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Mills
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compiled by Hal Davis Leslie Organ Company/The Electric Piano Roll Company It is important to use rolls made for a particular variation of Violano if the proper results are to be obtained. The Mills Novelty Company realized this when they were making and selling these instruments and continually advised their customers to buy new "up-to-date rolls" for "proper sound" otherwise the performances would be compromised. The 'why' of all these variations to the same basic instruments have been the subject of some conjecture over the years. Whatever the reason, the instruments were continually being "improved" throughout the entire production period. There were other variations of the Violanos that I heard of that were never meant to get out of the factory except for special purposes, usually one of a kind, including one in which the bow-wheels could change directions and rotate in the opposite direction, another one that could perform pizzicato, another one in which the strings were kept in tune by springs rather than weights. The first Violano that I personally owned was an odd one. It was one of the very last ones to leave the Mills company. There were parts in it that had been rejected by inspectors earlier because of some small defect. Fortunately, these were cosmetic but one of them was quite noticeable. The foundry had cast the plate with the "9" upside down so that it indicated that this machine was patented in 1612. I've owned five of the 'single' Violanos and one 'double' Violano and have worked on about forty-four others in the past forty years and have had as many as about four hundred-fifty rolls so I've had ample time to observe both the instruments and their rolls. As a side comment let me say that my first contact with the Mills Novelty Company had nothing to do with Violano Virtuosos. I was a youngster living and working in Chicago. I was an ice cream maker for the Mandel Bros. store and used a Mills Novelty Company ice cream machine. Once, when needing something for ice cream machine, I visited the Mills Novelty Company. It was some time later that I became aware of the marvelous musical instruments that they had made earlier. I was informed that nearly all of the equipment associated with the Violano Virtuosos had been donated to the scrap drive early during World War II. Hal Davis - The Electric Piano Roll Company & Leslie Organ Company. * * * * * * The following information has been compiled by, and remains the property of, the Electric Piano Roll Company & Leslie Organ Company, Box 1, Leslie, MI 49251-0001, This information may not be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission by The Electric Piano Roll Company & Leslie Organ Company. The following is a listing of variations that were discovered through research of several hundreds of rolls originally manufactured by the Mills Novelty Company of Chicago, Illinois for use on their Mill's Violano Virtuoso instruments. Although no specific dates are herein given, the listings are in chronological order. * * * * * * Roll Functions for the Mill's Violano Virtuoso Rolls. As the playing notes for both the piano and the violin remain the same throughout the entire production from beginning to end, the Channels indicating those playing notes will not be repeated here for each variation. There were, however, some early rolls made that had only a violin part. Please refer to the complete scale listing. * * * * * * Basic Scale D 1. Bow Motor - slow slow - very soft -
vanish.
*a. With the beginning of hand played rolls circa #1700 the Tremolo line was moved to 74 and shortly later the Tremolo was discontinued from 4. There were some rolls produced that had both lines for Tremolo. *b. Line 120 was used on certain instruments as another level
of Piano expression. This was done by shunting a resistor in the
common lead of the lines to the Piano notes thus causing them to strike
louder thus providing up to six levels of piano expression, and on those
equipped with the Violin mute action (circa 1924, 1925) up to eight piano
levels were obtainable.
****************************************************** Variation #1. 1. Very soft (violin)
******************************************************* Variation #2. 1. Very Soft
******************************************************* Variation #3 44. Unknown usually 2 to 4 operations in the entire five
******************************************************* Variation #4 -----
*****************************************************
-----
**************************************************** Variation #6 1. Very Soft (Violin)
**************************************************** Variation #7 -----
************************************************** Variation #8 -----
************************************************ Variation #9 -----
************************************** Variation #10 -----
************************************************ Variation #11 -----
**************************************************** Variation #12 1. Very Soft (Violin)
******************************************** Variation #13 -----
******************************************** Variation #14
1. Very Soft (Violin)
Note - This roll variation is for the Violano Virtuoso with the matching "Drum" Cabinet. In this variation the Tremolo is wired ON permanently. There is a rotary switch located inside the lower part of the cabinet next to the feeder frame for shutting off the percussion instruments thus enabling playing of regular rolls other than the "Orchestra" rolls which were the ones made specifically for the Violano Virtuoso/Drum Cabinet combination. ********************************************************* Variation #15 1. Very Soft (Violin)
Tremolo permanently wired on. Additional comments. Some of the earlier versions of the Violanos had a rod that was raised by the feeder mechanism during the reroll operation and that caused the rosiner to be applied during the entire rewind cycle. Some Violanos had an interesting variation on the converter. This was a small rotary unit that fitted onto the shaft of the converter and was attached to a tube which was used to vacuum the rosin powder out of the rosin tray. There were several variations of the converters used in various models of Violanos. The more popular ones were the ones used in the ordinary Virtuoso Violano. There was another variation that was capable of higher current output that was used for certain "Home" models and presumably for a "single" with a "Drum Cabinet, Then there was the larger one such as the one used in my "double" with a "drum Cabinet" and which provided a full ampere more than the "standard" models. There were some rolls made that were 'composite' rolls. The ones of this type that I have discovered were put together by Violano route owners who took tunes from several rolls and spliced them together to make a 'special' roll for their own purposes. I had several of this type of roll. Each one I had was an all waltz roll. The only problem I noticed with some of these rolls that I had was that the tunes on each roll were not always of the same variation and while one tune would sound great, the next might not. ********************************************************* For Conversion to drums the following changes are made. Change to #58. Piano Loud
#3.
For Conversion back to original these changes are made. Remove Piano Loud from #3. to #58.
* * * * * * Harold E. Davis
02 August 1999 |
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CONTACT FORM: Click HERE to write to the editor, or to post a message about Mechanical Musical Instruments to the MMD Unless otherwise noted, all opinions are those of the individual authors and may not represent those of the editors. Compilation copyright 1995-2024 by Jody Kravitz. Please read our Republication Policy before copying information from or creating links to this web site. Click HERE to contact the webmaster regarding problems with the website. |
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