[Dixielandjazz] Straight-ahead? trad?

[David W. Littlefield]

At 05:02 PM 8/8/2004 +0100, PATRICK LADD wrote:
>In a museum of musical instruments the other day I saw a
>mechanical banjo. It was a cunning contrivance, with 6 levers each with a
>ninety degree bend on the end each of which  which plucked one string.
>
>I was interested in the chord changing mechanism and found that each string
>was led through a slot cut in the side of a dowel. One on each string at
>each fret. When the string was stopped the dowel withdrew into the `neck`,
>holding the string solidly down.
>
>A briliant piece of engineering. The question remains, why bother?
>Pat

Why not?? There were mechanical versions of virtually all instruments up to
bands and orchestras, some of which served the same function as jukeboxes,
not to mention carousels and calliopes. For home purposes, mechanical
pianos. These were the days before grammophones were invented or became
common household items. 

So where's the question? Shouldn't non-musicians of the days-of-yore have
had music in their parlors? 

--Sheiki