Of the consistent moral support my wife and I have had in my email
since my letter appeared, Dick Merchant's kind letter was by far the
most moving to us.  He has been a long-time supporter of AMICA and, no
doubt, MBSI activities, and while I don't have time to follow these
activities the way I would like, I suspect that Dick (besides being a
superb pianist) is one of those who help to keep these historical
"hobbies" going, behind the scenes.

There is a lot of hard work by a lot of dedicated aficionados which
goes on to make the preservation of music machines and their music
meaningful, and much of it is more drudgery than glamour, behind the
scenes.  For example, among other services performed, Robin Pratt's
work and (and that of others, undoubtedly) to include reprinted
documents of the past of superb quality, with each AMICA Bulletin.
These alone are worth the cost of subscription.

Laurent Corey (a perfectionist himself) good-naturedly put up with
many of my sudden requests for additions to the PowerRoll, at one time
saying, "I thought you would be adding things, so I included extra
wires!"  Likewise, Richard Brandle was a perfect gentlemen about
Laurent's and my endless requests for this or that neat feature that
we wondered if he could incorporate into WindPlay, and more often than
not figured out a way to do it -- all done for "free," out of love for
the hobby!

Robbie's article about making word rolls reminded me that we had tried
to allow a foundation for someday later addition of a flat-screen
monitor which could go on the music desk, so that the PowerRollist
could see the roll going by, in the old-fascinated way.  I always
assumed that the words of all word rolls would, should and must someday
be visible on the WindPlay screen.  WindPlay has always had this
capability when used with roll transcriptions thus prepared, such as
those in Wayne Stahnke's disc for the PowerRoll.

In those days (about 1997) the choices of flat screens were very
limited, and I still have the samples he sent me.  A great number of
improvements have occurred since then and I hope that we can eventually
have a deluxe or maybe even standard model of the PowerRoll to which
a color or B&W display screen could be clipped, or placed on the music
desk, if desired.  Another option: price permitting, each member of the
party could have his own screen with a good view of the roll, while
someone pumped or while the motor played the piano.  We had many other
ideas as well for making the use of the piano more enjoyable.

Robbie commented:

>[ The major assets are the tooling that Larry developed and the
>[ patents he secured.  A private investor group could be formed to
>[ purchase shares of these assets and so provide Larry with fresh
>[ operating capital.

I believe that we could structure something with sound management by
business types, while I would simply advise and direct the technical
part.  It goes without saying that the first units built would be those
past-due for delivery.  I believe that there would be small friction
between me and the money people, provided that they are genuinely
dedicated to maintaining high quality, authentic style under my
direction if not too impractical, and if they have historical goals
also foremost in mind.  We have achieved a lot towards making units
which can still be delegated to low- or unskilled labor, fairly
impervious to human error.  This, combined with rigorous quality
control, should please even the most particular collector.

Gratefully,

Larry Broadmoore