Interior. Detail of water-powered organ on ground floor. Digital image of C 54101 CN.

Description Interior. Detail of water-powered organ on ground floor. Digital image of C 54101 CN.

Date 5/1995

Catalogue Number SC 772423

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of C 54101 CN

Scope and Content Water-powered organ on ground floor, Newbattle Abbey House, Midlothian This shows a water-powered pipe organ set into a niche in the hall. Doors open in the panelled wooden front to reveal the console (keyboard and frame), and carved panels are set above and below the gilded organ pipes. Air was pumped through the pipes using water from the house supply. A long wooden stool sits in front of the foot pedals on a parquet floor. Automatic water organs were invented by the ancient Greeks, and further developed by Arab and Byzantine engineers. Water and air were sucked down a pipe from a stream into a wind chamber or 'camera aeolis', where the water was forced over a small waterwheel and the air directed to the organ pipes. This method was used to automatically play an organ with attached automatons (mechanical statues) in pleasure gardens until they fell out of fashion in the 17th century. Newbattle Abbey was founded by Cistercian monks in 1140, and its church dedicated to St Mary in 1233-4. It became a private residence in 1587 when the last abbot, Mark Kerr, converted to Protestantism and was able to retain his lands. His son became Lord Newbattle in 1596. The remains of the abbey are built into the surviving house, which was modified and rebuilt by the architects John Mylne (1650), William Burn (1836) and David Bryce (1858). The house was gifted to the nation in 1937 to be used as a further education college. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/772423

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap