Research News
The restored prospect of the Borgentreich organ and the labium of a historical lead pipe with original painted decoration. Photos: Jörg Kraemer, Borgentreich
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World's Largest Spring-Chest Organ Restored by HZDR Technology
After a restoration period of more than five years, the world-wide largest preserved spring-chest organ located in Borgentreich/Westphalia now was reinaugurated. Involved in the restoration process were also scientists from the Helmholtz Centre Dresden-Rossendorf and from the Technical University Bergakademie Freiberg. In the seventeenth century, spring-chests constituted the most complex mechanical action system for controlling the organ wind.
Already in 2006, materials researcher Wolfgang Skorupa from the HZDR, who in his private life is an enthusiastic organist and organologist, and Helmut Werner, chief conservator at the organ building firm of Hermann Eule Orgelbau GmbH, became aware of the need for a research project. In order to newly develop the now lost tradition of producing organ pipes with a lead content of more than 95 percent, technology otherwise used for optimising microchips was required. In a project funded by the Sächsische Aufbaubank, the basic technological requirements for the production of organ pipes made of high-percentage lead alloys could be researched. At the heart of this project was the reintroduction of a casting workbench with accelerated cooling for the liquid lead based on a granite slab from the Lausitz region as a fast reaction heat sink. Today, the old and newly made pipes side by side adorn the prospect of the Borgentreich organ with their dark sheen and with their full-bodied tonal quality are a source of delight for organists and their audiences alike. "Yet ultimately it is the synergy of cutting-edge materials science and time-honoured, sterling craftsmanship in the service of music, that filled me with enthusiasm and drive", Skorupa joyfully explains. He is in the process of drawing up yet another organ project. In this new project, a special nanotechnology for corrosion protection of such high-percentage lead alloys against aggressive environmental influences developed by Skorupa and his colleagues is to be implemented for the first time. The technology itself is based on the implantation of rapidly interacting, charged particles (ions) made possible by the Ion Beam Centre at Dresden-Rossendorf. Organ builders and organologists from Europe and the USA already have expressed their great interest in this technology.
