Subtitle: "Cobs", NO -- "Rollers", YES!

Hello,  I enjoyed reading the two letters by Richard Dutton, concerning
the Gem, Concert (etc.) line of Roller Organs.  It's certainly a
worthwhile project and it was a pleasure to see all those details in
print.

Rightly, he began the discussion with the "rollers" vs. "cobs"
terminology, but then from that point on lapsed into nonstop "cobs"
for the text.

"Cobs" is a term I never heard until reading it repeatedly in the old
Hathaway & Bowers illustrated catalogues of the late 'Sixties on.

These were Roller Organs during their entire production life, and the
music was referred to as "rollers" in the old texts.

To me, "cobs" is akin to the term "pumpers" for pedal players, when the
latter is running on a vacuum system -- featuring exhausters and an
equalizer (rather than bellows and a reservoir as in a pipe organ).
A "pumper" is an antique fire engine.  "Cobs" reminds one of corn.
I hope there's a movement at some point to get these latter-day terms
out of general use.

Nearing age sixty -- and having known people with roller organs back
to my toddling years, some being original customers through the Sears &
Roebuck catalogue -- I must say that I never heard of "cobs" until
those Hathaway & Bowers brochures.  It's a corny put-down of a word,
in my opinion.

Let's return to "rollers".

Regards,

Douglas Henderson
ARTCRAFT Music Rolls
http://www.wiscasset.net/artcraft/

 [ They're all Terms of Endearment ... !   :-)  -- Robbie