Aftermarket Kahlmen Reed Box

(Photograph courtesy of Rusty King)

Aftermarket Kahlmen reed box installed in an early Link photoplayer: Mr. C. Kahlmen had a workshop in Elizabeth, New Jersey. His main business activity was the repair of and building of new high quality accordions. However, during the 1920s he was also a Wurlitzer dealer who operated a route of Wurlitzer and Link coin pianos up and down the Chemical Coast (the New Jersey side of the Arthur Kill, which is the waterway between Staten Island, New York, and New Jersey). Kahlmen made vacuum operated reed boxes and installed them in some of his Link Style 2 pianos. Link instruments with a Kahlmen reed box (or harmonium) installed are quite rare. The Kahlmen reed box shown above was installed in this early photoplayer circa 1970 by either the late Murray Clark (an avid mechanical music enthusiast) or the late Roger Dayton (the owner of the Link photoplayer when the Kahlmen reed box was installed).