Hello, Mechanical Music Digest editors, This is a rather timely
message to inform you of the former estate of organ technician,
Allen Miller, who resided in Glastonbury, Connecticut. His home was
recently sold to house flippers who have largely discarded three
dumpsters worth of content that may never be recovered, or be
duplicates of. 

Allen Miller was a collector of mechanical instruments, but
especially of pipe organs and rare inventions associated with organs.
For more context please see page 41 of the 1990 American Institute
of Organbuilder's Organbuilder's convention and page 3 of the 1975
Theatre Organ Journal, attached.

Miller was heavily involved in the preservation of theatre organs, 
and built more than one home instrument, and took on the project of 
preserving an invention of the former head of the Austin Organ Company 
of Hartford, CT, John T. Austin: The Austin Quadruplex system and 
Perforator. For a detailed explanation of this invention, please 
see the attached PDF and the following video: 
https://youtu.be/Df3uK1rf8Ws?t=6
 

The Quadruplex, in a nutshell, was a device that operated organ 
rolls specifically made for it by the Perforator (the device that 
punched the holes). The Perforator is a one-of-a-kind item that was 
developed in the 1920s for use at the Austin Organ Company studios, 
and had the ability to record organists' playing in live time. 

Both the Perforator and a Quadruplex (possibly) remain in Allen 
Miller's basement ready to be discarded or sold anonymously if not 
collected. The Quadruplex was apparently damaged in a fire in the 
1930s, which John Austin then gifted to Allen Miller, a former 
employee, to be worked on.

The current property owners' intention with the house remnants is 
to make a profit, but we've been hoping to get through to them about
donation to museums. An estate sale was scheduled for this past 
Sunday, but this did not take place. Members of my local museum, 
the Vintage Radio & Communications Museum of Connecticut, have been 
in touch with the property owners.

I wanted to bring your attention to this situation as it involves 
some very rare mechanical music hardware, one of which really is 
a prototype: the Perforator. The only other existing Quadruplex 
system in the country that we still know of is located in the
Aetna Insurance building in Hartford, Connecticut. Austin Organs
of Hartford, still in operation, has been contacted and they don't 
intend to collect this equipment.

Also at Allen Miller's former home is a Knabe Ampico reproducing 
grand piano that the house flippers would also like to sell.

I would like to get the word out on your site that there is perhaps 
one week at most left to rescue any of this, as the property owners 
want to move quickly at this point, and that the intended buyer of 
the Perforator should be a museum or public collection with the 
ability to transport and document its accession.

Serious inquiries can be directed to this email, or by contacting 
the Vintage Radio & Communications Museum of Connecticut. The 
Communications Museum may be able to serve as a conduit to find 
a permanent home. More photos are available on request.

Caleb Smith - Vintage Radio & Communications Museum of Connecticut
https://www.vrcmct.org/ 
gene4855@yahoo.com.geentroep [delete ".geentroep" to reply]

[ Austin Perforator
[ https://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/26/04/19/260419_072422_20260418_131706.jpg
 

[ 1975 American Theatre Organ Society Journal
[ https://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/26/04/19/260419_072422_atos%20journal-CVTOS%20serenade%20evnt_to_1975_v017_n06_access_41.pdf 

[ Written explanation of the Perforator system
[ https://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/26/04/19/260419_072422_Austin%20Organ%20Quadruplex%20system%20explanation.pdf 

[ 1990 American Institute of Organbuilders convention
[ https://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/26/04/19/260419_072422_1990%20organ%20builder%20convention%20hartford-%20allen%20miller%20bio.pdf 

[ For more videos of the Austin organ visit
[ https://www.youtube.com/@AustinOrgans 
[
[ Allen Miller described an Austin Premiere Quadruplex Player at
[ https://www.mmdigest.com/Archives/Digests/199506/1995.06.08.01.html 
[
[ -- Robbie