Damon's question about why players weren't electrically operated got me
thinking.  For those who have never studied the period between the U.S.
Industrial Revolution and World War II, this can be a very good question.

It boggles the mind of many people to realize that vast parts of the U.S.
were without electricity, in some cases almost until WW II.  My mother
was born in 1932, and grew up about 20 miles west of Oklahoma City.  Her
family didn't get electricity until 1942.  (No Oklahoma jokes, please!)

This was not unusual.  This was not only the reason players pianos were
pneumatic, but also the reason people wound up their phonographs, used a
treadle to run their sewing machine, and heated their flat irons on a stove
(or used charcoal, or even gasoline to provide the heat!).

The basic technology was there for electric player pianos, turntables,
sewing machines and irons, but if the manufacturers relied on this
technology alone, they would have missed a HUGE part of their market --
Rural Americans.

Personally, I am fascinated by how technology got around the lack of
piped-in electricity.  My mom's family had battery operated radios,  a
*real* "icebox", and a treadle-powered sewing machine.  When my eldest
aunt got married in 1938, as a wedding gift, she got a kerosene iron.
Not very romantic, but much nicer than the flat irons she had been
using...

Bryan Cather
Arlington, Texas
BSnakeC@AOL.com  (I remembered, Robbie!)  [Thanks, Bryan!]