In the Digest of 15 Dec, Jack Littlepage was asking for information
about a reed pipe organette carrying the name Clariona.  He informs us
that the instrument has an inscription, that says: "Wholesale Depot
No. 25, East Fourteenth St. New York City", as well as the name "Merrill
Gally".  He is asking for more information about the instrument, and
its value.

About the value I can say nothing.  But some other MMD members, active
with trading mechanical music subjects, will be glad to inform us, I
think.  About the instrument, thanks to Q. David Bowers'  "Encyclopedia
of Automatic Musical Instruments", something can be told.

Merrill Gally, to start with, was a professor who claimed to be the
inventor of the organette.  So did a lot of other people, amongst which
John McTammany is also one of the most important.  They did get several
patents issued.  These patents were licensed to factories, who produced
large numbers of these instruments.  Reed organettes were extremely
popular, may be also because they were not very expensive.  A major
producer, The Monroe Reed Organ Company, did claim an output of 50,000
instruments in 1887.

Another reason, that made these instruments sell so very well, was
the fact that they were sold by mail order.  Also important was that a
reseller could order the instruments with his own name "stenciled" on
it.  The name of the outlet, not the name of the manufacturer, was
stenciled on the instrument.  The outlet of the Clariona we are
speaking about was the Wholesale Depot No. 25.

The Clariona seems to be produced using a Merrill Gally patent of 1866.
This makes it even more reasonable that it was made by The Monroe Reed
Organ Company, since they did build some models, under the Gally
patents, that were featuring expression control by means of perfor-
ations in the roll.  This was an important feature, not often used in
even bigger or more expensive instruments.  In such cases it was common
practice to put, as an unique selling argument, such patent information
on the instrument.

A feature of the Clariona were the "reed pipes", wooden channels above
the reeds.  The owners did not find it an important improvement, so
these pipes most of the times were not used very long.  Remember: they
had to be removed and replaced at every roll change.  By the way: the
reed pipes, no pipes but resonators, were patented by McTammany.  This
may be the reason why the reed-pipe Clariona did not use separated
"pipes", as in the McTammany Patent, but a resonator chamber that is
placed over the top of the roll, more or less as a "big" reed pipe.

A minor remark to the Index of Bowers: you will not find the Clariona.
However: the Clarola (organette) should be at page 741 and 776.  This
is not quite correct: The Clarola is a saxophone that uses paper rolls
to play, and can be seen on page 776.  On page 741 there is no Clarola
to be found, but indeed the Clariona is mentioned because of its reed
pipes.  And the index is also containing the complete name Reed-Pipe
Clariona (organette), to be found on page 741, as well as on 762 and
768.

Jan KIijlstra