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First United Methodist Church - 3/28 Johnson & Son / Muller Pipe Organ Main Page Great Division Swell Division Antiphonal Division Pedal Division Console Other Photos Stop List

First United Methodist Church of London
London, OH
3/28 Johnson & Son / Muller
Opus 814 - 1894/2010

Photos of the Great Division

 Click on the photo to see a larger image

Great The Great Division sits in the center of the room behind the altar area. The pipes are elevated approximately 9' above the church floor. The facade, which was installed in 1995 by Muller, contains non-speaking pipes (called "dummy pipes"). There are 13 ranks and 781 pipes in the Great Division.
Great Immediately behind the facade are black expression shutters which allow the organist to control the volume from the division. Many organs do not have the Great Division "under expression", however this organ does.

The ranks of pipes from right to left are Open Diapason, Dulciana and Melodia (wood pipes). All three of these ranks of pipes are from the original Johnson & Son pipe organ.
Great Pipe builders often will stamp information on the pipe such as the rank and pitch of the pipe. Here we see someone has hand-written the pitch (C) and rank (Mel for Melodia).
Great Here is another view of the pipes in the front of the Great Division chamber, illustrating their proximity to the expression shutters. In addition to the Open Diapason, Dulciana and Melodia ranks, the Octave rank can be seen in the bottom of the photo.
Great Toward the back of the chamber are some of the smallest pipes in the division. The four rows of pipes spaced closely together make up the Mixture rank which was added in 1988. To the right of it is the Tierce which was added in 2010. Left of the Mixture is the Trumpet rank, and left of it is the  Fifteenth rank. 
Great The Flute D'amour rank has a stopper in the top of the pipe which doubles the speaking pitch of the pipe. So a roughly 1' long pipe will speak at the 2' pitch. The stopper is also used to tune the pipe. The hole in the top is a curious detail of its construction.
Great This photo shows some of the midrange pipe work in the chamber, as well as the many differences in pipe construction. The Trumpet rank is tethered to keep the pipes from falling over. The lead and tin metals used are quite soft and over time these pipes will lean and eventually fall over.
Great Here is a closer look at the larger Melodia pipes which have a hole on the side of the pipe. Some pipes have this to prevent harmonics from sounding instead of the fundamental pitch of the pipe. Note the similarities and differences to the tiny Melodia pipe above.
Great Within the Trumpet rank is this mitered pipe. Pipes are often mitered when there are space restrictions within the organ chamber. The current position of this pipe has no such restrictions, therefore the mitering may have been due to the pipe's previous position in the organ. Mitering does not affect the pitch of the pipe.  
Great Looking up in the back corner are the largest pipes in the Great. The pipes along the back wall are from the Open Diapason rank. Note the arch above the pipes on the top right side which shows the original configuration of the chamber before it was enclosed and put under expression. Pipes once stood where the expression shutters are today. 

First United Methodist Church - 3/28 Johnson & Son / Muller Pipe OrganMain PageGreat DivisionSwell DivisionAntiphonal DivisionPedal DivisionConsoleOther PhotosStop List
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