Books › The Story of the violano-virtuoso : world's only self-playing violin and piano, 1900 › scan 12
Scan 12
The Story of the violano-virtuoso : world's only self-playing violin and piano, 1900
24 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1is really astonishing to those hearing the instrument for the first time. There is a warmth and beauty to its playing that distinguishes its musical quality entirely from other automatics.
3What the Violano Is
5The Violano-Virtuoso is a musical instrument comprising a real violin and a piano.
7The music is not merely like violin music; it is violin music. The violin is visible as it plays. It is shaped like the standard violin; made of wood; has four strings and every position on the finger head. It is not an imitation—it is a real violin.
9If you heard this violin playing behind a screen or in another room, you would be positive you heard a real violin.
11The piano accompaniment to the violin harmonizes perfectly with the latter to give the effect of an orchestra of from three to eight pieces, depending on the number of violins and the number of strings being played at the same time.
13This instrument plays its music from a paper music roll and is under electrical control at all times. In putting the violin under mechanical action so as to produce music that perfectly simulates that of the master violinist, the seemingly impossible has been accomplished.
15$1,000,000 Spent to Perfect the Violano-Virtuoso
17To bring the Mills Violano to its present perfection many years of labor and over a million dollars in money were spent.
19"It is more than paying its cost and has increased our business 30 per cent. It is a pleasure for our customers to come in and have refreshments while they are playing the Violano."
20—BROADWAY CONFECTIONERY, 316 Broadway, Fargo, N. D.
22"I feel satisfied that the extra business the Violano has brought to us has more than paid for the instrument several times over."
23—T. E. OGRAM, Penn Ave. and 13th St., Washington, D. C.
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