Hi Everybody.  I gave myself a bit of a surprise last night.  About
15 years ago I bought a 73-note Claviola push-up, which is actually
a "rebadged" Hupfeld Phonola push-up sold under the Claviola name in
Australia.  About 50 or so rolls came with the player and I simply put
them into a couple of cartons and thought no more about them.  However,
last night I got them out to see if any of the rolls had little photos
or line drawings of the pianists on the leaders, or signatures on the
roll labels, as do many 88-note Hupfeld rolls.

I discovered that half the "Phonola" rolls aren't that at all.  They are
made in the U.S. and are pin-end rolls, but they unroll the conventional
way, from top to bottom.  (73-note Phonola rolls go from bottom to top.)

These strange (to me) rolls have bright orange labels and the roll
number is prefixed with a "O", which makes me wonder if they are organ
rolls.  On the leader, just above the tag, is stamped the name
"Perfection".  They are in well-made black boxes.

I tried one for size on my 65-note Aeolian push-up and it certainly
fitted in there, but I had a feeling that the pin at the drive end stuck
out more than on standard 65-note rolls.  But it looked to me as if the
hole spacing across the roll was not 6-to-the-inch, because the tracker
bar holes looked to be getting out of step quite quickly.  I couldn't
actually try playing the roll because my wife Beryl had retired to bed
about an hour earlier.  I didn't think me trying out a roll in the room
directly underneath our bedroom at 11 PM would have been good for my
health, so, although my toes were twitching on the pedals, I desisted.

But hey; it's only a six-minute drive home from work.  Why don't I go
home for lunch?

In the meantime, does anybody have any idea what these rolls might
really be intended for?

John Phillips in Hobart, Tasmania