Scot Huntington on February 13th, 2021:
The somewhat flowerly language of the dedication brochure is confusing regarding the operation of the combination action and its having "fixed" and "variable" actions. What I wrote in the previous note is incorrect implying this system had "adjustable" combinations. The operation of this organ's early pneumatic machinery is intriguing with nothing like it having survived to our time. Rereading the description several times, it would appear the combination pedals are hitched down to operate and disengage the hand stops when engaged. Releasing the pedal re-engages the hand stops, which can be changed without affecting the sounding combination when the appropriate pedal is in operation. The crescendo is even more of an enigma. The description regarding two pedals clearly suggests the are foot levers and not a balanced pedal or sliding mechanism. Knowing it has 20 stages suggests each press of the pedal advances from one fixed set of stops to the next, and the decrescendo reverses the action. The question is how it adds or subtracts from stops already drawn-- the register gauge implying that it would add stops in a specific order regardless of what was hand drawn, nor is it clear if it operates while the fixed combination pedals are engaged. For instance, if you have a full combination through mixtures drawn and want to add the Trumpet, do you have to pump the pedal 20 times to run through the scale until it comes on? Earlier versions of Hook crescendi machines operated a large cylinder something like a pinned music barrel. As the barrel turned, the pins engaged and held down small levers that turned stops on, and moving it the other way reversed the process. The cylinder machine did not over-ride the the hand stops but added to them in the same way our modern pedals operate. The earliest Hook cylinder machines were operated by a foot block the was pushed left to right and back again in a track riding just above the pedal sharps. It is possible the Brick Church system herein employed a form of the cyclinder system, with the forward and back pedals operating a type of ratchet gear to turn the cylinder.

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Scot Huntington on February 11th, 2021:
At the time, this was the largest organ in Rochester. The old case was retained but refinished, and measured 32' wide, 14' deep, and 24' tall. It had two large reservoirs 11' x 5', the high-pressure side for the pedal and pneumatics being driven by a Boston hydraulic motor. The stop action was pneumatic with both fixed and adjustable combinations that were blind--i.e. they didn't physically move the stop knobs and when cancelled, returned the hand-registered combination to action. This also permitted the application of a Crescendo pedal with 20 stages. The organ was designed with the input of the organist, Herve D. Wilkins, and incorporated some type of swell expression device invented by the organist, whereas the shutters moved slowly in the first stages proportional to the movement of the pedal, and more quickly as they approached full open to allow the organist more logarithmic control of the expression. He performed the dedication recital on Tuesday April 13, 1886, assisted by organists Mrs. W.F. Grove (Central Church), Dr. H. Clarke (First Baptist), and a vocal quartet with 3 members of the church choir and a bass from Auburn, New York. The program was heavy on Dudley Buck and transcriptions, and included an improvisation by Clarke and the requisite Storm Fantasie by Lemmens.

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Database Manager on March 1st, 2005:
Identified from company publications as edited and expanded in <i>The Hook Opus List 1829-1935</i>, ed. William T. Van Pelt (Organ Historical Society, 1991).