the Netherlands as
early as the middle of the 15th century, and that accurate and detailed
diagrams of every part of the mechanism for a large stationary barrel-organ
worked by hydraulic power were published in 1615. There are letters patent
preserved in the archives of Belgium appointing a certain organ-builder,
Jehan van Steenken, _dit_ Aren, "Master of organs which play of
themselves"; in the original Flemish _Meester van orgelen spelende bij hen
selven_.[2] This organ was not a portable one like English street organs,
but a more imposing instrument, as we learn from other documents giving a
detailed account of the moneys paid to Maistre Jehan for conveying the
organs from Bruges to Brussels.[3] Steenken was, by virtue of the same
letters patent, awarded an annual pension of fifty Rhenish florins in
consideration of the services rendered to the duke of Burgundy, and on
condition of his submitting to his liege Philip the Good all other
instruments he might make in the future. There is nothing singular in the
early date of this invention, for the 15th century was distinguished for
the extraordinary impulse which the patronage and appreciation of the dukes
of Burgundy gave to automatic contrivances of all kinds, carillons, clocks,
speaking animals and other curiosities due to Flemish genius.[4] No
contemporary illustration is forthcoming, but in 1615 Solomon de Caus, who
avowedly owed his inspiration to Hero and Vitruvius, describes a number of
hydraulic machines, amongst which is the barrel-organ,[5] illustrating his
description by means of several large drawings and diagrams very carefully
carried out. De Caus' organ, entitled "Machine par laquelle l'on fera
sonner un jeu d'orgues par le moyen de l'eau," was built up on a wall a
foot thick. In the illustrations the barrel is shown to be divided into
bars, and each bar into eight beats for the quavers. The whole drum is
pierced with holes at the intersecting points, the pins being movable, so
that when the performer grew tired of one tune, he could re-arrange the
pins to form another. The four bellows are set in motion by means of ropes
strained over pulleys and attached to four cranks on the rotating shaft.
Solomon de Caus lays no claim to the invention of this organ, but only to
the adaptation of hydraulic power for revolving the drum; on the contrary,
in a dissertation on the invention of hydraulic machines and organs, he
states that there was evidently some difference