Last week I went over to Lincolnton to visit Tony Marsico at his shop.
Was very impressed with him and with several instruments he had there.
One was an old barrel organ which I had never seen, and he showed me an
Orchestrelle, and several other players, etc.

He has a 153 of his own that he is restoring (it has an Artizan A-2
facade!) and another 153 that he is working on for a "carny" (painted
case, pretty rough).  Well, after a whirlwind tour he showed me what
the finger pneumatics and valve trunk look like and how easy it is to
remove (once you have the picture).

The next morning we commenced to remove ours.  Of course we ended up
having to remove the pressure bellows to get it out, and the bottom
connecting rods.  Several finger bellows were gaping open so that is
one source of leakage.  Tony is not really familiar with the 4-in one
pot metal Wurlitzers and he suggests replacing them with a new trunk
and individual wood valves.  I don't think that's too bad an idea,
although I would also not mind if the others could be salvaged.

I'm going to take the whole unit to Tony and let him redo the fingers
and decide about the other.  Also will let him check the vacuum pump
and replace the leather on the reservoir that we tried to patch.  He
showed me one he had done with new leather and it was nice and supple
when it collapsed, where ours is cracked and stiff.

My question on the 4-in-ones is: If we tried to get some new covers
cast, how did they -- would we -- get the channel in the lid that takes
the air from the inlet at the top to the corresponding pouch chamber
for that valve.  You sort of have to be familiar with the casting to
follow this, but it looks like it was cast solid, then the channel
drilled out from the top(and then plugged).  I would need to have about
six covers re-cast to replace ones that are broken around the bottom
screw location where it was unprotected by the body of the cover and is
easily snapped off.  It seems that one or two people might have these
parts for sale?

Now the neat thing: As I was cleaning the bottom of the pressure
bellows, I noticed some newspaper visible around the corners and I
remembered seeing something similar on the 153 pump in Tony's shop.
There was a lot of what looked like a light colored film or dust on
most of the bottom and I was cleaning with a rag and some mineral
spirits.

As the whitish part that I thought was just a thick coat of dust got
saturated, the newspaper on the bottom got clearer and soon I was able
to read the whole sheet very clearly, a neatly applied page from the
Buffalo Evening Times, June, 1923!  Since Artisan came to be in 1922, I
immediately thought that it is very possible that the paper dates our
actual organ pretty closely.

Also, as I examined it closer, there was a blue crayon scribble that I
soon made out as the number 347.  That is the number that is stamped
into the cover of the pallet valve box and in smaller numbers on the
vacuum pump.  Well, I washed off the mineral spirits and let it dry.
When it began to dry, the white obscuring material became opaque again
(white shellac?) and now the newspaper is almost invisible.  I will wet
it again and take a picture before putting it back in the organ.

Any comments on any of this are welcome.

Tommy Forney
Shelby City Park Carousel
Shelby NC