Tape Recording Magazine - AmericanRadioHistory.Com

and above the bass strings inside the case. The microphone
was suspended by laying it face down across this
platform. The resultant tape was of excellent quality.
Our toughest problem was trying to record the Violano
Virtuoso, designated by the U.S. Government in 1912 as
the "Eighth Wonder of the World ". It was the first mechanical
musical instrument that was powered by electricity.
The Mills Company discontinued production of
these virtuosos in 1926. The instrument consists of a
piano and a violin. The Museum has five of them, two of
which contain two violins. The inventor is said to have
lost his mind after laboring for years to make the initial
model work. Watching one operate even today after a
coin is dropped in seems unbelievable.
Starting with the simple "home player piano," inventors'
imaginations ran wild in trying to see how many gadgets
they could add to a larger model. Through the use of
wooden and metal pipes, through which air was blown,
imitations of the sounds of flutes, trumpets and other
instruments were made. Some inventors eliminated the
keyboard of the piano to make room for other gadgets.
The probable height of noise was attained in an instrument
known as "The Grand Orchestron". This imitated
a 25 -piece band, complete with drums, cymbals, blocks
and castanets.
Most barrooms couldn't afford to be without an automatic
player piano. The larger and more expensive
models were a boon to the saloons that boasted space for
dancing. Many orchestras were hired for the weekends.
A "Grand Orchestron", proprietors learned, was a good
substitute for the live musicians. It saved expenses as well
as free drinks and lunches.
The Sanders obtained their Grand Orchestron from a
Veteran of Foreign Wars hall in a coal mining town in
Pennsylvania. Some of the parts had been broken up for
kindling wood, and about all that remained was a shell,
resembling an old- fashioned upright clothes wardrobe.
There were about two pounds of coal dust in the bottom.
The Sanders loaded the case and all the loose pieces they
could find into their trailer and brought it to their
museum. It took several months to restore. Arthur and
I recorded two hours of its music before he sold it to
an auto museum in Scranton, Pennsylvania. It is doubtful
if another instrument like it will ever turn up.
We made one of our best recordings from a Seeburg
Band Piano with flute pipes. It was manufactured by the
J. P. Seeburg Co. of Chicago, who made several other
types of mechanical pianos including a small 44 -note
Seeburg. We lifted up the lid on many of these instruments
which resemble an upright piano, and placed the
mike on a stand above it.
The Seeburg Band Piano sounds like a combination
of piano, street organ, castanets and cymbals all intermingled.
Many of the numbers on the piano rolls that
we played are still popular.
A xylophone craze in the early 1920's had its effect on
the piano makers. Among these in the museum is the
Link piano of 1918, made by the Link Company, long
famous for the Link Trainer. Due to patent restrictions
of 1915, when the piano was designed, the manufacturer
used his ingenuity to have fifteen tunes on an endless
roll in the bottom of the case instead of using the up
and down ten tune roll. The long opened roll gives the
impression that when the operator started to insert the
roll, it became unwound and the work was given up in
disgust. Nevertheless, it plays and will repeat without
having to be rewound as the regulation rolls are. If you
have ever listened to a good jazz pianist and xylophonist
playing -that is how it sounds, with possibly just a little
added zip symbolic of the roaring twenties. We recorded
this instrument "head on ", with the mike raised to the
level of the playing mechanism.
Right: the Mills Violano Virtuoso, once called the "Eighth Wonder
of the World uses electric magnets to play a violin and piano. In
this photograph, the entire mechanism is exposed, motor at bottom,
piano roll that is the music, and the instruments. George W.
Walter, Jr., Oneida, N.Y., a former Apollo Choir Boy looks it over
at the Deansboro Musical Museum. The machine was one of the
hardest to record. Below: in this close -up of the Violano Virtuoso,
the violin, piano strings and hammers can be plainly seen. There
is no piano keyboard. The instrument duplicates with amazing
clarity and fidelity a pianist and violinist playing a duet. It is
operated by electric magnets.
31