Hi Nathan,  I'm forwarding your letters to the Mechanical Music Digest.
Maybe one of their 550+ members can help you. If they can, they will
respond directly to you.

Musically,
John A. Tuttle

 --- forwarded message, please reply to sender & MMD ---

At 10:15  5/26/97 -0700, you wrote:
> Hi John,
>
> Thanks for your response.  I examined the rolls more closely and played
> them using my "taping the bar" technique.  There are no holes that look
> like snake bites along the edges.  The spacing of the holes is 9 per
> inch.  Along the right-hand side of the roles, approximately one inch
> from the edge, is a continuous line of holes that is only occasionally
> interrupted for a short space.  Very sparsely, throughout the rolls,
> there
> are short holes directly on either side of this line of holes.
>
> Along the left-hand side of the rolls, there are three long holes, on
> the same line, that appear before any other holes are present.  At the
> point where the holes for the melody begin, there are several brief
> rolls of holes.  After that, the holes contained within the first inch
> or so of this side of the roll occur irregularly, typically spread out
> every 8-12 inches of the roll.  These holes are generally 1-2 inches
> long and usually are by followed by another hole of similar size, on
> the line immediately adjacent to either side of the previous hole.
>
> Another factor that differs from rolls for a straight player is that
> there is only one note in the treble clef that continues until the next
> chord change of the melody.
>
> It is difficult to describe the features of rolls.  A case where a
> picture would be worth a thousand words.  If this description helps
> you to further delineate what instrument for which these rolls were
> made, please let me know.
>
> Thank you,  Nathan Sherlock  jsherlock@worldnet.att.net

At 01:38  5/29/97 -0700, you wrote:
> Hello John,
> Yes, the songs are discernible.  The notes are all rather sustained,
> unlike any of the other rolls I have for my piano.
>
> These rolls are all in black boxes with the Capital Music Roll label on
> the box and on the roll.  On the label is the name of the song(s)and the
> owner of the copyright. At the bottom of the label, is what I would
> guess to be the stock number, all of which are in the 9000 range.  The
> paper used for these rolls is light olive in color and apparently of
> higher quality since they all are still in excellent condition.  The
> only other marking on the rolls is the tempo, most of which are 40 or
> 50.
>
> If this information strikes a note (instead of "rings a bell"), please
> let me know.
>
> Thanks for your effort and time,
>
> Nathan Sherlock  jsherlock@worldnet.att.net