Hello Jody,  Thanks for your info and adding me to MMD subscribers list.

I'm a retired electrical engineer/project manager, after working with
the U.S. Department of the Navy for 29 years.  I guess you might say my
primary hobbies are playing the piano, fixing electronic things (like
old tube radios and electronic equipment, etc.), computers and reading
mostly technical books.

I recently acquired an old Beckman Player Piano which was in quite nice
shape, but the player mechanism was inoperable.  The stencil above the
keys indicates the Beckman Player Piano was made in New York.  The frame
to which the strings are attached was manufactured by the Aeolian
Company of New York.  I purchased two books by Arthur Reblitz on player
piano repair and piano rebuilding & tuning, and decided to try to get
the player to work again, as well as attempting to get some history on
the Beckman piano if I can.  The piano's serial number is 15238, from
which it appears dates the piano's manufacture to around 1908.

Basically the piano itself works and plays pretty well, although some
work needs to be done on the regulation, but the player rubber hoses are
quite dry rotted (although most still function) and the bellows of the
regulators and wind motor are quite dried out, cracked, and leaky.  When
I examined the player mechanism, it was obvious that at some time some-
one had tried to repair it but was unsuccessful.  In addition, I traced
a number of the rubber hoses from the pump and regulators and drew a
schematic as best I could to try to get all the hoses back to where they
are supposed to go.

So far I have been successful in getting the player to work (to a degree
where I can play rolls) when I connect a vacuum cleaner to the input to
the wind stack regulators and the wind motor regulator.  But I want to
try to get the player to work from the pump pedals if possible.

I would appreciate getting any information on the company that manu-
factured the Beckman Player Piano, as well as any schematics showing the
vacuum hose connections.  There is still at least one hose connection
that I so far have been unable to determine where it terminates.  A
regulator on the left side of the piano underneath the keybed has a
small L shaped pipe (about 3/16 inch in outside diameter) going into it,
but I cannot determine where the other end of a hose connects to, if
indeed a hose is connected to it.

I'd appreciate any information the readers of MMD could provide.

Dale C. Houser

 [ Welcome to MMD, Dale.  Your piano is possibly a "stencil" piano,
 [ made by Aeolian for a department store or the like.  It probably
 [ closely resembles the Aeolian Pianola of the era, and it might
 [ have the Themodist expression system.  Can you describe the tracker
 [ bar for us: what size and quantity of holes?  Good luck with your
 [ project.  -- Robbie