I was walking by an antique shop yesterday in downtown Salem, OR, and
spotted a later Aeolian.  I got to talking to the owner, and he asked
if I saw this "other" player, and I of course, had not, because it was
so different.  It was a player piano that you played with a crank.  No
spring, just crank and crank.  (The owner restores players, he may even
be a member of the list; I was negligent in discussing the MMD )-:  --
there were so many questions.)

Anyway, all you experts have probably seen these before, but I thought
it was very unique.  There was a big drawer that you pulled out under
the keybed.  In the drawer was the roll, a set of combs, very similar
to a music box, and the take-up spool.  The roll was very thick, almost
card-board, at it looked like it had a layer of shellac on it.

Underneath, there was a big brass drum (cylinder), about 2-foot
diameter, that ran the full width of the piano.  It rotated when you
turned the crank.  Laying on top of the drum were another full set of
hammers.  They were raised by the fact of putting a blank roll over the
combs.  When the roll passed over the combs, and a hole was over the
comb, it would, via rods, lower the hammers onto the rotating drum, and
then the hammers would strike the strings.  He told me it was circa
1895.  Very nice condition.

Rick Pargeter