Aristide Cavaillé-Coll

Aristide Cavaillé-Coll was a French organ builder, acoustician, scientist and inventor. He is widely considered as the most importan organ builder of the 19th Century, having built or improved many the organs of many of France's greatest cathedrals, including St. Denis, La Madeleine, St. Sulpice and Notre Dame. He was the first to introduce the Barker lever, a pneumatic system that multiplies the force exerted by a player's finger on an organ key. This allowed the construction of much larger organs.