With regard to Steve Matta's request for plans for mechanical musical
instruments:  Members of the British Organ Grinders Association (BOGA)
will already know of the busker organ designed by John Smith of Flitwick,
England.

Basically, the organ is a small 20-note hand-turned organ which plays
paper rolls.  John designed the organ *specifically* for ease of
construction, to enable it to be easily built by unskilled enthusiasts.
The set of plans he publishes also contains a video of how to build the
organ.  If you are interested in building your own organ, you couldn't
get it much simpler than this!

I understand that John made a number of prototypes and changed the design
many times in order to simplify the construction as much as possible.  I
supply music for this organ, and get quite a lot of feedback from people
who have built it.  Everybody to whom I have spoken has derived an
enormous amount of pleasure from constructing the organ, and they have
learned a lot about organs as a result.  If I had the time, I would
definitely have a go at making one myself, it sounds like a lot of fun.
John has sold over 150 sets of plans since the organ was announced in the
BOGA newsletter 7 months ago!

Melvyn Wright (supermuzik@aol.com)
http://members.aol.com/supermuzik/homepage.htm

 [ Can you tell us how to order the plans, Melvyn?  And would anyone in
 [ MMD care to serve as a sales agent for the Americas if Mr. Smith
 [ desires assistance?  I'm thinking that overseas mailings can be
 [ a lot of work.  -- Robbie