Ernest M. Skinner

American pipe organ builder born January 15, 1866 and died November 26/27, 1960. His electro-pneumatic switching systems advanced the technology of organ building in the first part of the 20th century. Skinner was one of the first organ builders to try to establish a systematic method for providing fixed dimensions in his organ consoles. Prior to this, each organ builder might use different dimensions on their consoles, causing problems with adapting to different layouts and positions of keyboards and pedalboards of different instruments, even by the same builder. Skinner worked to develop a set of universal distances between the various keyboards, determining the ideal placement of the pedal board, at a specific distance from the Great manual, as well as the placement of the various expression shoes and other mechanical devices, which have significantly contributed to the standard American Guild of Organists (AGO) Console Measurements, in use in the United States since 1930. Skinner consoles had fully adjustable combination pistons and combination actions, decades before other American firms adopted similar devices. Access to pre-sets, to store and recall combination controls, on Skinner instruments, was located on numbered rows of buttons located between the keyboards. Skinner is credited with the advancement of electro-pneumatic action, which controls the mechanical operation of the instruments. These huge (frequently several tons) and highly sophisticated devices were built of wood, leather, and metal organ parts, and used low-voltage DC current and low-pressure pressurized air to control and direct the switching and control commands. These actions allowed the pipework of the instrument to be located in any part of a building, while the console could be located hundreds of feet away and allowing a single organist to have control over every aspect of the instrument.