Before 1920, there had been already several expression recording
pianos built.  One by Welte in Germany, and one by Wilcox and White in
the United States, and there may have been more.  The purpose was to
allow an artist to hear his recording played back to him while it is
still fresh in his mind.  He could play it over again if he wished.  The
reason these pianos were not patented is obvious-- when you don't plan
on building lots of them for sale, then why give away the store?  You
keep it secret.

   It has been suggested in an article that Welte never had such a
piano, but I happen to know differently.  During the first part of the
war, Richard Simonton had befriended Ed Welte and they had become
trusted friends.  Edmund didn't want his collection of priceless Welte
master rolls destroyed, and between the two of them, conceived a plan
to bring the rolls to the United States where they could be warehoused,
away from American bombs.  Dick told a friend of mine all about the
"piano with the tray" which he also saw in the warehouse, but this
could not be smuggled out.  The rolls were smuggled out through France
and saved.

   For Welte to have claimed technology it did not have would, in my
opinion, implicate not only the Welte corporation but every recording
artist who made rolls for them in a gigantic fraud which would
certainly be exposed.  Other companies at the time would rightfully
claim that this would be taking unfair advantage and gaining market
shares by fraud and deceit, because the piano was used in many
advertisements.

   There has also been suggestions that the technology of the day could
not support such a machine.  That is true for market technology, but not
corporate state of the art.  For example, radar had already been
conceived, the transforms all worked out, and a theoretical set
designed by Tesla before 1910, and an extensive paper on it was
presented about 1917.  The only hangup was a few industrial processes
that had to be worked out, first.  Granted, the devil is in the details,
but neither of these pianos used vacuum tubes.  Nor did they need to.

   In the "Genius Immortal" sales brochure selling the Wilcox and White
Angelus reproducer, there is a two-page section describing how
"Artrio-Angelus Records are Made." It reports that the artist sits down
to a concert grand piano- differing only from any other grand piano in
"that a cable with hundreds of wires wends its way to the reproducing
device where every note is recorded for all time.  There is not the
slightest attachment to that grand piano that could in any way affect
the playing of the artist-the keyboard- the action of the instrument is
as untrammelled as though he were playing on a concert stage.  And just
as though he were playing on the concert stage, he plays-- with the
added inspiration of the knowledge that his audience is not limited to
a concert hall-- but is all posterity.

   "And then the artist sits back and listens to the reproduction of
his playing-- listens as does the audience, without thought to the
production of the composition-- and in this regard a remarkable result
has been achieved.  For each time an artist plays a certain
composition, he plays it with a slight difference.  His mood, the
temperature of the hall, any one of a thousand details may affect his
playing.  Listening to the reproduction of his playing, he finds that in
certain passages he has not played it as he wished-- as he actually
thought he was playing it.  Dissatisfied, he again seats himself at the
piano-- again his playing is faithfully recorded.  'Ah!' He exclaims as
he hears the reproduction--'That is what I meant'-- and when he is
satisfied, and not until then-- does he attest that master record with
his signature."

   These statements are not only good advertising, but legal documents
which could embroil a company in a notorious lawsuit and destroy their
credibility with the public as well as the internationally reknown
artists who endorsed their product and claims as to how they were
recorded! No one in their right mind would ever risk such a fraudulent
scheme, when it could be so easily proven.  It should kept in mind that
the same artists who recorded for Wilcox & White recorded for other
companies as well.  They simply would not risk their reputations for a
relatively minor contract and source of income involving them in
possible legal ramifications.

   The interesting thing about these registering pianos is that they
were electric, their playback was apparently immediate or within the
hour, and their mechanism was conceived somewhere around the turn of
the century, I suspect, for them to have been built and in operation by
1920.  The Wilcox and White registering piano had been in operation
somewhat before 1917, since that is the date on the brochure claiming
its perfection.

   I would like to know if anyone can add to this discussion, and if
perhaps some of our foreign members know about the "piano with the
tray" which was seen in person by one very fine American, for sure!
This would be a most interesting discussion, since we are now trying to
do the same thing, again.  This time with digital equipment.