Thanks to advice and help from several London-area MMDers, I took
a side trip from the Lambeth Conference in Canterbury and visited the
Brentford Mechanical Music Museum near Kew Bridge in London.  I was 
met there by fellow MMDer Jeffrey Borinsky, who made sure I saw all the
best exhibits and who went to lunch and supper with me at pubs along
the Thames -- very fine.

The museum is in a newly constructed 3-story building.  The instruments
take up the ground floor, while the other two house a Wurlitzer theater
organ, its auditorium, and a snack shop.  The highlight of the playable
instruments is a small but very effective Aeolian residence organ.
I was surprised by the prompt speech of its string ranks and classical
voicing of its flutes -- very crisp and clear overall, not smushy.

A close second place goes to the Imhof and Mukle orchestrion, which
looks like a Welte with its fanned-out trumpets but has a rank of small
wooden piccolos in front like a street organ.

Many other fine large instruments were there, including a large
Orchestrelle and a small Welte residence organ, but they were not
playable at the time.  Some instruments had never been restored yet,
but quite a few had been playing in the old damp church location, but
had succumbed to the dry central heat of the new place.  We Americans
who import English pieces are all too familiar with the problem.

There was a typically out-of-tune street piano that the docent
demonstrated, and he dared someone to crank a large barrel organ.
I took the bait and finished the tune.  The organ was in better shape
than the piano.

There were plenty of musical boxes and phonographs, and player pianolas
and reproducing pianos.  It occurred to me that a windup phono with
external horn must seem as exotic to the kids in the group as a player
instrument.

Interesting to see was a caseless early Welte orchestrion with its
original barrel system intact.  From the looks of it, it probably will
not be restored, as there is a roll-playing Welte currently not
playing.

I was amused to see one of my favorite "semi-automatic" instruments,
an early Autoharp.

The museum would be very educational for anyone.  The exhibits are
aimed at the general public, but do not talk down to anyone -- and the
specialist can certainly see things he probably hasn't anywhere else.
I'd recommend the museum to anyone, and it should improve as more
instruments are restored and the Wurlitzer is got playing (it's already
in the testing and debugging stage).

Afterwards, Jeffrey took me to the Steam Museum, which is another story,
but its huge pumping engines are unique -- guaranteed you haven't seen
anything like these before.  Thanks again, Jeffrey!

Mike Knudsen