I recently bought a set of all nine Beethoven Symphonies, a collection
of 38 rolls, from a dealer in England.  They are in perfect condition,
but a few questions have come up.  These rolls were made by Aeolian in
England, and if you are familiar with their rolls, you will know that
they were made on a shiny, glossy paper; it is what I believe is called
"waxed" paper.

The first question is that when I am about to play a roll, I typically
knock the right flange on a strong surface, and turn that flange to
tighten the paper somewhat on the roll.  Although these rolls have no
tears or repairs of any kind, the rolls have a kind of "spongy" feel
when I squeeze them.

The second question is that when looking at the left side of the
roll (after the left flange is removed) the paper is not perfectly
flat against the right flange.  It is not so serious that an ordinary
tracking mechanism won't work on them, but I feel that rolls play best
when the paper is all knocked over to the right flange, the left side
of the paper is perfectly flat, and the tracker mechanism does hardly
any work.  I suspect that being in England for the past 90 years has
caused the paper to swell slightly, and this is causing the two
symptoms I just described.

I would appreciate any opinions on whether these two symptoms are
caused by the high humidity, and how to "correct" the problem.  I am
in no rush to do this as the rolls play fine, but if anyone has any
ideas on this, I would appreciate your writing to MMD.

If you are quite familiar with Aeolian rolls made in England, you
may be wondering how I can look at the left side of the paper since
both the right and left flanges are glued to the cardboard tube.
I personally do not like to have the left flange glued on, and on
a few of the rolls, the left side came off with only a little struggle.
I plan to free all the left flanges eventually, but I do not believe
this will have any effect on the two symptoms I just described, since
the rolls that had a loose left flange have the same problems.

Randolph Herr