A piano that plays itself

 

My friend has a pianola piano, otherwise known as a player piano. It's a piano that plays music without your fingers touching the keys. It dates from early last century when recorded music wasn't good and allowed people to hear recorded music played live on an instrument in their own home. The music is recorded onto paper rolls with holes in them. The pianola has pedals that you push up and down to work a motor to wind the roll through and to operate a pump that blows air at the paper. Where there is a hole the air can get through to operate a mechanism that presses the key. The history of development is fascinating https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Player_piano To see a photograph of the internal workings of the Steck pianola see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steck_(piano) These days they can work from computer MIDI files. One of my favourites is Olafur Arnalds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpO_8tk6yNQ About four minutes in you'll see what it looks like.