Academia, Museums, Enthusiasts And Their Role In Mechanical Music

Mark Reinhart's posting to the 19.10.12 MMD about the relative
importance of academia, museums, and collectors/enthusiasts to the
mechanical music field got me to thinking.

My conclusion is that they are all important and that collectors and
enthusiasts make a very significant contribution when they put their
knowledge and expertise into writing.  Writing can be in the form of
books, which used to be the only way of creating a permanent record,
or today it can be in the form of journal articles or online forums
such as the MMD or Facebook.

Mark Reinhart mentioned seven enthusiasts who have made significant
contributions to the mechanical field.  Three of them are no longer
with us, but all have left their expertise for us in their writings.
That is an important and permanent way of recording knowledge in
greater depth and detail than you might get in academic writings.

Expertise can also be passed on in the form of specialized class
instruction or in the form of apprenticeship.  Collector/dealer Nancy
Fratti, of Canastota, New York, used to conduct classes in musical
box repair.  I don't believe she still does, but she was thereby able
to pass on her knowledge and skills to others.  I believe there is
a need to increase the hands-on instruction field and especially the
apprenticeship field, as we see the number of active mechanical music
experts diminish and age.

There are many young mechanical music enthusiasts out there.  But who is
going to teach them the skills they need in this field?  I know several
mechanical music experts who could do this, but most are either too
busy satisfying our need for their services or they are temperamentally
unsuited to take on apprentices.

There has to be a better way of passing on maintenance and repair skills
than the way most of us have learned what we know: the rocky road of
trial and error.

Matthew Caulfield
Irondequoit, New York