Amazing Automata from the 18th Century

Here's something to knock the socks off of any of you fans of automata.



The newscast is in German, but anyone can get the drift. These are three mechanically animated figures. One plays the organ, one writes, and the other draws. To be clear: the organ isn't a player organ (that plays itself) while the figure sits in front and pretends to play... the figure ACTUALLY PLAYS the organ. The information for the tune is in her mechanics, so that her fingers and arms move to play the fairly complex little tune!

These are housed in the Musée d’Art et d’Histoire in Neuchâtel, and were built by theologian, mathematician and watchmaker Pierre Jaquet-Droz, his son Henri-Louis and their colleague Jean-Frédéric Leschot in the early 1770s. They were first exhibited to the public in nearby La Chaux-de-Fonds in 1774!



This is truly amazing stuff.. Unlike the two mechanical boys, the woman-organist's body and head move independently of her task, and she can sit and breathe and fidget (her head and neck making almost imperceptible movements) independently for an hour. Also unlike the boys she is operated by four separate pieces of machinery—one to pump the organ, one to operate her hands and fingers, one to operate her head and body, and one to power the bow she performs at the end of each song. She plays five tunes.





via Steampunk Magazine

Restoration Finished! A Rare Emilian Wehrle Musical Shelf Flute Clock

We just finished the muscial restoration on this rare Black Forest Clock. This piece was made by Emilian Wehrle in Furtwangen C. 1880. To find a musical shelf clock by Emilian Wehrle of this size and quality is nearly impossible.
This example is an 8-day, three-train (Time, Strike, and Music) timepiece. This is the largest movement that Emilian Wehrle made. The music train is a two-tune, 9-pipe example.... on the hour the clock stikes the hour on a large gong... followed by a tune on the wood pipes.


The case is fantastic, and one of Wehrle's best... lots of live, full-relief animals... the two deer flank the trumpeter doors. When the music is playing, the large doors open and two 4" flute players step forward.



To see more rare Antique Black Forest Clocks you can check out our online museum at http://www.blackforestclocks.org/




Contact me if you have one like it!

Justin J. Miller

A Rare Black Forest Clock Collection Located!

Over the past weekend I acquired a collection of 24 rare and antique Black Forest Clocks. The clocks have been in storage for over a decade. I was thrilled to be able to locate so many choice pieces and add them to our collection in a single transaction.


This collection includes many high-quality 8-day shelf cuckoos, several by Johann Baptist Beha.

A 5" C.1880 Hunter cuckoo with huge 8" 5 tune music box. Early cast brass pinned plate movement.

A Black Forest Trumpeter

A unique Black Forest Muscial piece

A GHS Apostle Clock

A GHS Monk Automaton

Many of these clocks are documented in the book Black Forest Clocks by Rick Ortenburger. (see sidebar for a link)

Please stay tuned for detailed posts of these Antique Black Forest Pieces! And check our private museum.

Best,

Justin J. Miller

www.blackforestclocks.org

A Special Musical Clock by Emilian Wehrle

Fall is here, and as the weather cools we start to spend more time indoors. During the cold months we really pick up steam focusing on our collection of Black Forest clocks.Today as I was doing some "house keeping" dusting the collection... I thought of sharing this wonderful clock we have with you.

This fantastic clock has been in our care for many years.

Made C. 1874 this Singing Bird Clock (Singvogeluhr) by Emilian Wehrle of Furtwangen... is as impressive today as the day it was made.

The fully feathered bird is 6.5 inches from beak to tail. It is fully automated with movements in his beak, head, and tail.

Perched on the top of the clock on a carved vase of fruit and leaves, it is clearly visible and looks alive.

The carvings on this clock are all done in walnut, and the style of the case is very unique.

This clock utilizes a robust brass plate movement, with large double pumping bellow system mounted above the clock works (very similar to Wehrle's Trumpeter and Flute Clocks.)

The clock movement generates it own air pressure and by opening and closing a valve, air is moved through a large flute with a plunger. A cam wheel on the back operates the valve and the plunger to reproduce the sound of the song bird while controlling the bird and the Automation.

The beak runs in perfect sequence with the large song and boy does this bird look and sound alive!

This clock is featured in Emilian Wehrle's 1874 Catalog as No. 1 (see illustration). Originally, it cost of 180 Gold Marks in 1874. Just to put this into perspective, a very nice Beha cuckoo could be had for 25 marks.

Very few of these Singing Bird Clocks were made, even fewer survived. Making them almost impossible to locate today.

I am not aware of a museum worldwide that has a example of a Em. Wehrle Singing Bird Clock, although there are a few in private collections.

This unique clock was also published in the 2008 edition of Schwarzwalduhren, by Berthold Schaaf (The authoritative text on Black Forest Clocks, see sidebar for a list of other recommended reading and resources.)


Best,

Justin J. Miller

blackforestclocks.org

For more information on Singing Bird or Whistling Automata:

Article, Whistling Clock Peddler, Singing Birds in a Cage

...and here's a video of a modern "slide whistle" mechanism Justin describes above:

What is an Orchestrion Anyway?

A few weeks ago I did a post on "Orchestrion Hall" and all the goodies found therein. It occurred to me that the word Orchestrion may not be so readily understood these days, so here's some pics and movies with Orchestrions.

An Orchestrion is a mechanical musical instrument that starts with a large "player pipe organ." Just as there have always been player pianos or pianolas, there were pipe organs that played automatically from punched cards or punched rolls of paper. An Orchestrion goes even further by including a small orchestra of instruments that all play automatically from the same roll of music. Orchestrions included the pipe organ, drums, a piano, sometimes reed pipes, sometimes even string instruments.

Here you can see the mechanisms of a Welte Orchestrion. Notice the very large bellows and air chest in the bottom.



Here are some YouTube movies with some notable Orchestrions, including the magnificent collection at the Nethercutt Museum in Los Angeles. The first video was one I took on the sly, when no one was looking.





Followers of this blog know that we are very interested in mechanical musical instruments of all types, including organ clocks, flute clocks, trumpeter clocks, cuckoo clocks, music boxes... The Orchestrion could be considered the master granddaddy of all of these fascinating devices.

Orchestrion Hall, Baltimore

A few days ago, my Twitter followers may be been slightly mystified by my Tweets about finding hidden treasures in Baltimore.



I had the inestimable pleasure of seeing a private collection of clocks, mechanical musical instruments, old fans, lamps, and more... all very rare and very interesting.

The tower clock collection was particularly impressive. The house was fitted with several tower clock dials on the outside. I've gone down that street many years and never looked up to notice them. There is even a dragon outside that strikes a bell with his tail. On the inside, there were some large tower clock movements (like the one pictured above) with slots cut in the floor below them so that the pendulum could swing in the room below.

I did a reblog post a few weeks ago from a Steampunk site about old tower clock towers being converted into apartments - but those places didn't have clocks in them.





There were several tower clocks, most with 3-legged gravity escapements. The whole house seemed to tick away, as if the collector were living inside a giant engine room.




...That's just the tower clocks, in addition there are Winterhalter u. Hoffmeier tubular chimes, regulator master clocks, and Egyptian Revival clocks aplenty...

The place isn't called Orchestrion Hall for nothing. The collector is a worldwide authority on mechanical organ restoration, particularly the very rare and very excellent Welte orchestrions.




He has more mechanical musical instruments too, including a very loud band organ.



His shop is in the basement below, and he uses all turn-of-the-century, belt-driven machines. When I jokingly asked where the steam engine was he pointed to an original early electric motor, and around the corner (in the basement) there was a HUGE single-cylinder Diesel engine.

The collection also includes fans...




This one has a light bulb that's used only for impedance, to slow down the fan.

I wish I had more pictures. This place was a treasure trove of fascinating stuff!

Thanks to Arcadian Clock for some of the pictures above.

Homemade Mechanical Music

... or mechanical noises anyway. This is a fascinating table of homebrew fun!

Dirigenten & Den mekaniska orkestern from Erik Nilsson on Vimeo.

[via Deviant Synth]

"Put a Penny in the slot" Em. Wehrle & Cie

This muscial clock is one of the rarest in my collection. First I will describe the clock and its functions, then speak of its history. This special order Musical Flute Clock was made by Emilian Wehrle during the last quarter of the 19th C. The architectural case is a style # 28 in the 1898 Em. Wehrle and Co. Catalog. This case was available in both Oak or Walnut. This example was made in Walnut.

The dial is silvered with a brass high polish locking bezel with glass. The hands on this piece are fantastic silvered hands with cherubs spreading their wings. These hands are the identical hands Wehrle also used on the #33 “Scheffel-Uhr”… Wehrle most elaborate and expensive clock.

The Clock movement is a large robust brass movement that will run for 8 days on a single winding. The musical function of the clock is a two tune 8 pipe organ. As the organ plays the large double doors open...and a flute player steps forward. After the Organ is finished playing..the dors close, and large 6 tune music box is activated in the base… this musci box plays one of 6 airs, that change with every activation. The music box fills the whole base of this large flute clock.

A note worth mentioning, the model # 33 is the only other known Wehrle clock to have a music box. The #33 has a music box that only plays 4 airs and is smaller.

The last feature of this clock is Coin-Operation. On the top of the pediment is a brass plaque in a wood frame that reads “Put A Penny In The Slot Em. Wehrle & Cie.”

When a English Penny is deposited into the brass slot on the upper Right of the case.. The coin activates the organ where one of two tunes is played, followed by one of Six Airs on the music box.

After the music box is finished the Penny is deposited into a locking coin box, that is accessed with a key on the bottom Right of the case.

The side doors on this piece are also locking to keep people out of the mechanism.

This is the only known Wehrle in existence to have a coin operated feature, and it is 100% factory.

Now onto the history:

Camerer Kuss & Co (Later Camerer Cuss & Co.) Were one of the largest Retailers for Emilian Wehrle, Johann Baptist Beha and many other fine clock makers during the 19th C in the UK.

In each of the Camerer Cuss retail outlets, a different coin-operated clock was displayed on the counter. This Wehrle coin operated flute clock with music box was displayed in their Edinburgh, Scotland store.

Out of the three locations two of these clocks have been located. (Edinburgh & London)
The Glasgow clock is still missing…

The London retail outlet had a Beha #932 (Large gothic shelf cuckoo with Angelus striking and Monk automation, this clock also had a large music box in the base and of course coin operation.)

Beha records show this Beha was sold to Camerer and Cuss with coin operation in 1882 for 152 Gold Mark (98 for the clock, 52 for the musical movement and 2 for the coin-op mechanism) This was a very large price for a Beha. It should also be noted that although this clock looks like a #932 in everyway, Beha did not assign it this model # because it was not a normal production clock with the coin mechanism. Unfortunately the Wehrle records were either not recorded or preserved, so information on the price and details of the Kuss flute clock will remain unknown. What we do know is the clock was very expensive, and clearly a special made piece… and very well may be the only coin-operated Wehrle in ever produced.

It is quite amazing to think of the thousands of people who “Put A Penny In The Slot” while visiting the shop when these clocks were sold as new. We welcome comments on this clock, and are happy to be able to share this piece with you.

I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Mark Singleton and Dr. Wilhelm Schneider for their assistance with these Coin-operated Cuss Clocks.