Or′gan—pipe.
（Music.) A tube in which air is vibrated to produce a musical sound. The organ-pipe is of two kinds:— 1. The flute or mouth pipe. 2. The reed pipe. See pipe. “The vibrating body in the organ-pipe is not the pipe, but the air contained in it. An agitation produced in the air at one end of the pipe is communicated to the other end, and reflected backwards and forwards from end to end, producing isochronous (or equal-timed) impulses, the frequency of which depends entirely on the length of the pipe. Hence, all organpipes of the same length yield the same note as to pitch, its quality only being affected by the form or material of the pipe. It will thus be at once perceived that the lowest C (the waves of which are 64 feet long) requires a pipe of 32 feet to produce it; and that all notes, from this to the shrillest whistle, are easily calculated, by dividing 550 feet by the length of the pipe.” — Tomlinson. Fig. 3429 illustrates an organ-pipe of the mouth or flute kind. On opening the proper valve by depressing its key, the compressed air from the wind-chest passes through the tube a into the chamber b, and is directed with some force through a narrow slit against the sharp edge c, formed by beveling one of the sides of the pipe.
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