Thus wrote Craig Brougher, regarding innovative uses for popular home
appliances:

> The next nice thing to try to do is-- get your wife to vacuum the
> trackerbar every time she vacuums the carpets! ... That's what you
> call truly "automatic."  Good luck!

From this I can assume that your purchases of 1920's musical instru-
ments provided you, at no extra charge, a barely used, in tip-top mint
condition, genuine 1920's wife!!

I'm sure that many of us, were we to try your suggestion, would
likewise be instructed to vacuum the lint out of an unused and empty
cavity -- between the ears.  Not that I'm complaining -- nostalgia's
all well and good, but living in the late 20th century beats what
preceded it.

Now then, since we've established that a household vacuum cleaner is
feeble by trackerbar pump standards, how about ShopVac(R) machines?
Ours is such a small one, but still can suck up rocks the size of my
thumb.  I suppose I could measure the suction power, but (cough, cough)
there's no need to duplicate someone else's research.

Colin Hinz
Toronto, Canada

 [ Ignoring the silly claims of the vacuum cleaner advertising, the
 [ thoughtful player piano tech would attach a vacuum gage to the
 [ tracker bar with a tee, to get comparative measurements versus the
 [ tracker bar pump.  Does anyone have (cough, cough) numerical data?
 [ Rocks and ping-pong balls don't count!  We want to know the suction
 [ applied to the pouch and bleed.  :-)  -- Robbie