>[ For this discussion thread let's define "player piano" as the
>[ piano with the foot pedals that plays a perforated paper music
>[ roll.  It's also the musical machine that displaced the pump
>[ organ or harmonium in the parlour and that preceded the radio
>[ set as the "home entertainment center" of the 1920s.  -- Robbie

Too bad Robbie defined the player piano as one having "foot pedals".
That excludes some electric players demonstrated in the 1860s, which
used perforated paper rolls.

The electric player is mentioned as early as 1850, but the first patent
was taken out for an electric player by Andre in Wurttemburg in 1861.
In 1867 a Swiss named Hipp demonstrated an electric player that
automatically controlled expression by insertion of resistance in
the common return.  In 1868 another Swiss named Spiess demonstrated
a similar player, and contemporary comments were quite favorable.  The
lack of cheap electric power made these efforts impractical, as it was
mainly batteries.

By the 1890s commercial electric power was generally available and
development began again on electric players.  In the mid 1890s Powers
in the U.S. developed an electric player that was similar to the Swiss
models, but it was not yet commercially practical.  By 1899 he filed
patent applications for models that were nearly viable, and by 1902
the models were good enough to sell commercially.  They controlled
expression and the pedals via perforations in the roll.

If you powered one of these players with a generator driven by foot
pedals would it meet Robbie's criteria?

Bob Billings

 [ Definitely!  ;-)  -- Robbie