Yesterday I was at the Mechanical Music Museum at San Francisco's Cliff
House; they have two of these player pianos with pinned wooden barrels.
They have been electrified, but originally were cranked by hand. I
didn't realize these were especially rare or unusual; I thought they
fall in the category of barrel or street pianos, which were quite
common in Europe and manufactured until recent times.
Larry Lobel
Virtuoso Piano Service
Petaluma, CA
[ The distinction is in what moves the hammer. The pin of a barrel
[ piano both selects the note and moves the hammer, but the Pianotist
[ is like the electric typewriter: a key falls into the hole of the
[ thick music roll, and the hammer-moving force is provided by the
[ spinning drum. Just as in the electric typewriter, the hammer
[ velocity can be changed from slow to fast by making the impelling
[ drum rotate faster. (For 'carbon copies?' ;) -- Robbie
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