Photoplayer

The central instruments in a photo player were a piano and percussion; some machines also added pipe organs and methods for manually creating sound effects.

Common sound effects included gunshots, bells and drums, which were generated by pulling chains called "cow-tails".

Some photo players feature electric sound effects, such as sirens, automobile horns, and other oddities.

A photo player operator had to load the paper rolls, start the machine and add the manual sound effects and percussion using the cow-tails.

[1] Approximately 8,000 to 10,000 photoplayers were produced during the boom era of silent films, between 1910 and 1928.