Through the years of restoring and collecting automatic musical
instruments, I have noticed that some of us in this field are "cross
addicted."

The article I wrote on Charles Smallwood for this august forum (see MMD
Archives: 1998.03.12.06) proves that, if you scratch the surface of a
musical instrument collector, you are most likely to find:

 a) a live steam nut,
 b) a street car fan,
 c) a railroad enthusiast,
 d) a model railroader,
 e) a steam whistle collector, and/or
 f) someone who collects all sorts of "rusty old junk",
    as my mother used to call my hoard of treasures.

An old friend used to call such people 'filberts' -- "We may be 'nuts',
but we are a special kind of nut."

Welcome, fellow filberts !

Ed Gaida
egaida@txdirect.net