What are the Folding Knee Levers for?

You may be wondering what the two wooden folding levers, located directly above the foot pedals, are used for (see photo below).

After sitting at the organ the operator would swing open the two knee levers and then place their legs between them. This now allows the operator to work the foot pedals and, at the same time (if needed) work the two knee levers. And yes this is easily done.

By using their left knee, the operator would move the lever to the side (just about an inch) which would activate all of the pull stops (the round, labeled pull handles just above the keys).

In other words, instead of having to pull out all of stops out by hand, the operator would simply move their left knee to the side and the organ would immediately begin playing all of the various sound tones it was capable of making.

On the other hand, if the operator moved their right knee to the side they would open the two sound shutters, allowing the organ to produce as must sound volume as it was capable of making.

Quite often (but not always) pump organ manufacturers would label these wooden knee levers the same way they would label their pull stops, using small round disks. In this case the knee levers could be identified as Full Organ, Grand Organ, Full Orchestra, or maybe not at all.