Self-playing street organs
Self-playing street organs
These pages are the myriad tasks that coalesce into a functional street organ.
A circus life for me?
A circus life for me?
Copilot designs a street organ
Copilot designs a street organ
I asked Coppy to design a street organ. I gave some descriptions and ideas and AI came up with this.
Coppy organ halucinations
Coppy organ halucinations
I've been consulting Copilot ("Coppy") for input into various projects, and I wanted to share some of the creative visions my artificial friend created for an organ design.
David's first Topsy 3
David's first Topsy 3
This is an early iteration of my street organ! At this point it's playable and it includes the rebuilt Thomas orchestra bells as a glockenspiel, the kid-sized bass drum, candy-can snare drum, rohr schalmei pipes as the octave pipes, and an unfinished case.
Experimental organ chassis
Experimental organ chassis
This is one of the early mock-ups -- I have a rudimentary windchest mounted in a frame with the double-action bellows, reservoir, spring, and air distribution.
New Topsy case and carriage build
New Topsy case and carriage build
Persistence plus patience equals pipes
Persistence plus patience equals pipes
Making pipes was a learning experience for me -- settling on materials and construction methods, etc. I learned to just do it carefully according to instructions before experimenting with the design and construction. The folks who have made pipes historically, including John Smith, do things for reasons. They've gone through the trial and error so I might as well learn from them. In addition, it's really important to be careful and neat. Angles, dimensions, and joints all matter so slow down for precision. Here's some examples of pipes I made that didn't work right.
Street organ interpretation
Street organ interpretation
Topsy box drawing
Topsy box drawing
These are the dimensions of Topsy's case.