Hello everyone, I have just returned home after a great trip to Israel,
to the Nisco Museum of Mechanic Music which was heavily damaged by the
forest fires on Mt. Carmel last December 2010.  Luckily, the museum is
solid concrete, but the heat inside went so high that many instruments
simply combusted, and burnt.

Every instrument was damaged by the heat, and then by the water used
to fight the fire.  There are stacks of once beautiful music boxes,
reduced to piles of melted pieces.

The owner of the museum, Mr. Nisan Cohen (who is a very young 85 years
old), has accepted this tragedy as "just part of life."  He has somehow
been able to find enough instruments in his collection, still working,
to continue with his hourly performances which explain the world of
mechanical music and how it all works.  Mr. Cohen works alone, and does
all of the performances while working countless hours cleaning and
repairing instruments seven days a week.  Just to meet such a man was
an experience I will never forget.

My job was to try and resurrect the once beautiful XY Orchestrelle back
to life in 10 days.  The instrument was damaged by the heat and then
the water, to the extent that all of the case varnish had bubbled and
all of the metal parts covered with heavy rust.  Every part was also
covered with black soot.  Luckily the instrument did not catch on fire.

If you know the Orchestrelle it is full of delicate metal rods and felt
guides and was truly a work of art when new.  After the fire every part
was locked solid and needing attention, and so the project began.
After restoring a lot of the different parts of the instrument, and
using every trick I know about Orchestrelles, I am pleased to say that
the instrument is once again playing singing its heart out for the
visitors at the Nisco museum.  It was recently featured in a special
evening performance, which was well attended, playing everything from
Bach to "Sounds of the South".

I would like to thank all of the MMD members who tried to helped me
find a test roll for this rare instrument, and all of their support on
this project.

If you have a music box or other item related to mechanical music, and
would like to see it go to a good home and most worthy situation, then
please send Nisan Cohen an email at woundup_2000@yahoo.com.geentroep
[delete ".geentroep" to reply].  I am sure he would be delighted to
hear from you, also cash contributions are greatly needed and
appreciated.

I hope to have a special page on my web site in the near future showing
more info on the Nisco Museum fire.  Again, many thanks to everyone.

Sincerely,
Ron Schmuck - Great Canadian Nickelodeon Company
Mount Forest, Ontario, Canada
http://www.nickelodeonco.com/