Field Trip to the Reuter Organ Company!

The Reuter Organ Company has been headquartered in Lawrence since 1919, and they are the one of four remaining organ companies in North America who make every component of an organ themselves. They create custom pipe organs for Churches, Colleges, Universities, Concert Halls, and the occasional private residence.

Many different types of materials are used in the pipe organs the Reuter Organ Company creates, including copper, zinc, lead, tin, sheep skin, goat skin, kangaroo skin, various types of wood, plastic, and cow bone. The copper and zinc are used on large pipes (over 4ft. tall), and a lead/tin alloy is used on the smaller ones, with 50% of both components. The wood is used to create air reservoirs, as well as the varying types of skin. However, only sheep skin is used when creating the valves that open and close the pipes. Wood, plastic, and cow bone are used to create the keys that make up the console box, no ivory is used to create keys anymore.

To form the pipes, the company has its own casting technology. They heat up the metal, then our it down a trough into a contraption that allows them to lay it out in perfect sheets, then allow it to cool. They also use slip rolls to create the pipes shape, and weld or solder the pieces together. All the wood working is either done with a saw, or with a CNC router for the complicated/large designs. As for finishing the pipes off, they will either polish them, paint them with automotive grade paint, or create "flaming copper pipes" by getting sheets of copper and taking a blow torch to them for a "flaming" effect.

One organ created by these guys can cost anywhere from $500,000 to $2 million and is quite a process. The design process itself can take anywhere from 3 months to 3 years, and the construction process can take between 12 weeks to 6 months. Since their opening, they've created 2,200 organs from scratch, and restored just as many. To give a rough picture of how much work they do over that time period, I will tell you that there are 61 individual pipes in a set, but an average organ could be made up of 50 sets. The largest playing pipe organ has 30,000 pipes on it, although Reuter Organ Company can't take the credit for that one. They can, however, take credit for many organs all over the country, and a few overseas as well. No other instrument can go as low or as high as the organ, and it was the original synthesizer, so Reuter Organ Company does its best to serve the King of Instruments.

Our guide was also nice enough to play some organ music for us, it went something like this:

What a fantasmal trip! I quite enjoyed seeing the processes of such an interesting company up close for myself. Fairly educational, and I know I shall remember it a lot better than I would have merely reading about it. Thank You May! And thank you to the wonderful people a Reuter Organ Company for having us as well.

-RM