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MMD > Archives > October 2012 > 2012.10.20 > 01Prev  Next


"Automusicograph" Keyboard Event Marking Machine
By Giorgio Farabegoli

Hello, anyone has information about the invention of Don Angelo
Barbieri called the "Automusicograph"?  This musical "typewriter"
was used by Pietro Mascagni in recording his opera "Isabeau"
in 1910/1911.

"The Music Typewriter Co., Ltd" (directors J. T. Sibley and F. P.
Mannock) was the title of the company registered in London who
acquired the rights of Barbieri & Co. for the "Automusicograph".

Thank you!
Giorgio Farabegoli
Italy

 [ The Washington Herald newspaper of September 14, 1910, on page 4,
 [ re-published an article from the London Daily Express which
 [ described the machine thusly:
 [
 [ "... His apparatus consists of a metal frame containing a row of
 [ thin steel bars.  The frame is fixed behind the panel of a cottage
 [ piano so that each bar rests on a key, and when a note is struck on
 [ the piano the bar rises and brings a small inked wheel into contact
 [ with a revolving roll of paper."
 [
 [ Thus the paper was marked with inked lines similar to the paper
 [ 'master' rolls marked by the Welte-Mignon recording piano, but
 [ without Welte's complex mercury-trough switches and magnets.  Ref.
 [ http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn83045433/1910-09-14/ed-1/seq-4/ 
 [ -- Robbie


(Message sent Fri 19 Oct 2012, 11:11:40 GMT, from time zone GMT-0700.)

Key Words in Subject:  Automusicograph, Event, Keyboard, Machine, Marking

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