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THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
Personal Control Is the Chief Feature of the Player-Piano and Some Way
Should be Devised for Rendering This Control More Perfect, and at the Same
Time Less Laborious to Obtain—A Suggestion for Accomplishing this Result
Not so long ago we published in the Player
Section an article on the power consumption
of the pneumatic roll-driving motor. Appended
were curves of wattage showing the rise and
fall of current consumption on an electric mo-
tor driving a vacuum blower which was sup-
plying power to the player-piano on which the
tests were made. Comparisons between the
wattage on complete runs of various rolls with
the player action working and on the same
rolls with the driving motor alone running
showed that more than one-half of the power
consumed by the pneumatic player mechanism
goes by way of the motor. This, of course, is
a serious matter, for reasons which may be
briefly set forth.
The player-piano, whatever may thoughtlessly
be said to the contrary, derives its public inter-
est from the fact that it permits of a degree
of personal control more or less great, the pre-
cise effectiveness depending to an extent upon
the individual player-action but much more upon
the skill of the player-pianist. Nothing can be
plainer than the fact that the player-piano, as
soon as it ceases to depend upon personal con-
trol and becomes wholly automatic, ceases to
be a player-piano in the accepted meaning of
the term and becomes something else; no doubt
something excellent and useful, but in fact,
something different.
Now many people maintain that the pneumatic
industry in the piano trade cannot exist upon a
basis of purely automatic music. If the per-
sonal element is taken out of the player-piano,
then the new instrument, for such it becomes,
is merely an expensive and cumbersome com-
petitor with the talking machine under conditions
which must work to its own immense disad-
vantage. The talking machine, they assert, so
far as the interests or desires of the general
public are concerned, can do all that the auto-
matic player can do and do it better. Likewise
it can do very much that the automatic player
cannot do. By the term automatic player, of
course, is meant a player-piano for the home
made over by the elimination of personal con-
trol. These remarks have nothing to do^ with
the so-called "automatic player" or film-player
type, which is used in motion picture theatres
and other places of the sort.
the pneumatic motor, which merely drives the
music roll over the trackerbar requires for its
operation orre half, or more than one-half, of the
total power input, it is clear that foot control
over the bellows has more of anticipation than
of fact. For, of course, one-half of the phys-
ical effort is devoted to keeping the motor
running. Plainly then we shall never get rid
of laborious and ineffective foot control until
we have made some arrangement whereby the
foot driven bellows may be devoted entirely to
supplying power for the speaking pneumatics,
and all incidental or extraneous power concern-
ing units are supplied from some independent
source.
An Old Idea Revived
In a certain sense this is but a repetition in
modern days of what was advocated, tried and
abandoned some years ago, and which is re-
tained yet in some types of the Apollo player
mechanism; namely, a motor independent of the
bellows. But we are not arguing for a spring
motor or for an electric motor, because we wish
to retain the pneumatic system. The reason for
thus wishing is simply that we may retain a
motor which gives immediate response to speed
changes. There are those who wilt tell us that
motors should not need instantaneous speed
changes and we shall go so far as to admit
that with hand-recorded rolls the motor may
be run at a steady rate of speed. But not all
rolls are hand-played rolls and not every player-
pianist wants such rolls. Moreover, no form
of spring motor yet devised gives immediate
speed changes, and likewise no electric motor
of which we have yet heard permits of such
changes. The fly-wheel effect of any form of
rotary motor almost certainly must operate to
prevent changes of speed being made with any-
thing like sufficient rapidity. The pneumatic
motor, in fact, with its instant response to the
tempo control is the only motor that will, do
the work in a manner to suit the highest re-
quirements.
A Separate Source of Power Required
This being the case, it follows that the pneu-
matic motor should have provided for it a sep-
arate source of power. It does not seem that
any special difficulty should be anticipated in
designing machinery for this purpose, nor that
the devices required should be expensive, cum-
The Player and Personal Control
Now if it be true—as true it surely is—that bersome or complicated. On the contrary, it
the future of the player-piano is intimately is quite certain that all the machinery can be
bound up with the retention of personal con- placed in a corner of the bellows system in an
trol, why should we not think very seriously upright player and that it will be considerably
as to ways and means for rendering that con- smaller and lighter than the auxiliary bellows
trol more effective and less laborious? More- set of a motor-driven player-piano.
over, why should we not consider the possibil- . The pneumatic motor should, first of all, be
ity of refining existing methods rather than in- disconnected from any pneumatic connection
sist on jumping at the conclusion that we must with the bellows, and the tempo box and motor
load on a lot of new attachments? Why, in governor must also be disconnected in the same
short, should we not be willing at least to try way. A small vacuum blowing outfit is then
whether the one greatest need of the stand- provided consisting of a pair of reciprocating
ard player-piano cannot be filled without chang- bellows units, provided with a small equalizer
ing anything of the fundamentals. This one containing a safety valve, arranged to open up
great need is for more effective and less labor- when the equalizer closes beyond a certain
ious personal control. The foundation and basis point. This system is to be driven by an elec-
of all such control is found in control over the tric motor of suitable size. The capacity of
power production. This means, in the typical the blower may be calculated from the capacity
player bellows, control through the foot. This of the roll-driving motor which will be very
again, means that our most direct line of im- likely something like 65 cubic inches. By cal-
provement lies in rendering less laborious and culating on the basis of a constant displacement
more effective the foot control over the bel- sufficient to keep the air in 65 cubic inches of
space, expanded to four ounces below normal
lows.
pressure, there will be left a margin sufficient
Now in the light of what has been said above to work all the non-speaking pneumatics also,
it is plain that from the start we are faced which may likewise be disconnected from the
with an obstacle of formidable magnitude. If
bellows and connected up pneumatically with the
blower, thus further relieving the foot pedals
from extraneous work.
There will require to be in addition a tempo
control for the motor consisting of the usual
tempo box, modified only to such extent as nec-
essary from the changed position of the source
of power. This box can be placed anywhere
convenient, and in fact, may be left in its orig-
inal position, but with the original pneumatic
connection with the bellows stopped up. The
pneumatic tube from the motor will pass into
this box and from it will emerge another tube
running to the auxiliary system. Thus the
tempo control will be just the same as it always
is and there will be no change whatever in
control or in the handling of the tempo lever.
The re-wind lever will be in its original con-
dition also.
The Necessary Mechanical Details
It is now only necessary to have a safety
valve to prevent over-blowing, which is very
easily arranged, for a flap valve on the equalizer
of the blowing system can be adapted to open
when the equalizer closes past a certain point.
Spring expansion on the equalizer can be ar-
ranged to give the necessary vacuum power re-
quired and above this there will be, of course,
the safety valve. Also to prevent over-blowing
when the tempo lever is at the stop position the
safety valve will operate effectively. It will
also be necessary to have a switch for cutting
in or out the electric motor which drives the bel-
lows system.
This can very easily be done through a
switch on the piano to be cut in and out as
desired; in, when beginning to play and out
when through re-winding. An automatic ar-
rangement could be had, of course, to switch
out when the tempo is at Stop (or, perhaps, a
little to the left thereof through a special mo-
tion of the tempo lever), and to switch on when
the lever crosses the stop position, and the valve
in the tempo box begins to open. In this case
the re-wind lever must also have a cut-in and
cut-out switch attached to it. But the separate
switch is best of all, just as is used on the pipe
organ where electric motor drive is provided for
blowing.
The advantages claimed for the suggested
system are as follows:
1. Reduction of labor of feet on pedals by
at least one-half.
2. Consequent increased responsiveness of
action and immensely increased fortissimo
power, with half the physical labor now neces-
sary.
3. Possibility of cultivating a real foot-
technic with a touch now impossible on account
of the necessity for supplying the motor with
power.
4. Reduction in size of regular foot bellows
and elimination of all but one small equalizer.
5. Abolition of foot pumping for the roll
re-wind.
These advantages are in themselves formid-
able. The opposing disadvantages are neglig-
ible in comparison. They are (1) the expense
of the auxiliary set and (2) the necessity for
a supply of electric current. These disadvan-
tages, however, are shared by all the modern
motor-driven players, but in this case the ex-
pense of the set is smaller and the current con-
sumption less. The one great overbalancing
advantage, of course, is in the creation ot real
foot control through the medium of instantly
responsive bellows.