Wurlitzer Style 17 (Regular) PianOrchestra
Philipps Pianella Model Special
Unrestored Chassis and Components

(Photographs courtesy of David Ramey, Jr.)

An oblique view of the Style 17 chassis with installed components as received for restoration by David Ramey, Jr. The furniture case for the Style 17 PianOrchestra is free standing, and fits around and fully encloses the independent chassis, which contains all of the mechanical and musical components. An advantage using an independent chassis (not integrated with the furniture case) is that a single design (and with only minor modifications) can be used with a wide range of case styles. At the right and sitting on the stack shelf is what appears to be a modern "silent suction unit" used to augment the vacuum feeder bellows, probably due to excessive leakage throughout the essentially unrestored instrument.

(Photographs courtesy of David Ramey, Jr.)

End view of Style 17 chassis. At the top of the chassis is the trapwork shelf, with the bass drum mounting bracket in the foreground. The combined bass drum/cymbal beater is behind it; the trapwork valve chest is to its left; the pipe chest is to its right; and the snare drum is at the other end of the shelf. The shelf for the pneumatic stack is below the trapwork shelf. The end of the stack is partially visible behind the “Silent Suction Unit”. The piano action is to the right of the stack.

(Photographs courtesy of David Ramey, Jr.)

The trapwork shelf at the top of the chassis supports from left to right, a reiterating snare drum action and snare drum, and the trapwork valve chest for the bells, snare drum, and bass drum. Behind it is the pipe chest, and to the right is the combined bass drum and cymbal beater.

(Photographs courtesy of David Ramey, Jr.)

The electric trip switch installed by Philipps is on the front left vertical chassis support beam. The base of the unit is made of slate. The original electromagnet has been replaced by a modern one. When actuated by a push button or remote coin drop box in series with a battery, the electromagnet pulls on an armature, releasing a latch, which in turn allows a flat strip of steel with contacts at its bottom edge to drop into a mercury pot. Both the original electromagnet and the mercury pot have been replaced by modern components. The electrical wiring leading up to the electrical switch is in wooden wire molding for protection, and at the joint where the wire loops over a horizontal structural member the wire is protected by black-colored wire loom. For Philipps orchestrions imported by Wurlitzer it was typical for Wurlitzer to install all electrical wiring, light sockets, the motor, and the snare drum, bass drum, and cymbal. Later PianOrchestra similar free-standing chassis' but with North Tonawanda built Wurlitzer wrap-around furniture cases, were fitted with Wurlitzer coin accumulator mechanisms.

(Photographs courtesy of David Ramey, Jr.)

A single roll mechanism was common for all early Philipps instruments; the roll changer (or "Revolver Mechanik," as it was known in Germany) was introduced circa 1905 and was thereafter available as an option. Note that the take-up spool has no flanges to prevent loose paper from getting out of alignment. The tempo speed control is by means of two wooden tapered cones interconnected by a flat leather belt. A sturdy adjustable double wire yoke arrangement keeps the flat belt between the two cones tracking correctly. By adjusting the location of the flat leather belt the speed of the take-up spool can be made to rotate at the desired speed. The rewind speed is unaffected by the cone drive mechanism.

(Photographs courtesy of David Ramey, Jr.)

Looking end-wise through the chassis. The roll mechanism is at the far left, with the lead tracker bar tubing flowing out the backside of the wooden tracker bar assembly. The lead tubing going down terminates at the stack pouch-board header, while the lead tubing sweeping upward goes to the trapwork chest sitting on the top trapwork shelf. The larger diameter lead tubing goes from the top of the stack upwards to the pipe chest. At the right is the piano action, with wippens that are aligned with the vertical stickers connected to the two-tiers of piano pneumatics in the top part of the stack.

(Photographs courtesy of David Ramey, Jr.)

The stack (directly behind the wooden counter-shaft pulley) and running the width of the chassis is of the early rocker valve type. The lower front board is the cover for the secondary rocker type valves. The row of little rectangular openings spaced across this front cover are the atmospheric vents for the valves. The two tiers of piano pneumatics are situated above the valve chest, and are connected to the chest by a trunk board. To the left of the trunk board is a slider valve type of register control for the piano soft and loud pedals. This slider valve unit is gasketed to the valve chest, with the four left most valves controlling the four little pneumatics that push the two slider valves one way or the other.

(Photographs courtesy of David Ramey, Jr.)

This feeder pump arrangement is typical for early Philipps cabinet style orchestrions. The front pair of bellows develop wind-pressure to sound the pipework, while the backside pair provide vacuum. The pressure reservoir is on top of the bellows assembly and is hinged at the crankshaft end. The pressure relief valve is on the front side of the pressure reservoir. The vacuum reservoir is attached to the end of the bellows assembly, and has a spill valve affixed to the movable reservoir board (not visible in the photograph).

(Photographs courtesy of David Ramey, Jr.)

Looking through the bottom right side of the chassis the end of the feeder pump can be seen, and in front of it is the original Holtzer-Cabot electric motor. Clearly the original electric wiring has been altered, possibly to accommodate the modem "silent suction unit" to overcome leaks in the pneumatic system. The connection joint for a crank stick and the movable bellows board consists of a large wood screw inserted from the left side through the split pump stick and on into the small wooden block (or wooden nut) at the right of the pump board flange. In this instance the "wing screws" for adjusting the grip (of the split pump stick) on the wood screws bear down directly on the wood surface. On later models this design was modified using similar "wing screws," but instead bearing down on a flat slightly bowed length of spring steel laying between the two screws, which kept the pump sticks "tight" longer from wearing of the joint.