Hi Gang,

Just as this thread began I  had to go offline - that old IRQ/COM port
conflict Win95 upgrade blues. Its good to be back. All caught up with
you now, I find that I have a wrinkle or two to add to the information
stewpot.

Durrell Armstrong's 1983 PPC Catalogue includes an 18 page illustrated
Player Action Identification section. Under Mason & Risch, which is
cross-linked to Higel - made in New York, is clearly pictured the
upper/lower snake-bite accenting action that I have seen in at least 6
pianos here in Southern Ontario; no doubt these were supplied by Higel
Company, Ltd of Toronto/Montreal.

These actions are among the most precisely manufactured I have worked
on, as fine as Aeolian's; all visible-when-out-of-the-piano components
are finished in thick black shellac and the two that I have restored
have 6 or more etched brass/black-laquered ground instruction plates
tacked to their respective units - wind motor, tempo box, staggered
4-hole Standardlike tracking unit, solodant boxes, play/rewind transfer
block and so on. I choose to keep the front off my upright 'HOMER
(stencil) sold only by MASON & RISCH Ltd - TORONTO' because of the
sheer gleaming beauty.

The stack head is mass-balanced with the governor on the left communicating
with the motor on the right through a hidden pneumatic- clothed channel
in the top board. The transmission is totally nickel-plated. The bass
and treble 'accent' boxes are pouched and thrice-nippled for manual
B/T keyslip buttons (Solodant Off), automatic (Solodant On) and action
cutoff on Rewind.  There is also a keyslip button for silent fast forward.

The identical solodant action is hand fit into a friend's quarter-cut
oak/ birds-eye maple interior/ delicate pinstriping and posies on the
harp '(Frank) STANLEY of Toronto Ltd' upright which 'Downright Upright'
indicates was a small but meticulous concern from 1890 to 1924 when
Mason & Risch picked up the remaining stock at auction.

Some of these actions also employed a swing-up pointer on the tempo
scale arrow, to follow the tempo line on Higel rolls, a la Aeolian's
Metrostyle system. Higel called theirs TEMPOAID.

OTTO HIGEL Co - Toronto/Montreal 88n rolls are rather plentiful around
here, at least in my experience; you practically trip over boxloads of
'em at country auctions and yard sales. This being an agricultural
region most of these pedestrian arrangements are of a soggy WW1
ballads/hymns/military march nature - no offense intended, please - which
explains why only 5 Solodant/Tempoaid rolls (including a Higel Solodant
Test/Demonstration roll and a fantastic Charles Ives-ish Theme & Variations
on God Save the King) have a permanent home on my main floor. The dark
green solodant roll boxes however are first quality and most of my labels
have a fine large patriotic maple leaf in red as a background. Regular 88n
boxes more simply covered in a grey paper. I have one lively Jazz Fox
Trot roll which leads me to believe that Higel perforated for all tastes,
many of which went under-appreciated, in Ontario anyway. Can my fellow
Canadians shed any light on Higel's market penetration across Canada?

BTW Colin, are you aware that Kimball had a HINZE stencil piano? }:-)

Is this what is meant by doublespaced, Jody and Robby?

Dave Kerr <sprocket@orc.ca>
John David Kerr................Pneumatic
Resurrections...............<sprocket@orc.ca>
216 Douro Street....Stratford....Ontario....Canada....N5A
3S2.............519 271 5657