Hi all, In 040627 MMDigest Phillip Dami inquired what might be the
world's smallest player pipe organ. I wonder if it might be the
"Tuneyville Player Piano", which is in actuality a playing pipe organ
in a piano case.
About six inches wide, eight inches high, and a couple of inches deep,
it appears on the outside to have only two pipes, but it plays the
pitches of the 8-note scale very accurately. You can only play one
note at a time, manually or with four plastic discs that have a tune
molded on each side.
I presently own two, and they delight visitors every time I start them
up. Would this qualify as the world's smallest player pipe organ?
Devon Hollingsworth, in DeKalb, Illinois
[ That's cute, Devon, and it's not been discussed before in MMD.
[ A quick search on the 'Net suggests it was made by the Tomy toy
[ company in the 1950s or '60s. I think it's really a self-playing
[ slide whistle and mechanically it is related to the singing bird
[ boxes and the Griesbaum whistlers. -- Robbie
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