Henry Bryceson (1775–1870) was an organ builder and pioneer of electric action in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

during the 1860s. Henry was born in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth i ...

, Scotland, whose St Leonard's-in-the-Fields Church still operates one of his organs. Henry Bryceson founded a firm variously known as Bryceson Brothers, Bryceson and Bryceson, and Bryceson and Son in 1796. The firm produced both

barrel organ A barrel organ (also called roller organ or crank organ) is a French mechanical musical instrument consisting of bellows and one or more ranks of pipes housed in a case, usually of wood, and often highly decorated. The basic principle is the sam ...

s and

pipe organs The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air (called ''wind'') through the organ pipes selected from a keyboard. Because each pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ''ranks ...

. An example of his work from about 1835 can be seen in the Anglican church at Isle Abbots. In 1862 Henry built the first electric key-action organ which he installed in Drury Lane Theatre in 1862. In 1868 the firm acquired sole rights to use the electro-pneumatic technology originally developed by Charles S. Barker in France. Henry had two sons, Henry (born 1832) and John (born 1839), who both worked for the firm Henry senior retired around 1860.'Research Notes' by Paul Tindall, ''BIOS Reporter'', Vol. XXVIII, No. 4, October 2004, published by the British Institute of Organ Studies, p17

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bryceson, Henry British pipe organ builders 1775 births 1870 deaths People from Perth, Scotland