A missing cylinder pin?  The experts have already given 'sound' advice,
which is very clear for the reasons already given: do not attempt to
replace a missing pin or even a number of pins.

I remember attending one of H.A.V. Bulleid's regular discourses that
nearly always included practical demonstrations.  One was on partial
repining (again, something to be left for the expert) and when to
decide if a re-pin was desirable.

The loss of a single pin is largely irrelevant, far less so than
a missing tooth or tooth tip.  All tunes comprise several elements.
Put crudely, there will be the melody, the accompaniment and
ornamentation (the trills, grace notes, etc).  Thus it is the ear that
should be the determining factor when deciding whether or not a re-pin
is necessary.  Even this decision will vary amongst those listening to
the tune based on their familiarity of the rendition of a particular
tune.

For example, "The Last Rose of Summer" and "Home Sweet Home" were two
of the most popular airs ever pinned onto the cylinder musical box.
There are so many surviving different versions and variations that even
if several pins in the melody section were missing it would be hard to
tell.

Bulleid had a rule of thumb that, if the air pleased the ear, it is
possible that to 10% of the total number of pins could be missing
without warranting a re-pin.  Of course, he was being rather challenging
but by playing an air that had quite a lot of missing pins it was his
audience that had to make that decision - and the reactions were, as
expected, mixed.

It should also be remembered that what may appear to be broken pins
may not be but do look for the debris if there are!  When cylinders
were pricked, then drilled and then pinned, errors were quite common
at each stage.  Thus one may often find that a pricked hole has not
been drilled because the error was spotted before drilling took place.

To stop the hole being drilled a small angled scratch was made,
acting as an arrow towards the prick-mark to alert the person doing
the drilling.  At a later stage, when the tune was played, a note that
sounded wrong was removed by snapping it off.

There were several different terms used to make adjustments (we would
probably call it 'Quality Assurance'): justification, posage and
terminage.  The first relates to manual adjustment of cylinder pins,
particularly to ensure they were in line with tooth tips, in correct
musical time, that chords were in unison, trills played in even rhythm,
and glissando runs in smooth and even tempo.  This is something that
even the amateur can attempt with care.

Posage was another term for handmade adjustments during the manufacture
of a musical movement.  This might involve filing of comb teeth and
setting teeth to their correct cylinder track-line position.

Terminage was, as the word implies, the last stage of inspection
when a musical movement was assessed for dispatch.  It was carried out
after the movement had been cleaned, burnished and assembled.  Damper
operation was important if 'squeaks' were heard as the movement played.
The curvature and setting of each one was adjusted by hand as required
and the exact position of the comb determined in relation to tune
tracks.

Paul Bellamy

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