Everybody is being nice to the English! Have we been forgiven for that
little argument over tea?

In MMD 29/7/97 Larry Broadmoore writes:

>Treadling seems to have been taken even more seriously in England,
>where many more full reproducing pianos with foot pumps, seem to have
>been made.

As you may know, England is a poor benighted country where the benefits
of electricity were relatively late in coming. Hence the popularity of
foot pumping. We could not afford these new fangled gadgets!

Early experiments with gas powered pianolas were abandoned in England
due to explosions. A safer system with hamsters caused trouble when the
critters escaped from their wheels and munched on the pneumatic cloth.
None of these experimental instruments have survived. <GG>

A few days ago in the digest another kind American contributor was
praising our very own Piano Museum at Kew (and the Organ Museum in St
Albans) in comparison to certain museums in the USA.

It's nice to know that they still like us out in the colonies.

--
Jeffrey Borinsky