Travis playing Natchez Calliope

I love to hear that on a tracker action 😉

I suppose the first calliopes were, in essense, tracker instruments, as the keys directly opened the valves. Later calliopes used direct electric action, in the form of solenoid valves. I'm not aware of any electropneumatic action calliopes as used on a number of pipe organs.

I've always toyed with the concept of having different sounding ranks of whistles on calliopes as stops. I have one open top whistle design that is the equivalent of a Gamba pipe on steroids that sounds very much like an air horn. It is of very large scale and even uses a harmonic bridge and mouth of high cutup. Being a true whistle, however, it would be easy to keep such a rank in tune with the conventional closed top whistles. The combined sound of these two "ranks" is very similar to that of a harmonica.

It's neat to see all of the similarities between calliopes and pipe organs. Whistles are essentially flue organ pipes of extreme scale and output.

Bruce MacCullagh;6271 wrote: I love to hear that on a tracker action 😉

Watch That NATCHEZ Back!

Tavis sure is a hotshot on that Frisbie calliope, but this clip of the NATCHEZ backing onto the dock in a killer, on-shore, wind really set my heart ta' pounding. Whatta boat!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6c72qrAOvEk&mode=related&search=

Have you ever handled her, Sam? She's a sweetheart!

Bruce,

I have played 3 old tracker steam calliopes and I can tell you, I can't do that on those! Try as I might (I have a recording of me on one tracker that is downright embarassing) a tracker is only played in the proper tempo.

When I get home I should post some of the tracker photos I have showing the mechanism used to operate the valves. Someone remind me to do that next week!

~Travis~

Do tracker calliopes use balanced valves or do they require brute force on the keys to overcome the steam pressure? I have also heard that the keyboards of early calliopes were made of brass and that they acted as heat sinks to the steam valves, making it hot on the player's hands. Is this true?

Travis Vasconcelos;6276 wrote: Bruce,

When I get home I should post some of the tracker photos I have showing the mechanism used to operate the valves. Someone remind me to do that next week!

~Travis~

The Toulouse Street Wharf is at an angle to Bienville, so the approach is normally about 45 degrees. But you can see in this onshore wind they got her parallel to the wharf while out 50 yards or so, and then the wind just brought her in with barely a bump, much to the surprise of the cameraman. In addition to having the rudders way over, the bowthruster, weak as it is, would have been on too. The new wharf has a shock resistant bumper on the piers too, so this smooth landing is quite the norm, thanks to Alan's design and the skills of Steve, Don, and Troy.

First Steered for Cap'n Sam

First time I steered the NATCHEZ I was in the pilothouse with Captain Sam Cantanni (?). Sam loved to jaw, and now that he had a steersman, he immediately grabbed the microphone for the PA system and his conversation to a packed boat, in all his glorious YAT accent, went something like this:

"Ladies and Gentlemen. Got Cap'n Sanners wid me. He gonn'a steer de boat, an' I gonna talk."

And talk he did... for the entire ride.

When we got down to Chalmette, Cap'n Sam took a moment's repose from his dissertation to his captured audience and commanded:

"Put 'er hard down. Put 'er hard down."

And so I shoved the sticks hard-a-stab bard, the only way to go, and never slowing down, as the NATCHEZ made a mad dash for the West Bank; up, and behind, a long line of ships at anchor in the quarantine fleet, and away we flew up toward Algiers Point before crossing back over to the New Orleans side and on to the turn around before heading back down to the landing. WOW!

That wasn't the last time I handled her, but the time I remember the most.

Richard,

The valves are double-seated balanced...but the force required still isn't easy! The brass keyboards were standard, there is still one on the BELLE OF LOUISVILLE today. The brass was hot from the sun shining on it, the heat did not transfer from the tracker cables to the keys. The asbestos gloves thing I do believe is something perpetuated about 40 or so years ago for "colour and flourish", because I have seen no mention of them in research or from the old timers I know and have known.

The Belle of Louisville's calliope is one of my favorite. It stays more in tune than most. Does it use a pressure regulator on it? I thought I spotted one in the video.

What is your personal preference for playing? A tracker or an electric action? Apparently a solenoid valve calliope would be much easier to play, but you would lose the feel of opening the valves.

[QUOTE=Travis Vasconcelos;6282]Richard,

The valves are double-seated balanced...but the force required still isn't easy! The brass keyboards were standard, there is still one on the BELLE OF LOUISVILLE today.

Richard,

You can credit the tune quality to its builder, David Morecraft. David and I met in 1985 and the conversations and friendship lead to the calliope. He had already built one calliope which was a cherry! It took alot of work , blood, sweat and tears...but in the end we got one on the BELLE. David replicates the calliopes of Thomas J. Nichol (Cincinnati, OH 1890-1924). I particularly wanted a Thomas J. Nichol as a replacement aboard the BELLE and of course there wasn't one to be found.

Larry Mac Pherson, pipe organ builder from Indianapolis, IN. and David had worked together with maintenance issues on the Indiana University Calliope (b 1923 Thomas J. Nichol Pearl and Vine Streets Cincinnati) and developed a formula for the building of the whistles. Basically, they were using measurements of the IU Calliope and two other Nichol built calliopes to come up with the exact measurements used in building Dave's first instrument.

Sadly, Larry passed in 1994, but the IU calliope (from the Showboat Majestic) plays on and will be at the Indiana state fair the last 5 days of the fair in mid August this year.

The BELLE OF LOUISVILLE instrument first started taking shape in 1985 and I wanted it from first sight of the first couple of whistles. After a long period of politicing and many meetings, demonstrations, and conversations we were able to convince the Engineers and Board of the BELLE to do a "test" with this calliope on the BELLE.

On the 18th of April 1988 we installed the calliope, shortly after the console of the calliope was moved to the back of the Texas Deck (so passengers could see some of the operation of the calliope). this was a three hour affair in which Dave and I removed the old whistles, set the new whistles, and tuned the set to themselves. The Operating Board of the boat purchased the set of whistles just before Tall Stacks (I) in October of 1988.

The result is s calliope which maintains very reasonable tune, operated on approximatly 50psig and recieves very little if any maintenance due to quality of construction and durability.

They do have a regulator on the BELLE calliope. It keeps the manifold to approx. 60 psig and the instrument at normal performance is operating in the 45-50psig range.

The manifold is inordinantly large, 6" in diameter. Because of this, there are ports drilled into the whistles and the elbows of the line aft of the valve to reduce the amount of condensate in the whistles. One could assume the operating presure of the whistles is lowered for this exhaust an therefore operate at about 40psig.

In other words...I am very proud of what we made happen on the boat! The collaboration between Dave and Larry in the early 80's and a little work and politicing on my part got the BELLE what I deem the finest calliope built in modern times. Both dave and myself have performed on it in the last month and are still very happy with the result.

Anyone wanna buy a steam calliope?

My preference is for a steam calliope with Magnatrol electronic solenoid valve operation like on the BELLE, NATCHEZ, and DELTA QUEEN. However, the cost of the Magnatrol valve can be a little prohibitive. ASCO makes a good valve which is a little less costly and operates a slight bit slower. However, on the opposite end of the spectrum, a good Perfessor can make a tracker (manual) calliope sing MUCH better than the electronic counterpart. Maybe if I ever get stuck with one for a long period of time, I too can develop this rare talent!

If you are ever near Peru, IN the 3rd weekend if July, you will want to stop by the Circus City Festival, they have a parade with at least 2 steam calliopes in it and Herbie Head plays the Gentry Twin Wagon which is a tracker and he is quite talented with it. I think because of his history performing on them with the old traveling shows.

~Travis~

Thanks Travis, you just pointed out a number of reasons why the calliope on the Belle of Louisville is a good one:

1) The use of a pressure regulator
As in pipe organs, the pitch can vary somewhat with changes in the pressure. The regulator keeps the pressure constant whether you are playing the smallest whistle by itself, or a large chord using a number of the larger whistles. It's amazing how well it works with steam, which has a speed of sound of 1330 ft/second as opposed to 1130 ft/second in air. Usually there is a period of transition of the media from steam to air, which causes the pitch to rise about 3 semitones.

2) The use of a large manifold
The manifold on a calliope is analogous to a windchest on a pipe organ. If it is of too small a cross sectional area, the pressure can vary from one end to the other during heavy demands. The use of a large cross sectional area prevents this from happening.

Incidently I also design whistles by relating the parameters of scale (working length to diameter ratio), cutup (the distance between the bell and the bowl) and slit width to operating pressure, output and frequency. The cause/effect relationship of these parameters is very precise and predictable.

Several members of my Steam Whistle group have been using interactive spreadsheets, based on my research, to design their own chime whistles which perform exactly as planned the very first time off the lathe in regard to operating pressure, frequency and output. See my research on this at http://rjweisen.50megs.com and http://groups.yahoo.com/group/steam-whistles

Like you, I also prefer Magnetrol solenoid valves (Type S for steam).
http://www.valvate.com/MagnaMain.htm

It should be obvious that I meant the pitch rises from the transition of "air to steam", as the speed of sound in steam is higher than in air. I goofed!

[QUOTE=Richard Weisenberger;6291]Thanks Travis, you just pointed out a number of reasons why the calliope on the Belle of Louisville is a good one:

Usually there is a period of transition of the media from steam to air, which causes the pitch to rise about 3 semitones.

Thanks for the great information!!

BTW, I asked my parents why they wanted their 50th wedding anniversary to be a steamboat cruise on the Ohio, and they said that when they were dating they could hear the calliope on the Avalon, but they couldn't afford a cruise. Since then they have been on the Belle of Louisville, but they wanted the overnight experience.

The power of a calliope.

One week to go!!