I have a Niagara Musical Instrument Co. band organ which was purchased
new on July 22, 1902.  The man who sold it to me was a relative to the
owner.  He remembered riding the merry-go-round when he was a child and
at age 86 wanted to find out where his "memory" went.

The carousel horses were sold off in 1972 and the organ was replaced by
radio (ugh) music in 1940.  The organ lay rotting on its side in a barn
in Massachusetts where he found it in the 1980s.  I now own it and
realized after the discussion about changing the format how rare it is.

There are only about 10 big cylinder organs left because most older
organs were "updated" by Wurlitzer and others to play the paper roll
formats since now you could have an endless supply of music.  (Does
that sound familiar?)

Now for the question: Have any of you heard a larger band organ (not
a monkey organ) playing on its original cylinder format?  Case proven!

There is quite a difference between a pneumatic and a barrel pin
action.  Since pins are much faster acting, notes can speak with a
rapidity that paper rolls cannot attain.  The arrangements are more
complex -- and they had to be -- as that song might play continuously
for hours on end until the barrel was manually shifted to another
selection.

Should I scrap this system because I do not want to deal with it?

Put it this way: this was the very same music that the people of Atlanta,
Georgia, listened to at the State Fair in 1902 as the merry-go-round
traversed the Atlantic Seaboard.  It took in $1525.05 in the ten day
run and written in the leather account book that I acquired from the
family is the notation: "Offered half interest in the Coca-Cola
bottling works for $4000."

This is what makes history interesting and we all have a rare
opportunity to step back in time.

Gregory Filardo