•Jonathan King asked, "Has anyone ever tried to match the frequency of two steam whistles to get the tremolo affect?" The "Celeste" effect is beautiful, but to tune for it deliberately, requires that the tone sources are stable enough in pitch to make it worthwhile. Steam calliope whistles are so un...

•On a 38-note steam calliope would it be worth making two whistles for every note or just on major chords? Jonathan King

•Many thanks to the two subscribers who provided information about the disposition of J.C. Deagan chime products. In response to Tom Grace's inquiry about suitable blowers for one-rank pipe organs, in the past I used small replacement vacuum-cleaner motors available from W.W. Grainger. I built a squ...

•The current issue of Live Steam magazine (Jan./Feb. '03) has an article describing a steam calliope built by Conrad Milster. It is the first in a series and includes dimensions for the whistles he built (he rolled his own tubing from copper). It appears that the instrument is played via a keyboard ...

•I just finished building a little monkey automaton to go with my calliope. He beats a toy drum more or less in time to the music. I used the innards from an old "dancing beer can" from the 'eighties that one of our kids had given us as a gag present. This contained a sensor that caused the beer can...

•In response to asking about playing band organs, I have a friend who lives in an upscale area, and he has a beautifully restored calliope. The problem is, every time he brings it out of the garage and plays it, the neighbors call the police! This is very unfortunate, because the children (and most ...

•I am in Melbourne, Australia, and we have a custom built calliope at our Scienceworks Museum where I have been the player for that instrument. As to sound level, it is like a fire breathing dragon and can be heard for miles. It gives optimum performance on 60 pounds pressure. While it is a great pi...

•-- non-subscriber, please reply to sender and MMD -- Two years ago I built a 16-note air/steam calliope along the lines of the one in Live Steam magazine, June 1977. Unfortunately the time spent in playing it at steam meets leaves little time left for other activities and interests, as I have a ste...

•In a message dated 11/20/03 3:17:06 AM Eastern Standard Time, rolls@foxtail.com writes: > A J Omega Electronics MTP-1 32-note (plenty of room for expansion) has > been purchased and will be used to drive solenoids to actuate the keys > and valves. The problem here is the solenoids draw 0.7A, and as...

•> A J Omega Electronics MTP-1 32-note (plenty of room for expansion) has > been purchased and will be used to drive solenoids to actuate the keys > and valves. The problem here is the solenoids draw 0.7A, and as the > rated output from the MTP is only 0.5A, either amplification or relays > will be ...

•I represent Sound Research MIDI products. Knowing that some devices need more current than the .5 ampere driver of the ULN2803, I provide outboard drivers in groups of 32. These come as Darlington transistors, or FETs, relays or triacs. The package size is 6" x 12" x 1-1.5", depending on output dev...

•-- forwarded message, please reply to sender and MMD -- On behalf of the widow of a recently deceased good friend of mine, I am looking for people who might have an interest in buying his air calliope, built for him in 1981 by New Age Air Calliope Melville McBride 215 Elva Drive Aptos, CA 95003 408...

•I read with interest the MMD posting by Sander Mommers about the "New Age" Air Calliope that is for sale. After visiting the web site and viewing the photo, I wonder if I didn't come across another machine by the same builder earlier this year. I took some photos last May of a similar unit. The pho...

•-- forwarded message, please reply to sender and MMD -- I used to run a merry-go-round about 40 years ago. We used reel-to-reel tape for our music. One tape was of the band organ from the old 78 rpm records of Allan Herschell's merry-go-round company in New York. That tape I still have. The other t...

•-- non-subscriber, please reply to sender and MMD -- My daddy restored his Tangley CA-43 calliope in 1962. He then sold it to a museum in the late 1960's. In the late 1980's the museum closed, and each piece was sold separately, including my daddy's calliope. I am trying to locate it to buy it back...

•For Sale: Calliope, made by Miner Mfg., mounted on very cute Miner trailer. Plays by rolls or by hand, five rolls included, Honda generator included. Used very little, plays great. Parade ready. $8,000. Phone 352-527-9390 or E-mail deekav@aol.com.geentroep [delete ".geentroep" to reply] Bill & Dee ...

•I am building a 48-note calliope on Dave Kerr's designs. I need a source for calliope music in single channel MIDI format. I can plug my keyboard into it but I don't play that well and piano music is to "busy". I am currently rebuilding my Fischer A AMPICO and wanted to do some before and after flo...

•There is a seller on eBay who is apparently making and selling photocopies of plans to build an air calliope. The plans are copyright 1975, A. B. Enterprises, Peoria, IL. Does anyone know anything about this company? I've seen copies of these plans before and it is apparent that they have been copi...

•Hi Everyone -- In response to the question about the calliope plans that were on eBay [040206 MMDigest], I had purchased a few sets from a person on the net a few years ago who as I remember was in the circus supply business. This is not something of my making, these plans were just as I had purcha...

•The plans that are up for auction are probably from the A. B. Brill company. A. B. Brill created blueprints for the carnival industry after WW2. His plans often explained how to take war surplus and make carnival rides and attractions. He was also known to publish plans that he didn't create. I hav...