The Orchestrion
Feb. 15th, 2009 01:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
restomanA friend and customer of mine collects mechanical music machines. He just had one of the machines restored. It was made by Wurlitzer around 1915, and is called an Orchestrion. I did not do the restoration work, much of which would have been beyond my level of skill and knowledge.
This orchestrion is a mechanical marvel!!! It contains a piano, organ (with wooden pipes), triangle, and 2 drums. It is run by a motor which operates a large bellows that create a vacuum. The whole mechanical system works based on the change in air pressure created by air being sucked through small holes in paper rolls. The paper rolls, are similar to the ones used on player pianos. The paper rolls run over a bar with holes cut into it for each note and playing function. When a hole in the paper roll passes over a hole in the bar, the change in air pressure at that hole triggers a note to be played either on the piano or organ, or triggers the triangle or drums to be struck with a stick. It is a complex system, and fascinating to watch in action.
I have always been fascinated and intrigued with this machine, and seeing it now in pristine, restored condition and fully working is a real joy.
Orchestrions were often found in the typical saloon of a century ago. You could insert a nickel (same price as a glass of beer) in its slot to play a tune. This Orchestrion came from a private museum in Deansboro, NY, where I had first seen, and played it some 15 years ago. That museum had bought it from a bordello in Utica in 1949. When the museum closed a few years ago, and its contents were auctioned off, my customer bought it.
The machine was in working condition ~more or less~, but had a coat of green paint over the oak case, which had also been cut on each side so it would fit through a low doorway. It had damage to the "disco ball", and had been generally abused and mistreated during its life in the bordello, and presumably a saloon in the days before Prohibition.
1.
The case is oak, with stained glass panels, lighted from behind, in doors that cover the mechanism.
2.
On the top of the Orchestrion is a bejeweled brass orb with a light inside. The orb rotates when the machine is played, and the jewel-lights reflect out into the room on mirrors that radiate around the orb. This was a forerunner to the "disco ball."
3.
This is what the working guts of the machine look like behind the stained glass panels. One of the drums is at the top. The wooden pipes of the organ are behind it. Below that are the piano strings and hammers. On the right you can see part of the paper roll that plays the music. At the bottom on the left is the new device that plays the machine digitally instead of from a paper roll. It was added in an empty space, and makes only minimal changes to the original machine.
As part of the restoration project, he had the Orchestrion fitted with that small device that can play the machine from a computer in an alcove of an adjacent room. The computer also has a digital library of over 600 tunes made from the original paper rolls.
Mark and I are currently building a built-in desk for that computer. It is a relatively small job, but we are glad to have the work.
This orchestrion is a mechanical marvel!!! It contains a piano, organ (with wooden pipes), triangle, and 2 drums. It is run by a motor which operates a large bellows that create a vacuum. The whole mechanical system works based on the change in air pressure created by air being sucked through small holes in paper rolls. The paper rolls, are similar to the ones used on player pianos. The paper rolls run over a bar with holes cut into it for each note and playing function. When a hole in the paper roll passes over a hole in the bar, the change in air pressure at that hole triggers a note to be played either on the piano or organ, or triggers the triangle or drums to be struck with a stick. It is a complex system, and fascinating to watch in action.
I have always been fascinated and intrigued with this machine, and seeing it now in pristine, restored condition and fully working is a real joy.
Orchestrions were often found in the typical saloon of a century ago. You could insert a nickel (same price as a glass of beer) in its slot to play a tune. This Orchestrion came from a private museum in Deansboro, NY, where I had first seen, and played it some 15 years ago. That museum had bought it from a bordello in Utica in 1949. When the museum closed a few years ago, and its contents were auctioned off, my customer bought it.
The machine was in working condition ~more or less~, but had a coat of green paint over the oak case, which had also been cut on each side so it would fit through a low doorway. It had damage to the "disco ball", and had been generally abused and mistreated during its life in the bordello, and presumably a saloon in the days before Prohibition.
1.
The case is oak, with stained glass panels, lighted from behind, in doors that cover the mechanism.
2.
On the top of the Orchestrion is a bejeweled brass orb with a light inside. The orb rotates when the machine is played, and the jewel-lights reflect out into the room on mirrors that radiate around the orb. This was a forerunner to the "disco ball."
3.
This is what the working guts of the machine look like behind the stained glass panels. One of the drums is at the top. The wooden pipes of the organ are behind it. Below that are the piano strings and hammers. On the right you can see part of the paper roll that plays the music. At the bottom on the left is the new device that plays the machine digitally instead of from a paper roll. It was added in an empty space, and makes only minimal changes to the original machine.
As part of the restoration project, he had the Orchestrion fitted with that small device that can play the machine from a computer in an alcove of an adjacent room. The computer also has a digital library of over 600 tunes made from the original paper rolls.
Mark and I are currently building a built-in desk for that computer. It is a relatively small job, but we are glad to have the work.
