Hello MMD'ers,  Dan Wilson mentioned a "fishing-reel tracker" he had
seen in Australia.

I have seen these more than once, in fact my first player was a Seybold
fitted with a Pratt-Read action which sported one of these curiosities.
It certainly did seem to be independent of the paper width by virtue of
the clever mechanical links which effectively measured the geometric
centre between the tracker ears.

This was then coupled to a slipping clutch/universal arrangement on the
roll drive which wound or unwound a cord around a small pulley, the other
end of which pulled a lever which shifted the roll.  I didn't have the
player long but my recollection is that it worked well and was trouble
free so long as the string was intact!

Another interesting system was used by Aeolian which I have seen on a
couple of early Steinway uprights.  Instead of ears tracking the paper
edges, it sensed the actual location of the note holes near the centre of
the roll and therefore was independent of the width, condition of the
edges or errors in hole positioning.

No doubt it had some major drawbacks (cost, or not reliable on music with
insufficient holes?) because it was not used extensively.  On "paper"
<grin> it seemed a good idea!

Back to tracking problems, I believe early versions of the Standard
action were prone to roll damage on rewind due to the tendency for the
horizontally mounted dual shifting pneumatic to sag off centre when the
suction was shut off.  Springs were used later to help overcome the
problem.  I have a friend with one of these for which he has not
satisfactorily solved the left edge paper damage and does not risk his
valuable rolls on it.  Does any else have a good solution?

Cheers,
Darrell Clarke,
Adelaide, Australia