The ‘Baldwin Organ’ Winston E. Kock & J.F. Jordan, USA, 1946

Early Model of Winston Kock's Baldwin organ
Winston Kock’s Baldwin Organ Model Five 1947

The Baldwin organ was an electronic organ, many models of which have been manufactured by the Baldwin Piano & Organ Co. since 1946. The original models were designed by Dr Winston E. Kock who became the company’s director of electronic research after his return from his studies at the Heinrich-Hertz-Institute, Berlin, in 1936. The organ was a development of Kock’s Berlin research with the GrosstonOrgel using the same neon-gas discharge tubes to create a stable, affordable polyphonic instrument. The Baldwin Organ were based on an early type of subtractive synthesis; the neon discharge tubes generating a rough sawtooth wave rich in harmonics which was then modified by formant filters to the desired tone.

Tone modifying circuits of the Baldwin organ
Tone modifying circuits of the Baldwin organ

Another innovative aspect of the Baldwin Organ was the touch sensitive keyboard designed to create a realistic variable note attack similar to a pipe organ. As the key was depressed, a curved metal strip progressively shorted out a carbon resistance element to provide a gradual rather than sudden attack (and decay) to the sound.  This feature was unique at that time, and it endowed the Baldwin instrument with an unusually elegant sound which captivated many musicians of the day.

“How did it sound? I have played Baldwin organs at a time when they were still marketed and in my opinion, for what it is worth, they were pretty good in relative terms.  That is to say, they sounded significantly better on the whole than the general run of analogue organs by other manufacturers, and they were only beaten by a few custom built instruments in which cost was not a factor.  It would not be true to say they sounded as good as a good digital organ today, but they compared favourably with the early Allen digitals in the 1970’s.  Nor, of course, did they sound indistinguishable from a pipe organ, but that is true for all pipeless organs.  To my ears they also sounded much better and more natural than the cloying tone of the more expensive Compton Electrone which, like the Hammond, also relied on attempts at additive synthesis with insufficient numbers of harmonics.”

From ‘Winston Kock and the Baldwin Organ; by Colin Pykett

Electronic Generator of the earlt model Baldwin Organ
Electronic Tone Generator of the early model Baldwin Organ showing neon gas-discharge tube oscillators.

Kock’s 1938 Patent of the Baldwin organ

Winston Kock playing an early experimental design for an electric instrument
Winston Kock playing his early experimental electronic instrument 1932

Winston E. Kock Biographical Details:

Winston Kock was born into a German-American family in 1909 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Despite being a gifted musician he decided to study electrical engineering at Cincinnati university and in his 20’s designed a highly innovative, fully electronic organ for his master’s degree.

The major problem of instrument design during the 1920’s and 30’s was the stability and cost of analogue oscillators. Most commercial organ ventures had failed for this reason; a good example being  Givelet & Coupleux’s  huge valve Organ in 1930. it was this reason that Laurens Hammond (and many others) decided on Tone-Wheel technology for his Hammond Organs despite the inferior audio fidelity.

Kock had decided early on to investigate the possibility of producing a commercially viable instrument that was able to produce the complexity of tone possible from vacuum tubes. With this in mind, Kock hit upon the idea of using much cheaper neon ‘gas discharge’ tubes as oscillators stabilised with resonant circuits. This allowed him to design an affordable, stable and versatile organ.

Kock's Sonar device during WW2
Kock’s Sonar device during WW2

In the 1930’s Kock, fluent in German, went to Berlin to study On an exchange fellowship (curiously, the exchange was with Sigismund von Braun, Wernher von Braun’s eldest brother –Kock was to collaborate with Wernher twenty five years later at NASA) at the Heinrich Hertz Institute conducting research for a doctorate under Professor K W Wagner. At the time Berlin, and specifically the Heinrich Hertz Institute, was the global centre of electronic music research. Fellow students and professors included; Jörg Mager, Oskar Vierling, Fritz Sennheiser, Bruno Helberger, Harald Bode, Friedrich Trautwein, Oskar Sala and Wolja Saraga amongst others. Kock’s study was based around two areas: – improving the understanding of glow discharge (neon) oscillators, and developing realistic organ tones using specially designed filter circuits. 

Kock worked closely with Oskar Vierling for his Phd and co-designed the GrosstonOrgel in 1934 but disillusioned by the appropriation of his work by the newly ascendant Nazi party he decided to leave for India, sponsored by the Baldwin Organ Company arriving at the Indian Institute of Music in Bangalore in 1935.

Returning from India in 1936, Dr Kock became Baldwin’s Director of Research while still in his mid-twenties, and with J F Jordan designed many aspects of their first electronic organ system which was patented in 1941.

NASA
Winston E Kock (L) as the first Director of Engineering Research at NASA

When the USA entered the second world war Kock moved to Bell Telephone Laboratories where he was involved on radar research and specifically microwave antennas. In the mid-1950’s he took a senior position in the Bendix Corporation which was active in underwater defence technology. He moved again to become NASA’s first Director of Engineering Research, returning to Bendix in 1966 where he remained until 1971 when he became Acting Director of the Hermann Schneider Laboratory of the University of Cincinatti. Kock Died in Cincinatti in 1982.

 Winston Kock was a prolific writer of scientific books but he also wrote fiction novels under the pen name of Wayne Kirk.

Acoustic lenses developed by Winston Kock at the Bell Labs in the 1950's
Acoustic lenses developed by Winston Kock at the Bell Labs in the 1950’s
Acoustic lenses developed by Winston Kock at the Bell Labs in the 1950's
Acoustic lenses developed by Winston Kock at the Bell Labs in the 1950’s
lenses
Acoustic lenses developed by Winston Kock at the Bell Labs in the 1950’s

Sources:

Hugh Davies. The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians

http://www.pykett.org.uk/drkock.htm

23 thoughts on “The ‘Baldwin Organ’ Winston E. Kock & J.F. Jordan, USA, 1946”

  1. Thank you for acknowledging my website as one of your sources. However, note that the Baldwin Model 5 organ discussed above used double-triode thermionic tubes (6SN7’s), not neon gas discharge tubes. It is true that Kock first developed a stable tone generator using neon tubes in the 1930s, but after world war 2 the performance of thermionic tubes had increased dramatically and their cost had likewise reduced.

  2. I have one of these organs (appears to be a Model 5) in pieces. I have the keyboards, the tone generator and the Tone – stops section. I am sadly missing the cabinet and the pedals section. I am interested in getting it up and running, can you give me any advice or point me in the right direction?

    Thank you!

    1. My Baldwin 5A has just died on me. The case is beautiful oak and was probably refinished (nicely) in 1980 when the organ was rebuilt. I think I need to replace it rather than try to fix it, but I sure don’t want to throw out the case. Are you interested? (yes, pedalboard & bench, too.) I’m in NJ. KathleenDOTConnollyDOT78 AT verizonDOTnet.

  3. I need info re. Baldwin model 45; source of repair parts, technician in the Mobile, AL
    area. Any help greatly appreciated. Val Early

  4. i would like some info on a baldwin encore organ model #130A serial #01472-B console 150W i am trying to find out a value of such organ today

  5. My parents gave me a Baldwin Model 5 for my High School Graduation from Taylor Allderdice High School in 1953. Tis was my first organ. During High School I was also in the “Conservatory” program at CIT where I studied with Charles Pearson, then head of the Music Department of CIT. After I became employed I traded my Model 5 for a Ba;dwin 10-A to which I added the percussion unit which was an excellent and authentic sounding set of percussion sounds including “Carillon”
    I gave the Baldwin 10-A to Homestead Park Methodist Church when I purchased my 3 Rank, M.P. Moller Pipe Organ which is alive and well. All of this inspired me to the point of being the M. P. Moller Factory Representative in Western Pennsylvanis, Central and Western New York state and a large portion of West Virginia.
    My affiliation with Moller Pipe Organ of Hagerstown, MD began when Victor Zuck retired and asked me to succeed him. I am looking for the Stop List of the 1953 Baldwin Model 5.

    A. George Kohl – 412-523-7765 (Born 5/31/35, now 80!)
    geokohl2@verizon.net

    1. Hello Mr. Kohl. The stop list of the Baldwin Model 5 can be found in the book “Electronic Organs” by Robert L. Eby, pp. 54-55:

      GREAT
      Bourdon 16′
      Open Diapason 8′
      Melodia 8′
      Trumpet 8′
      Octave 4′
      Violina 4′
      Clarion 4′

      SWELL
      Violin Diapason 8′
      Stopped Flute 8′
      Salicional 8′
      Trompette 8′
      Clarinet 8′
      French Horn 8′
      Oboe 8′
      Vox Humana 8′
      Flute 4′
      Salicet 4′
      Dolce Cornet

      PEDAL
      Open Diapason 16′
      Dulciana 16′
      Bourdon 16′
      Cello 8′
      Flute 8′

      COUPLER
      Swell to Great 8′
      Great to Pedal 8′

    2. Mr. Kohl, I saw from your post you once had a Baldwin Model 10-A. I have searched the internet for several years trying to locate a picture of the 10-A. The church I attended as a young man had a 10-A and I took lessons on it . It was a beautiful instrument but heavy as lead and huge. I would love to see a picture of it you have one.
      Thank You, Bill Frazier
      Billsx21@yahoo.com

  6. We own a Baldwin Encore Organ. Can anyone tell me where to find a power cord for it? I bought this Organ in 1972 as a gift to my wife on our Wedding Anniversary.
    I contacted a cord company with no results.

    1. Looking for someone who can repair an Encore in the southern NH area. My mother recently passed away and I was hoping to repair it before selling it or giving it away. Thank you.

  7. Our community has a Baldwin Model 5A in use in our church, but it has recently given us some headaches by failing one of the audio outputs at the organ level. Both speakers are functional. We require a schematic and or wiring diagram to help uss locate the reason for the ‘leftside’ audio failure.
    We would appreciate any and all help that may be availble?

  8. Our community has a Baldwin Model 5A in use in our church. We are having some difficulty in locating vacumm tubes for this organ.
    Recently the organ has failed in audio output to the speakers on one side. We have established that both speakers are functional, hence the failed audio is at the organ (mixer/preamp?)
    We would like access to a schematic diagram and/or a wiring diagram for this model, and any help you could supply to locate and rectify this problem!

  9. I would like to acquire a repair manual for Baldwin Pro 222. In the mid 1960s I was employed by Critchett Piano & Organ in Omaha, NE. I repaired organs.

  10. How do you open the top of a Baldwin Broadway R80 organ (so I can clean it)? I tried to lift the top but it feels like there’s a hidden latch or catch somewhere.

  11. What would one estimate what a Baldwin Model 4 church organ that is in very good working condition would be valued? The model we have was built in 1946.

    Best regards,

    Bob

  12. Our church has a baldwin model 530 organ its wanting to sale. It’s in great condition and functioning properly. Even have the owner’s manuel. What is your recommendation for a selling asking price?

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