Over at Barton Player Pianos in Minneapolis I saw an interesting Pratt
and Reed. It's "very late" and very unique.
To begin with, the entire player system in located about the keys
(exhausters, equalizers, tempo, stack, etc.). The exhausters are located
on the bottom of the stack with metal "strips" which extend through the
keybed to the foot pedals. The "stack" features units which are very
narrow (less than 1/2 inch wide), and the valve and pouch are sideways
just below the pneumatics, which are of the accordion style (with two
chambers). It is a very tight system, and extremely easy to pump.
From all outward appearances it looks like any other piano of the
period, and I didn't even know, 'til a customer was asking about having
it outfitted with auto rewind and shut off. I opened the bottom to
check on the space available, and was surprised when there were no
bottom bellows. This unit was installed in a Bush and Lane piano.
I will get some pictures taken of the various parts, and forward them
to the MMD Archive.
Ed Copeland
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