I have been following with great interest the thread concerning
the future of mechanical instruments.  I am one of the new people to
ownership of a mechanical instrument, though I had exposure to them
during my childhood.  Apart from sentimentality (they remind me of
my father), I love these instruments because they are mechanical.

When I bought my piano earlier this year, I started reading everything
I could about the mechanism: Reblitz, Saul, Manganaro, Givens, The
Inspector's Guide, and even Wm. Braid White.  The more I read, the more
fascinating it became and, although I do love music from the 1920s and
'30s, I am captivated by the mechanics of the whole thing.

While reading one of today's MMD postings I had an idea and thought
I would share it for what it is worth...  What if some among the MMD
and other enthusiast groups could develop a curriculum aimed at
teaching mechanical principals to engineering students at technical
colleges or small universities, using a reproducing piano as a teaching
tool?

The emphasis would be on the pneumatic and other mechanical principals
rather that the music.  The piano, music box or organ would simply be
a teaching tool.  After all, even the roll itself is a sort of
"traveling valve".

I say this because I work for a large corporation full of engineers
(I'm a liberal arts person myself), and during the past several months,
on our frequent and often long business trips, I have talked to my
colleagues (most of whom are engineers of some sort) about my
rebuilding project.  Their reaction has been far more striking than
with my non-engineer friends.

When I start talking about the fact that I have a special type of
player and am rebuilding it with my dad, they just nod and are polite.
But when I show them pictures of the mechanism, they start asking
questions.  So I talk about the mechanics of the thing, how it is
amazing this could have been done without a computer, how complicated
and simple it is all at the same time.  And only then do I show them
a clip of one playing on YouTube.  At that point, they are truly
fascinated.  They even initiate conversations, days or weeks later,
to inquire about the current stage of re-building.

In my experience, once engineers find something fascinating they tend
to tell their friends.

If someone could develop a course or two around the mechanism, teaching
the mechanical principals these mechanisms illustrate, and get the
course into some technical or engineering colleges, I am sure there
would be some who would develop a lasting interest in these instruments.
After all, many of the enthusiasts in the 1960s, '70s and '80s were
engineers, too.

Deidre Dixon
Greenville, South Carolina