I have noticed that the box labels for Aeolian 116 note rolls carry
a code that seems to identify the roll length.  It is found on early
production rolls that are in the numbering scheme 51xxx.  Not all
51xxx rolls carry this marking.

The marking is in the upper left hand of the label and starts out with
the letter "E".  The number that follows seems to be the approximate
length of the paper expressed in feet.

Two examples are roll 51077, "Innocents", marked E 5, a very short roll
of about 5 feet, and roll 51152, William Tell Overture, marked E 77,
and it is very long indeed.  I have measured some of the shorter rolls
and the correlation is obvious.  I did not measure the William Tell
Overture as 77 feet is a bit much for my modest curiosity.

Does anyone know the purpose of these markings?  Perhaps it was used to
select the proper box size.  Maybe it was used by the editors in making
corrections for speed (tempo) build up.

Bob Taylor
Aeolian Opus 1280
http://members.socket.net/~rtaylor/aeolian_pipe_organ.html

 [ It could be a price code.  Many early music roll box labels bear
 [ a small letter or numeral which indicated to the retailer how much
 [ he paid for the product (or maybe the "fair trade" retail price).
 [ Except for the license fees, the price of a music roll varies in
 [ direct proportion to its length since that indicates the man-hours
 [ of work to produce it and also the shipping weight.  -- Robbie