SCHULMERICH CARILLONS "CHIME A TRON" #1

Here's (one of) what's perhaps my mostest favorite 'playtoy' shown today. This will be yet one more 2-part-post showing, because it so happens I actually currently own two of these things right now, with the possibility of a 3rd or 4th still hidden somewhere at the shop needing 'recquisitioning' one of these days when nobody else is otherwise looking... ;-) :-) :-) This one is all my number one, still AFAIK perfectly functional.

The roughly 19" x 30" x 4" crinkle-finished-brown painted enclosure (pic 1 shows it all buttoned up, as most people that might or not have actually seen them 'in use' likely never realized what they really were) contain a rather elaborately assembled mechanism of 25 'tuned solid brass rods' equipped with (rather primitive by today's standards) 'electronic pickups' (similar to how old fashioned record player cartridges and/or guitar string pickups work) and also with tiny electromechanical 'striker/solenoid' things that would when energized "whack" the rods themselves, producing a 'note' which then, thru likewise a rather primitive frequency-divider form of early electronics (?) plus a small internal amplifier, was then capable of being sent to its own oddly shaped small internal speaker or to maybe further amps/speakers mounted in either an organ chamber or actual church steeple/tower, depending on how the device was confgured/installed anywhere in the first place.

Pic 2 shows its guts with the front cover off, note the tube-type amplifier this one has in it on the lower RH side and the weird oval speaker at the very top of that, firing straight up. Pic 3 is a closer one of its little tiny keyboard (roughly 18" x 5" total) which contains 25 tiny keys as well as a few controls/indicator lights on each end including a little 'power' keyswitch thing. (which I've gotta find one of my little keys for tomorrow, so's I can actually plug it up again and confirm it still works?!) ;-) :-) That little keyboard connects to the main cabinet with a multi-conductor cable ((maybe a little over 1/2" dia) and there's another plain old power cord to plug it into the wall and make it work.

Pic 4 shows its (brasstone) nameplate, identifying it as a model# CHU-25, serial # 1010. Those details/numbers, as well as the small electron-tube type amplifier in this unit, suggests to me that it is one of the older/earlier production models -- but I stress I've never really researched any of that regarding Chime-A-Trons or how long SCHULMERICH actually made them -- in general it must be in the 1940's - 60's range, but Schulmerich's majority business during their lifetime (which extended much beyond then, if they're not even still somewhere around at least in name?) was always and mainly the production of much larger and more elaborate "electronic tower bells/chimes/carillon systems for churches/colleges/etc desirous of (at least the approximate sound) of *real* tower bells/chimes/carillons. (but didn't wanna pay the WAY MORE bigger bucks, in general, it'd take for *that*...??

The fact remains I also own one of those *big* vintage systems, itself comprised of a couple of brown crinkle-finished cabinets roughly 2.5' square and 6' tall, both stuffed with a huge myraid of otherwise polished chrome and brass dials, switches, and other general mechanisms, (some behind clear acrylic doors to show 'em off) large tube-type amplifiers, and even a 'paper roll player' and a 4' x 8' (+) panel itself stuffed full of another half dozen or so smaller 'brown boxes' that allow that machine to not only 'chime the hour' in different recurring patterns, but also to 'play hymns (or etc) at preprogrammed times, utilizing two or three audibly different varieties of (fake) "bell/chime" tone. OH, and then there's the 3-5 "public address horn speaker units" that also broadcast that sound from whatever outside 'tower location' they were otherwise installed in...

Here's the link to Chime-Atron #2, BTW:
https://www.collectorsweekly.com/stories/284104-schulmerich-carillons-chime-a-tron-2?in=user