Re: Newsgroup

        Jody noted to me in email that he felt moderation of the
list was needed to keep it a pleasant place, and I quite agree.
I certainly don't think there is any hurry about changing this
arrangement, after all, I just got here.  But others will follow,
and if and when people feel a newsgroup is needed, I just wanted
folks to know I could lend a hand.  I would strongly urge the list
_not_ be dismantled just because we have a newsgroup.  If we ever
do want a newsgroup, we'd want to gateway the list and moderate
the newsgroup-to-list traffic.  The newsgroup is primarily a tool
for visibility, we simply decide whether we want and when.  For my
part, the offer will remain open as long as I'm around.  I've been
through the ringer, and it's not a lot of work if you do it right.

Re: Cylinders

        The fellow who had an immediate need for a cylinder with
a special tune is Peter Smakula.  I am sort of "generically" in-
terested, since someday I'd like to try my hand at building a
good-sounding box from a standing start, and since I'd also like
to learn how to restore the things, since boxes that need it are
much cheaper (but become less so when Mr. Konvalinka at the Musical
Wonder House gets his hands on them =).

        A NG machine tool could surely do the job, especially with
a boost from Jody's midi converter, but I don't have access to one,
nor are they cheap enough to seriously consider buying one unless
I'm going to make enough cylinders to jolly well flood the market.
Also, I think it might be overkill - NG tools are designed to be
repeatably accurate - but pinholes would be drilled in sequence,
and the tool would never have to backtrack and accurately reposi-
tion on a previously drilled hole.  I've been wondering if all that
is needed for computerized drilling wouldn't be just a jig and a
couple of stepper motors geared way down.

        A traditional cylinder would be metal, with a cement/resin
core and metal pins.  To place the pins, we must pre-drill the holes,
then place the pins.  A NG tool could drill the holes, but I'm not
sure one can place pins, nor what the job would cost (anyone with
figures?) and a simple jig-and-stepper-motors arrangement could
drill the holes, but would not be repeatable enough to reposition
for the pin insertion, which makes that process a nice, 19th century
exercise in patience and handwork.  Either way, the result is a good
reproduction of a 19th century musical box cylinder.

        I came up with the clay idea trying to figure out how to get
the pins placed automatically, so the cylinder would be faster and
cheaper to make.  According to the information I've read about the
new polymer clays, shrinkage and expansion are less of a problem than
with traditional fired clay.  Basically, you would just layer on the
clay, then set the pins directly into it in one pass, perhaps with a
simple jig-and-stepper-motor system, which would be cheap, and then
bake it in an oven for half an hour.  Viola!  A nice modern version
of the cylinder idea, available in eight designer colors.  =)

        Now, I don't _know_ that the above will result in accurate
enough placement - and I'd like to hear some ideas along this line.
I also don't _know_ that the clay _won't_ have a phase-change problem
of some sort and crack the surface of the cylinder - which would
certainly ruin it, since the crack will throw the relationships off.
It might be possible to find another material that could do the job,
or maybe we could allow for the shrinkage, perhaps by slotting the
cylinder core so the clay could compress it slightly without cracking.

        If anyone else has any ideas - even seemingly harebrained ones,
they should add them to the mix.  Brainstorming is the best way to pick
and choose viable new ideas, since new ideas are almost always made from
bit and pieces of other ideas.  What would be a good, inexpensive way to
make a prickly cylinder without taking forever or using expensive machin-
ery.

Questions:

        The book "Music Boxes" mentions a number of collections that I've
been trying to see around New England, and one of them is the American
Museum of Mechanical Music in East Hampton, Connecticut.  The phone com-
pany denies any such place exists.  Does anyone know what kinds of things
they have in their collection and where it might have gotten to?

        My father saw an awesome museum of orchestrions and other very
sophisticated automatic instruments, including an automatic banjo and
violen, from the height of the automatic music era, in a museum in
North Carolina.  He doesn't recall the name, and the museum has since
closed and moved, no one I've talked to knows where.  Does anyone know
what museum this was or have a clue where it might have gotten to?

regards,¶
Larry Smith