A musician of this city has contrived an apparatus which he calls a “Pianautomaton,” and which is designed, as its name implies, for automatically playing upon a pianoforte any piece of music desired. The instrument is described externally as a box of the width and length of the keyboard to which it is clamped. Through a slot runs the piece of music which is to be played, and which has this peculiarity, that all the notes are perforated through the sheet. The box has a crank which sets in motion a magneto-electric apparatus and by its means a series of axial bars protruding below the box, strike the pianoforte keys and correctly perform the musical composition indicated by the holes in the paper. This contrivance rather belies its name in that music is ground out, as in the better known street instrument of humbler pretensions; but in another form, the apparatus is entirely self-acting, the insertion of the perforated paper causing a small lever to come in metallic contact, thus completing the electric current, the instrument then continuing to play until all the music paper has passed through the aperture, when the lever being no longer held up, the circuit is broken and the performance terminated.
The axial bars strike the key notes with four different degrees of strength, either with a legato or staccato touch, and with a suitable connection with the pedals, all degrees of musical expression are attainable. It is apparent that this instrument can be made to produce effects of execution which no living artist could think of attempting. For example, a chromatic scale in octaves, thirds, or tenths; or produce the effect as if four, six, eight, or more hands were performing. There is no hesitancy in “reading at sight,” and the variety of pieces need not be a limited repertoire, like a hand organ.
The inventor unnamed here is not Edwin Votey, who invented the Pianola — one of the earliest commercially successful player pianos. He was about 11 years old when this article was printed. Did he read it and get inspired? Unlikely, since PC&FV is from Ann Arbor, and Mr Votey was in Detroit. Close now, but a day’s drive in 1867.
But you never know, do you?