I eventually ended up acquiring the Melodette xylophone about which
there has been previous correspondence.  Ed Schmidt has been helping
to produce music strips for it.  Although most of the problems have
been solved there are still some doubts as to the correct format.

Were the strips, for example, originally unspooled rolls of moderate
length to accommodate a whole tune, or were they flat cards of a length
sufficient to include only a verse or a chorus or two?

I should be most grateful to hear from anyone who has one of these
instruments and, in particular, has any original music which could
be examined and/or copied.  The Melodette and the Piano-ette are both
shown on page 359 of Bowers' "Encyclopedia of Automatic Musical
Instruments".  Whilst the Piano-ette is also mechanical its music
does not have quite the right dimensions.

David Snelling
Isle of Man