Yes, I'm sure John Farmer is right that there were many instruments,
mostly music boxes, that found their way to India during the Raj, but
what amazes me is that one is still working! From my experience in
India, it seems awfully tough to keep things working in that amazing
environment of extreme heat and desiccating dryness most of the year,
relieved by a month or two of mold-inducing monsoon.
I never came across a player, but I saw several straight pianos, even
in the finest hotels, which were hopeless piles of delaminated case and
keytops, warped wippens, soggy hammers, and corroded string sets. En-
tropy works a lot faster there, I think, returning everything to the
primordial soup at a rapid rate.
Jim Katz
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