The Wicks Organ Company is an organ

Organ (music)

The organ , is a keyboard instrument of one or more divisions, each played with its own keyboard operated either with the hands or with the feet. The organ is a relatively old musical instrument in the Western musical tradition, dating from the time of Ctesibius of Alexandria who is credited with...

 manufacturer

Manufacturing

Manufacturing is the use of machines, tools and labor to produce goods for use or sale. The term may refer to a range of human activity, from handicraft to high tech, but is most commonly applied to industrial production, in which raw materials are transformed into finished goods on a large scale...

 in Highland

Highland, Illinois

Highland is a city in Madison County, Illinois, United States. The population was 9,433 at the 2010 census. Highland began as a Swiss settlement and derived its name from later German immigrants.Highland is a sister city of Sursee in Switzerland....

, Illinois

Illinois

Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...

 in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

; where they build, repair, and restore organs.

History

The Wicks Organ Company was founded by Adolph Wick, John F. Wick, and Louis Wick in the early 1900s at their jewelry and watch making store in Highland, Illinois. A local priest asked John Wick to study organ. He studied organ at St. Louis University, St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis, Missouri

St. Louis is an independent city on the eastern border of Missouri, United States. With a population of 319,294, it was the 58th-largest U.S. city at the 2010 U.S. Census. The Greater St...

 and then became the church organist. The church later decided to replace an old reed organ

Reed organ

A reed organ, also called a parlor organ, pump organ, cabinet organ, cottage organ, is an organ that generates its sounds using free metal reeds...

 with a pipe organ

Pipe organ

The pipe organ is a musical instrument that produces sound by driving pressurized air through pipes selected via a keyboard. Because each organ pipe produces a single pitch, the pipes are provided in sets called ranks, each of which has a common timbre and volume throughout the keyboard compass...

.

The brothers utilized their skills in watch making, cabinet making, and jewelry to construct a small, two manual and pedal, mechanical action pipe organ for the church.

They incorporated as the Wicks Organ Company in 1906.

The Wicks Organ Company invented, patented, and trademarked the Direct Electric chest action. This action was created in 1916 and it is still in use today. The chest action is not affected by temperature or humidity and it does not have to be re-leather

Leather

Leather is a durable and flexible material created via the tanning of putrescible animal rawhide and skin, primarily cattlehide. It can be produced through different manufacturing processes, ranging from cottage industry to heavy industry.-Forms:...

ed like tubular pneumatic or electro-pneumatic action.

The Wicks opus list encompasses over 6440 instruments installed mostly in the U.S. and some throughout the world. In January 2011, the company announced it would phase-out manufacturing, a decision driven largely by changing tastes in church music.