Bill Budenholzer stated in yesterday's MMD: "I'm no expert.  Far from
it.  However, I see distinct advantages of pneumatic systems used in
musical instruments over newer electronic systems."

I agree with this statement, as it has been my personal experience with
piano actions that plastic parts do not last nearly as long as wood,
felt, or leather ones, and that electronic parts are both technologically
ephemeral and rapidly obsolete.  Our society usually  throws out the
technological baby with the bathwater, ignoring and forgetting any value
in previous technologies.  I think that wind-driven devices are one of the
most clever technologies ever invented, and their full potential was far
from realized.  As we reach the end of  the Petroleum Age, people may yet
return to wind driven motors to a degree that no one has yet imagined.

Mark Ritzenhein