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MAY
9
THE MUSIC TRADE REVIEW
28, i921
A Description of Some of the Latest Technical Developments in the Player-
piano Field as Shown by the Exhibits at the Chicago Conventions, With an
Analysis of What May Be Expected From the New Types of Player-pianos
During the period of the conventions of this
month many firms exhibited their latest ideas in
player actions. There were to be seen at the
Drake and elsewhere new actions made for the
general trade and others brought out by in-
dividual piano manufacturers for their own use.
Certain technical facts stand out most strik-
ingly after an examination of these new develop-
ments, and the technical readers of this section
will doubtless like to hear about them.
Bellows Refinements
Taking the foot-pump player actions first, it is
interesting to note that there is a strong ten-
dency everywhere towards smaller and neater
bellows systems, giving far quicker response to
the foot than was thought to be commercially
feasible a few years ago. It was not so far
back since one heard player men saying every-
where that the people want only a treadmill,
and that a sensitive bellows system was not
wanted at all. To-day, at any rate, this belief
has been succeeded by the sounder conviction
that the player-piano ought to be made as easy
to play as possible; and that the easier it is
the more popular it will be, provided that the
retail salesman learns to play it and to impart
his knowledge to the prospect.
The technical aspect of this change is very
interesting. It has taken the shape of a gradual
conviction that the load of equalizer can be
greatly cut down, with positive advantage to the
efficiency of the action. As a matter of fact, the
writer's own experience shows conclusively that
there is still a great deal to be learned in this
direction. To a skilled player-pianist the chan-
nels and chests of the player action afford in
themselves the needed reserve volume. The
equalizer is really a help to those who cannot
or will not learn the secrets of pedaling. The
writer, after cutting off the non-speaking parts
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of his own player action from the main bellows,
found it quite feasible to do without any equal-
izer at all. It is interesting to note that the
reasoning which led to this rather extreme, but
very efficient, experiment is now being recog-
nized as generally sound. We are getting
smaller pumpers and smaller equalizers and the
gain is unquestionable. All the players seen
at the late exhibitions were notably easier to the
feet and responsive to pedal touch.
Pneumatic Stacks
The pneumatic stacks show the same tendency
towards concentration and the avoidance of un-
necessary spaces or parts. Without any doubt
the single-valve system is now firmly established
and there is no likelihood of any retrogression,
although the leading two-valve systems continue
the prosperity and progress which have been
theirs for so long.
The so-called "pendulum" valve invented by
Mr. Betz, which is a feature of the new Straube
player action, represents an interesting develop-
ment. The principle of hinged or "trap-door"
motion is, of course, not new. Theodore Brown
and A. G. Gulbransen were earlier in the field
in this idea, but the form which Mr. Betz gives
to his valve is unusually refined. One notices
with pleasure the metal pin-point bearings and
the care taken to avoid corrosion between valve
leather and valve seat.
It was also noticeable, on looking over the
various pneumatic stacks, that the use of hard
woods is growing. Of course, everyone knows
that maple is the best of woods for stacks and
bellows, but it is comparatively very expensive.
Nevertheless, with the present demand for tight-
ness and durability the hard woods occupy a
very strong position, and they are being taken
up more and more generally.
The exhibits included several outfits for ap-
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plication to the ordinary player-piano, turning
it thereby into an electrically driven instrument.
All of these include some sort of regulation for
expression. Technically speaking, these devices
are much alike. They consist of either a vacu-
um fan or a train of small bellows, driven by
an electric motor, which may be, built in with
the fan after the fashion of the vacuum cleaners
now so well known. The expression regulation
takes one of two forms. In one case the diffi-
culty, or at lease inconvenience, of changing over
the tracker bar and requiring special tools has
been met by the simple device of adopting an
alternately opening and closing valve, which
works by a train of gears from the electric
motor. This valve opens to its fullest extent and
then gradually closes. It then begins to open
again, till it is fully opened, and so on. Of
course, the effect is not highly delicate, but for
ordinary purposes is just as good as anything
else, no doubt.
The tendency herewith noted has not had
time to develop itself and it is not at this time
easy to predict the course of events. It is our
own opinion that there is a field for the further
development and application of these devices,
though we do not think that they are going to
eliminate the pedals and bellows from the foot-
pumped player. From the technical viewpoint,
however, which is all that immediately concerns
us, the most interesting fact is seen in the adop-
tion of the vacuum-fan with built-in motor. The
problems here for the designer are: (a) to get
sufficient power without making the machine too
heavy and expensive, (b) to eliminate so far as
possible the magnetic hum of the motor and the
rhythmic hum of the fan.
Noise in electric motors has a direct relation
to the size of the field and rotor and to the
width of the air-gap between these two ele-
ments. A slow-speed motor with plenty of air-
gap may be almost perfectly noiseless, but the
smaller the parts and the higher the speed the
more noise is to be expected. Better means for
insulating the moving parts from outside influ-
ences, special design of motor and slower speeds
are desirable. The inventors are bending their
energies toward improvement and much is to
be expected from their efforts.
The Reproducing Pianos
The reproducing actions showed up in won-
derful variety. There is no doubt that they are
establishing themselves most firmly. There is
no room here for a general discussion of tech-
nical details, which demand extended treatment,
but there is no doubt that a new aspect is com-
ing into view which must be dealt with by the
technical men. The reproducing piano, properly
so-called, is now going out into the world, as it
were, and is becoming well known. It is finding
its way into all sorts of places and is coming
within the purview of the army of tuners out in
the field. At this point it becomes necessary
that the tuners be brought into appropriate re-
lations with the reproducing mechanisms.
As things stand to-day virtually every tuner
in successful independent practice is capable of
caring for the ordinary player mechanism. To
the general knowledge of pneumatic principles,
which the tuners now so widely possess, needs
only to be added that special knowledge of the
additional principles on which rests all dynamic
regulation through the marginally perforated
music roll. This special knowledge can easily
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