Thank you for such a prompt and efficacious response.  I received a
message in reply from Mr. Phillipe Rouille, Paris, France this morning,
and he noted several other museums of musical instruments in Europe,
which I hope to pursue in person next summer.

I am a mechanical engineer by profession.  I work in the field of power
plant control systems.  Different assignments take me all over the world,
to power plants ostensibly, but I usually manage to visit some other
nearby sites of musical interest.

When I first got involved with the control systems in power plants,
I could not believe my eyes!  As recently as the early to mid 1970's,
we were installing pneumatic controls.  These are very similar to the
pneumatic circuits on player pianos and organs.  It turned out that my
profession let me to an enhanced awareness of the musical instrument's
mechanisms.

One thing led to another, and today I am still working as a professional
engineer in power plant controls, which have gone over to electronic
computer control, but my hobby has developed into the restoration and
transplantation of pipe organs into churches, homes, schools, etc.

I have been involved in a number of restorations, and find that it
combines the best parts of several crafts, woodworking, metalworking,
electronics, and has developed my own sense of music appreciation, as
well as playing the organ at church.  This is not a mechanical musical
instrument in the same sense that it is pre-recorded or programmed with
punched paper tape etc., but a lot of the technology would transfer from
one to the other.

I helped transplant to a local college chapel a 3-manual Kimball
residence pipe organ that was built for a wealthy Oklahoma oil magnate.
It had a player mechanism build into the console which was a modification
of the suction system in most player pianos.  This one had the entire box
around the music roll pressurized,  rather than suction being applied to
the perforated paper roll.  We did not have any rolls to demonstrate the
system, but I understand that it was capable of making changes to the
stops, volume, etc.  That instrument has since been moved to a private
location in Michigan.

As far as your invitation to "join our group",  I am not sure what
group you're referring to.  Is the Mechanical Music Digest a hard-copy
publication, or is it a cyberdocument that exists only on the Internet?
Does joining your group include a subscription to the Digest?

Thanks again for your help.  I'm impressed at how soon I received a
response.

Doug Dexheimer
Overland Park, Kansas

 [ Editor/Publisher's note:
 [
 [ Doug, it's clear from your reply above that you will enjoy our group,
 [ and there's no cost or obligation so I've just added you to the
 [ subscription list.  Let me know if you want off!
 [
 [ A friend of mine, Mike, has a master's degree in General Engineering,
 [ specializing in control systems.  He worked for many years as a
 [ software engineer for Leeds & Northrup Co. in (near) Philadelphia.
 [ An electrician filed a grievance against Mike because he was seen
 [ with a small screwdriver in his shirt pocket.  Clearly he was moving
 [ RS-232 computer cables, a privilege reserved for union electricians
 [ in that shop.
 [
 [ Mike's supervisor and the union representative arrived at Mike's
 [ workstation and demanded an explanation of his screwdriver.  Mike
 [ calmly took them to the back of a room-sized computer, where there
 [ was a sheet of plywood with many large gray boxes with tubing coming
 [ out of them.  He opened the cover on one of boxes revealing a
 [ pneumatic controller.
 [
 [ Taking the screwdriver from his pocket, he pointed at a screw on the
 [ pneumatic controller, and said, "I am a programmer.  These pneumatic
 [ controllers must be programmed with a pressure set-point compatible
 [ with the computer program I am writing.  My screwdriver is a
 [ programming tool".  The union rep left in disgust!
 [
 [ I hope you enjoy the group.
 [
 [ Jody