Elmore bulletin. [volume] (Rocky Bar, Idaho) 1889-1906, 1891-07-11

The PIANO HAND ORGANS.
Hew Those P.paisr Instruments Of sks
street Are Made.

aew Those Pepaiar Instruments of the
street Are Made.
Their musical merits aside, the me-
chanical pianos trundlcd about the streets
by the re-established peripatetic perform
ers are remarkable affairs. The princi-
Pile ON which they are made Ia. Of course,
well known. They are enlarged music
boxes, The hammers that strike the wires
being SCI III action by coming in contact
with minute pegs set in a cylinder that
extends the whole length Of the frame.
or. popularity, the key board. In the
largest Of these pianos the cylinder 10
pegged to play ten tunes, and il takes
one complete revolution Of the cylinder
to finish one tune. After that the per-
former may continue 10 grind out the
same time again. or by moving q lever
push tile cvlin,ier forward by as much as
the width of on. peg, and SO bring out a
different piece.
These pegs are not nearly as broad as
pin head. and the fact that. unpleasant
as tine machines are 10 trained ear,
they rarely II ever strike false notes, is
evidence Of the care and nicely en-
ployed IN their construction. For, in a
machine pegged for ten tunes, the cylin-
de is simply black with the pegs, and
the slightest inaccuracy in placing them
would bring out "A wrong note some
whore.
The relation ~ the pegs to the ham
mers may bc understood If one plays his
two hands side by side upon the table.
palms down. The fingers and thumb
may represent the pegs, each peg play
ing it, part Ia the different tunes. The
space between the levers which one peg
lifts il just wide enough To pass nine
other pegs, II happens. Of course. that
the same note does not occur in every
one of the ten tunes; in that case no peg
would be driven In i'm the line OF ten
when |, came 20 setting the cylinder for
this especial piece
A manufacturer In Elizabeth street
makes most it not all ~ the mechanical
pianos heard on the streets in this neigh
borhood. iie makes everything In his
own establishment.
There" said he, pointing to pile Of
lumber are we'll seasoned boards that
are being kept for working into frames
and other parts Of the piano There Is
the machine for making the wires. And
all through the house are materials for
the various parts ri the instruments and
the fools for putting them into shape
Now, the piano That was played ia front
7f The sun office Immediately after the
aldermen resrinded their order forbid
ding street music was one Of the best we
ever made. Ii kept within doors and
played moderately, like a house, piano it
would remain in good tune for many
weeks: IA fact as long As the swell in
struments. Played out 10 doors, 1t gets
out Of time more quickly. The exposure
20 the weather and the rumbling over
rough pavements, As well a. constant
PLAYING, brings this about The men
u ho have planes in use bring them In
here on an average of once in two weeks
10 get thrm returned. OF course, another
influence to put them out of tune IL tho
extreme force with which the wires are
struck"
s.IIow Is music adjusted to the cylin-
der!'
..It requires moi only musician but
man who understands the mechanism OF
tie machine 10 do this. The first thing
alter selecting the composition Is to buy
the piano score. Then the musician
takes sheet OF paper just large enough
To cover the cylinder entirely and writes
the piece upon II in dots The dots cor
respond 10 the pegs. The musician. of
course, knows the mechanism, 80 that he
can tell where 10 place dot To bring out
the corresponding tone. When he has
marked the paper over, mechanic uses
ii for a chart. and drives pegs into the
cvlinder exactly on the spots indicated
by the dots. But the musicians part Ii
by no means limited to a mere transfer
OF the composition from one style of
notation, as it we're, tn another. If that
were done the effect would he feeble and
utterly uninteresting. The mechanical
piano has its own characteristics, and the
musician must understand them 30 that
he can double notes in a chord, and even
qnadrnple them. III order To make the
sound tell in the open air. As matter
of faet. piece played on a mechanical
piano Is substantially the same as If 1t
were arranged for eight hands on two
pianos. New York Sun.