Note 2 — Chapter IV

Dr. Gauntlett's idea was to play all the organs shown in the Great Exhibition in London, in 1851, from one central keyboard. He proposed to place an electro-magnet inside the wind-chest under each pallet, which would have required an enormous amount of electric current. The idea was never carried out. This plan seems also to have occurred to William Wilkinson, the organ-builder of Kendal, as far back as 1862, but, after some experiments, was abandoned. An organ constructed on similar lines was actually built by Karl G. Weiglé, of Echterdingen, near Stuttgart, Germany, in 1870, and although not at all a success, he built another on the same principle which was exhibited at the Vienna Exhibition in 1873. Owing to the powerful current necessary to open the Pallets, the contacts fused and the organ was nearly destroyed by fire on several occasions.