Wicks Organ Company
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[[Image:WindowAndOrgan.jpg|thumbnail|right|300px|The organ at the [[Basilica of Saint Francis Xavier]], in [[Dyersville, Iowa]]. This organ dates from the 1970s.]]
The '''Wicks Organ Company''' is located in Highland, Illinois. The company builds, repairs and restores organs. There are several thousand Wicks organs in service.
==History==
The Wicks Organ company was founded in the early 1900s in a small jewelry and watch making store in Highland. The local priest had asked John Wick to study organ so that he could become the church organist. After some time had passed, the parish decided that they wanted a [[pipe organ]] to replace an aging reed organ.
John, Louis and Adolph Wick, combined their skills in watch making, cabinet making and jewelry to create a small mechanical action organ for the church.
Before long, others had heard of this organ, and wanted the Wick brothers to build organs for them. In 1906, the three brothers incorporated as the Wicks Organ Company. They initially produced organs for homes and churches in Illinois, Indiana and Missouri.
Initially, the company produced mechanical action instruments. When electricity became popular, electric actions and blowers became available. While the company experimented with electro-pneumatic actions, they felt that because of the difficulties of these types of actions to try building organs built with pure electric actions. They now produce some hybrid pipe/electronic organs.
Wicks perfected the electric action in 1914, naming it Direct Electric, which helped to remedy some of the shortcomings of electro-pneumatic actions. The company patented the device in 1922 and an improved version in 1929.
<!-- unknown copyright status image removed: [[Image:Wicksorgancompanyopus6393.jpg|frame|Transept division of Wick's Opus 6393 in St. Agnes' Cathedral, Rockville Centre, New York]]-->
Wicks restored and enlarged the 118 rank Kilgen/Möller instrument at the [[Cathedral-Basilica of Saint Louis the King]] in Saint Louis, Missouri. They also rebuilt the action of the [[Aeolian-Skinner]] organ located in the [[Washington National Cathedral|National Cathedral]] in [[Washington, D.C.]]
Wicks Organ Company is a non-union shop. There is no payscale for employee wages and benefits are partial. The company went through major changes in management during the last few years with some controversy.
==DIRECT-ELECTRIC action==
Prior to 1914, the valve action of pipe organs was limited to mechanical, pneumatic, or electro-pneumatic. As electricity was becoming more common in churches and households, Wick's founder John F. Wick with the assistance of a Dr. Katz from the University of Illinois developed a solenoid action. Requiring 15 volts of DC current, the electro-magnetic action operated a single moving armature. The small size, single moving part, and lack of perishable leather in the individual units made them more durable than the alternatives. The action is still proving itself today. The first modern style units installed in St. Mary's Church in [[Union City, Indiana]] have been working for more than 80 years. Wick's maintains a trademark on the name "DIRECT-ELECTRIC". Generically the action is referred to as electro-mechanical.
Improvements to DIRECT-ELECTRIC's design over the years include upgrading the return spring from a flat spring to a coil spring, shortening the armature, lowering the valve height and increasing the pallet thickness, removal of a wooden "stop", addition of the flux bracket to increase the unit's power, the addition of diodes to aid in closing of the valve, changing the paper coating to shrink-wrap plastic, double-coil high-pressure units, and the development of a special "bounceless" unit for use on reeds.
== Wicks Scholarship ==
The Wicks Organ Company offers a scholarship through the American Guild of Organists. Since 2005, the scholarship is permanently endowed and will be available to qualified organists through the ''Pipe Organ Encounters''. The scholarship was made available by Arthur J. Meier Jr. in memory of Martin M. Wick, who was president at the Wicks Organ Company for more than 60 years.
== External links ==
*[http://organ.wicks.com/ Official Website of Wicks Organs]
*[http://www.agohq.org/cgi-bin/cginews.pl?record=13/ MARTIN M. WICK SCHOLARSHIP]
*[http://f.webring.com/hub?ring=pipeorganring/ Organ Web Ring]
*[http://www.organclearinghouse.com/ Organ Clearinghouse / trace pipe organs from the past]
*[http://www.theatreorgans.com/alabama/greenville/ Wicks Opus 1585 new home]
*[http://www.atos.org/Pages/Story/builders.html/ American Theater Organ Society]
[[Category:Pipe_organ_builders]]