Without Lifting A Finger

San Francisco - Fisherman's Wharf: Musée Mécanique - Englehardt Orchestrion , a photo by wallyg on Flickr. Example of an orchestrion (built in 1915).

This musical instrument "plays a part" early on in part two: "The Anarchist": Between the two windows stood an orchestrion with its folding-doors open, showing its internal works and the roll of music. Actually the doors should have remained closed, and anyone who wished to enjoy the music should have inserted a coin in the slot.   *** An orchestrion is a generic name for a machine that plays music and is designed to sound like an orchestra or band. Orchestrions may be operated by means of a large pinned cylinder or by a music roll and less commonly book music . The sound is usually produced by pipes, though they will be voiced differently to those found in a pipe organ , as well as percussion instruments. Many orchestrions contain a piano as well.  The first known automatic playing orchestrion was the panharmonicon , invented in 1805 by Johann Nepomuk Mälzel . Friedrich Wilhelm Kaufmann copied this automatic playing machine in 1808 and his family produ...