Books › The Story of the violano-virtuoso : world's only self-playing violin and piano, 1900 › scan 20
Scan 20
The Story of the violano-virtuoso : world's only self-playing violin and piano, 1900
18 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. Printed page 14. See the scan on archive.org.
A town on its own line is one of the directory's headings. That is where the town on a maker's page comes from.
1The mechanism is entirely under the control of electrical magnetism, and it is the scientific use of this force that gives the Violano its almost human power.
3Simplicity the Keynote
5When a coin is deposited in the instrument or the starting lever tripped, the contact cylinder, carrying the paper music roll, revolves. A wire brush passes over the paper, the fine strands of wire making electrical contact through the perforations in the paper. Every position on the fingerhead of the violin is under the control of an individual finger magnet, and when the contact is formed through the perforation the electric current draws the finger down against the string. The same current acts simultaneously on the bow action magnets; the bows, which are circular discs made of leaves of celluloid, are driven continuously by the bow motor and at the same instant that the finger is pressed against the string, dip down and sound the note. Another magnet produces the staccato, while the tremulo is obtained by means of a third magnet which vibrates the tail piece through the medium of the shaker bar.
7The magnets do what the human violinist's fingers do. A thousand more parts might be necessary to produce the same result by any means other than by the electrical magnetic process.
9Every part of the mechanism functions instantaneously; there are no major parts to get out of order; as long as the current is there the violin will play. The violin fingers move only one-sixteenth of an inch in playing the notes so that there is very little chance for them to get out of order.
11"I have not touched the Violano in more than six months outside of changing strings and tuning the violin at the beginning of a new string and occasionally oiling."
12—ADOLPH PETERSON,
13Gwinn, Mich.
15"I hesitated about purchasing it because I was afraid so delicate a mechanism would get out of order easily, but I have had no trouble with it though I have kept it in continuous use for several years."
16—EMPRESS CANDY CO.,
17Chicago.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.