I looked at the Calliope in question on your Website. It looks
suspiciously like Arthur Davis' personal unit that he sold to
Opryland USA, Inc. for the M/V General Jackson Showboat in 1984.
If it is, in fact, that one, it has been relegated to the visual
status only, and does not play anymore.  The owners of the boat see
no use in repairing it and removed the keyboard and player unit some
years ago.  I think it only played for the first two seasons or so
that the boat ran.  I have made many attempts to get them to repair
the calliope.  But, to this date all letters have gone unanswered.

I don't know if you are familiar with the Davis Calliope Works.
They began in 1975 with the building of the Str. Mississippi Queen
Calliope.  And folded in the late part of 1983, after building
several small instruments.  The smaller ones were extremely high
pitched and had lousy tonal quality.  Mostly hobbyists bought them
for novelty.  For there are much better quality steam calliopes
available today!

That Mississippi Queen Calliope is Arthur Davis' finest calliope
ever.  Too bad the owners of the boat don't feel that way about
it!  When I was aboard the vessel about two weeks ago, they had the
instrument starving for steam.  It was playing at about 9 p.s.i..
The artist in residence aboard stated that the reason for the low
pressure was that "it's too loud for the luxury suites", which are
situated to either side of the instrument.  Parish the thought of
the rich suffering at the  hand of good music! (he, he, he, )

Hope that tidbit was of help!

Travis C. Vasconcelos
Louisvillle, KY

 [ Travis,
 [    Thanks much for this useful piece information.  Perhaps
 [ we'll see some more discussion of steam calliopes here in
 [ the future.     -- Jody