I was interested to see that Julian is taking an interest in the
Artrio Angelus -- a system which has long fascinated me.  Although
I've never heard a playing specimen, an examination of the mechanism
suggests it should be capable of very good results.  Having said that,
this impression was based on the information given in William Braid
White's book and, after closely examining this, it became apparent
that he didn't really understand it either!

May I refer you to a recent publication, "Music by the Hearth," by
Foster White, which provides a detailed insight into the history of
the Wilcox and White enterprise including the development of the Artrio
system.  The book is presented as a family history with few technical
facts and a minor criticism is that the flow of the story is disrupted
with endless dates and numbers relating to the relevant patents.
However, for nerds like us, this makes it a gold mine.  The most
important Artrio expression box patent is 1168691 but there are many
more.

Another interesting snippet which turns up in the book is that none
other than Josef Hoffman took out a patent (1614984) for a mechanism
to record the velocities with which the notes were struck.  It makes
interesting reading although it is so mechanically cumbersome it
clearly didn't have a future.  However, his pre-amble to the
application makes interesting reading :-

  "In the known recording systems, usually these perforations are
  not applied to the master or initial record by the recording
  artist himself, but are either recorded with the aid of a separate
  contrivance manipulated by another person listening to the artist
  during the recording period and applying the dynamics according to
  his own judgment, or they are added afterwards.  The actual touch
  of the recording pianist has therefore no effect upon the dynamic
  indications of the recording machine and consequently the finished
  master record or roll from which the duplicates are made for the
  player piano lacks the individuality of the producing artist."

Hoffman made these comments in the context of his recordings for the
Artrio and I suspect that, even if the mechanism had great potential,
the quality of the expression coding on the rolls may have poor.  From
a broader perspective this highlights the principal problem with our
current efforts to convert expression data from reproducing rolls to
MIDI velocities.  No matter how perfect our algorithms might become,
the GIGO principle ["garbage in, garbage out"] will always apply!

Finally, I had a vague recollection of seeing a reference to an Artrio
piano featured in a film and eventually tracked this down to an advert
which is reproduced in the Player Piano Treasury (Page 81).  The film
was "Kiss Me Again," directed by Ernst Lubitsch.  We learn that the
Artrio Angelus was so magnificent it inspired the actors to play as
they never had before.  They were the lucky ones because at least they
could hear it -- it was a silent film!

Richard Stibbons
Cromer, Norfolk, England