The Hupfeld Phonoliszt Violina

When I was 15, my friend, Ed Freyer had acquired a Mills Novelty Company double Violano Virtuoso. It was built around 1914 and was unique as a player in that it was solenoid operated and not a pneumatic player, totally electric. Since A.C. current was not in general use at that time, the unit had D.C. motors and needed an internal voltage regulator and converter. That machine operated very well and I was impressed with it's sound. The sound board was hinged like a door, and it opened as such to allow tuning of the piano. Also unique, the bass strings ( the longest and thickest strings in a piano ) were in the center of the sound board, with the mid range strings being to the left side and the treble strings being to the right side. This gave the sound board layout an archway look instead of the normal left to right inclined look of all other pianos. It also used 4 synchronous motors with rosin wheels attached to act as "bows" for each violin. There were no tuning pegs to tune the 4 strings on each violin. The strings were "tuned" by a permanent hanging weight on each string. According to Mills, this was supposed to eliminate the need to tune the violins. 

Today, I am comparing the European competitor to Mills with their version consisting of 3 ONE string violins, a REPRODUCING player piano, string tremelo and a single rotating wheel that played the violins as they were needed, by pneumatic fingers and being individually pushed out to the rotating bow. This machine was built in 1901. Personally, I like the Hupfeld over the Mills. The 2nd video is a FULLY restored Mills Double Violin playing the Tennessee Waltz. Also of note, the music roll of the Hupfeld plays from bottom to top, totally opposite of it's American counterparts. These are both two very unique inventions. When the Hupfeld was built, we had no AC electric, airplanes or automobiles.

Let me know which is your favorite. Drop me an e-mail at:

                     classic.musical.instrument@gmail.com

I will post the results here in a future posting. Enjoy some great sounding music on two awesome machines.