two *very* unique old organ pipes.

These two (otherwise not terribly unusual looking anyway) old wooden organ pipes are truly MUSEUM PIECES in their own right -- only temporarily remaining in my own collections here for a short while longer until they will, with a few others, actually be returned to the Museum they've always belonged in, which in fact didn't quite exist yet when I came across them a couple decades or so ago.

To try to make a long story short(er), the World's Largest Pipe Organ was built and installed in the Atlantic City (NJ) Convention Hall (now officially called "Boardwalk Hall") in the 1920's, the organ itself in fact during the height of the Great Depression. IT STILL (both the building and the pipe organ) EXISTS to this day, both building and organ having received the benefit of many many many $$$ worth of rebuilding/restoration/"deferred maintenance" in recent decades. This is a VERY GOOD THING!! :-) :-) :-) :-) :-)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boardwalk_Hall_Auditorium_Organ

http://www.boardwalkhall.com/arena-information/pipe-organs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boardwalk_Hall

As part of the never before attempted process of building such a monumental instrument capable of filling such an enormous building with sound (y'all have no idea how big that room really is until you get there and see it...when one thinks about *when* it was built, that 'monumental' word again comes to mind...) and specifically when designing the pipes themselves, which by the extreme parameters of the job required a whole lotta re-engineering of anything that'd ever been done before in a coupleK yrs previous history of organbuilding, there were set(s) of "sample pipes" produced. Generally (as known history now suggests) there were probably at least one or two "notes" of nearly every rank of pipes in the organ (all ~450 of 'em) made then, often more probably, simply in order for those craftsmen tasked with actually making unlike any ever-before-built organ pipes to be able to actually experiment and find out **IF IT'D REALLY EVEN WORK LIKE THAT** ??? <LOL>

And one way or the other, these are two of those same exact "sample pipes". After the instrument's official completion, (again, as much as known history can tell us now) lots of them got dispersed in all sorts of ways over the decades between then and now -- many others no doubt discarded/etc by folks who didn't know, care, or whatever in the meantime.

These two are actually part of a small cache of the survivors formerly belonging to a dear friend. They came into my custody years ago when I helped build/donate a 'museum-ish' display of several other more interesting (visually) ones than these to the then non-profit group largely responsible for raising public interest and beginning the process of all the organ restoration work (which in timr since has been incredibly successful, though the whole project remains incomplete) for the instrument itself. (the State of NJ did the building, around the organ)

These two pipes, along with perhaps half a dozen more (?) which I am only now regaining access to recover from a storage locker otherwise full of boxes/stacks of very many more (and very less distinguished) old pipe organ parts, once re-discovered (amongst the rest of the detrius, most of which will become dumpster food) they will be duly be carefully packed to be finally returned to Atlantic City again to rejoin their brethren from the display I made years ago, plus no doubt many other examples that have also 'resurfaced' in recent decades since the whole 'ACCH organ restoration effort' began.

As a footnote for anybody that might happen to read this far and/or click on any of the links that might show a photo of the current "interior" of Boardwalk Hall. You won't be able to not notice the enormous "lighting grid structure" which now hangs underneath most of the actual ceiling of the room. As it so happens, the one and only time I've (yet?!) visited Boardwalk Hall and its organs (there's another smaller one in there too, in their "Ballroom") myself was during the period of time when the State of NJ (etc) was otherwise in full-fledged process of "restoring" the Auditorium itself, which happened to be the same general time we all set up that pipe display I made. Thus I also had the (weeklong, it really does take that long) opportunity to crawl in/around/through the *entire* instrument -- which included climbing all the way up (rickety, wooden) ladders and platforms winding their way from the upper mezzanine to actually the 'attic' (lack of better term) space where the two "ceiling chambers" of the instrument are located, about midway down the length of the whole room. The funnestest part of all those memories is the fact that (due to aforementioned reconstruction) the ceiling itself (now seen above the current lighting structure, that is) did not actually *EXIST* yet, the original having been already removed but not yet replaced. TRUST ME Y'ALL -- it is a **WHOLE HECKUVA LONG DARNED WAY DOWN** (being nice with the spelling of a couple of those words) from where "over that ceiling" is to where the concrete floor below it is...one of these days when I re-find the actual photos I took from there then I'll try to show one or two...

;-) :-) :-) <LOLOLOL>