Ingmar Krause wrote in Digest 980628:

> ..... Well, indeed Robbie is right, if he says that turning by hand
> would be normal, but this [now] seems to be "history".
>
> In the time when there was no such motor, such a street organ was
> normally run by three people, alternating with each other in turning
> by hand.  Every 20 minutes they also moved (or better: _had_ to move)
> their trailer by hand for some hundred meters.

Mr. Krause is right about this.  The first motor-driven street organ
in Holland appeared in the thirties.  After WW2 it became more and
more general practice to crank the organs by motor power, due to the
changing economic circumstances.  A motor does not have to feed a
family, and small engines became cheaper in that time.

An interesting aspect about hand-cranking of street organs was the
difference between Amsterdam and Rotterdam.  The situation as described
by Mr. Krause refers to the Amsterdam situation.  In Rotterdam, street
organs often kept moving all the time, with stops for only a few
minutes.  The organ-cranker (draaier) used to keep on turning the
wheel while the organ was pushed through the streets by the two others,
walking along with the instrument and carefully avoiding the running
wheel that was just behind him!

> I have seen more organs with battery-driven motors than with gener-
> ators.  Some people use the little motor called "hond" (dog) which
> they use to move their trailer without a car, also as power-supply
> for the cranking of the organ.

I have never seen a little motor used for both purposes together.
Many street organs are moved by a small motor (indeed, a Honda
sometimes), that is placed in a sub-frame attached to the organ trailer.

This engine is called an "ijzeren hond" in the Netherlands, meaning
"Iron dog".  The term is referring to its original purpose: replacing
the dog that was previously used to trail [to draw] vehicles (and is
strictly forbidden since about 40 years!)  Most street organs have
battery-driven motors now, although hand-cranking is still practiced
by the enthusiasts.

> Belts can be out of different materials.  The material used mostly in
> former times was, of course, leather, but because you have to make it
> a loop you had to connect the ends of the leather-string (mostly done
> with metal), so the belt is always jumping when the ends run over the
> motor pulley.  You mentioned the cloth ones.  Another material of
> today is, of course, plastic.  Because you can weld the ends toge-
> ther, it runs very quietly.

Most belts are made of nylon today.  This nylon is laminated with cloth
on both sides to prevent stretching (Philip Jamison may have seen such
belts).  They are very durable and silent indeed.

Greetings from the Netherlands,

Hans van Oost