Boardwalk Hall Auditorium Organ - Records

Records

The organ has been recognized by The Guinness Book of World Records as the largest musical instrument, the loudest musical instrument and the largest pipe organ ever constructed, although some debate still exists about the last (see "Largest organ debate" below). The Guinness Book also recognizes the Grand Ophicleide 16′ in the Pedal Right division to be the loudest organ stop in the world.

Officially, the organ has 33,112 pipes, but the exact number of pipes is unknown. A detailed survey conducted in 1999 concluded that the organ had 33,114 pipes, recently revised it to 33,116 after the discovery that one rank went down two notes lower than specifed in the organbuilder's contract. It is very hard to determine exactly how many pipes the organ has, also due to the condition the organ is in (see "Current State" below).

The organ is the only one in the world to have stops standing on 100" wind pressure. It is also the only organ to have two 32′ pedal stops on 50" wind pressure. There are two more organs in the world with stops on 50", but these are 8′ solo trumpet or tuba stops. 100" wind pressure (equivalent to 3.56 PSI or 0.25 bars) is about 30 times more than a normal organ stop (even high-pressure stops usually only stand on 10-12"). The organ has four stops on 100" (also known as the Big Reeds) and ten stops on 50" wind pressure:

Apart from the aforementioned stops on record wind pressure, almost every division stands on at least 15" wind pressure, except for the Choir which stands on 10", and the Unenclosed Choir stands on 3". Also, some individual stops stand on lower wind pressure, for example, the Diapason X of the Great division stands on only 4".

The organ's wind supply is the most powerful ever used in a pipe organ. The DC motors for the original eight blowers had a total power of 394 horsepower (294 kW). These were replaced with AC motors in the early 1990s, which have a total of 600 horsepower (450 kW) and their seven blowers produce 36,400 cubic feet (1,030 m3) of wind per minute. The Right Stage chamber has two blowers, a 50-inch (1,300 mm) blower and a low pressure blower, which also provides wind for the Right Forward chamber. The same is true for the Left Stage chamber. The Left Center chamber and Left Upper chamber don't need high wind pressure, and therefore a shared blower suffices, which is also true for the Right Center and Right Upper chambers. The four 100" stops receive wind from an extra blower located behind the Right Stage chamber, coupled with wind from the 50 inch blower.

It has been debated that the Wanamaker Grand Court Organ is bigger than the Main Auditorium organ. The Wanamaker Organ has more ranks (462 opposed to 449 of the Main Auditorium organ) and reputedly weighs almost twice as much (287 tons opposed to the approximated 150 tons of the Main Auditorium Organ). The issue was clouded in decades past when Wanamaker staffers exaggerated the pipe count (28,482 pipes) to 30,067 pipes by listing some 61-note chests as having 73 notes (12 additional per stop in the super-coupler range). Wanamaker staffers believed at the time that the Atlantic City figures had also been exaggerated.

The Auditorium organ has almost 5,000 more pipes and has four entries in The Guinness Book of World Records. The Wanamaker Organ, however, is also listed in the Guinness Book. Unlike the Atlantic City Organ, it is not highly unified (with ranks of pipes being "tapped" at 16', 8', 4' 2⅔', etc. pitches). Each instrument has a different artistic aim and plays into an entirely different space.