Posted 5 years ago
clay.lady
(9 items)
SOME SORT OF DOUBLE BELLOWS, BUT WHAT FUNCTION
I have no idea what this odd item is, does anyone have a clue?
It measures 9" x7" x8"
ANTIQUE DOUBLE BELLOWS | ||
| Unsolved mystery items12789 of 96524 |  |  |
ANTIQUE DOUBLE BELLOWS | ||
| Unsolved mystery items12789 of 96524 | | |
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Posted 5 years ago
clay.lady
(9 items)
SOME SORT OF DOUBLE BELLOWS, BUT WHAT FUNCTION
I have no idea what this odd item is, does anyone have a clue?
It measures 9" x7" x8"
Help us close this case. Add your knowledge below.
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HI clay.lady -- I cannot say for certain by ANY means at all, but to me that thing looks for all the world like it used to be some part of the guts of an antique player piano's inner workings. OH, OH how I wish I had one of those glorious old musical machines of my own to go digging around in right now with a flashlight to see if I could locate anything looking remotely like it in there someplace... <groan>
A second, easier guess (for me, as it really *is* my 'day job') might also be some former component of an old pipe organ mechanism, but quite frankly I *do* have 25+yrs under my belt now crawling around in the guts of those things to otherwise fix/repair oddball crap like that that somebody else built 50-100 yrs before I took my first breaths on Planet Earth, and it really *doesn't* quite strike me as anything I've seen in that environment over the years...?
One more possibility I suppose might be that it's an orphaned part of an old "pump organ" ("reed organ") which were instruments mainly intended for the 'home market' about the same time the piano (w/player mech or not) was at its peak popularity (1st qtr, 20thC) as about the only semi practical alternative at the time for folks to have their own "home sound system" even if they were completely tone deaf and couldn't play a note on any instrument whatsoever themselves. Reed organs were a whole lot lighter weight anyways...even if they didn't usually come with self-player machines inside they still filled a niche in those few years immediately before the next latest-greatest "home music machines" (the phonograph, then radio, respectively) emerged as practical consumer goods.
[and sheesh, lookie where we all now with immediate on-demand 'music/noise' available 24/7, whenever we might want it, from dozens of different sources, all at the touch of a button or two on some or other blinkiebox... <groan>]