As he searched through the Star-Phoenix files, he remembered that he was 13 years old when he saw the article - that would have been in 1932. He found the article, and wrote a letter to Mr. Hall, having only the street name in Victoria, B.C., no house number.
He waited a year for the reply, and later, when he met Mr. Hall in person, he found that the Halls had moved to England shortly after the article was written and had only recently moved back to Victoria. And they had a different address. Eight years had elapsed since the article was written.
Stuart would remark how different the postal system was then, for some industrious soul had taken the time to research Mr. Hall's new address.
Mr. Hall passed away in the mid 1990's.The whereabouts of his family and the thirty years of letters from Stuart that he collected over the years, is unknown.
The organ that was in Mr. Hall's house at the time of his passing was bought by another Victoria resident.
The letters reproduced here are a very small sampling. This file is extremely large, and will take several months to transcribe.
Victoria, B.C.
Dec. 1, 1940
Dear Mr. Kolbinson: -
I was very interested to receive your letter and, yes, I am the man that made the organ! I am by no means a professional organ builder, but if I can be of any help to anyone like-minded I shall be only too pleased to be of any help possible. Please notice my address is changed to what it was when the directory was compiled.
It is many years ago (and I am not an old man yet, I hope) since I saw in our public library a book entitled "Organ Building for Amateurs." I had always been "crazy" over organs but had to confine myself to the reed species. From instructions contained in this book I made a pipe and that was my downfall. I made several, then more, and finally got two or three octaves. I then bought an old reed organ for $3.00, extracted all the reeds and bought several yards of rubber tubing (such as used for bathroom showers) and stuck one end of the tube in the reed cell and the other in the pipe. Having reversed the valves on the bellows so they blew instead of "sucked" I had a pipe organ, - after a fashion, but it wasn't much good on the lower notes, and of course I only had one set of pipes. Once more I consulted the book and, to make a long story short so as not to bore you too much finally made a half-respectable pipe-organ. That was the one that got me the publicity, as some newspaper men, through a neighbor, got to hear of it and came up to see it. In 1935 we went to England "for good," and sent a vast amount of material to the auction rooms, organ included, - I almost gave it away. Within a year we were back in Victoria, starting all over again, and it wasn't long before I started another organ, - I'm funny that way.
So in our dining room I have "installed" a one-manual organ, electrically blown, with three sets of pipes, Open Diapason 8 ft., Stopped Diapason 8 ft. Principal 4 ft. tremulant and swell, and it does not sound too bad, although I am afraid a real organ-builder would collapse if he ever saw its "innards."
By now I guess you are thoroughly bored and want to know how I made my pipes. I was exceedingly fortunate and it was by mere chance that I picked up in a second-hand store two ancient volumes entitled "Amateur Work Illustrated." These books contained in serial style the identical material which was in the library book "Organ Building for Amateurs." This book, by the way, is out of print and cannot be obtained, unless second hand. Another thing, I believe somehow the newspapers got the idea I used newspaper for pipes. You must use a good grade of heavy brown wrapping paper, don't try anything else, I even tried wall-paper but it wasn't so good.
To get the correct diameter and length of pipes make a scale as I have shown here. (diagram) Draw it out full size, and you will get the diameter and length of any pipe you wish. I procured short lengths of "round" from a wood-working factory where I work, in diameters from 1/4" to 2 1/2". On these I glued and rolled the pipes. Get a sheet of paper and, say for middle C cut it about 2'2" or so long, and wide enough to roll around a piece of 1 1/2" round at least 4 times thusly (diagram) Put a pencil mark where to start gluing. Be sure not to get any glue on your wooden round or your are "sunk," the paper must be free to slip off when glued.
"When this is done both tube and cone must be painted or varnished on inside. This is easily accomplished by tying a small piece of rag on the end of a wire." -Unquote-
about 1/8 or 3/16 thick (for middle C) :
The top one is bevelled and do not cut it down to too-sharp an edge. Rub any sharp edges off with fine paper. These are the upper and lower lips.
You will find you can roll a bunch of tubes and cones on, say Monday, glue your languids in, and if carefully handled and stood upside down, cone and pipe may be glued together Tuesday, and on Wednesday you can fit the lips, paint them Thursday, and on Friday you will most likely get bawled out for not going to bed at a decent hour!!
These pipes sound very nice if stopped. I used a piece of round wood which fits snugly (and it must fit snug, - the least crack and your pipe won't sound). As no doubt you know they sound an octave lower if stopped. Tuning is accomplished by sliding the "plug" in and out.
According to the book lots of fancy stops can be made in paper: Gemshorn, Flageolet, Keraulophon, etc., but on my small organ I have an open diapason. Then a stopped diapason, made the same way, and a principal also made the same way only an octave higher.
I have made a fan, motor-driven, which blows air into a reservoir, and the keyboard action is the simple tracker, nothing pneumatic or electric. The stop action is the old-fashioned (but simple) slider.
If your experience is anything like mine you will find that some pipes, you can throw them together, and - toot! - they sound lovely, others you can play all night with them, and all you get is PFFFFFFT! Throw 'em away and make a new one.
I hope you can read and understand my scribble, and here's wishing you lots of luck and fun, and please write soon and let me know how you make out.
Yours sincerely,
Fred Hall
* * *
March 30, 1941
Dear Stuart
Very many thanks for your most interesting letter received yesterday. When I came home for lunch at 12:15 it was waiting for me, so "eats" came second. My wife said she knew it was from you without looking at the writing - by the thickness! - oh well, the thicker the better. I sometimes wonder when I have finished one of my lengthy epistles how I am going to get it in the envelope.
Very glad you got the pictures OK and thanks for the nice comments you made. I am afraid the pictures of the organ rather flatter it - they don't show the little wrinkles in the paper show-pipes, or that the labels on the stop-knobs are typewritten on paper, and soon start to look dirty. The snaps don't show various other defects, but for all that I like to switch on the juice and amuse myself on it, it doesn't sound too bad.
If I do say so it makes a reed organ sound "reedy." After all, I think the purest musical note there is, is the organ pipe. For actual sweetness and purity of tone it has everything surpassed, and when you get a great organ (not meaning mine) with thousands of pipes all made, voiced and tuned by experts you have one of the finest, most magnificent creations human ingenuity ever devised. I often contrast guns, submarines, bombing planes etc. with organs. What a difference! However, I fear I am getting poetical, or sumpin'!
You say you are taking your organ books to a friends so as not to distract you during exams. Perhaps I had better quit writing for a week or two, huh?
I have not yet subscribed to the Diapason. I have been pretty busy lately, but may get around to it one of these days.
Quite an interesting account you gave of the organ from St. John's Cathedral. Boy! were you lucky to get those pipes and reeds. The slow action you speak of must have been rather exasperating to the organist, and somewhat amusing to an onlooker. By the way, you mention that the player "pumped pedals which operated suction bellows" which worked the action. I presume the pipes must have had an independent wind supply. In regard to the action, you say it was worthless unless the tubes were short. Too bad you couldn't improve on it or remedy the defect some way. In large pneumatic action organs, where there is a considerable distance between console and organ a "pneumatic relay" is put halfway between so as to overcome any sluggishness in the action. This was described in Lewis' book which I got from our library. I was going to try and draw one but cannot remember the exact details. It was simply a little pneumatic wind chest, one side of which was connected to the console and the other to the main action of the organ. I was wondering if you could use something similar, although the tracker action is more simple and positive for a small organ.
You must be a glutton for work in chopping those granite blocks. Yes! I can quite imagine there is a "knack" as you say in squaring the boulders. I think I would be very much tempted to make my fence, or stone wall thusly using lots of cement or mortar or what have you to hold it together!
and as I've said it works O.K.
Say! You quit worrying about cutting the circular pieces for your languids, lips etc. When you get that far I could mail you a whole boxful. They don't cost me anything, take upper lips, for instance. I get a bit of scrap pine or mahogany and cut it like a loaf of bread then just saw slices off.
Quicker than it takes to tell you it's done.
You ask about my tremulant. Well, that is something I am rather pleased with. In my first organ, about 1933 or 34, originally was high F in the reed organ your high C. It is hard to explain on paper perhaps a crude sketch would help:
I put an ad in our local paper a few years ago like this: "Wanted, reed organ, any condition. Will pay $2.50." Believe it or not, I got a reply, it was in a "slummy" district, and if paper, ink and time permitted, I could tell you a rather amusing story of how the parents were both in a local beer parlor and two small urchins were left in charge.
The eldest, a boy of about 10, assured me his mother said I could have the organ for $2.50, so I paid him and brought it home, but I did not dismember it. It was a lovely 13-stop Estey, and I still have it. I repeated the ad later and got an old organ with a nice keyboard (the keyboards usually are alright) and that was promptly dismantled, and supplied both keyboard and stop-knobs.
If you have any trouble getting a keyboard I shold be very glad to help you as it would not be impossible to send you one in a parcel. (Possibly cut in half.)
No! Don't worry about turning the wooden mandrels for your paper pipes. Surely there is a wood-working plant which runs mouldings of various kinds. Our local mills keep "rounds" in stock, the following sizes: 3/8", 1/2", 5/8", 3/4", 1", 1-1/4", 1-1/2", 1-3/4", 2", 2-1/4", 2-1/2" in long lengths. For my cones I simply took a piece of round, whittled it to a point, and cut it off at the dotted line.
Yes, I have heard about the Diapason magazine. But I enquired at one of our large newsstands and they didn't know anything about it. Where and how do you get them?
In the book "Modern Organ Building" there is an item re the material pipes are made of. I quote -
"Metal. It is apparent that the tubular structure of metal pipes is due to the properties of the material of which they are made. 'Metal' in organ bulders' phraseology applied to pipes means an alloy of tin and lead. The higher the percentage of tin the better the metal is to work up to a composition of about equal portions of both. The large bright spots on the surface of true "spotted metal" indicate an alloy of nearly equal quantities of tin and lead. With such a composition the solder fuses readily with the metal. Pure tin is not sufficently workable to be used. ------- Pipes of almost pure lead are used in cheap work. When of any size these gradually settle down and lose shape and adjustment at the mouths and feet." unquote
There are pages more on this subject but I think I will try a pipe or two of sheet lead, as an experiment. To quote again: - "Weighty, ponderous tone requires like material for pipes to produce it. ------ Elasticity should be replaced by rigidity, and material should be of such substance and strength that it will not vibrate easily. ------- Vibration communicated to the body of a pipe from the enclosed air must be subtracted as loss to power, for the gain resulting from the banding (soldering one or two bands around them) of a defective pipe is one of increased firmness and volume of tone."
The above explains in part, I think, the weakness of my lower octaves. The paper will not stand the low heavy vibrations, the pipe vibrates too, with "loss of power." Although I use several thicknesses of paper and the pipes seem as firm and hard as wood. I think I may try one of lead, if it will "stay put."
Well, it is my bed-time now... will finish this boring (to you?) epistle later!
It is now Friday, Jan 24. I started writing on Monday, Jan 20! I wrote a little on Tuesday, Wed and Thurs I had to go out. I hope I finish tonight. I have been reading over some of your letters. I am sure glad that you took the trouble to dig me up, and once again I think you are to be highly congratulated in your patience and perseverance. I am hoping that you did not think that "Frederick Hall" was a highly skilled organ builder of many years experience, who could give you valuable............................ (the end of this letter, page 9, is missing)
* * *
Oct 29, 1944
Dear Stuart: -
Thanks for your very interesting and prompt reply. You sure were quick, weren't you! However there is no need to apologize when you are a little late in writing because I understand that you sure must have your hands full at times, particularly in the summer months.
Your letter was very interesting apart from the organ news. So one of your sisters is getting married. that means that you will acquire a brother-in-law. Is he an organ fan? If not - well, 'nuf sed. soincerely hope that you get the end of your house off and on again before the snow sets in. Brrrrrrrr! What a place to live. Oh well, we get our share of cold weather, too. Prairie people say they feel colder here at 25 (blow me down! there's no 'degree' sign on this tripe writer!) or 30 degrees than they do on the prairies at 10 or 20 below. It's the damp atmosphere. But at the worst our cold spells only last a week at the most, - that is extreme cold. Our cold snaps usually run on this schedule: Sunday, cold perhaps 25 ABOVE, Monday colder, 15 to 20 ABOVE, Tuesday very cold, maybe 10 ABOVE, Wednesday temperature about the same, overcast, may start snowing a little, Thursday, not quite so cold, still snowing a bit, possibly three or four inches by now. Friday morning you wake up to a "drip drip drip" and you find that during the night it has risen to 33 or 34 ABOVE, it is raining, and the snow has all turned to soup, (Not one of Heinzes 57 varieties, either) and by the end of the week the weather is all back to normal again, - like it was when you were here. The foregoing is just an example of one of our cut and dried "cold snaps."
I must clear myself now of an impression that I seem to have given you about Eleanor's Latin!!!! AHEM. She has COMPLETED HER THREE YEARS AND WAS RECOMMENDED AND DIDN'T QUIT! That's that. Now I can breathe easily again. In other words, she has learnt all the Latin that was necessary in her course. I just had to tell you this in order to get back in her good favor again, - that is if I ever was.
Now, harrrrrrrumph! ORGANS, ah yes, - organs! First to clear up any misunderstanding re mine, I believe if you consult my last epistle you will find that I suggested wiring up the contacts to the switchboard, leaving enough cable to facilitate installing same in console. This wouldn't cost too much, would it? Needless to say it would be a far better job than I could do myself. I hope that you have ordered my stop tablets, that should pretty well complete the console.
I am quite busy just now working on organs, but not my own. I have just about finished a blower for Mr. Dix which he is going to put on a small organ that he is installing. This organ is about the same size as my own, that is the one that I now have in the dining room. I have also to make a small swell box for the same organ. Then (working for Mr. Dix) I had a repair job on a blower on a decrepit three-manual tracker (ugh!). The blower had been connected to the trunk by some rubberized cloth, which had now perished to such an extent that a gunny sack would just about have done as well. I replaced this with a section of heavy inner tubing off a truck.
Dix is now installing a small organ in Victoria West and I think he wants me to make a swell box for that, and also there is some work to do on the ornamental case.
I have made low C and C# on my pedals. They have passed inspection by both Mr. and Mrs. Dix who said they are, QUOTE, "Beautiful pipes" unquote. I have not made the stoppers for the ends yet, but when connected to the fan they sound as an open pipe, so I guess that they are alright. They are, of course considerably over 9 ft long overall, and I got my scale from Audsley's "Art of Organ Building" low C is 5 3/4 x 8, and halves on the sixteenth note. Eleanor calls them 'boxes.'
Yes, Mr. Dix told me that you had bought that organ up at Kelowna. Well you must have lots of spare parts now, anyway. I believe that I am getting some bellows from Kelowna. Chandos told me there were two sets up there, one 32" x 45" for, I think, $14.00. He is sending for them and this one should be just about right for me. It wol save a lot of work.
Thanks a million for your pressing invite to your organ dedication. Sure, I would love to come, and I don't mean maybe, BUT, like you, when I think what I am going to need for the organ, pipes, magnets, leather, bellows, chests, etc. etc. etc. and I have to pay the balance on the keyboards and switchboards, - well?????? Also there is the little matter of time. One can hardly swish there and back over-night. HOWEVER, my wife has a cousin in Edmonton, and she says, "You can drop me off at Amy's and then go on and see Stuart," but I am afraid that won't be until after this blinking scrap is over. If I did a trip like that I would like to do it by car, but right now there is the trifling little matter of GAS. I sure would like to see you, not only you and the organ, but see a real big prairie farm, - do you call them 'farms'? Maybe I could come in harvest time and then I could pay my expenses by driving one of those mow-em-thrash-em-bale-em-contraptions, - what do you call 'em, combines?
I am afraid there wouldn't be much prairie left if ever I got on one of those things.
I guess that will be a great home-coming when your uncle arrives. He will sure have lots to tell. I bet his wife and family will be counting the days until his arrival.
Looking back over your letter I see that you have the fatted calf ready picked for when I come. Well, HANG ON TO HIM, he will be all the bigger when I DO come, and then we will have nice BIG juicy beef steaks instead of little dinky VEAL steaks!
That's about all this time. You understand about the wiring, do you? Have the contacts connected to the switch-boards, unless it would be a very expensive item, and also if your friend Cyril can spare the time.
I saw a 1/3 HP motor adverised in the paper today for $16.00 so I went and bought it. I may use it to run a small lathe or saw or someting, and anyway it will be good stock in hand for any future blower. I think it should have enough pip to blow the new organ. I can get a regular hurricane out of a 1/4 HP inthe fan I have just finished for Dix. The one I now use to blowmy present organ is 1/6 HP.
Well that's all this time. I shall be very glad to get another letter from you as prompt as your last one, - how about it?
Incidentally, at work we are making one or two thousand sash (I have not seen the order yet, so don't know exactly) for the Sterling Hardware Co. Saskatoon. Know em? Also, another funny thing, the manager of this outfit used to be boss of a place in Victoria where I worked once, several years ago. He had a row with the company, and it developed into a lawsuit, and then I never did hear the end of it. Now he turns up in Saskatoon.
With best regards, write soon,
Fred
* * *
December 10, 1950
Dear Stuart;
Thanks for the letter received a week or so ago. I am afraid I am a bit late answering. Sorry to hear that you had such a ghastly Fall. The weather must mean an awful difference to you in profit versus loss. We thought our weather bad enough last winter, one `cold snap' after another. It had the weather man baffled. On Jan 13th we had a blizzard. Hope it doesn't repeat it again this year.
In regard to the organ I am busy, when I get time, which seems about one night a week, making pneumatics for the chest. I sure hope they work O.K., as there is practically no means of testing them until the whole thing is put together and the wind turned on. I have as you know a total of 244 to make which takes considerable time. However we are slow, if not so sure.
No, the Presbyterian Church didn't get its new organ yet, and it may be around Easter before they do. I was in there a week or so ago. Cyril Warren the organist had a letter from Eaton's asking how many of his front display pipes were dummies and how many were speaking. They told him he could tell them apart because the speaking pipes were slotted for tuning. He told me they were all slotted and said would I go and check up on them for him. I went around on my way from work that night and met him at the church. They were definitely all speaking pipes. A row of 13 in the center stood on their own little chest and had been connected to the main chest by lead tubing. Then on either side were two sets of 7 pipes which had the wind conveyed to them through about 1 1/2" pipes. I saw the old chests again, they don't look `so hot,' and are very old, originally tracker converted about 50 years ago to pneumatic, and only 58 note. The temporary Hammond speaker is parked on one of them. Cyril says that some members of the church are quite satisfied with the Hammond and want to know what they are spending over $20,000.00 for anyway!! That's the trouble, people don't know a real organ when they hear one.
There certainly looks to be something fishy about that Dix set-up. I visited him at that Toronto St. address a month or so ago to return a book of his I had. They were living in two rooms and it was like a pig-pen, bed not made, (about 11 A.M.) and kitchen in a mess. They were bewailing the way they got cheated in some house they had bought, the one I took Lauren to when we thought we were going to visit them. It looks as if they cleared out leaving some organ stuff for rent. I told a friend about it and he was immediately on his guard, as Dix had some stuff belonging to him. Queer guy, with his knowledge of organs, which is not to be disregarded, he should have been well off by now if he had been more sensible in his business.
The other day we met Miss Marguerite McKay, organist at the R.C. Cathedral. I said "How's the organ?" she gave a look of utter disgust and ran Dix down, saying that her Open Diapason only sounded every other note, and she didn't know when it would be finished. Dix never came around, he has gone back to Vancouver. When we left her I told my wife, "Another one of Dix's satisfied customers." Sometimes think I wouldn't mind looking at that organ and sizing out the situation re finishing it for them. The trouble is that Dix has most likely got the thing in such a mess that only he could straighten it out again, and one could not go to him for information or advice if they had taken the job out of his hands.
The chest I am making is five rank, three on the swell and two on the great, Open Diapason and Principal on the Great, and Dulciana, Stopped Dia. and Flute on the swell, with sub and super couplers on the swell, super on the great, and great to sub and super on the swell, and of course pedal to manual couplers. I want to get the sound-boards working before I worry too much about pipes, I spend about three quarters of my time right now writing letters.
The reason of all the letters is that last October Eleanor went to live in London Ontario. Her boy-friend, or as I suppose I should say her `fiance' has joined the R.C.A.F. and has had to go to Ontario to train for a pilot. He has passed all the tests and is now on his way. (I mean on his way to be a pilot, he went to Ontario in September.) We correspond furiously, writing about two huge epistles per week. She likes it fine, had a job there before she went, in the `Victoria' Hospital, the largest hospital there. Last night I got the Xmas parcel wrapped up ready for mailing to them tomorrow. Some job. Now, of course my wife and I want to go and see London, which expense, if undertaken, would seriously interfere with the organ!!
How is Lauren? Is he coming out here again next year? Please remember us to him and tell him if he comes out here again in five or ten years we MIGHT have an organ for him to play on.
That looks like a fine console you have there. Never mind if it is a little old fashioned in regard to looks. If it works that is the main thing. I am getting rather tired of my console sitting there doing nothing. It doesn't look too bad, if I do say so myself, but is awfully useless the way it is now. Maybe some day??
Well, I have another letter to write, so must close now.
Best regards to all, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year
Fred
