The Reuter Organ Company

Recently, my Materials and Processes class made a field trip down to The Reuter Organ Company (1220 Timberedge Road, Lawrence, KS 66049.)  Our tour guide was Tom Watgen who is the voicing supervisor at Reuter.  This company has been in Lawrence since 1919, and has been making, rebuilding, and restoring customized organs ever since.  These instruments can be extremely large, and are primarily found in churches.  However, churches aren’t the only ones who take advantage of these incredible instruments.  Universities, theaters, department stores, and private residence also utilize them.  Reuter Organ Company makes these instruments to last, and look good, but the importance of sound quality is what towers over everything.  We were introduced to several different materials that were used to manufacture these products.  The console is primarily made out of different types of wood.  This can include poplar, walnut, oak, MDF, etc.  The pipes of the organ can be made out of copper, zinc, tin, lead, brass, and steel.  They even combine tin and lead to create spotted metal.  Ivory is no longer used to produce the keys of the instrument.  Plastic, wood, and cow bone are great alternatives for this piece.  Another material we came across was leather.  Leather is used for the valve stoppers in the organ.  They use sheep, goat, lamb, and even kangaroo skin for this leather.  It was incredible how important it was that this piece was leather, and nothing else.  Leather is flexible and lasts a very long time.  There is no substitute for this material.  I was impressed with how much of the work manufacturing these instruments’ was done by hand.  Being a musician myself, I was especially impressed with the process of the organ pipes.  These pipes start in a sheet of metal, and are cut and hammered around the size and shape of the pipe they will soon become.   These pipes need to sound a certain way and hold a certain pitch, which makes this process very significant.  I was also impressed with the assembly and disassembly of these instruments.  Pipe organs can be gigantic and have many different parts. If an instrument needs repair, they need to be able to disassemble it and even ship it to fix it easily.  For our very first field trip, I found the Reuter Organ Company to be incredibly interesting, and the information to be very beneficial.