Slider key

Slider key (Fr.: tirette; Lat.: regula, lingua), term used to denote the mechanism by which pipes were sounded in med. organs from the 10th c. on. We do not know exactly when it ceased to be used. The slider key was a strip of wood terminating in a flat handle by which it was pulled out to sound the pipes, pushed back to silence them. The strip was perforated with either one hole or as many holes as there were pipes to make speak. Actually this device was a primitive form of register, as it…