Hi all,  We have a Harper Electric Piano in our Ashorne Hall
collection.  Marketed around 1910 by the Harper Electric Piano Co.,
Holloway, London, it's basically a Khul & Klatt action in a different
case (different from the Khul & Klatt cafe orchestrion).  The
pumping and piano action are beneath the keyboard, the mandolin
effect is behind the piano action and the roll box and xylophone
are on the top lid.

Instead of the usual 110 volt DC series connected motor at 1300 rpm
under load (When the belt comes off or breaks, the motor spins up to
infinity and presumably explodes!), it has a 12-volt motor of the
same type.  It would have been connected to a set of accumulators,
as electric mains were not available in this country at that time.

The instrument was most likely sold over here under licence from the
German manufacturers of the Khul & Klatt, or at least the actions were
imported.  We found that it would successfully play the Harper rolls
and the Khul & Klatt ones, because they are arranged for the use of the
mandolin and the xylophone.  There are two other types that also play
on the instrument (their names escape me) but only operate the piano
notes and the auto sustain.

Most of the rolls that I have handled are of the four-tune type with
a stop command at the end of each tune, so you can drop another
<whatever> in the coin slot.

Harper Electric Pianos would seem to be few and far apart.  I have
only heard of one other, although I did come across a customer who
claimed to have a piano labelled Harper Piano Co.; a non-player
version, no doubt.

Paul Camps

 [ Editor's musing: The Collective Noun
 [
 [ MMD authors who still speak the Queen's English remind me of the
 [ ease with which language changes and old useful words are altered.
 [
 [ When invented it was the "Voltaic Cell", which produced one or two
 [ volts DC.  Voltaic cells that could be recharged again and again
 [ were called accumulators, since they accumulate energy just as
 [ winding a clock spring.  Higher voltage was obtained by series
 [ connection, and the growing (and often smelly) array was properly
 [ called a battery of accumulators or cells.  A telephone company's
 [ central office has a battery of huge Edison cells to sustain 48
 [ volts when the mains power fails; the analogy of a battery of guns
 [ -- which also put out lots of energy -- is appropriate.
 [
 [ Nowadays, we here in 'The Colonies' purchase the ubiquitous
 [ 1.5-volt single cells for the flashlight and the kid's portable
 [ boom box, but we call the cell a "battery".  Tsk! Tsk!
 [
 [ "Battery" is a collective noun, and the phrase, "a battery of
 [ cells," or "a battery of accumulators," is yet another picturesque
 [ description of long ago like "a herd of cattle" or "a pride of
 [ lions," or even "a gossip of old ladies" (a modern phrase in the
 [ same tradition).  (Think about "a choir of crank organs.")
 [
 [ Will we never respect and preserve the language of our forefathers?
 [ The history of language evolution says we probably won't!
 [
 [ -- Robbie