Having lurked around MMD in silence for a couple of years (and learned
a lot), I can't resist raising a small voice on the subject of the
Sankyo 20-note player punch-a-tune.

I believe this device made its first appearance in America twenty or
thirty years ago, when a battery-powered version was marketed under the
name of "Computer Music".  It was housed in a sleek streamlined plastic
case (white).  The name was probably a sales gimmick playing on the
connection between punched cards and computers, which was fairly common
back then.  It was sold for a few years in gift shops and up-scale toy
stores and then faded away.  The musical comb on the early version
(maybe because of the plastic case) did more 'plonking' than 'plinging'
and I often wondered if its resonance couldn't be improved.

A few years later the hand-cranked version appeared in a German wooden
toy designed to resemble a street organ.  I expect it has appeared in
other adaptations over the years.  As already mentioned, the mechanism
itself can now be bought abroad.

Two years ago an elaborate Christmas novelty, a fantasy grind organ
decorated with frolicking mice, was sold here.  The musical heart of
the device was again the Sankyo unit, again battery-powered.  In this
modification it played a folded endless band of Christmas carols, and
part of the fun was watching the strip moving into and out of the
chamber in the bottom of the organ.

An interesting feature of the mechanism is the arrangement of the star
wheels, which ride between revolving washers.  The continuous mild
friction between washer and star wheel makes the star wheel advance
when the punched hole passes by.  It's a simple and satisfactory way to
activate star wheels with projection-less music.  It might have saved
Mermod Freres a lot of trouble with their Stella disc machine.

Despite the severe musical limitations of the diatonic comb, by now
there must be hundreds of tunes programmed for this device in one part
of the world or another.

Houston Maples
hmaples@erols.com