Mr. Wyman, you are absolutely right.  Aeolian built lots of player reed
organs using common reservoir and bellows (suction and pressure types).

I may have assumed too much in my response to the gentleman who wanted to
mechanize a reed organ.  I assumed that he would be using off-the-shelf items
intended primarily for player pianos, rather than building a system from
scratch with hand-made components.  If he can build a duplicate of an Aeolian
action from scratch, he doesn't need MY advice.

I also assumed the gentleman might be about to use an electrical air pump,
even a (gasp!) vacuum cleaner motor :-(   .  If he is the kind of mechanic
who can build an air motor from scratch which will do the roll transport job
on low pressure, again he has no need of my advice.

Free advice is worth what you pay for it.