Saturday, September 02, 2006

Put Another Nickel In....


These are the pictures of the Western Electric Derby that I have been working on for the past six months. One photo shows just the top portion of the instrument and the horse race inside. As a tune plays the two tracks of horses race in a circle. When the tune stops the horses glide awhile longer and then stop. An indicator light tells which horse (inner or outer track) has won. The roll and all the other pneumatic mechanisms are located behind the doors in the bottom of the case. Sorry about the picture quality. Even with flash it has been impossible to get a good photo of the whole thing. Operates with a nickel. One tune per nickel. Ten tunes on a roll which then automatically rewinds to the start.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Exquisite! Do you HAVE to return it to the owner? Maybe it could get "lost" on the way home? Jus' kiddin".

deb said...

Unfortunately, only the "guts" came to my workshop for a rebuild. I would have *loved* to have had the entire instrument here. It would have spent at least an extra couple of weeks before going home, just so I could play with it and show it off!