Marysville Music Machine Trail - Link Style 2E

1924 LINK STYLE 2E COIN PIANO

This instrument is featured in the 2023 Marysville Music Machine Tour, a public display of working, music machines, all a century old. ( https://www.visitunioncountyohio.org/... )

Link Piano Company had its roots in the Automatic Musical Company of Binghamton, New York, founded in 1903 by former employees of Roth & Engelhardt Piano Company of St. Johnsville, New York. This example is a style 2E, built in 1924, and plays piano with mandolin attachment, and a 25-note xylophone.
Link coin pianos operated from an endless roll system unlike most other brands that used the more traditional type spooled rolls, and usually consisted of 15 tunes— 5 more tunes than appeared on most other brands of coin pianos. The endless roll system didn’t require a rewind mechanism, and could play continuously. Despite the appearance of the roll appearing hopelessly tangled, it actually operates very smoothly and without issue. This Link piano plays a type RX roll, which was the workhorse roll for most Link coin-operated pianos.
This particular Link piano was found in a flower shop in Cleveland in dilapidated condition, and restored by the late Bart Off in 2005.
This and the other instruments on display are from the Nickel Music Collection, a collection of coin pianos and orchestrions started by the late Bart Off.