Opening Day 2012

Opening Day
    We got the calliope loaded and drove out to the parade staging area. One group of kids were already singing, "Take Me Out to the Ball Park".  We fired up the generator and tried to play a few notes.  The keys stuck!  Some would lift and stop playing while others became stuck.  I inserted a small zip-tie above the key and this helped release most of the notes.  Subsequent playing seemed to improve.  But, at last, a couple of notes remained down and would not come back up.

    We shut down and headed back to the barn.   We weren't going to the ball park today...

Update (work done on 4/30/2012, posted 5/19/12):
     After looking at the construction of the calliope, I removed 4 wood screws from the top of the keyboard and was able to look down into the key-action area. An industrious mouse had been storing up cat food for the winter. 

 As pieces would slip under the key, they would not return upright and stop playing.  With an air compressor and shop-vac, ice pick, screw driver and about any other type of tool, 

Marsha and I removed the cat food, stuffed the holes with steel wool and replaced the top. 

All keys now work just fine -- and will hopefully continue to do so for the foreseeable future.

    We should be ready for the DC fair in June!

Calliope Mfgr Info

Cozatt Calliope

The Odon Calliope is a Cozatt "Air Organ" built in Danville, IL in the late 1970's.  A company brochure can be found on the web from their early days with information about their products.  Here is a link to a brochure that I downloaded:  Cozatt Calliope Info .

Odon has been visited by another calliope from Rose Hulman -- it is a Tangley model.  It is now back in Terre Haute in storage at the Institute.

Both models have the same basic parts:  A blower providing a low-pressure air source into a wind chest. From the wind chest, there are 43 valves -- each valve is activated when a corresponding key (or note) is pressed on the keyboard.  The valve allows air to travel from the wind chest through a host to the base of a pipe.

Air enters the base of a pipe and travels upward and outward to the edges where is escapes in a very thin sheet just below the opening.
 Air passing across the opening resonates at a frequency determined by the length of the pipe.  Each pipe length is 'tuned' to a corresponding note on the keyboard -- exactly like a string on a piano.

Lower bass notes correspond to longer pipes which are also larger in diameter.  The larger diameter is needed because of the size of the sound wave that is produced.  Smaller pipes are required for higher notes.

There is a complex relationship between air pressure, length of pipe, size of the opening and diameter of the pipe.  The reader can use google to learn more about this from various articles posted on the internet.

Calliopes have been built out of various materials. PVC pipe is popular among hobbyists because it is cheap and easy to work with.  One design that you might find interesting is one that I proposed here:  PVC calliope .

Dave Lynn & Dr. Selvin Passen, MD

The previous owner of the calliope was Dr. Selvin Passen, MD of Baltimore, MD.  Dr. Passen retired from medical practice and now manages investment properties in Florida, Nevada and Maryland.  We made arrangements to meet Dr. Passen in Baltimore in January, 2010.  This meeting was the result of a 2 months of email correspondance.  Dr. Passen had recently restored the Calliope after acquiring it from Reno, NV.  It was in terrible condition.  The restoration was done and the result is a beautiful instrument that functions as good as new.

The Odon Town Hall has a photo album with the original pictures of the calliope and some of the restoration steps.

Martin Luther King Day is a red-letter date for the Odon Calliope.  It was on this date in 2010 that Tyler Laughlin and I made our way out to Baltimore, MD and loaded up the Calliope and brought it back to Odon.  We ran into some icy foggy weather in Ohio with more dense fog on the ground back here in Odon.  So, we spent the night in Centerville, IN before making our way the rest of the way home.

Later that day, we had a crew on-hand to help unpack, unload and re-assemble the calliope -- all without a single scratch.

I have to thank Larry Meek for hours of assistance in building a custom plywood crate that was needed to haul it home.  Even though we had a beautiful day in Baltimore (+60 degrees, sunshine), we ran into rain, snow, sleet and everything else on the way home as we headed back to Indiana along I-70.

Unpacking

Christmas Eve 2011

We had a nice time cruising the streets of Odon on Christmas Eve and playing the calliope.  My oldest daughter and her husband helped with driving the truck.  It was on the cool side, so we didn't stay out very long.

    We started at the Odon park and headed north on Grove street, then over on Race Street to Poindexter up to Main and back through town.  We turned north on Spring street and end at the Odon Optical building.

   It was neat to see house lights come on, cars flash and honk and the folks come out of the Odon Tavern to see what was going on.

   We had a good time doing this and hope to keep this up for many years to come.