Bibliography

Organ technology

Robert L. Eby, Electronic Organs (Van Kampen Press, 1953)

Robert L. Eby was an organist, inventor and entrepreneur. At the time that Electronic Organ was published, Eby was the Technical Director at House of Organs in Hollywood, CA. Later, he opened Artisan Music Hall, an organ showroom that also screened silent films with live organ accompaniment. A short bio in Electronic Organs notes that Eby’s personal home organ was a custom-built “three-manual electronic ‘monster’” containing “nearly 500 tubes”. Eby patented an organ tone generator (3,459,869) in 1965 and a nine-pin plug assembly for converting tube oscillators to solid state (3,531,654) in 1969.

Electronic Organs is billed as “A Complete Catalog, Textbook and Manual”. It has a section for each of the major American organ manufacturers at the time, and a description of each of their product offerings. For such a short book, there is substantial technical detail on tone generators and other electronic circuits. The technical information is accessible, but it does assume that the reader has a musician’s understanding of organ features and functionality. It is also “profusely illustrated,” as the dust cover promises. The photographs and illustrations range from catalog-style glamor shots of organ models to circuit schematics and annotated photos of organ and tone cabinet interiors. There is a diagram showing where to install an Allen organ in a church, and where to install a Baldwin organ in an auditorium. It is an eclectic and engagingly-presented collection of information. Pick up a used copy or view a PDF here.