merit of the Netherlands; the Medal of Association Francaise pour l'Avancement d
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