Hello Everyone:
  I have just finished reading a instruction manual titled "The Perforation
Of Music Rolls With the Leabarjan Perforator".  This manual inferred that
this machine was once installed in school music rooms, for students to learn
basic music principles.  Was this the means of creating the piano/organ rolls
that we are using today to reproduce music?  I was under the impression that
a master roll was cut by having a pianoist sit down on a special equipped
piano/organ and play the piece while the equipment cut a master roll.  Am I
mistaken or was most of the rolls cut using this Leabarjan perforator?

Using this machine seems such a laborious task to create rolls to play on an
piano/organ.  I am curious about the cutting of Aeolian-Skinner rolls for
player organs.  Was a special organ equipped with copying equipment and the
organist played the piece from sheet music.  Was more than one organist
playing to create the roll?  Was the music played at original tempo or was a
machine like this Leabarjar used to create the roll?

I have several rolls that have "PROOF COPY" written on the leader and hand
written information .  There are small pieces of circular tape masked over
certain holes that the proofer wanted to not be copied (editing the music).
 The sounds produced from the roll seem to be more than one person was
playing to cut the master roll.  This is why I am asking the question about
the use of a hand cutting perforator.  This manual instructs how to read the
sheet music then punch the holes to reproduce the music.

Does anyone know of a book that has been written, that explains the method of
creating piano/organ rolls?

This is a fascinating manual to read.  It was published by The Leabarjan Mfg
Co. in Hamilton, Ohio, but does not have a date of publication.  It goes into
the basic definitions of reading sheet music and how to transpose that
information onto paper via punched holes.

Eugene R. Rogers
Miami, Florida