This used to be a popular activity at the time I was in the Cub
Scouts in the early 1970s, and I recall the Scout hut as having
a line of pianos down the side waiting for the next event -- which
was a competition to see who could get the piano into bits small
enough to pass through a car tyre hanging from a rope. I don't
recall any player pianos.
With a 14-pound sledgehammer it would take just a few minutes for
the more enthusiastic (and no doubt gently lubricated) participants --
Scouters and parents, being too much fun to allow the Scouts to try --
to marmalise the manky uprights that folks were so happy to oust!
Rather more recently, my brother bought two players for next to nothing
in a local auction. One turned out to be worm-ridden and that was
broken up right in the auction room before being slung in the back of
the car to go down the dump. Don't know how long it took, but I bet
not all that long! The auction house staff were astonished, having
thought it would be a really big task. The secret (for those not yet
initiated into the art) is not to hold back.
Julian Dyer
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