(Photograph courtesy of Dan Hecker.)

Chicago Electric #160576 Model Casino cabinet piano, with mandolin attachment and reiterating xylophone. Small and compact, compared to a standard sized keyboard piano, the little Casino was made for establishments where space was at a premium. This specimen has a mission oak case that has in modern times been painted ivory with gold trim and embellishments. The original finish remains intact inside the doors. The instrument was found by its previous owner somewhere in the Vermont/New Hampshire area in the 1960s. Then after retirement, the owner moved to Florida and took the little Casino along due to its small size.

(Photograph courtesy of Dan Hecker.)

Top interior of the Chicago Electric #160576 Model Casino cabinet piano. Here the leather belt driven Monarch Tool & Mfr. Company spoolbox is at center. Above it and spanning the full inside width of the case is the 20-note reiterating xylophone.

(Photograph courtesy of Dan Hecker.)

Xylophone with the Chicago Electric name (and underneath Smith, Barnes & Strohber Co.) cast into the piano plate in the Chicago Electric #160576 Model Casino cabinet piano.

(Photograph courtesy of Dan Hecker.)

Looking across the 20-note reiterating xylophone at the very top of the Chicago Electric #160576 Model Casino cabinet piano.

(Photograph courtesy of Dan Hecker.)

Take-up drive gear in the Monarch Tool ll& Mfr. Company spoolbox in the Chicago Electric #160576 Model Casino cabinet piano. The gears in most spoolboxes are spur gears, i.e., straight cut; not angled with the teeth cut exactly perpendicular to the gear's flat faces. In the Monarch spoolbox the gears are helical cut, a more expensive process than for spur gears. For the Monarch spoolbox with parallel shafts the advantage of helical gears would be (1) silent operation (the teeth engage a little at a time rather than the entire face at once) and (2) strength (the helical gear tooth is effectively larger since it is diagonally positioned).

(Photograph courtesy of Dan Hecker.)

Bottom part of the Chicago Electric #160576 Model Casino cabinet piano. At bottom left is an Emerson motor #M 18253 with a double grooved pulley to power both the pump and the spoolbox. At bottom right is the pump with its vacuum reservoir mounted topside. At picture top, spanning the inside width of the case, is the stack, with the xylophone tubing attached to a header at its right front side. The tubes for the tracker bar attach to nipples sticking out of the top of the stack and are only partially visible. To the right of the pump reservoir is the coin accumulator (magazine), with the coin collection box below and at the bottom of the case.