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MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS, AUTOMATIC. 



An Organ worked by Sunlight. In the last dec- 

 ade of the seventeenth century Cornelius van 

 Drebble, in Holland, produced an instrument 

 that in all appearance, both outward and in- 

 ward, resembled an organ. When it was 

 placed in the sunlight beautiful symphonies 

 were played without the aid of human hands. 

 A shadow thrown across would produce si- 

 lence in the instrument. Various theories re- 

 garding rarefied air, inclosed air, etc., were 

 indulged in, but the truth seemed to be of a 

 scientific nature so profound, that it has only 

 been fully recognized by recent discoveries. 

 It would seem that heat and light combined, 

 and acting on delicate metals and adjustments, 

 were the actuating principles. 



The Hand-Organ, called also the barrel-organ, 

 is a cubical box of a size for a man to car- 

 ry easily, and contains a pegged barrel, bel- 

 lows, and pipes. The old Puritans called 

 them boxes of whistles that is, they were 

 all pipes, but many of them might with equal 

 propriety be called boxes of Jew's-harps, being 

 all reeds, or rather vibrating metal tongues. 

 The ordinary street-organ is said to have been 

 first made by a builder named Hicks, about 

 1800. Many have pipes for the upper notes 

 and metal reeds for the bass. The effect is a 

 succession of hoarse brays as an accompani- 

 ment to a soft melody, suggesting the idea of a 

 duet between Titania and Bottom. A diffi- 

 culty is, that instruments with pipes and reeds 

 are constantly getting out of order. The va- 

 rying effects of heat and chill, dryness and 

 moisture, acting on the differing materials, 

 prevents their accord. As a result, the ma- 

 chine is gifted with a dolorous howl, and a 

 coin is gladly given to get rid of it. Among 

 some of the Continental nations, Justice, though 

 blind, is not always deaf. In some of the Ger- 

 man cities, especially, the police have summary 

 jurisdiction in offenses musical, and are em- 

 powered to demand a certificate with which 

 every organ-grinder is bound to be furnished, 

 showing the date of the last tuning of his in- 

 strument. If he perpetrate false harmony, 

 and his certificate be run out, he is fined. 



The Hand-Barrow Organ and the Horse-Cart Or- 

 gan are large structures, sometimes vast, and 

 might be mistaken for wild-beast vans. They 

 are crammed with every known mechanical 

 contrivance for the production of ear-stunning 

 .noises. The piercing notes of fifes, the squall 

 of clarions, the coarse bray of trumpets, the 

 snort of rugged bassoons, the unremitting rattle 

 of a dozen or more deafening drums, the clang 

 of bells firing in peals, the boom of gongs, the 

 sepulchral groans of a bottomless bass, are a 

 few of the components. The music is like a 

 volcanic eruption, and, in a crowded street, 

 the machines become monster nuisances. 



The Apollonicon. This was the name given to 

 an immense piece of mechanism that attracted 

 attention in the early part of the present cent- 

 ury in England. The machine was of mam- 

 moth proportions and required six performers. 



With a floor-space of 20 by 30 feet, and a 

 height of 24, it contained 1,900 pipes. There 

 were five manuals, a principal one comprising 

 a scale of five octaves, with two at either side 

 each of two octaves, thus giving a key-board 

 of thirteen octaves. The lowest bass note 

 came from a pipe 24 feet long, with a 23-inch 

 aperture, while the highest tone was A in altis- 

 simo. The stops numbered 45. In addition to 

 the manual arrangement there were three large 

 straight-lined cylinders, such as were used on 

 the Continent for carillons. Each was two 

 feet in diameter and eight feet long, and each 

 acted on a distinct part of the instrument. To 

 add to the anticipated din, there was a series 

 of spiral lined cylinders for additional tones, 

 as well as tripping movements. In the revo- 

 lution of the cylinders, they not only furnished 

 wind to the pipes, but regulated the working 

 of the stops, forming, by instantaneous me- 

 chanical action, all the necessary combinations 

 for producing the various gradations of power. 

 Its construction was begun in 1812, and con- 

 tinued for five years, with a total cost of forty 

 thousand dollars. The tone of the instrument 

 was fine and the sounds were grand and novel. 

 It gave imitations of the flute, oboe, clarionet, 

 bassoon, trumpet, horn, trombone, and drums. 

 The principal music played was from Mozart 

 and Haydn, but the mechanical action was 

 deprecated because there was no expression, 

 no life, no soul. It was a machine of grand 

 proportions, entirely unworthy the music. Its 

 mechanical powers were daily exhibited for 

 about twenty-three years, when, in 1840, the 

 monstrosity was taken down, and its compo- 

 nent parts employed in the construction of 

 other organs. 



Pipe-Organs, Reed-Organs, and Pianos. The in- 

 ventions and improvements made in this class 

 of instruments, to produce music from them 

 automatically or mechanically, will, on a slight 

 examination, be found to group themselves 

 under seven distinct systems, and may be clas- 

 sified 



1. A board provided with indentations rep- 

 resenting the notes of music; these indenta- 

 tions acting upon levers, which in turn opei 

 ate the keys of a musical instrument. This 

 is known as the Morse invention of 1731. 



2. The barrel or cylinder, from which pro- 

 ject pins or pegs, after the manner of the 

 music-box. These pins open valves that admit 

 air to the sounding devices as the cylinder ro- 

 tates. This is the usual construction of 1 

 ordinary street-organs and large orchestrions, 

 as well as carillons. 



3. A sheet of paper or other material, pro- 

 vided with slots representing the notes of 

 music, the purpose of the slots being for 1 

 passage of air to operate directly the reed 

 pipes of a musical instrument. To this c 

 belong the instruments of to-day known 

 musical cabinet, cabinetto, orguinette, a 

 phone, clariona, tournaphone, aurepbone, ar 

 melodia. 



