The Smallest Organ: Claimed to be the world's smallest organ, this portable working model was built by the late Carl Hess, organ builder of Durlach, Germany. It is a copy of the organ in the famous tryptich painted by the Dutch painter Hans Memline in 1480 for the Benedictine Abbey, Najeda, in Northern Spain. In the picture an angel is playing the organ. As there were no construction plans for the mechanism available, Hess accomplished the internal construction according to his own plan, but made the exterior of his instrument a replica of that in the picture. The instrument has 25 pipes with 2 octaves and is played with the right hand, while the left operates the bellows. January 30, 1951.