Righty Tighty - But Why?

:-)

Have you ever seen a Tanzbar (Dancing Bear) concertina? They were player versions of the Chemnitzer (big square) concertinas, with the roll inside the right-hand end.

Enjoy, DoN.

The human factors folks have already done the work. According to "Human Engineering Guide to Equipment Design", a right handed person can exert considerably more torque (about 30%) in the CCW direction.

Ned Simmons

Ever run into Bob Hunt from Kennebunk ME? He's been doing much the same thing as a hobby for many years. I've heard him refer to a meticulous rebuild as a "polished screw restoration". Implying, with a bit of exaggeration I suppose, that every screw was removed and cleaned up.

Ned Simmons

I've read about them, but never held one in my hands.

I do still have a 19th century "Mechanical Organette", a hand cranked tabletop paper roll operated reed organ. Sounds a bit like an concertina.

Jeff

Never had the pleasure of meeting him. But, I stopped being active in that hobby about 30 years ago.

I've still got one rather nice Ampico reproducing piano and about 500 rolls for it, including some about a hundred years old now, recorded by Rachmaninoff. Yes, they had "recording pianos" back then, but just as with today's recording studios, there was a lot of editing done after the original recording was made.

Jeff

Ditto. I've seen them come up on eBay -- but not at prices where I felt like playing.

Possibly even concertina reeds in it.

I've even seen a barrel organ (drum with brass tack heads (OB-Metal) raising levers to select notes) with a few tiny wood pipes like from organs. The rectangular ones with a sliding plug in the end to do the fine tuning. These were the sorts of things that an organ grinder (with monkey) would have used, with a single leg to support it, plus a strap around the player's neck.

Enjoy, DoN.

With paper pasted over the wrong holes and then new ones punched? I presume that they also had devices which would duplicate the rolls once they got them right -- for production.

Enjoy, DoN.

I think Bob was probably around then. I've known him for 20 yrs and he's been at it all that time. He's apparently pretty well know these days. My brother, who graduated from the North Bennet Street School piano tech program, heard of him as the go-to guy for certain instruments.

He has a reproducing piano as well. An Aeolian I think?

Ned Simmons

A lot of piano rolls weren't "recorded" at all, they were hand punched by skilled guys working from the sheet music, and then tweaked as required.

The "recording pianos" I'm familiar with used electric switches under the piano keys conrolling electromagnets which pushed felt tipped pens down onto a moving roll of paper, one pen for each piano hey. Then someone hand punched through the pen markings.

But, much of the editing of reproducing piano rolls was fiddling around to get the expression correct. "Expression" is the intensity with which the notes are struck.

A garden variety player piano (and its rolls) only knows how to control the note placement vs. time and the soft and sustaining pedal operation.

A reproducing piano used additional tracks on the roll containing coded expression information. Not sophisticated enough to control the expression of each individual key, but pretty good nonetheless. They split the keyboard in the middle and controlled the intensity of the notes in each half separately, by changing the setpoint of two vacuum regulators feeding the key actuators for each section.

I presume that they also had devices which would duplicate the

Yes, they were called, not unsuprisingly, piano roll perforating machines. They were controlled by "master rolls", which were usually somewhat larger than the finished piano roll, and made from much heavier and more durable paper.

Dedicated hobbyists of the kind found here on rcm have built there own "duplicating perforators" to make copies of old rolls, akin to making tape recordings or burning CDs from fragile old shellac phonograph records. I visited a guy in england once who'd assembled a tabletop sized one of those perforators in the second floor bedroom of his home.

Jeff

It being a dull day, I decide to respond to what snipped-for-privacy@snyder.on.ca fosted Sat, 12 Jun 2004 02:26:53 GMT on rec.crafts.metalworking , viz:

"Shield on the left arm, sword in the right hand", is one explanation. (I have heard of one castle in Scotland, with the hereditary lords of the castle being left handed, where the stairs spiral up "backwards", thus giving the "natives" an advantage if it ever came to defense.)

the other explanation is a "handedness" in leg use, with most people favoring the right leg for pushing off/power strokes, be it walking, peddling, or skating. I dunno, but it sounds plausible.

tschus pyotr

I would guess, because when using your right hand, it's easier to torque tight to the right, then it is to the left.

something I learned awhile ago.. sugar is right handed. but it's possible to artifically grow left handed sugar. Left handed sugar tastes *funky*, and is harder to digest..