Chiff and Fipple Forums

I'm starting to research Micheal Egan's time pipemaking whilst he was living in Liverpool.

At the moment, all I've got to go off is the info on Bill Haneman's page.

Does anyone have any more info - where his workshop was, sets made whilst he was there etc?

Thanks

Jon

There is a Michael Egan on the Liverpool, Lancashire census for 1841, birth about 1806 in Ireland, occupation: musician. This seems a likely candidate.

If anyone has a subscription to one of the ancestry websites might be worth checking the full record as it should have residence details etc....unfortunately I let my subscription lapse a few months back.

Michael Egan worked in Star Court in Liverpool before he went to America. Star Court was the artisan quarter at the time, near to the docks.

I looked at maps from the period in Liverpool City Library many years ago. I'll see if I can find the references.

Mike

The Boston Museum of Fine Arts has this set linked below. They spell his first name "Michel", but they do list the object place as Liverpool. I've seen it in person and have a few photos on my phone.

http://www.mfa.org/collections/object/b ... ipes-50470

As part of doing some family research, I checked out some records for Egan on several of the sites available for genealogy.
IIRC, he's listed in the 1841 and 1851 census as "instrument maker" in Liverpool. The address, etc, is there.
What I found interesting was the indication that he had a wife and several children. Again I may be mistaken in my recall, but
the oldest son was listed as being a "musician" I think.
Nothing in 1861, tallying up with the lore that he'd gone to New York by then.
One wonders if some calamity hit the family, or if he just up and left them.

M

One wonders if some calamity hit the family, or if he just up and left them.

Didn't he have to make a quick exit after running a reamer through a customer he was having an argument with?

So what is the deal with those regulators? Part of one is missing and connected to the bass...is there an EGR valve on the engine block?

I hope you're able to post what you learn. I'd love to hear more about Egan. What I have read is the available information in O'Neill's and the Seán Reid Society Journal.

Have heard the "reamer" story - and it was posted here on C&F previously I think - but not sure what evidence or source it's based upon.
Sounds a little too "urban myth" to me, but I'm not saying it's impossible.

I took another look at ancestry. The match I think is for Michael and Catherine Egan, and children - about 5 or 6 kids - in 1851.
1841 census abbreviates their forenames - "Michl" - , so a little harder to find - and, he's listed as "musician" then.
1851 has him as "instrument maker".
Oldest child born 1835 in Liverpool, backing up the assertion that he'd come to Liverpool from Ireland in the early 1830s.
No obvious match for UK 1861, as expected.
There's a couple of Michael Egans in the US census in New York, around 1860, but detail seems lacking.

M

Have heard the "reamer" story - and it was posted here on C&F previously I think - but not sure what evidence or source it's based upon.

Breandan Breathnach told me that. But I think O'Neill mentions it, and is quoted as saying as much in Seán Donnelly's paper.

thanks for all the responses.

I'll be off to the city archives soon to try and fathom out the reamer story once and for all!

Jon

pudinka wrote:So what is the deal with those regulators? Part of one is missing and connected to the bass...is there an EGR valve on the engine block?

Some extended bass regulators had a very small diameter air feed from the mainstock to the bottom end of the regulator. Apparently this was to improve the responsiveness of the lower keys. Possibly this set has got one of these.

Been searching for a bellows shape and design to base a self-made one on that I like. Any more photos of the bellows? Thanks for posting that picture of the pipes.

Some extended bass regulators had a very small diameter air feed from the mainstock to the bottom end of the regulator. Apparently this was to improve the responsiveness of the lower keys. Possibly this set has got one of these.

Other than this particular specimen have never seen this - can you name another ? Did actually try this arrangement and having an air leak into the regulator via a very small hole had only the effect of using more air and had no effect on the contra bass regulator that worked just fine without it.

Looking at the photograph it appears be the usual case of mis-assembly as is often the way with museum and some collected instruments where the curator/owner knows very little about the instrument. The extension to the Bass was more than likely a separate entity in the original setup outboard of the Bass Regulator. The large gap between the Tenor regulator and the upward section of the contra bass also suggests this.

I have the book "Ancient European Musical Instruments" and will look out the full description, a drawing and other photographs. Bessaraboff, the Author was being advised by Patsy Brown. There are also a good spread of pictures of the set from a lecture by Benedict Kohler

other photographs

I have this one of the Ferguson set. Here a piece of drone is stuck onto the end of the baritone drone.