This is a set of eight wooden rectangular stopped pipes. 2016.ph.720.1 is cubical and each proceeding pipe gets more elongated. Each pipe has a round wooden foot at the base and a proportionally sized lip.
Some of the pipes have strips of velcro affixed to one side.
Accession Number: 2016.ph.720.1-8
Alternative Name:
Primary Materials: Wood: Pine, Mahogany
Stamped on the body of the pipe: “RUDOLPH KOENIG À PARIS”
On the base of each pipe, next to the foot, handwritten in black ink: “99”. This refers to the number of the set in Rudolph Koenig’s 1873 catalogue.
Range from Length=16.2 Height=15.7 Width=15.7cm to Length=25cm, Height=3.6cm, Width=3.8
According to “Altered Sensations” by David Pantalony (New York: Springer, 2009): “In these pipes the product of the length by the depth is constant. Koenig wrote that according to Savart these pipes gave the same notes under most conditions.” (pg 247)
Fair: Condition varies, but each pipe has sustained some damage from use. All are chipped and scratched.
Some of the pipes have velcro affixed to one side, dating from their use in an interactive display.
Associated Instruments:
Manufacturer: Rudolph Koenig, Paris
Date of Manufacture: ca. 1878
These pipes are part of a collection of acoustic teaching apparatus purchased from Rudolph Koenig by University of Toronto professor of physics James Loudon. These pipes were part of Loudon’s initial 1878 purchase, and form part of a comprehensive selection of organ pipes “representing a… demonstration of every possible organ pipe effect.” (Pantalony, Altered Sensations. New York: Springer, 2009. Pg 119-122). These were likely used by students for investigations of acoustical properties at the university’s physics department teaching laboratory.
These pipes were collected from the Department of Physics, after a number had been used for some years as part of an interactive display.
These pipes were originally given separate accession numbers. When re-catalogued together, a document was created that provides information on original accession numbers and other transition information. A paper copy of this document, as of the end of August 2016, is stored in the 2016 file in UTSIC’s paper archive and in each pipe set’s folder.
See also: “Altered Sensations: Rudolph Koenig’s Acoustical Workshop in Nineteenth Century Paris” by David Pantalony (New York: Springer, 2009). In the text’s Catalogue Raisonné, these pipes are listed as entry #98 (according to Koenig’s 1889 catalogue), pg 247.
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