Hi all,  I have absolutely no idea why the Aeolian Co. used pouch
leather as gasket material.  I'm inclined to go with John Tuttle's
thoughts on this, but I do know that it made restorations much easier,
so much so that I charged less to restore an Aeolian player than I did
for another manufacturers.  I can't remember restoring any Aeolian
player that did not have this material under the stack pneumatics;
it wasn't reserved for just Duo-Arts.

Here in the UK we referred to the stuff as "Perfection Leather" or
"thin tan skiver".  It could also found encapsulating the accordion
bellows on Duo-Arts.  A soft flexible material, it's only flaw was
its porosity, which has been much discussed in previous MMDigests.

On a sad note, I would like to announce my retirement from mechanical
musical restoration.  The cost of running a workshop here in the
Midlands far outstrips any income from half a dozen restorations each
year, blah, blah, blah, etc.

This I'm sure will come as a great relief to some of you as I'm a
fanatic of white PVA glue -- you can't restore without it.  (There's
a contradiction if there ever was one.)  If it had been around 200
years ago you would all be singing it's praises.  Anyway, enough of
that; I shall still continue to scan the postings on the MMD and add
my two penneth when I see fit.

Cheers
Paul Camps