We were playing a new-to-us Supertone roll last night (Hawaiian Dreams,
Supertone 5011) and found it has single punches at the outer left and
right hand tracks every 3-1/8", with the left side punches offset from
the right side by half the distance (i.e., staggered).

The left and right edge holes are identical spacing to my eye, both
a touch under 1/4", or very nearly 6 mm from the edge.  Unfortunately,
they're spaced perfectly to hit the Duo-Art rewind and shutoff tracker
bar holes.

Anyone have any idea what they were for?

Puzzled,
Dale Dohler
Ann Arbor, Michigan

 [ The extra holes controlled the mechanism that printed words on the
 [ roll.  I've seen the synchronizing holes only on the right side, in
 [ the same position as Ampico #2 hole.  Roll no. 5011 is a very early
 [ Columbia-produced Supertone roll, probably from 1919 or 1920 when
 [ Columbia received the contract to make piano rolls for Sears
 [ Roebuck.  To get the catalog underway quickly they published several
 [ "evergreen" tunes, followed a bit later by current pop tunes.  See
 [ http://www.mmdigest.com/Gallery/MMMedia/CoCap/supertone.html 
 [ -- Robbie