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 from those found in a pipe organ, as well as percussion instruments. Many orchestrions contain a piano as well. At the Musical Museum in Brentford, examples may be seen and heard of several of the instrument types described below.
1918 Seeburg Orchestrion, "Style G", located at Clark's Trading Post in Lincoln, New Hampshire. Uses a ten-song music roll and plays multiple wind, string, and percussion instruments.
Illustrated London News, Sept. 20, 1862: the Orchestrion by M. Welte, of Vöhrenbach, in the Zollverein Département.
Welte Concert Orchestrion, style 6, number 198 (1895)
Welte Philharmonic Organ
A calliope is an American and Canadian musical instrument that produces sound by sending a gas, originally steam or, more recently, compressed air, through large whistles—originally locomotive whistles.
"Calliope, the wonderful operonicon or steam car of the muses" – advertising poster, 1874
Calliope on the Minne-Ha-Ha, a stern-wheeler on Lake George, New York
Kitch Greenhouse Steam Calliope at the Ohio Historical Society – July 2006
Fairground calliope trailer being hauled by a U.S.-built traction engine – New Orleans Mardi Gras 2007