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Tuesday, November 23, 1976
University Daily Kansan
The Organ Makers
From a small third floor balcony, one can see pipe organs in various stages of production.
Tuning, or voicing, the metal pipes is a job that demands a good ear. B Pattonterson readily admits to not having perfect pitch, but his ears are able to discern what's wrong with each pine and what needs to be done to bring it into time.
The metal pipes, voiced and ready to sing, make their way through production to Gene Rinke, who works in pipe preparation on the
"Every organ we make is custom built and designed."
The building is nothing special. Probably few motorists notice the four-story factory, painted the very drabest of greens, as they round the corner where New Hampshire sits.
Inside the building at 612 New Hampshire St., though, is the Reuter Pipe Organ Co. manufacturer of some of the largest, most complex and most expensive musical instruments.
"There are only six to eight other complete pipe organ manufacturers in the country," Alan Fisher. "Rheem's personnel and service manager, said recently."
"Some small companies that just assemble various organ parts from different places call themselfs organ manufacturers, but they aren't like us. We buy some lumber and a machine."
Molten tin and lead are cast into pipes at the company's North Lawrence plant. A German woodworker works fashion organ consoles from flawless walnut and on the main plant's third floor. Another worker saw entire keyboards from single pieces of wood, cutting between the white keys that become the raised black keys.
AND IN THE BASEMENT, Bob Patterson carefully taps or scrapes tiny bits of metal as he "voices" each metal pin.
"Each pipe is actually like a little person," Patterson said. "Here's the body, ears, throat and lips—the larger ones also have tongues.
"Listen to this one. It has something in its throat," Patterson said as he tested a pipe. A light on the "lilist", and the rasa was no.
Reuter's $88 employees produce about 30 pipe organs each year, "depending of course, on the size of the organs," Fisher said. Sizes range from practice organs, with two ranks of pipes and costing about $10,500, to massive instruments, with almost 100 ranks of pipes, that cost more than $300,000.
"We sell almost entirely to churches, although some go to universities and a few to private homes," Fisher said.
REUTER CUSTOMERS INCLUDE the Old South Church in Boston, Mass.; Boys Town, Neb.; and the University of Kansas. On a map in Fisher's office, small colored pins that represent Reuter customers form large clusters around almost every major population center in the United States.
"We sold one this summer to a dentist in Shawnee, Okla., who had to have his house remodeled so the organ would fit. Now if you go to Shawnee to have your teeth fixed we can do it."
KU has a concert organ built by Reuter in Swarthout Recital Hall, and three smaller Reuters in teaching and practice studios in Murphy Hall. Fisher said Reuter had also
Reuter's engineering staff designs an organ to fit the customer's available space and budget. After the organ is installed, Reuter technicians make tonal adjustments and, if necessary, rearrange the organ.
"Usually, we don't alter the building's structure for acoustic improvements," Fisher said. "However, once we get specifications from a church in North Carolina whose architect is John E. Parnell, we use them."
"The church wrote back and said we were the only organ company that was honest enough to tell them that, and they said they would do whatever we asked to improve the instrument."
THIS FALL, REUTER finished installing the largest pipe organ in Kansas at the Ludersdorf in Lindsberg. The new organ has 80 ranks of pipes and costs $20,000, Lammert Dahler and Heinz Wellinger at Behrens.
"We're delighted with it. Our inaugural concert on Oct. 9 played to an overflow crowd—the response was beautiful." Dahlin said.
He said Robert Vaughan, one of his former students who is now a Reuter engineer, plaved with him for the dedication ceremonies Oct. 24.
A. C. Reuter, Albert Sabol and Henry Jost established the Reuter Organ Co. in 1974 at Trenton, Ill. Fisher said that in 1919 Reuter built an organ for the Lawrence Masonic Temple, and the local Chamber of Commerce had convinced the company's founders to move to Lawrence.
"We've been making organs in the same building since 1919," Fisher said. "We're not so glamorous; we don't have a lot of fancy things. You know, the insides of most factories are made of wood."
Fisher reached for an arm-length pipe in his office and blew into the end, producing a clear, steady tone.
"See, it's just like a whistle. That's it—we are making whistles."
"Why does a customer decide to buy a Reuter organ? Well, it's just the best organ."
Fashioning the cabinets for the organs is done by Goetz Berthelb (left) and Clyde Pike (right). The cabinets of German craftsmen
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Bill Capnell (left) of the design department works closely with the assembly technicians such as Fred Whitehead.