Hi all,  Here's an interesting puzzler for you.

I have come across an unusual Ampico roll.  It is a recording of
Chopin's Military Polonaise, Op. 40, No. 1.  The penciled information
on the roll leader is "Military Polonaise - Chopin - Excellent -
Tempo 95".  It does not have a regular roll number, but does have
a work number of 6140.

The Ampico work number was assigned by a factory employee to indicate
the order in which the roll was recorded and, hopefully, to be worked
upon.  The known work numbers in that area include 6134, "Chickering
Tone Demonstration", and 6210, "Ampico Window Display Recording",
which was released in June, 1927.

No. 5976, "Toyland", was released in 1926.  That seems to indicate
that it would have been recorded some time in late 1926 or early 1927,
which is fine.  But, this recording has "B" coding on it, with long
perforations chained somewhat similar to Duo-Art rolls made by
Aeolian-American somewhere between 1929 and 1940.

At first I thought that maybe Ampico had taken this roll from the
Duo-Art Library of Paderewski rolls as it did in 1939 with five other
rolls, but that would not explain the low work number.

Does anyone have an answer to this puzzle, or thoughts about the
puzzle?  I can scan a picture of the first few measures if needed.

Best wishes,
Mike Walter

P.S.: There is only one recording of Chopin's Military Polonaise in
the Ampico catalog; it was recorded by Arthur Rubenstein, most likely
in late 1919.