Links

Index

Groups

Informational Sites

Forums

Video Links

Audio Links

Groups

·       The Music Box Society International The website of our parent organization, with a wealth of information about mechanical music.

·       Musical Box Society of Great Britain

·       AMICA. Automatic Musical Instruments Collectors Association. Collectors group for all automatic instruments, with an emphasis on pneumatic instruments.

·       The Antique Phonograph Society

·       The Canadian Antique Phonograph Society 

·       The City of London Phonograph and Gramophone Society

·       The Carousel Organ Association of America As described on its Website, "COAA is devoted to enjoying, preserving, and sharing knowledge of all outdoor mechanical musical instruments; including band, fair, and street organs, calliopes, and hand-cranked organs of all sizes."

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Informational Sites

·       Hooghys Organ Pages A website dedicated to the history and instruments of the Belgian organ builder Louis Hooghuys.

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Forums

·       Mechanical Music Digest The Mechanical Music Digest (MMD) is a moderated forum, published daily on the Internet and distributed primarily by e-mail.  Forum participants can exchange information and get answers to questions about mechanical music.  Forum accounts are free. Traffic seems to primarily concern pneumatic instruments (band organs, player and reproducing pianos, etc.)

·       The Talking Machine Forum 

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Video Links

·       MBSI Video

o   MBSI's Marvels Of Mechanical Music
        Part 1 Introduction
        Part 2 Music Boxes as a Form of Computer
        Part 3 Music of Yesteryear
        Part 4 The Art of Imitation
        Part 5 Bringing it Back to Life
        Part 6 Why Collect?
        Part 7 Fairground Organs
        Part 8 Friendship and Music

·       Music Boxes

o   How a wind-up music box works.

o   A very basic verision of how a music box works suitable for instructing children.

o   An interesting visit to the huge music box and antique phonograph collection of Domenic DiBernardo.

·       Organs/Orchestrions

o   Aeolian Organ - History of Opus1280

o   Star Wars Theme played on the spectacular theater organ at the Sanfilippo Foundation's  "Place de la Musique" near Chicago.  This Wurlitzer theater organ, originally in the Riviera Theatre in Omaha, has been expanded to 80 ranks of pipes. 

·       Player/Reproducing Pianos

o   Manufacturing piano music rolls  The QRS Company (now called QRS Music Technologies) has been making piano rolls for more than 100 years.  Here is a short video that shows how they still do it.

·       Recorded Sound/Phonographs/Jukeboxes

o   Antique Phonograph with Stirling Engine Hot Air Motor Paillard, yes THAT Paillard, once made a phonograph in a wooden cabinet powered by flame!  Not too surprisingly, not many survived, but here is a nice example.

o   Production of Pathe acoustic records, 1917  Note: Facebook login required to view.

o   A 1923 silent film on how phonograph records were made.

o   MARCH OF TIME - IN THE GROOVE - The History Of The Phonograph Industry  Circa 1950

o   A bit of good fun for antique phonograph fans.

·       Just for Fun

o   The Marble Machine

·       Miscellaneous

o   The Morris Museum in Morristown, NJ, put on a coin-operated amusement machine exhibit in 2016.  Here is a link to a news broadcast piece about it.  While not featured in the broadcast, MBSI lent the museum a Regina coin-operated music box for the exhibit.

Audio Links

·       Members of the Snowbelt Chapter of MBSI were given the opportunity to provide Christmas music played on automatic musical instruments for the Christmas broadcast of Garrison Keillor's "A Prarie Home Companion" on National Public Radio on December 19, 2015.  Read the story of this event beginning on page 33 of the March/April 2016 edition of Mechanical Music. Click HERE to hear the complete broadcast, which opens with Silent Night played on a 20 3/4" Regina.  Other instruments appear at different times during the show.

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