Hello!  Well, after four of you sent me info about manual and machine
punching, I eagerly wait for the additional info I asked for, and then
I'll start pushing aside other things to go into "music making", hope-
fully !  (Bob Essex -- I just have to find out the cheapest way to get
the 38 GB pounds to you, then we'll have a deal, too.)

Only problem that came up:  The URL of John Smith does not work --
http://freespace.virgin.net/chris.doe/jsmith/jsmith.htm -- but the
info sounds so promising that I really would like to find out more!
Does anyone have a newer URL/info how to get to John Smith's knowledge?

Just to give a little background how I came to love "mechanical music"
... Well, first:  Either you love them or you don't; I do !

Second, I love everything mechanical.  I'm a locomotive and railroad
signaling enthusiast (Boy, they invented mechanical tricks in the last
century!) and I love to explain steam engines.  I've repaired and
modified quite a few clocks (mostly antiques) for friends.  I love
music and have played the piano from 8 years old on, and then church
organ.

Then I found the carousel in the Golden Gate Park and read "Waldkirch"
for the first time.  The climax of all this being, of course, the
Orgelfest in Waldkirch two weeks ago.  I was at Jaeger & Brommer
Orgelbau for at least three hours.

I _do_ have a workshop, including an American (actually Taiwanese)
bandsaw; they're not common here in Germany, where even carpenters don't
have them.  I love to make children happy; you should have seen the
children in our neighborhood simply listening to CDs of some Bruder
band organs I bought in Waldkirch (the CDs, not the organs )-: ).

I can improvise on the piano a little bit, I like ragtime and swing,
and I sing in a choir with a repertoire of musicals and old hits.
Is this enough reason to love mechanical music?

Only one problem: I have a job.  So it goes.  Next life, I'll do it
right from the beginning.  ;-)

Thanks for all your replies, and I'll keep in touch!

Harald Mueller