terry hicks wrote:
>
> Loud does not necessarily have anything to do with size.

Indeed it doesn't. It may simply be a matter of the builder.

Baron Georg Ludwig von und um Laut began building Laut organs even
before Bach was born. Laut Orgelbau continued in business, pioneering
such innovations as compound leverage in key actions (allowing for
higher wind pressures), and developing a pneumatic assist system called
the Laut Barker (named after the chief engineer's dog), and under the
guidance of reed voicer Wolfgang Parter, developed some impressive solo
reeds (which were collectively named after Herr Parter).

The company remained in the family under the Laut name until the late
19th century, when Klaus Wilhelm, the last Baron von und um Laut died
without a male heir, whereupon the company passed into the hands of the
Baron's only daughter, Monika, who had married the famed Scottish
bagpipe-maker, Leod MacLeod, and whereupon the company changed its name
to Laut & MacLeod. MacLeod's bagpipe-making skills soon found full voice
with the company, and under his leadership, it became an early-adopter
of electropneumatic actions.

His son Louden eventually took the company into partnership with the
McClowder Aircraft Engine Company, forming Louden MacLeod and McClowder,
which flourished in both the U.K. and the U.S. until the Orgelbewegung
began to shift tastes away from their signature products in the 1950s,
and would have gone completely out of business with his death except for
his daughter's 1957 marriage into the family of Lord Woolley, which had
for some time been in the business of building calliopes, band organs,
and theatre organs. The daughter, Vera, decided the two companies had to
close ranks in order to avoid closing altogether, and she named the
resulting conglomerate after her own married name and her father's given
name, and managed to save the family business, and keep it going until
tastes changed again in the 1990s, and there was once again a demand for
Vera Louden Woolley organs.

--
James H. H. Lampert
Professional Dilettante
http://www.hb.quik.com/jamesl
http://members.hostedscripts.com/antispam.html
http://www.thehungersite.com

Help America's Passenger Trains. http://www.saveamtrak.org

Read My Lips: No More Atrocities!

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