MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS, AUTOMATIC. 



617 



divided. Half the length of a slot was cut 

 in half of the douhle sheet and the remain- 

 der in the other half. Two sets of electric 

 connections were used, one set beginning the 

 notes and the other set completing them. In 

 the same year Newman R. Marshman, of New 

 York, experimented with paper as a valve, 

 and, with no knowledge of previous attempts 



MARSHMAN-NEEDHAM SYSTEM, 1877. A, reed-chest ; 

 H, music-sheet ; g, crank ; a, sound-holes. 



in the same line of invention, produced an in- 

 strument built on the Bain principle. A simi- 

 lar instrument was patented by E. P. Need- 

 ham in 1877, but, through the intervention 

 of Mason J. Matthews, of Boston, who cham- 

 pioned the cause of Marshman as the real 

 proprietor, all differences were adjusted, and 

 all parties received substantial benefits. The 

 instruments produced became immediately 

 popular. Matthews applied the name of or- 

 guinette, a company was formed, and the 

 manufacture was begun. Needham also made 

 instruments. One was called the musical cabi- 

 net. It contained thirty-nine notes a greater 

 number than the orguinette. Matthews fol- 

 lowed this with another instrument, the cabi- 

 net orguinette, which played more than one set 

 of reeds, and all were popular. In the mean 

 time other inventive minds were at work. Im- 



Srovements in mechanical appliances, novelty 

 i design, and finish undreamed of in the ear- 

 lier days of automatic music, were indulged in 

 to a lavish extent. As a result, the common 

 organ or piano has developed into instruments 

 capable of supplying instruction and entertain- 

 ment to those untrained in the technicalities 

 of the manual key-board, and also affording 

 the skilled and imaginative musician a medium 

 through which he may embody his fancies and 

 luxuriate in harmonies hitherto unattempted. 

 The Orguinette consists of a box containing 



OBGTJINETTE, 1878. 



music-chest, bellows, slotted sheet, and rollers. 

 On lifting the lid there it* to be seen a sheet of 

 paper thickly perforated with slots ranging 

 trom nearly three eighths of an inch square to 

 three eighths of an inch wide, by two, three, 

 or four inches in length. The sheet is guided 



by rollers. Just under the middle of the paper 

 is the reed-chest, with its series of openings 

 pressed upon by the paper. On the turning of 

 a handle the paper is drawn through. As each 

 aperture in the sheet passes over its allotted 

 reed in the sound-chest, the working bellows 

 exhaust the air through the reed, and the ap- 

 propriate sound or tone is given. The length 

 of the tone depends entirely on the length of 

 the slot in the paper x and the uncut portion of 

 the paper shuts off the sound from that par- 

 ticular reed. There is a lid, on the principle 

 of the lid used to give the ordinary organ- 

 swell, controlled by the operator's left hand. 



The Autophone was the work of Henry B. Hor- 

 ton, of Ithaca, N. Y . A music-chest, with its 

 reeds and the paper passing over, was the prin- 

 cipal feature. Instead of being drawn over a 

 curved surface, the paper went in a straight line 

 from end to end, and, when its journey was 

 done, it could be fed in again. The sheet was 

 fed by the action of a ratchet operated by the 

 movement of the bellows, which, in the small 

 instrument, were squeezed by the hand ; in the 

 larger, by pedal-movement. 



The Musical Cabinet of Needham was at first 

 a narrow case about two feet wide and four 

 feet high. Inclosing the bellows and music- 

 chest and stretched over two rollers, one at 

 either end of the interior, was an endless belt 

 of slotted paper. There could be but one tune 

 to a belt, and when it was required to play a 

 new tune, it necessitated the removal of vari- 

 ous complex features in the mechanism, the 

 adjustment of a new belt, and restoration ot' 

 the parts. As a link in the evolution of me- 

 chanical music it occupied an important place ; 

 but an improvement, suggested soon, caused its 

 manufacture to be abandoned, and a better in- 

 strument of the same name, with rolls, was 

 substituted. 



The Cabinet Orgninette. The success of the 

 orguinette paved the way for a larger instru- 

 ment. One was made of cabinet size, with 

 foot-pedals for producing the wind, and a crank 

 for moving the music-sheet. Finger-levers 

 were employed in connection with the music- 

 sheet for operating the valves. The method 

 employed was a partial reproduction of the 

 Seytre system of 1842, but in many respects a 

 great improvement. The finger-levers were 

 forced through the slots in the paper by means 

 of springs, which overcame oppositely acting 

 valve-springs. This arrangement of levers and 

 springs favored very much the slotted sheet, so 

 that a comparatively thin paper could be used 

 without injury. It also favored the use of 

 larger valves, which could supply wind for more 

 than one set of reeds. In addition to the crank, 

 which was operated by the right hand, was a 

 lever to be controlled by the left. By it the 

 operator of the instrument could produce a 

 swell at pleasure. The action of the instru- 

 ment was prompt, full, and clear. 



The Bassophone is another name for the Or- 

 gues portative de rue, of Paris. It is simply 



