MAKING AN ORCHESTRION 
                                                                                PART 3


The piano we chose for this project is a 1909 Weber.   Having rebuilt the stack and having gotten it properly fitted in the case, the next issue is placing the other items and instruments.

We think this will be the way the top shelf will be arranged.   The wood block in the form of a pecking bird goes on the left.   The bass drum goes next, then the roll drive and last is the tambouring and snare drum combination.

The xylophone goes in the bottom and there is not much room left for anything else.   We have not yet found a home for the triangle.

                                                    MAKING AN ORCHESTRION
                                                                      PART 2


The piano we chose for this project is a 1909 Weber.   Having rebuilt the stack and having gotten it properly fitted in the case, the next issue is replacing the other items and instruments.

The roll drive has to go on the top of the stack, but how we place the other items is more flexible.   We have a tambourine, triangle, a wood block in the form of a bird, bass drum, soft pedal pneumatic and mandolin rails & its pneumatic.    The xylophone fills the bottom of the case, so not much room is left there.

It will take some time to sort this all out.

                                                         MAKING AN ORCHESTRION
                                                                             PART 1

We have a few player pianos that have not been restored and decided to make an orchestrion out of one of them.    First we removed the player parts and fixed whatever problems existed with the piano action.

The next step was to rebuild the stack, eliminating the pneumatics not needed for the 66 playing notes  to be controlled by the O Roll we had decided to use and substituting connections for additional functions.

We obtained a Ragtime roll drive and now we are ready to start assembly.

                                                     NEW SILVERTONE PHONOGRAPH


We recently received a Sears Silvertone floor model phonograph.   The oak cabinet is in good cosmetic condition and the phonograph works and sounds fine.

Since most of the Sears Silverstone Phonographs were made by Columbia, I suppose this machine falls into that group.   There is no model number or for that matter any identification label anywhere that we could find, except for the Silverstone label on the underside of the lid.   From the case design, we suppose it is a 1910 to 1920 unit, but to date we have found no way to be sure of the manufacturing date.    If you have any info about this, please contact the museum at either debencemusem@verizon.net or at 814-432-8350.

                                       REPAIR OF A ROLLER ORGAN             PART 6


We were sent an Autophone Concert Roller Organ for evaluation and repair.

As the assembly progressed, we finally reached the point where we inserted a song and tried it.

It seems that the tangs on the end of the valves that are tripped when the song plays, are very fussy about being properly located.

The adjustments are made by bending the tangs.   When you bend them, it is easy to throw the valve faces out of good closure, so this turns out to be a fussy job.   Not only must they project the correct amount, but they must be vertically aligned to get the notes timed right.

Basically the ends must be correctly positioned both vertically and horizontally and at the same time, the valve face must meet the seat exactly.