the.com/pipe organ

A building-sized instrument that is basically wind, plumbing, and ego in perfect harmony.

means A keyboard instrument that makes sound by forcing air through ranks of pitched pipes, each pipe tuned to sound a single note.

from From 'pipe,' a tube — going back to Latin 'pipare,' meaning to chirp or peep, the sound a reed or small tube makes when air moves through it — plus 'organ,' from Greek 'organon,' simply 'tool' or 'instrument,' the same root that gives us 'organ' for a body part that does a job. The device itself traces to ancient Greece, where the hydraulis used water pressure to push air through pipes; later builders swapped in bellows, and over centuries the instrument grew from a modest set of pipes into the room-filling, cathedral-dwarfing machines we picture today.

largest instrument
some have over 30,000 individual pipes
power source
air forced through pipes, not strings or hammers
biggest ones
can be louder than a full orchestra
longevity
some organs still play after 500 years
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