Theodore P. Brown - Inventor of the first Interior Player Piano

Theodore P. Brown - Inventor of the first Interior Player Piano (1860-1940)

 Theodore Brown, whose family emigrated from Scotland to the US in the early 18th century, worked in Worcester, Mass, as a partner in Brown & Simpson, and later for his own Simplex Piano Player Company. He was active in the 1890^s and later, and was on the committee of the National Piano Manufacturers' Association. Brown is remembered as the first to have developed a real interior player piano one that we would recognise today, with the roll inside the piano case at the eye level of the player. His first hand-made creation, entitled the "Aeriol" Piano by Aeolian Company, then it was put into production and markted as "Eriol" by John McTammany. It is believed that the first original created one was owned by Abbas Helmy II, khedive of Egypt in early 19^th century  

  Although a number of engineers had managed to install some rudimentary player mechanisms inside normal pianos during the late 1880^s and early 1890^s, Brown went on developing the Simplex Piano Player, one of the rivals to the Pianola. The Simplex was later installed inside player pianos, and Brown was also responsible for a very unusual player mechanism.