The Musee Mecanique
The Musee Mecanique, also known as The Mechanical Museum of San Francisco, is one of the world's largest privately owned collections of mechanically operated musical instruments and antique arcade machines. Guests in a San Francisco rental car can experience what their grandparents used to do for fun before there was such a thing as video games or television.
About the Collector
Edward Galland Zelinsky has collected more than 300 items, ranging from orchestrions, coin operated pianos, unique slot machines, animals, small bird boxes, and many more. The collector started his collection when he was only 11 years old and has been collecting ever since. Guests in a San Francisco rental car will surely enjoy the many collections that are located at The Musee Mecanique.
The Machines
Guests in a San Francisco rental car will love to visit one of the world’s largest privately owned collections of mechanically operated musical instruments and antique arcade machines. The Drinking Man (automation) was purchased in England and shipped to San Francisco, and has been restored after 50 years of service, and reflects the favorite English past time of drinking at the Pub. If you put a quarter in the marvel it will actually “drink” liquid from a bottomless cup, re-circulating the liquid through his arm and back into the cup. The Naughty Marietta (Cail-o-scope) is a coin operated hand cranked animated picture machine that was invented in 1904. When you insert a coin and turn the crank a bulb lights up and a reel of stereographic photos fall one by one, the most popular machines were “girlie shows”. Laffing Sal (automation) is from The Fun House ad Playland At the Beach, and is a bright red haired moving figure with a loud laugh. She was built by the Philadelphia Toboggan company and was part of almost every funhouse across the US. The Regina Music Box was created in 1892 and works on a rotating perforated metal disc. The Orchestrion is a self-contained large automatic musical intsturment that has many instruments that imitate an orchestra, including drums, cymbal, triangle and uses a piano roll to play a range of different tunes. The Royal Court is a mechanical diorama that is five feet long and shoes a decorated ballroom with many couples dancing. Guests in a San Francisco rental car must simply insert a coin for the music to play and the dancers to spin around. The Bimbo Box plays a recording of Tijuana Taxi while the monkeys play along with their instruments. Visitors in a San Francisco rental car can enjoy The Carnival by inserting two quarters in the enormous mechanical diorama which has over 100 different moving parts inside a glass cabinet, including a Ferris wheel, airplane, acrobats, animals and much more! The Gypsy Fortune Teller is a large automaton that passes her hand over the magic tart cards in order to read visitors in a San Francisco rental car fortune. The Seeburg Piano, known as the Seeburg Eagle is from 1923 and was the first piano added to the Zelinsky Collection. The cabinet contains a piano, mandolin, bass drum, snare drum, cymbal, castanettes, triangle, tambourine and Chinese wood blocks. With so many great machines to explore, visitors in a San Francisco rental car will surely have a fun time at the Musee Mecanique.
For more information about the Musee Mecanique, visit their website at www.museemecanique.org or call (415) 346-2000. The Musee Mecanique is located at Pier 45 Shed A at the end of Taylor Street, and is open from Monday to Friday from 10 AM to 7 PM, and Saturday and Sunday from 10 AM to 8 PM.
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