In the 'history' sections of the various QRS catalogs issued during
the years that QRS was owned by Ramsi Tick, it was stated that no one
knew the origins of the QRS name.  One suggested origin was that orders
for rolls for the Melville Clark Piano Co. were put into the seldom-used
"Q" mail slot, which eventually overflowed into the "R" slot, and from
there to the "S" slot, and became known as "QRS" orders.

However, there is an article in the 1931 Presto Monthly (viewable on
the MBSI web site), titled "A New Story on QRS", that relates several
interesting aspects of the firm's history to that date, including the
following:

  "The question of a name for the new music roll business was debated
  and as no decision could be arrived at for the name for the music
  roll enterprise it was suggested, as the story goes, by Mr. Charles
  Burton, Melvillle Clark's patent attorney, that the haphazard letters
  "QRS" instead of for instance "ABC" be taken temporarily until such
  time as a better name might be proposed.  And so as time went on and
  many inquiries came in regarding the meaning of "QRS" and what the
  letters stood for, what it all meant, etc. no change was made, and
  about this time Tom Pletcher came out with his flaming advertisement
  using QRS as his slogan and giving the meaning of the letters as
  "Quality and Real Service" which seemed to settle the permanency of
  the name.  Thus QRS became a fixture and the legal and corporate title
  of the business"

To my mind, this seems to settle the question, but where _did_ those
other stories come from?

Bryan Cather
St. Louis, Missouri