Just about every ad for a player piano includes this familiar,
but incorrect, line: "Piano comes with 50 scrolls."  Oh, really?
First of all, a scroll has two spools, and has to be unwound from
both ends, not one, like a player roll.

Secondly, if they really were "scrolls", there would be no use for
forward or reverse functions.  The tracker-bar and spoolbox mechanism
would have to be completely re-engineered, were the rolls that we use,
actually "scrolls."  In fact, there would be little enjoyment, if any.

Third, anybody in their right mind, knows that absolutely _no_ player
piano can even begin to play a "scroll", if that is really what they
think rolls are.

Fourth, the thickness of paper in a _scroll_ is significantly thicker,
and would be very much harder to punch the notes into.  One would need
a perforator with sufficient force to punch the holes through the
already-too-thick paper.

I could add more inconsistencies about people who think that player
pianos actually play "scrolls", but it's a waste of time.

Luke Myers
ldmyers95@gmail.com [delete ".geentroep" to reply]

 [ "Scroll", "roll" and "role" are all variations of the same noun.
 [ The actor reads a role, or plays a role; the player piano does the
 [ same except the spelling is "roll".  The contemporary definition in
 [ the Merriam-Webster dictionary says that a scroll is "a long piece
 [ of paper that rolls around one or two cylinders and that usually
 [ has something written or drawn on it."  Ref.
 [ http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scroll  So a piano roll
 [ is just a "machine readable" punched scroll.  But there's more:
 [
 [ An exhausted mother says, "I'm at the end of my rope," which comes
 [ from the actor's lament, "I'm at the end of my scroll/roll/role."
 [
 [ Rewind!  ;-)  -- Robbie