616 



MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS, AUTOMATIC. 



material applied as a moving valve to reed or- 

 gans or harmoniums. The paper was drawn 

 over a music-chest having a curved upper sur- 

 face, in which were the chambers for the reeds. 

 The sound was produced by the air passing 

 through the openings of the paper as it moved 

 across. The sheet was directed in its course 



PAPE SYSTEM, 1R51. A, music-sheet; B, pin cylinder; C, 

 operating lever; D, key-board. 



the slot, to produce the tone. Another step in 

 the steady advancement of the mechanical mu- 

 sical appliances was by Pape, of France, in 

 1851. His instrument contained two perma- 

 nent cylinders. The slotted music-sheet passed 

 from one cylinder to the other over a third 

 cylinder, in which were sockets containing 

 movable pins. These pins were thrust out by 

 means of springs acting behind them through 

 the slots, whenever such came in their course. 

 The pins thus followed, in their arrangement 

 and rearrangement on the face of the cylinder, 

 the order of the slots that represented the 

 notes of the music. His system may be best 

 described as a combination of the slotted 

 music-sheet and the pinned barrel. Since the 

 time of these various experiments and discov- 

 eries, numerous inventors in Europe and 

 America have taken up the idea and grafted 

 improvements upon it in many directions. 

 Most of the advancements and improvements 

 are, however, the result and growth of either 

 one of two conceptions, to wit, a moving sheet 

 of flexible material, slotted to act (a) as a di- 

 rect valve to sounding devices, as shown in the 

 many styles of orguinettes generally presented 

 to the public ; or (5) as a means of operating 

 fingers or levers to act on valves. Fourneaux, 



by means of the slotted paper, making and 

 breaking the connections of the circuit. Charles 



over the reed-chest by two pairs of rolls, one 

 on either side of the chest, the sheet being 



drawn between. This ingenious experimenter ii.,_.i.- Vi n. >*. in ,*, a \^n ^u ICD. O.VUIUCUUA, 

 was also a pioneer in the application of elec- of France, in 1868 or earlier, produced and 

 trical devices to operate the valves or keys exhibited a mechanism for playing the piano 



and harmonium. It was operated by a slotted 

 music-sheet, or a series of folding tablets. The 

 slots acted upon fingers or levers which 

 were connected by means of wires to 

 the levers of operating valves of a pneu- 

 matic action, the pneumatics in turn 

 operating other levers which acted 

 upon the keys of the instrument. In 

 1867 George Vanduzen used a slotted 

 belt similar to that invented by Seytre 

 in 1842. He applied to this belt finger- 

 levers to operate valves somewhat in 

 the manner of Fourneaux's patent of 

 1863. The principal difference between 

 him and Fourneaux was in the form of 

 the pneumatics which were operated by 

 the finger-levers and valves. 



Until 1876 no great degree of popu- 

 larity had been enjoyed, or'sale attained, 

 by musical instruments of this kind in 

 America, but it would appear that the 

 opportunity afforded skilled mechanics 

 and inventors to gather at the Centen- 

 nial Exposition and obtain a knowledge 

 of and a comparison with one another's 

 work and ideas, was to become the 

 starting-point of a new era of progress. 

 Among these exhibits was an electric 

 organ made by Henry Schmoele, of 

 Philadelphia; also a French pianiste. 

 One of the peculiarities of the Schmoele 

 mechanism was the use of a music-sheet of 

 double width. The slots for the music, wbicfc 

 would ordinarily occupy only one half t 

 entire width of the sheet, but would be very 

 long and therefore liable to destruction, were 



FOURNEAUX SYSTEM, 1863. 1, Piamsta; 2, music cards. 



Dawson, of England, in 1848 used a music- 

 sheet similar to those of Seytre and Bain, 

 with the difference that he drew the sheet be- 

 tween the air-chest and the pipes of the organ, 

 the air passing from one to the other, through 



