Following the recent discussion of the provenance of Higel player actions
(MMD 27, 28 & 29 Aug), it occurred to me tonight that I have a photocopy
of a booklet issued in the UK by Higel, "Music and the Player Piano",
which unfortunately is undated.  Digging it out, the question of Higel's
London operation is answered instantly.

The very first sentence is "Higel Actions have been manufactured in
Canada for some thirty years, and in London for upwards of twelve years."
The booklet then goes on to give a full description of the operation of
the player, and quite a lot of details of its construction, such as the
unit valve system.

Two stacks are described, the famous one constructed entirely out of
metal and the more conventional wooden one -- the former "especially
adapted for export purposes, in view of its immunity from outside or
climatic influences," and the latter cheaper and "admirably suited to the
English or suitable temperate climates".  Very thoughtful, the cheap one
was OK for the locals!

The description goes into some detail over a themeing device called the
"Solograph" (not the "Solodant" referred to by Jeffrey Borinsky and Dave
Kerr -- interesting), which is a button-operated system (i.e. full power
or controlled suction only, no intermediate levels).  The stacks
illustrated have a balanced-air tracking system which looks remarkably
like the Autopiano one.

The booklet gives an address: Higel Limited, 149 Albion Road, Stoke
Newington, London N16.  This is a north London industrial area and seems
very likely to be the factory.  Lots of piano and player firms were in
the same area some two or three miles north of the City of London.

I also have a photocopy of a very attractive full page Higel advert from
the Music Trades Directory of about 1910, which gives the address as
Church Path, Albion Road (probably the same building, or very close
indeed).  That advert gives the company's other addresses as Toronto,
Canada, Buffalo, USA, and Berlin.  The advert rather charmingly gives bus
and train routes to the factory, with walking distances from the
stations!

Getting round to Colin Hinz's original assertion that Higel was referred
to as being in London in one of Ord-Hume's pair of player-piano books.

Ord-Hume gives Canadian (680 King Street, Toronto) and American (corner
Bronx Boulevard and Nereld Avenue, New York) addresses for Higel.  He
refers to a London manufacturer (Taylor & Co. of Holloway and Wood Green)
fitting British-made Higel actions but omits the British Higel company
from the address list.  He also refers in passing to British-built
systems in the text.

There is no direct description of Higel's British operation anywhere
in the book.  Symptomatic of Ord-Hume's books as a whole, referring to
things in passing and leaving you cold when you can't find out what the
reference is about.

Anyway, it looks as if the same (or very similar) Higel players were
manufactured in Canada, America and England.  I wonder if one of these
actually made the parts and the others assembled them from parts, or
whether there really was local manufacture in all three places?  Not much
chance of finding out now.

Julian Dyer