U N I V LRS ITY or ILLINOIS 7S9.9 M25I. Return this book on or before the Latest Date stamped below. University of Illinois Library OCT 30 19 NOV g 0 I 53 1ij63 ynu *1 A n u y o U ! 'J ' ' ^ NOJ iO I3)S JUL 17 1965 / MAR i;] !STi f] ' FEB I 7 ' may i 9 ^ iS75 JU3 L161— H41 THE HISTORY OF THE PLAYER BY JOHN McTAMMANY NEW YORK iai3 Oo L ^%<=\ ^^3uSV^ August 2g, 1913. Mr. Gustave Behning, Chairman McTammany Testmonial Fund Committee, New York, N. Y. Dear Mr. Behning — In order to show the appreciation of the Musical Courier Extra for the work that John McTammany has done, not only as the inventor of the Player Piano, hut in advancing its interests, and especially in his efforts to clear the atmosphere as regards patents pertaining to the Player Piano, we offer to the McTam- many Testimonial Fund, one thousand {1,000) bound copies of Mr. McTammany' s “History of the Player," to he used by the Fund Committee in any way that may add to the fund. Will you allow us to suggest that it might assist to have these copies numbered and autographed by Mr. McTammany? Very truly yours, William Geppert, Editor the Musical Courier Extra. New York, September 3, 1913. Mr. William Geppert, Editor Musical Courier Extra, 437 Fourth Avenue, New York. Dear Sir — Your esteemed favor of August 29, wherein you tender this committee 1,000 copies of the “History of the Player," by John McTammany, free of charge, for the benefit of the Testimonial Fund, is received. Please ac- cept the hearty thanks of the committee for your gener- ous contribution, which is very highly appreciated indeed. The McTammany Testimonial Fund Committee, William Mill Butler, Secretary. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 \ https://archive.org/details/historyofplayerOOmcta JOHN McTAMMANY. There have been only looo copies printed of this work and the plates destroyed. This book is number ^00 ( Signed i PREFACE In the shadow of death this volume was written; with one hand I held the grim monster at bay, while with the other I traced the tortuous pathway of the player as it wended its weary way hack and forth across the continent, passing through State after State, from city to city and from one factory to another, seeking some friendly roof that would af- ford it a shelter, not only from the rigors of the seasons, but from that which was infinitely worse and harder to endure, to wit: the jibes and jeers and snubs and sneers of those who fain would pose today as its friends and defenders. At that time the player had no friends; it was an outcast and every man's hand seemed to he against it. Like Christ, it came unto its own, but its own received it not. So having traversed the country over, from East to West and back again in quest of a manufacturer or capitalist who could appreciate the merits of the invention, hut without success, the player and its luckless inventor finally took up their abode in a garret on Tremont street, Boston, Mass., opposite Park Street Church, where the player as an industry may be said to have been born, and the practicability, desirability and saleability of the in- vention determined. While I was confined from February 15 to May 15, 1913, in the Military Hospital at Noroton Heights, Conn., this work was written, and during the first month of my presence there it was a question in my own mind whether or not I should emerge from that institution alive. Occasionally, while writing, my eyes would grow dim. The building would seem to be rocking on its foundation, and I would grasp the little stand by my cot to steady myself, and at such a moment I would ask myself the question, whether the effort was worth the while. Then the heart would resume its functions, my pulse would begin to beat again, and hope, that like a ''star by night and a pillar of fire by day,'' had ever illumined my pathway, would return, and again I would renew my task and plod on. So, if this work is not up to standard pitch, if it does not compare with my previous writings, if it is wanting in literary style, and is deficient in other respects, too numerous to mention, then let the read- er take into consideration my physical condition, my age and environment. In a work of such lim- ited proportions it was impossible to refer to all those who have been instrumental in the subsequent improvement and development of the player, after it passed from my hands, and such improvements have been many and important, but coincident with the printing of the last chapter of the present work I will begin the publication of the technical history of the player which will appear first in serial order in the Musical Courier Extra and subsequently in book form. In writing the technical history of the player I will take up each patent both foreign and domestic in regular chronological order, pointing out exactly what the claims of each patent cover and the amount of credit due each inventor in connection with the player. John McTammany. Copyright, 1913, by John McTammany, Blumenberg Press, Printers, New York. HISTORY OF THE PLAYER CHAPTER I. T he reader may feel as he enters upon a perusal of this little work and brief history of the player that it breathes too much of the spirit of war; that hell and harmony are an ill-matched pair. But war is hell, never- theless. So said Gen. Sherman. And it was in the midst of hellish surroundings, and while convalescing upon a cot in a military hospital in the South that my mind was opened at least in a minor degree to the possibility, prac- ticability and desirability, of an instrument operatable by means of a perforated device. It follows, therefore, that the history of the war and the history of the player are one and inseparable. That it was by reason of a series of incidents, accidents and happenings that took place while I was at the front and over which I had little or no control that I was led on, step by step, in the development of the player until I returned from the war and my subsequent experiments were conducted while travelling from State to State, city to city, until in the winter of 1875 I finally landed in St. Louis, Mo., where my ten years' thought and experi- ment on the subject culminated in the construction and public exhibition of the first player that ever came from HISTORY OF THE PLAYER the hand and brain of man as far as the records of this country or Europe disclose to the contrary. But, furthermore, the reader may feel that the story might have been told with less circumstance and detail, and that is true, but my defence against that charge is this: That the player having been the subject of so much controversy, discussion, assertion, and denial, even mis- representation and falsehood, that in order that the reader may fully understand the real facts and wishing to put an end to all future controversy on the question, I have elected to present the matter in such a manner as will fully convince the unprejudiced reader of the reasonable- ness of my narrative showing how one act in the drama logically and inevitably led up to the next, advancing from one position to another, step by step, in regular and nat- ural order, submitting documents and evidence in support of my position. This requires that we take a look backward, but I need not apologize for that in view of the fact that one of the strongest propensities of our human nature is the inclination to hark back to the days of our fathers. “Back- ward, turn backward, O time in thy flight,” sang the poet. And that feeling is one of the noblest desires planted in the human breast and the tendency is not only natural, but universal. Marvel not, therefore, if I carry the reader back to the scenes and incidents of the Civil War, the times of our ancestors, when American institutions were reeling on their foundations and the Ship of State was breaking away from her moorings and was drifting toward the rocks of disunion and in danger of being irremediably shipwrecked. At that time, the nation was making history at a fear- ful pace, history written in the crimson gore of her slaugh- 2 HISTORY OF THE PLAYER tered sons. And it is peculiarly fitting that we should re- call those days at this time, it being the fiftieth anniversary of the Civil War, the time that tried men’s souls; a time when government of the people, by the people and for the people was in danger of perishing from the earth. And it was at such a time and under such untoward circum- stances that was created the conditions that made the player, the subject of this work, a possibility. It follows, therefore, that the player was an invention of the Nine- teenth century, and came into being amid the stress and struggle of war during the rattle of musketry, clash of steel and din of battle. So as the pure white lily — ^the emblem of purity and peace — springs upward from the ooze and slime of its watery environment to greet the sunlight and the stars and disclose to the view of human- ity its pure white petals, so the player sprung up in the midst of the wreck and ruin that marked the progress of our civil war; came into being, as it were, as a harbinger of peace and protest against the atrocities and bloody carnage that, for a time, threatened to destroy the nation and dissever the Union. Such were the circumstances, and such my environment at the time I got my first conception of the player prin- ciples, and it was at such a time that the determination was formed to follow my idea to the end, no matter where its development might lead. And, to say the least, it cer- tainly led me a merry dance. For there was hardly a hardship, that can be conceived, not a trial or tribulation that can be imagined, incident to the life of an inventor, that I did not experience during the ten years I was engaged in its development. And there is scarcely a trial or misfortune that a litigant be- fore the bar could be subjected to that I did not endure 3 HISTORY OF THE PLAYER during the next twenty years that I was battling in the courts or defending the player through the press. It has been said that necessity is the mother of inven- tion. But while such is not necessarily the case, yet it may be said with truth that necessity was the mother of the player mechanism. I employ the term player mechanism as it is broad enough to include reed and pipe instruments, as well as the piano or string devices. My mechanism was applicable to each and all of them. And it was owing to the fact that I, as a soldier, re- ceived injuries in the line of duty during the progress of the war which unfitted me from following my regular oc- cupation and compelled me to choose some less strenuous employment to earn my livelihood than I had previously followed that ultimately led up to the discovery of the player principles and to its final development. Nor should we forget that the music trades, in common with other industries, were considerably in evidence during the civil strife betv/een the States; that upon the bloody battlefields of the South the music dealer of Dixie and the piano manufacturer of the North, faced each other and fought and fell in defense of what they believed to be the right and today their bodies lie side by side among the unidentified dead in the neglected and forgotten trenches of the South, the dust of the Blue and the Gray mingling together beneath the swaying cedars and sigh- ing pines of the Southland and in those trenches had fate so decreed might also be sleeping today the sires and an- cestors of some who are prominent in the music trade to- day, a Mehlin, a Werlein, a Hutchins, or a Crew, and Many others I could name. The fact, therefore, that the player came into existence in and through the war and the additional fact that it is bound to supersede the con- 4 HISTORY OF THE PLAYER ventional piano makes the origin and history of the player a matter of supreme interest to the musical industries and the world at large, for of all the inventions that have been conceived by mortal man, the player piano is the one that is nearest and dearest to the hearts and homes of the inhabitants of the world. At the beginning of the war I was employed by a manu- facturing concern at Uniontown, Stark County, Ohio, where they produced a line of agricultural implements. At that time the reaper and mower were in their infancy and like all complicated machines were prone to become deranged, requiring frequent repairs, which usually re- sulted in a visit to our works to have them put in order again. I became greatly interested in the invention and recog- nized its far-reaching possibilties. Seeing this, the pro- prietor of the work assigned all the reaper repair work to me. That gave me the desired opportunity to study its mechanism and familiarize myself with its principle, con- struction and operation. But the more I contemplated its mechanism, the more I realized its defects and imperfec- tions and the need of further improvement. Canton, Ohio, the county seat of Stark County, was twelve miles south of us, and Akron, Summit County, was ten miles to the north, and these were the centers and hotbed of reaper- dom, at the time to which I refer, and I was personally acquainted with several of the men who had distinguished themselves as inventors in connection with the reaper. And as I studied the machines, day after day, I thought I saw an opportunity to improve them. That is where the vanity and egotism of John McTammany comes in, and when the reaper men visited our works, as they frequently did, I suggested to them as much. But being but a boy 5 HISTORY OF THE PLAYER they resented my suggestions as presumptuous and dis- missed my suggestions with contempt. That is where the presumption and egotism of the reaper men came in. The snub administered by them hurt my pride and aroused my resentment and only tended to strengthen my determina- tion to take up the further improvement of the reaper, and to this end I devoted every moment I could spare from my regular duties to experimenting, and from that time on, almost every reaper or mower that entered the establish- ment went out again with some alteration or improvement. I finally reached the stage where I felt confident that I could build a better reaper than anything on the market, and I had seen and studied most of them. So I proceeded to get up a set of working drawings with the intention of embarking in the reaper business, having the backing of the proprietor of the works in whose family I lived at the time, and who had unbounded confidence in my mechanical judgment. But just then something came to pass that put an end to all my plans and projects and caused me to end my ex- perimenting and lay my reaper plans and specifications upon the shelf and shoulder a musket in defence of my- home and State. HISTORY OF THE PLAYER CHAPTER II I T was in the month of June, 1863, that Gen. John H. Morgan, a Confederate, cut loose from the army of General Bragg, in Tennessee, and upon his own respon- sibility determined to carry the war into the North. A force was organized under Gen. Judah and other Union generals then located in Kentucky, with instructions to intercept Morgan and his raiders, and prevent him from crossing the Ohio, but without avail, for Morgan was on the alert and outwitted his pursuers, thwarting all their plans and before he could be overtaken, reached the Ohio river, captured steamboats and crossed to the northern side. The thought that there was an invading army north of the Ohio created the wildest excitement, not only through- out Ohio, but transfixed the attention of the whole nation. We had not forgotten the invasion of Pennsylvania and the three days’ bloody carnage at Gettysburg. As a result, every man or boy who could shoulder a gun sprang to arms, to the end that Ohio and Ohio’s homes' should be defended. There was a company of militia located in our neigh- borhood, known as the Uniontown Home Guards, of which 7 HISTORY OF THE PLAYER my father was a member, and this company was ordered out by the Governor. My father being absent from the State at the time, I volunteered to take his place and was accepted. The company was ordered to report at Canton, Ohio, the county seat of Stark County. On our arrival there we were put aboard flat cars and taken to Alliance. There we were informed that Morgan had crossed the Ohio at Portsmouth and was marching north with Alliance for his objective point, and we were ordered to obstruct him. But Morgan never reached Alliance ; he having been captured with his whole band at Lisbon, Columbiana County, a short distance south of Alliance. The number of men under Morgan’s command was insignificant, but we did not know at the time whether he was in command of an army of i,ooo or 100,000, nor would the fear and apprehension been any greater if he had been in command of an army of 1,000,000 men. Morgan and his men were taken to Columbus, Ohio, the capital of the State, as prisoners of war, and the Uniontown Com- pany, of which I was a member, was ordered home and disbanded. Thus I had my first taste of military service and like the first taste of several other things it was bound tol be followed by others. So upon my return home I began to take a deeper interest in the progress of the war and was correspondingly less concerned in my inventions. I came to feel that the country had more need of soldiers than inventors and I so notified the proprietor of the establishment where I was employed, requesting him to find some one to take my place as I had made up my mind to go to the front. But when I reported to the examining surgeon, and he took my measurements, it was found that I did not come up to the physical requirements, and he therefore refused 8 HISTORY OF THE PLAYER me a certificate to the mustering officer. Still I was determined to go and visited one recruiting officer after another until I was finally mustered into the 115th O. V. L, and went to the front where our regiment was assigned to guard and protect the Nashville & Chattanooga Railroad from Nashville to Murfreesboro and below. It was the duty of our regiment to patrol the railroad, man the blockhouses erected at each bridge along the line, and keep up communication by carrying dispatches between the army at Nashville and the forces below. The duel between Sherman and Hood at Atlanta had been fought to a finish; the city was reduced to a smouldering ruin. Sherman had started on his famous march to the sea, whereupon Hood gathered his shattered battalions together and started to invade the North. In the meantime, Gen. Thomas had been instructed to organize an army and intercept Hood at Nashville. When Gen. Thomas finally got ready to attack Hood he issued an order for our regi- ment to destroy the block houses, abandon the railroad and retreat to Nashville or Murfreesboro. And it was in carrying this despatch of Gen. Thomas between block- house No. 6 and No. 7 on the Nashville and Chattanooga Railroad, before the battle of Nashville, that I received the principal injuries that laid me low, landed me in the hospital, and at last placed my name on the invalid list of the United States army. It also eventually resulted in my discovery of the fundamental principles of the player. I had been injured before, on one or two occasions, but this’ was the first time I was forced to enter a hospital, a place for which I always entertained a holy horror, although at Nashville no man could ever have been treated better than I. Later I was transferred to the hospital at Tulahoma, subsequently to Nashville and finally to the 9 HISTORY OF THE PLAYER hospital at Camp Dennison, Ohio, from which I was dis- charged in the fall of 1865. Now at the time of my enlistment I had planned, should my life be spared, and I should return from the war, to go on with the development of my reaper. But the reaper had been greatly improved in the meantime; the things I had contemplated doing, others had done. I was, so to speak, a back number. No longer was I in the game. And, furthermore, the exploitation of the reaper, in those days, was a pretty strenuous occupation, and only large, strong and husky men had any business in the play. But I fully comprehended that I was no longer strong, and realized that I never could be; hence the question that confronted me, as I lay upon my cot in the hospital, was how I should earn my living, in the future. Before enlisting, I had led the choir and presided at the organ in the leading church in the town, in which I lived, and I was also the leader of the drum corps, and had the reputation of being a pretty good musician, for those days. It follows, therefore, that my cardinal traits were music and mechanism, a sort of Vulcan and Apollo rolled into one. I was as much at ease at the drafting table as I was at the piano. But now that I felt that my career as a mechanic and inventor was ended, my next strong point was music and to that profession I turned with the hope that I could at least earn my living. But with me to operate machinery was a passion as much) as music, a part of my very being, aS it were; in fact, I looked upon a machine with its shafts, levers, pulleys and gears, as simply a poem, a poem in mechanism, and while for the moment I was dismissing from further consideration this propensity of my nature, yet it was bound to return and assert itself, and when it did, it 10 HISTORY OF THE PLAYER would be with an irresistible and redoubled force. So, in view of the foregoing facts, I determined to take up the profession of music and to this end, upon my return home, I took a term at the Western Academy of Music, in order to fit and qualify myself for the work. And then I com- menced teaching both vocal and instrumental music, occa- sionally selling a piano or organ, drilling choirs, and lead- ing conventions, while presiding at the organ in one of the leading churches in Akron, Ohio, where I then resided. But it wag while at the hospital at Nashville, Tenn., that my mind began to fall in with the idea of an automatic musical instrument, operated differently than the Swiss cylinder music box and barrel organ, which at that time was the only instrumentality known to the world for mechanically producing music. When I got down to it, I was not long in discovering the shortcomings of that system. But while it was a comparatively easy task to point out the defects, and objections, of the old mechanism, it was an entirely different proposition to devise something better, to take its place. It took me ten long, weary years, to discover, develop and perfect, the present system, to a point where the music trade would condescend to consider it although the public welcomed it almost from its incep- tion. While convalescing in the hospital at Nashville, I was permitted to go out from day to day and finally to visit the heart of the city. At that time every other man one met was a soldier, and those who were not soldiers were negroes and it was rarely, indeed, that you met a citizen to the manor born. Most of the native men had either been killed or wounded, while the Southern women and II HISTORY OF THE PLAYER children had been driven from their homes and scattered to the four quarters of the earth. There had been several music stores in Nashville prior to the war, but nothing of that kind remained, that could be dignified by such a title. Instead, there was one or two pawn shops where they carried a line of small musical instruments, violins, accordeons, etc., and one of them, in particular, I had frequently passed and repassed. There was quite an assortment of small musical instruments displayed in the window and that window had a mighty fascination for me. I visited it frequently, and no matter what part of the city I started for, I invariably wound up by a visit to that window, for be it remembered that I played fairly well on the cornet, flute and violin, as well as the organ and piano ; that is, I played fairly well for those days. Finally, on one of my visits to that store, I ventured in. There was a couple of melodeons and an antiquated piano on the floor. I tried to play on them but they were not in playing condition. I asked the proprietor why he did not fix them. ‘‘Would you buy them, if I did?” was his reply. Of course, to a Union soldier that was a poser, for I had not seen a dollar for so long that I did not know how a dollar looked, except a Confederate dollar. And that he knew as well as I. But he had started the absurdity, so I concluded to carry the joke a little further, so I asked him how much he would take for the smallest and cheapest of the two melodeons which, if my memory serves me rightly, was a four octave Prince manufacture, made in Buffalo. He replied that I could have it just as it was for twenty- five dollars and in perfect cold blood I told him I would take it. You ought to have seen the expression of surprise on 12 HISTORY OF THE PLAYER that man’s face when I thus delivered myself. “Do you mean it?” he inquired. “I certainly do,” was my rejoinder, so with a reluctance bom of distrust, he turned to his desk and drew^ up a bill of sale and passed it over the counter toward me, while I simultaneously drew out of my pocket a roll of Confederate bills and proceeded to count out $25 in bills of the realms of the Southern Con- federacy, which realms were beginning to be somewhat circumscribed about that time. I will not attempt to describe the look of disgust that mantled the countenance of that pawnbroker when he saw me calmly and coolly counting out that Confederate script. He was incensed, oif course, and gave me to understand that he did not propose to be jollied in his own shop, not even by a soldier in blue. I retorted: “You knew that all the privates in the army of the Cumberland couldn’t muster $25 to save their souls from perdition.” “I knew it,” was his prompt reply. “Then why did you propose to sell it to me,” I retorted. But the gentleman had a streak of humor in his make- up and recognizing the absurdity of the situation, we both had a good laugh over the incident. And then and there was consummated the relations and conditions which ulti- mately culminated in the discovery upon my part, at least, of some of the principles subsequently embodied in the modern player piano. Prior to that time I had not seen, had not heard and did not know of the existence of any instrument or device of any kind, operable by a perfo- rated device or of any attempt to invent or construct a musical instrument to be actuated by a perforated sheet. 13 HISTORY OF THE PLAYER CHAPTER III \1 7HEN I left that little shop that afternoon to return ^ ’ to the hospital it was with the understanding that I would come back the next day and see if I could repair the melodeons. I was strongly tempted to begin the work then and there, although I was very weak and far from being well. But the ruling passion is strong in death, it is said, and although I considered myself very much alive, nevertheless the hospital authorities had written my people that I was “beyond hope.” During the time that I remained in the hospital, nothing made me so mad or so unmanage- able as for any one to hint that I could not survive, and the amount of profanity I fired at the nurses, surgeons and attendants at that time would have sunk a modern battle- ship. Finally one of them, who wanted to pray for me, got such a dose of cuss words for her pains that she got angry and said I was too mean to die, which I supposed was perfectly correct. And doubtless this is true even now. But from that time on, they left me alone to do my own dying. When I reported back to the hospital, after tearing my- self away from those old melodeons, I was greatly excited over the incidents of the day, which had made a deep im- pression upon my mind and greatly accelerated the move- 14 HISTORY OF THE PLAYER ment of my pulse, which aroused the fear of my nurse and caused me to lay awake most of the night, thinking of the glorious time I was going to have the next day wrestling with the mysteries and intricacies of those two old melodeons and that antiquated piano. Of course, I did not reveal to the nurse where I had been and what I was doing. After several days I got the melodeons into playing condition, and fixed the piano so it would play after a fashion. One day I was seated at one of the melodeons when a lady entered, accompanied by a colored man, who was carrying a common pin-cylinder music box, such as was common prior to the war, and for some time after. The woman looked daggers at me, by which I understood she was a Southerner, and hated the very sight of a “Yank,’^ which was the title by which we were described by the people of the South. Nor did I blame her, for to tell the truth, poet could not describe, nor artists portray, even the least of the terrible sufferings endured by the women of the South during the four years of bloody car- nage between the States. The colored man laid the music box down on the counter, and the woman addressed the proprietor of the shop, who was also a Southerner, and asked him to let her have twenty-five dollars for the box. He declined to pay that amount, or even make her an offer. She told him it cost ten times that amount when it was new, and then she wound it up and it started to play. But some of the teeth in the music comb were broken. Consequently it did not play well. So the shop keeper informed her that he didn’t want a broken music box on his hands; he had enough broken stuff in stock already. That was a crushing an- nouncement to the woman, and I could see the look of disappointment and despair that came over her refined and 15 HISTORY OF THE PLAYER cultured countenance, as the pawnbroker expressed himself in his heartless and characteristic manner. She started to argue the case with him, whereupon he turned and pointed to a clock on the shelf and a picture on the wall; then, pulling out a drawer, he directed her attention to some silverware and addressed her as follows: ‘‘I paid you at one time or another over $50 good money for these things, and if anybody wants them at half what I paid you, they can take them.'’ At that cold blooded deliverance of the pawnbroker, the woman recoiled, and staggering back sat down on a chair. I could hear a suppressed sob, but I did not dare to look at her. I had seen much of the miseries and vicissitudes of war, and I thought I was inured to its results. But I confess the distress of that poor, needy woman unmanned me; I realized that she was in dire straits and needed relief. Most Southern people were in the same condition, and if I had had $25 in the* world she could have had it. I had, however, no particular claim on the pawnbroker and I regarded him as both close-fisted and hard-hearted; but notwithstanding her evi- dent dislike of me I concluded to take a chance and ‘‘butt in" on behalf of the woman. So I walked over to the counter and took a look at the box. I saw that it was a fine, high-priced instrument, with reed and bell attachment, and must have originally cost $500. So I called the pro- prietor to one side, and told him it was a valuable piece of property and well worth $25. There were five extra cylin- ders. But the pawnbroker still refused, particularly as three of the teeth in the comb were broken, and unfor- tunately the tune she played showed the instrument at its worst. So, while I despise and hate subterfuge and trick- ery in trade, yet I know of nothing I wouldn't do for a woman in tears. So I concluded to resort to a Yankee 16 HISTORY OF THE PLAYER trick to help a friend of the Confederacy in need. I moved the cylinder to a position where the broken teeth were less in evidence than they had been, connected up the reed and hell attachment, put a drop of oil on the fly and started it up again. A look of surprise came over the pawnbroker’s face when he heard it, and finally he said that he would let her have $io for the box. But I wanted the woman to have $25. She evidently had figured up her needs and found that she could not get along with less than that amount. So I held out. While we were haggling over the matter, a United States military officer with his wife and another lady entered the shop. The officer’s wife had been there before, and I had played for her on one of the melodeons and she had tried it herself. Now she and her husband had returned to purchase it, paying the sum of $50. The officer gave the pawnbroker an order on the post sutler, which was accepted and the sale was closed. I now felt that I was entitled to some consideration at the pawn- broker’s hands, and after much haggling with him he con- sented to let the woman have $25, but not until I had agreed to put the music box in order. The woman had heard most of what had transpired be- tween the shopkeeper and myself, and she must have real- ized that she owed her success to my intercession, for without my assistance, and agreement to repair the box, she must have failed in her mission. But instead of thank- ing me, when she got outside the door she looked back through the glass at me with a look of hatred as if I had been her mortal enemy, although in all the world, at that moment, she had no better friend or more sincere sympa- thizer. So I considered myself fortunate in escaping with my life. The Southern citizen and soldier surrendered to the armies of the North; the Southern women never did 17 HISTORY OF THE PLAYER and never will; at least that is true of the present genera- tion. But in agreeing to repair that music box, little did I realize the difficulty of the job I had undertaken, for, de- voting all the time allotted me by the hospital authorities, it took me over a week to put that box in proper playing condition. But as a result of my labors I made the discov- ery that by making a depression in the pin-cylinder, instead of inserting a pin or staple, and by the employment of a double or compound lever, instead of a simple or single lever, I could altogether dispense with the pins and staples in the cylinder and produce the same result by means of the depression or perforation obtained by the pin and staple. It was but a little further to the idea of a per- forated wrapper, or jacket to fit around the cylinder and so on, step by step, to a perforated cardboard, flexible metal sheet, and finally, the narrow paper sheet on rolls, such as is employed on the modern player. And so I worked in the pawnshop during the day and did my thinking in the hospital at night; meanwhile Uncle Sam paid the freight. Finally I was transferred to the hospital at Camp Den- nison, Ohio, from which I was discharged in the fall of 1865, and returned to Uniontown, where I took charge of the agricultural works until they were bought by a syndi- cate of Cantonians and moved to the city of Canton. Mean- time I had kept up my experiments in connection with the player, and in 1866 had sufficient idea concerning it to en- able me to put my plans on paper. Having got that far, I made the discovery that I would need perforated sheets to govern the operation of the mechanism, and I knew no one to whom I could go, or in whom I could confide to get up the sheets for me. That work consequently devolved upon me also, but not being 18 HISTORY OF THE PLAYER sufficiently versed in composition, harmony and thorough bass to arrange the sheets I concluded to take another term at the Western Normal Academy. On my return I resumed teaching, keeping up my player experiments in the meanwhile. I knew the feeling of preju- dice that existed in the minds of musicians in regard to what they were pleased to denominate hand organ, or mechanical music, and knowing that, I concluded that it would be safest to keep my own counsel. Therefore I supervised my work in person, and with as much secrecy as if I was a conspirator, bent upon blowing up the whole musical industries of the world. And it was not because I feared that others would steal the invention, but because I feared the prejudice of my musical associates and teach- ers. People knew I was experimenting, of course, and that my experiments related in some way to the piano and organ, but that I was attempting to invent an instrument that any one could play was something known only by my family, my workmen and myself. It was, furthermore, something that I did not mean that others would find out. But sooner or later my plans were bound to be divulged, and when that time came I knew I would have trouble, and to spare, for if it had been announced that I was trying to invent perpetual motion, instead of the player, it could not have aroused more ridicule and contempt, upon the part of the musical fraternity, than did the discovery that I was ‘^engaged in the development of a piano upon which a country clodhopper could play a Beethoven sonata,’' as they were wont to express it. The average musician, as I have known him, prides him- self upon his so-called artistic temperament — whatever that means. And if there is anything on earth so narrow as this so-called artistic temperament, then may God in his 19 HISTORY OF THE PLAYER infinite mercy spare me from encountering it, for I have had enough, and more than enough, of this professional affectation and artistic pretense. '‘But murder will out/' One of the men, employed by me, seeing the possibilities lying in an instrument governed by a perforated sheet, got a swelled head and concluded that I, being only a music teacher, and organist, could not, therefore, know much about mechanism. So it was up to him to show me a thing or two, and one of the things he concluded to show me was how to build the player. He knew nothing about music, or several other things necessary to cope with the proposition. Furthermore, he began to build his player in the columns of the public press in an Ohio paper published in 1871. That was mistake No. i, for when it comes to building players, in the columns of the public press, the trade will bear me witness that I am a full team and a dog under the wagon, even at that sort of a game, if forty years' experience counts for anything. But this gentleman, not faring well in his newspaper ef- forts, ventured into the courts, and that was mistake No. 2. It resulted in his undoing, for when that man left the witness stand, it was as a convicted felon, to go before another court, where he signed an affidavit to the effect that I was the original inventor of the player mechanism, and that in testifying against me, he had borne false witness and that he had been induced to do so by a prominent organ manufacturer of New York. That affidavit in support of my claims, and a good many more documents of a similar character, are on file in the United States Patent Office, in Washington, and are ac- cessible to any one desiring to verify my statements. And if I could only get some of these latter day aspirants for 20 HISTORY OF THE PLAYER player fame before the courts they would be very apt to pass out, shorn of their glory, just as the other fellow did. Between the years 1868 and 1871 inclusive I spent most of my time between Carrollton, Carroll County, and Ger- mano, Harrison County, Ohio, and it was at the latter town that I met Alpheus Lowmiller, a carpenter and cabinet maker by occupation. He was a practical mechanic, and a genius in handling small tools. He also had some inventive ability. I was erecting a pipe organ in a church at the time I met him. He manifested considerable interest in the work, and seeing that, I asked him if he could do a job of experimental work for me in connection with a new kind of organ I had in mind. He readily consented, and I did more or less experimenting at that place, Lowmiller doing the construction work under my direction. Subsequently I move to Carrollton, where I took charge of the choir in the Reformed Church, teaching music, selling organs and pianos, and here I had in my employ several mechanics, whose testimony in behalf of my prior inventorship of the player is also on record in the Patent Office. It was in the early part of 1871 that Joe Lawler editor of the Carroll County Chronicle, called my attention to an article which had appeared in the Steubenville (Ohio) Gazette, and which was signed by one Alpheus Lowmiller, the man employed by me at Germano. In this article Low- miller put forth his own name as the inventor. Editor Lawler had been familiar with my attempts to build the player as far back as my residence in Uniontown, between ’65 and later, hence his reference to the Lowmiller article. I immediately replied through the columns of the Chron- icle, claiming the invention as my own and denouncing Lowmiller as a fraud. That is the first and only reference that has ever appeared in the public prints of this country 21 HISTORY OF THE PLAYER to my knowledge in relation to any instrument operatable by a perforated sheet up to that time. But from that moment on the subject has been cussed and discussed and volumes have been written and published for and against the player proposition. The professional musician to a man denounced it; the piano and organ manufacturers bitterly opposed it, and spent their time and money ridi- culing the inventor. But “canned music’’ still lives. The player has come to stay, and the day is not far distant when the player piano will be the only piano in evidence. From Carrollton I went to the organ factory of Whitney & Slayton, later the Raymond Company of Cleveland, Ohio, v/here I did some experimental work and procured supplies and later went to Akron, Ohio. It was in Akron where most of the developing was done and many of the hardest problems worked out. And it was there that I taught music and sold pianos and organs by day and ex- perimented by night, burning the candle at both ends, and dividing my income about equally between the doctors and the men who did my experimental work, for be it remem- bered that when I was discharged from the hospital I was still suffering from my injuries and under constant treat- ment, having to make frequent trips to Pittsburgh, Pa., where I was under the care of a surgeon by the name of Kiser on Liberty street, who also manufactured surgical appliances. At Akron I conducted my work, first at the jewelry store of E. Abbey, the father of Henry E. Abbey, of Metropolitan Opera House fame, and he and I played E flat cornet in Marble’s Akron Band. I also played violin and led an amateur orchestra. Some of my experimental work was done between the years 1872 and 1874, at Straub’s organ factory, and some at one place and some at another, 22 HISTORY OF THE PLAYER when my health was completely broken down and I had to abandon all work and go to my wife's people, who con- ducted a ranch between Emporia, Lyon County, and Wichita, Sedgwick County, Kansas. Here I spent nearly two years. Part of the time I taught school, sold an organ or two and gave a few lessons, but don’t for a moment imagine I had lost sight of the player. That device lay down with me at night, got up with me in the morning and sat beside me at the table while I devoured my frugal meals. I was constantly thinking of the player even in wild and woolly Kansas (and it certainly was then all of that). Yet, even there, with all its disadvantages, I kept on with my experiments and finally concluded that if I had sufficient money I could now complete a player that would overcome most, if not all the objections, of the pin-cylinder organ. Thereupon I visited I. D. Fox, a music dealer of Emporia, Kansas, and explained to him what I had done, by way of developing the player, and he, being the agent for the Mason & Hamlin Company, I re- quested him to communicate with them and see if he could interest them in my project. In reply, the Mason & Ham- lin Company said that it would be necessary to forward to them a working model. I knew it would be next to impossible to construct such a thing in Kansas at that time, so I made my plans to go to St. Louis where I landed about the latter part of the year 1875, with about $500 in my pocket, which I had saved from my earnings while in Kansas. Arriving in St. Louis I put up at the Western Hotel, on Fourth street, an old ramshackle building with a sales stable in the rear, where U. S. Grant v/as wont to hang out between trips before the war when he drove in from his little farm on the Illinois side of the Mis- sissippi. I entered the establishment of Boyer & Swain, HISTORY OF THE PLAYER general jobbers and machinists on Fourth street, and under that roof three players were built, the last of which is described as follows by the St. Louis Sunday Journal of July 9, 1876: “In this age of wonders, people have come to look composedly upon anything supposed impossible. But now comes a stunner, an eye opener in music, and is nothing more nor less than an organ, a common reed organ, on which one who has never played an organ, nor ever learned the difference between a gamut and a cleft, who even is not sharp enough to know a flat or is too flat to know a sharp, but who can work pedals, can play any tune. This organ is the product, not only of extraordinary genius, but of 10 long years of study and experiment on the part of the inventor, John McTammany of New York. Not only can any tune be played by simply blowing the bellows, but by the moving of a slide a piece may be transposed to sharps or flats at pleasure, while any kind of time or key may be arranged for the organ. Although attached to the organ it does not use any of the reeds or keys, consequently an accompaniment can be played to the music of the automatic organ. This organ is so constructed as to attach to the common organ in most cases without changing the style of case. The in- ventor, Mr. McTammany, is a young man, by occupation a music teacher, from Akron, Ohio. He came to this city some months since, to secure the aid of organ manufacturers in perfecting the organ, and through Messrs. Story & Camp, who are the agents of the Estey organ, the manufacturers of that organ furnished Mr. McTammany with means to perfect the model, and so satisfactory are its workings that the company has ordered an organ at once for the Centennial. The Automatic is at the rooms of Messrs. Story & Camp, 914 Olive street. We have seen the organ and heard it play and can see no reason why the success of this wonderful invention is not certain. The advantages accruing are patent at a glance, putting music in to every home without the tedium and expense of learning to play, and Messrs. J. Estey & Co. have shown keen foresight in securing it for their celebrated organs.” Thus it will be seen that, while the instrument was a pretty crude looking affair, compared with the well de- signed and highly finished artistic modern player, yet crude and homely, as I admit it was, nevertheless it con- tained all the essential elements and performed all the im- portant functions of the modem player, and clearly antici- 24 HISTORY OF THE PLAYER pated and foreshadowed the perfected product of the pres- ent day. The following definition has been approved by many of the leading player manufacturers of the country, including Wilcox & White, the Simplex Company, Thomas Dan- quard, and a score of others, of equal prominence : “What is implied by the terms, inner, or inside player, or player piano, is a musical instrument consisting of a casing, two actions and a series of sounding devices within the casing, one of said actions adapted to be operated manually, the other designed to be operated mechanically by means of a perforated sheet on rolls; a wind, spring or other motor for feeding the sheet and winding the rolls, a bellows and mechanism put in motion by it for actuating the sounding devices of the automatic action; foot pedals or power for driving the motor, and means for controlling the tempo and varying the expression.” It is charged that the instrument, constructed and ex- hibited by me at St. Louis, in the Spring of 1876, was an organ — not a piano — which is true. But I could just as readily, and easily, have applied the player mechanism to the piano, and as a matter of fact I did so apply it, later. In 1876 there were only a few pianos made and nearly all were manufactured in and around Boston, and at that time the square piano was the leading instrument. The present upright was then in the experimental stage, just as the player was, and contending with much the same prejudice, although in Europe it was thoroughly established, so that for every piano made and sold in those days there must have been fully a hundred organs marketed. Furthermore, the organ manufacturers were less prejudiced against the introduction of the player than were the manufacturers of pianos. Thus it will be seen, that the advent of the player dates from the spring of 1876 and that prior to that time nothing of the kind was known, either to the Patent Office of the United States or to those of Europe. Notwithstanding the foregoing facts, certain 25 HISTORY OF THE PLAYER candidates for player fame, unable to substantiate their own claims, have undertaken to rob me of mine by attempt- ing to bestow the honor of the player’s invention upon the Frenchmen referred to, one of whom mentioned Four- neaux, another refers to Thibouville Lamy, another to Justinian Morse, an Englishman. And so runs the con- fusion of tongues. Now, while several attempts had been made by Englishmen, Scotchmen, Frenchman and Ameri- cans to construct a musical instrument, operatable by a perforated device of one kind or another, between the years 1865 and 1875, ^ven earlier, yet the only thing that ever was invented, manufactured and sold, was the so- called pianista, which was patented by Fourneaux, a Frenchman, in 1863, and subsequently improved, and put upon the market several years later by the firm of Thibou- ville Lamy. But that was simply a keyboard attachment which actuated a portion of the piano scale, somewhat similar to the cabinet piano players manufactured and in vogue in this country several years ago, but now practi- cally obsolete. So that if the authorities agree upon any one thing, more than another, it is that the year 1876 was the year that witnessed the beginning of the player in- dustry, and the question arises ‘Vhat came to pass at that time to warrant such a statement?” In reply I direct the reader’s attention to Appleton’s encyclopedia of 1885, which, in discussing the history of the player, observed as follows : ‘‘Until the year 1876 no great degree of success had been attained by instruments employing perforated sheets. But it would appear that the opportunity afforded skilled me- chanics and inventors to gather at the Centennial Exposi- tion and obtain a knowledge of and a comparison with one another’s works and ideas, was to become the start- ing point of a new era of progress.” Among those ex- 26 HISTORY OF THE PLAYER hibits was an electric organ, made by Henry Schmoele of Philadelphia, also the French pianista. One of the peculi- arities of the Schmoele mechanism was the use of the music sheet of double width, the slots of the music which would ordinarily occupy only one half the entire width of the sheet but would be very long and therefore liable to de- struction were divided. Half the length of the slot was cut in half the double sheet and the remainder in the other half. Two sets of electric connections were used; one set beginning the notes and the other set completing them. The impracticability of such a proposition was self-evi- dent and cut no figure with practical men. The only other thing to command attention was the patent on the key- board attachment by Fourneaux, already referred to. This was improved by Jerome Thibouville Lamy, and put upon the market several years later, but while a few of them were made and sold, yet in the very nature of things, it could not have been a success as it possessed all the dis- advantages of a barrel organ with none of its merits ; that is, it operated by turning a hand crank, instead of using foot pedals. Subsequently the Americans got carried away with the idea of a keyboard attachment, when the French invention was dragged forth from its previous obscurity, its mechanism and some of its operative parts copied and in- troduced into the American cabinet piano player, which never would have had a footing in America but for the prejudice of the piano manufacturers who regarded their pianos as too sacred to be debauched by the introduction of the player mechanism within the precincts of their precious pianos. This lasted but a few years, when it was discarded and they returned to the interior method — the McTammany idea— the French method being totally dis- carded. HISTORY OF THE PLAYER CHAPTER IV. N OW at the time that I took out my caveat in relation to the player in 1876 I was not aware of anyone ever having contemplated or experimented with an instrument to be operated by a perforated device, nor at the time when I applied for my caveat was I advised of the ex- istence of anything of the sort. But when the value of the player began to manifest itself to the trade and litigation sprang up, then it became nec- essary to determine the exact state of the art, and this determination was not reached until I filed my application for a patent in 1879, which application was so broad and comprehensive as to comprise the entire art, covering every patent which had been issued up to that date, and there was just thirty-five of them. Then it was and then only, that the Hunt & Bradish, and the Van Dusen patents were brought forth to the light and the European experiments of Morse, Seytre, Pain, Pape, and Fomeaux were also made known. But not one of these ever showed a player or in the remotest way contemplated or suggested or even conceived the modern American player. And if anyone ever thought or imagined such a thing as an interior or inside player, nothing has yet been produced to establish the fact and the interior player mechanism stands forth 28 HISTORY OF THE PLAYER today as it has for over forty years as the invention of the writer, John McTammany. And for that period I have openly, publicly, through the press, in the patent office and the courts by letter challenged anyone to meet me on the issue. But no one has ever accepted my challenge. So that at the time of filing my caveat only two patents re- lating to the art had been issued in this country, namely, those of Hunt and Braddish and Van Dusen. Today the player patents are numbered by the thousand. But having seen Van Dusen and having interrogated him on the sub- ject, I ascertained the date of his conception and it was found that I had anticipated him, a fact which he freely admitted. However, there was nothing about the Van Dusen patent that was not embodied in the Fourneaux device, except that the form and shape of the pneumatic were different. I denominate the Ferneaux invention as a device in contradistinction to the player piano for the rea- son that the Forneaux invention was not a musical instru- ment in either sense or even a prominent part of such. It was incapable of producing music in and of itself and was simply and solely a keyboard attachment for a piano ; prop- erly named it was a piano player and not a player piano, or interior or inside player. And the failure to recognize and observe this distinction by parties discussing the subject has led to much needless confusion. From Philadelphia, I journeyed to New York City, where I spent some time in trying to prevail upon the piano and organ manufacturers of that city to introduce the player mechanism within their instruments, but without avail. And among the concerns visited was E. P. Needham, organ factory ; Pelton and Pelubet. I also met the agents of Riley Burdett and George Prince, all of whom were engaged in organ and melodecn manufacturing. I also called upon the 29 HISTORY OF THE PLAYER Stein way, Weber and several other piano manufacturers and upon M. Palliard, manufacturer of music boxes, but all without success. Frank Leslie's IllUvStrated Weekly and other New York periodicals at the time referred to me and my presence in the city and my project. So after failing to enlist the interest of the New York manufacturers in my system, I went on to Boston, where I canvassed every organ and piano manufacturer. It is true, therefore, that the Frenchman invented the first piano player known as the pianista, but said device was worthless, until the American added the foot pedals, flexible sheet on rolls, wind motor and other improvements, invented by the writer. But even as improved by the Americans, the French idea is now practically obsolete, and the only thing in evidence with which we are called upon to deal at the present time, is the inside player piano, embodying the McTammany player mechanism, no matter by what name ii is offered to the public. Of course, the player mechanism has been greatly improved since it came from my hands in 1876, just as the grand piano has been improved since it came from the hands of Cristofori in 1707. But no man has yet been able to build a grand piano without embodying those essential elements first introduced into a piano by Ciistofori, and in like manner no man has yet constructed a plaj'er that did not embody those original principles first employed in keyboard instruments by John McTammany. Having developed the player to a point where I was satis- fied that it would command the support of the public it then became a question of how to get it manufactured. I tried to enlist St. Louis capitalists but failed. I then en- tered into correspondence with nearly every piano, organ, and music box manufacturer, in the land. Col. Fuller, general manager, superintendent and mechanical expert of 30 JOHN McTAMMANY, SURROUNDED BY SOME OF THE BOYS OF THE STAMFORD, CONN.. Mr. McTammany rooms in the Association’s building. HISTORY OF THE PLAYER J. Estey & Co., visited St. Louis and examined the instru- ment. He criticised its construction, but on examination of my original drawings he found the plans all right. But the organ I was compelled to use was not adapted for the purpose, so he gave directions that I should have any organ in the warerooms that I chose and authorized Story & Camp to advance me a certain sum of money with which to complete another instrument with the view of exhibiting it, at the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia if an ar- rangement could in the meantime be effected between J. Estey & Co., and myself. When Col. Fuller submitted the matter to his associates they did not enthuse over the sub- ject, so the matter was dropped, and I heard nothing more from them. It was then that I started East with the determination of finding capital or some piano or organ company to man- ufacture and market the instrument, visiting state after state, city after city, and one factory after another; but I utterly failed to enlist a single capitalist or manufacturer in my enterprise and finally landed in a garret on Tremont street opposite Park Street Church in a building owned or controlled by the Russell Brothers, who ran a music store, and it was there in that garret in the fall of 1876, that the player industry was born. I doubt if any business was ever started on a less pretentious scale, without a dollar in my pocket, without credit, without a friend or even an ac- quaintance. However, I then and there resolved to start singly and alone, what has become the great player indus- try of today. Of course to make such an instrument as I exhibited at St. Louis would have required a large capital. This could not be obtained. I was therefore compelled to reduce the size and capacity of the instrument from 48 33 HISTORY OF THE PLAYER notes, of the chromatic scale, to a little instrument of i6 notes, with special scale, which I called an organette in contradistinction to the larger instrument which I named the automatic organ. (See McTammany's Circulars 1876 and 1877.) Circular Issued in 1876. McTAMMANY’S AUTOMATIC ORGAN A WONDERFUL INVENTION. A Novelty in Musical Instruments. Before describing this wonderful instrument we desire briefly to call the attention of the public to a few facts in connection with the history of music, and the causes that led to the production of this remarkable invention and the consequent expenditure of a vast amount of time and money. In tracing the origin of music from the earliest recorded history, we find ourselves notably indebted to two influences for our present advancement in this delightful art, viz. : the human voice, and the entire class of ancient and modem musical instruments. To deter- mine which of these forces has been the more potent would be im- possible, as they have been inseparably connected, each perfect and effective of itself, and when combined working in unison. The very existence of instruments indicates- that the human voice is not the embodiment of all that is harmonious, and that the class of people born without musical voices, not possessing the ability to play upon instruments, are obliged to resort to mechanical means in order to gratify their love for instrumental music. In addition to the class above there is another who do not possess musical voices, neither have they the qualities that enable them to perform on instruments, yet derive great pleasure from “concord of sweet sounds,’* and as they are obliged to consult the convenience and pleasure of others more musically gifted, who are generally afflicted with a “bad cold” or have “nothing new to play,” it is evident that they are seldom gratified. To meet the wants of this class, special instruments have been produced, prominent among which are the Hand Organ, Music Box and Orchestreen. While these have been effective in a great degree, yet they are objectionable on account of their mechanical effect, want of expression and limitation of tunes. In view of the fact that it wO'uld be impracticable to teach the class previously referred to, who have no faculty for receiving a musical education, manufacturers have devised mechanical instruments in the hope of satisfying their needs. The English produced the 34 HISTORY OF THE PLAYER ^‘Antifinal,” which was followed by the “Pianista,” a French inven- tion, while Americans, not to be outdone, have given to the world the “Electric Organ.” Although these inventions all have merit and have met with some success, they possess defects which prevent them from coming into general use. The “Antifinal” possesses nothing more than the Hand Organ, the “Pianista” is simply an attachment to the Piano, monopolizing the keyboard, and costing $400 in addi- tion to the cost of that instrument, while the very name “Electric Organ” is sufficient evidence of its impracticability, as one familiar with the expense and fickleness of electro-magnetism will readily admit, and the price of the cheapest is $750. Now, identified with music are people of varied interests; those who follow it for profit, honor or both. With the former may be ■classed the manufacturers, who are aware that the sale of instru- ments is limited by the means we have of educating the people, and if they would increase their sales they must increase the educat- ing medium, which has thus far been confined to the teachers, the choir, the band, the orchestra and the instruments above mentioned. Manufacturers are agreed, that to successfully occupy this field the instrument must possess all the merits and none of the defects of those just described, must be in some respects a substitute for an organist, must be simple, durable and inexpensive, and if an attachment must not interfere with the principle or mechanism of the present organ. To produce such an instrument the successful individual must combine the unusual qualities of inventor, mechanic, practical and theoretical musician, must know what is required musically, and what is possible mechanically. That the inventor of the AUTOMATIC ORGAN, Mr. McTam- many, possesses these qualities in an eminent degree will be ap- parent. A European by birth, having had several years’ training in mechanical pursuits, and superintendent of a large manufacturing establishment before he attained his majority, a born musician, ac-