Pianola rolls

Yesterday, @sumbuck2 and I were chatting about engineering, specifically that type of engineering that required ingenuity. patience, and, one suspects, quite a bit of money. I think the conversation was probably started by the steam trains, but one only has to look back to clocks and watches, early cameras, and those amazing orreries to appreciate the genius that went into those mechanical inventions.

Slightly less spectacular, at least from an engineering point of view, but impressive none the less was the pianola in the barn. @simbuck2 gave it plenty of pedalling effort and filled the barn with music. Apart from the legwork, the pianola also requires rolls to determine the sequence of notes. As you can see from the photo, the barn came equipped with rather a lot!

It was typical of the attention to detail in the place, though, which has a loose carnival theme. There are cabinets of bric-a-brac on the wall and posters dotted around. It certainly doesn't follow any obvious pattern and yet it works as a whole, put together by someone with real vision, I think.

I was sad to leave, today, but I really enjoyed the trip back west with the Minx, plotting a future trip across the A684 and deciding where we'd stay. We even stopped off for a wander around Leyburn. Looking in the estate agent windows, there were some amazing, (almost) affordable places to live. But then where would be there nearest place for gigs?!