Mike Kitner asked:

> Has anyone ever have any trouble with a player action in a room with
> an unvented kerosene space heater?

Nearly all the player restorers I've known have said you could tell
whether a house used central heating or coal fires from the condition of
the leather. Central heating = valve leathers like new. Coal fires =
brittle and cracked rubber tubes and leather parts. Doubtless the
culprit was sulphur dioxide in the air.

Also, I had a 1878 Steinway concert grand restrung in the 1970s
(unnecessarily, as it turned out - the lack of treble tone was in the
method of soundboard mounting) and about two years later bought a very
stylish kerosene heater with reflector to use in that room.

The strings very rapidly started to rust, so I changed to an electric
heater and the rusting stopped.

Dan Wilson, London