Why regulators?

[Jim McGuire]

In gas stove, the yoke that controls the gas burner is called a regulator. It lets gas through.

[Kevin L. Rietmann]

Certainly pressure is what regulators regulate now. Maybe if you took the reed out you'd get that effect! The Donnelly article has a very interesting newspaper advertisement from Kenna, printed in 1802, which I reprinted in the article "Regulator Extensions" which was in the last IPC Review. It's about as close to getting a direct quote from Kenna as you're going to get.

[Calum]

I read somewhere that Kennedy originally designed the regulators as a drone which could have its pitch regulated. It's in an article on one of the society sites, I forget which.

It's about as plausible a reason as any.

Cheers,
Calum

[Antaine]

question...related to regs but not the name.

why put key-of-G regs with key-of-D chanters? It struck me early on that it would have made more sense to have the regs play C# instead of Cnat

[anima]

It lets gas through.

so maybe we should call them sphincters instead.

hmmm.... I had some nice reeds in my tenor and Bari sphincters but one day I tried to adjust them and rectum instead.

[billh]

The earliest regulator added to the pipes was the small one, with only 3 keys, and this was the only regulator added for a long time; two-note harmonies from two regulators would come later.

Kevin, can you cite the instruments in question? I was under the impression that the bari reg came first, and certainly a number of the one-reg sets I've seen were 3-note regs with F#,G,A which could be interpreted as a short bari as opposed to a tenor. The early reg bore is conjectured to match the chanter bore (thus, no closed tonic note, no low D).

Perhaps that's academic since the 3 notes in question are the ones featured on both tenor and bari. More interesting IMO is the appearance of the four note reg, which might indeed settle the matter; was the "first" fourth note D or B ?

[Kevin L. Rietmann]

There are a few Reid sets with 4 note tenor and 3 note baritone regs. Malcom McLaren wrote in An Piobarie about another set - I forget the maker, if any were indicated - which had a 3 note bari. The regulators on these early union pipes always looked like tenor regs to me but that's just my impression of them - I haven't measured any, don't have access to many measurements, haven't analyzed what I do have too thoroughly. The SRS articles might explain this in more detail.
The notes are always F#, G, A, though, right? It might be a copy of the chanter's bore - that would certainly make sense - but it looks like the first thing they did was saw off the bottom. Maybe that's what a tenor regulator is in the first place?

[Jim McGuire]

In early sets, drones and tenor reg share the same air supply. Then, the drones were isolated with its turn-on/turn-off valve. Still powered by the same air supply but the drones could now be turned off.

[billh]

The notes are always F#, G, A, though, right? It might be a copy of the chanter's bore - that would certainly make sense - but it looks like the first thing they did was saw off the bottom. Maybe that's what a tenor regulator is in the first place?

What I've read from CraigF and others (with backing data) suggests that it's the bari reg that's likely to have been modeled directly after the chanter, not the tenor. But the instruments in question are mostly early 19c, not 18th c. At this second I don't have SRS1 to hand, or I'd scrutinize the c1775 set's reg bore now. What I am a little more confident in is that post 1800 the bari reg's bore looks more like the chanter's than the tenor reg bore. It's not unreasonably to think that the chanter-derived bore came first (e.g. the bari) but it's something of a logical leap.

If the second reg appears before the fourth note on the first reg, asking which reg is the "newly added" one is akin to reading the maker's mind I guess. It's all compounded by the fact that so many sets were retrofitted with second/third regs sometime during their lhistory...

[Pat Cannady]

"Why Regulators?"


*BELCH*

Why not?!

[fancypiper]

question...related to regs but not the name.

why put key-of-G regs with key-of-D chanters? It struck me early on that it would have made more sense to have the regs play C# instead of Cnat

The piping tunes I seem to like the most are the ones just chucked full of those haunting C naturals, the most "soulfull" note on the chanter.

Aren't chanters more naturally suited to the key of G and their relatives than to D (but Munster Buttermilk is so pretty and doesn't have a c nat!)????

[djm]

Don't the key of G reg notes give you that much broader a palate on the D set? I think it would be a big mistake to not give early pipers or makers their due in respect to their musicianship or musical knowledge, including chording and polyphony.

KevinR suggested the term "regulators" may have come from reed and pipe organs, and I have also shared this suspicion since reading a copy of Kenna's obituary (he was the blind cabinet maker, right?). I have also read that no two reed and pipe organs are built the same, so that the maker must have gone through a lot of permutations on his learning curve. I don't doubt that a lot of thought went into the early design and development of the regs. Too bad they never got the damned reeds to stay in tune for more than a week at a time.

djm

[Jim McGuire]

Pipe organ are logical. And they got it from the language.

Here's the definition of regulate.
reg·u·late ( P ) Pronunciation Key (rgy-lt)
tr.v. reg·u·lat·ed, reg·u·lat·ing, reg·u·lates
--To control or direct according to rule, principle, or law.
--To adjust to a particular specification or requirement: regulate temperature.
--To adjust (a mechanism) for accurate and proper functioning.
--To put or maintain in order: regulate one's eating habits.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Middle English, from Late Latin rgulre, rgult-, from Latin rgula, rod, rule. See reg- in Indo-European Roots.]

[Kevin L. Rietmann]

William Kennedy was the blind pipemaker/watchmaker/cabinetry guy. There were "Regulator" clocks, too!

[Lorenzo]

...and there were regulators inside the clocks too, which kept the clock...um...regular! (no not the chimes!) Even Galileo, who invented the pendulum, was a regulator...no regular guy either, a sinner! (oh, according to the church). Otherwise a real hero.