A Celestina "as found", in a bit worse than original condition.
The 20-note "Celestina" organette was mass-marketed by the Mechanical Orguinette Company (later The Aeolian Organ and Music Company) during the 1880s and 90s. Similar instruments were produced by many other companies.
The 20-note organette is a considerable advance on the 14-note instruments, and is capable of quite complex musical arrangements. The paper music rolls are wound on compact wooden spools, and are easily interchanged. The tune catalogue included a very broad selection of traditional, religious, operatic, popular, music-hall, and military songs.
Here are some short MIDI files which show several quite different styles of 20-note organette arrangements. Listen to:
A Celestina "as found", in a bit worse than original condition.
Dimensions: 16" wide x 14" deep x 14" high (approx).
The musical scale is from Ab (G#) to F (MIDI 44 to 77):
G# C# D# F# G# A# C C# D D# E F F# G G# A# C C# D# F
Although common in the 1880s, many such instruments were consigned to the barn (or the bonfire) when their owners "updated" to a gramophone or a radio.
A well-preserved Celestina is actually quite an attractive
instrument, with extensive gold linework and decoration.
A Celestina mechanism in the process of restoration.
The upper action is from 1885; the pumping bellows and reservoir
are from 1999.
Inside the Celestina windchest.
Rather than using the paper sheet
directly to admit air to the reeds, the Celestina uses tiny pneumatic
bellows to operate conventional reed-organ pallet valves.Three of the
pallet valves have been removed to show the operating pneumatics with
their paper bleed discs. The pallet pneumatics are 3-1/2" long and 5/8"
wide, and open to 1/2". The adjusting screw in the tail of the pallet
is used to regulate the clearance. There is a delicate balance between
the operating pressure (actually suction), the atmospheric pressure,
and the tension of the pallet return springs.
Portion of a Celestina music roll. The roll is nominally 5-1/2" wide,
with the paper about 1/16" narrower. The paper is around 0.003" thick,
and travels at 5 feet per minute (1 inch per second). A typical roll
spool is 1-1/2" diameter and plays for 3 to 5 minutes, although there
are "jumbo" rolls that play for well over 10 minutes.
The note perforations are 0.150" wide (same as the tracker bar slot)
and 0.095" long, arranged on 1/4" centres across the width of the paper.
The step advance of the original perforators was 0.075" (ie, half the
slot width), giving an overlap of 0.020" on continuous slots. The
"scallops" between successive punch strikes are (just) visible in the
illustration. This march tune is perforated at 6 punch
steps per beat.
A well-worn roll label from the Mechanical Orguinette Company. The
price of $1.25 made this a rather expensive roll - most were marked
at 75 or 80 cents. But keep in mind that the average worker's hourly
wage in the 1880s was only around 15 cents, not today's 15 dollars.
Can you imagine paying $75 for a 5-minute CD?