L. Douglas Henderson is, as I said, very familiar with Leabarjan
perforators.  He was away during our recent thread on the subject --
acquiring another Leabarjan, in fact -- but subsequently I got a lot of
information from him, which he said I could pass on for the record to
MMD.  What follows is copied from his email to me.

 - - -

Leabarjan made the #8 16-roll perforator and the #8-B 16-roll
"industrial reproducing" perforator, the latter of which I have.  This
has a stand for 16-rolls (not used these days!) of pre-trimmed paper
(that's the problem!), and a tracing stylus which allows a master roll
or something else which was perforated to be 'read' and duplicated.

In my case, I remake the roll, changing striking and rhythm, and
usually adding some variations; the stylus is used for 'reading and
analyzing', in my case, not the intended feature of 1:1 copying
purposes.  The Mel-O-Art sheet metal #5, the only one I've ever seen
that wasn't on a cast iron frame, had a tracing stylus also, tho' this
wasn't an advertised feature.

The #3 was the 1-roll model, usually with a wooden block under the
punch, designed for a low price and infrequent use.  Again, I've seen a
#3 on a #5 frame, but with the 1 roll 'trays', proving that no two
Leabarjan models are entirely the same.

They were made from 1911 to 1927, first with A, B, C and D desig-
nations, and later the 3, 5, and 8 editions.  After the factory closed,
a worker whose name I forget (see my AMICA article in the mid-'80s!)
built them from parts, handled supplies and repaired them, up to about
1948-1950.

Leabarjan made a short-lived electric copying-only single punch model
called the #8-D.  I have several rolls cut on one, by the factory, and
they are awful, primarily because it was designed to go about 3-4 feet
(instead of inches) with a vibrating punch.  The operator advanced one
key and drew the mechanism back and forth, much as on a weaving loom.
Most of the tremolo is 'ratty' and the chord perforations don't line
up.

Strangely, in the '50s and '60s Mr. Orville Cooper, of Long Beach, CA,
used one of these, and I identified the "type" of rolls in L'Auberson
(and the source in CA!) from seeing irregular perforations in the same
type of cutting, running on Hupfeld Phonoliszt and other coin-operated
players in the Baud Freres collection.  The Master rolls were to be
made on a #5 or #8/8-B perforator, for use on the #8-D, which had a
manual trigger advance and an Emerson electric motor which engaged the
punch.  Obviously it was fast if one didn't want precision!

Leabarjan had heavy _green_ paper for their Masters, making it easy to
"see though" the stack of rolls, featuring the offset top copy and the
four (for #5) or sixteen (for #8) duplicates for retail sales.

Leabarjan also did duplicating work on something they probably built,
in the final days of 1921-1927.  People could send them sheet music,
rolls or whatever, and get copies back with the Leabarjan label on
them.  In the final years, the E. T. Paull series (began about 1922)
were issued 2 ways: with a huge label and (ostensibly) the composer's
signature on the rolls and, (fanfare!) the same arrangement with
_more notes_ -- but no E. T. Paull story -- and a huge label with the
picture of 'Ross' Miller, a relative of the Bartels family and the
chief musician at the factory in the 'Twenties.

The Leabarjan rolls of Paull's music, sold on the open market, were
vastly superior to the Paull ones, merchandised from his NYC address.
(The Paull copies I have were sloppy #8-D duplicates; the Miller rolls
-- arranged from the thinner Paull line -- have the superior cutting
from whatever factory perforator was used in Hamilton, OH, in the later
days for farm-out work.)

I also have Gaiety March, composed by a Maine person -- Geo. Hodgdon of
Boothbay Harbor -- from 1926.  It ran in two editions, one with a
better box and two-color label, suggesting several production runs.
Miller's name appears on the label as the arranger, in this case -- and
the rolls turned up in this region of coastal Maine a number of years
ago.

Leabarjan made special perforators also, e.g. for the Hammond organ in
Massachusetts, which had two colours of scales for the 116-note Aeolian
rolls, and based on a #5 with a matching stand.  At one time I was
offered some hand-cut rolls for that particular organ, and should have
purchased them back then, when the player was being disconnected from
the famous residence organ.

The Leabarjan does a great arranging job, as the rolls by Eric Bernhoft
will demonstrate.  Have you heard his splendid roll of Roulette Rag by
Glenn Jenks, with a fantastic accelerando (assisted by Robbie Rhodes,
if I'm correct in guessing the 'assisted by' initials)!

 [ Eric did all the work, the computer only did the accelerando!
 [ -- Robbie

In addition to perforators, the Leabarjan Manufacturing Co. also sold
paper, tabs, boxes, labels, stencil-cutting machines and other music
roll supplies.  I have seen Leabarjan boxes on rolls by _other_ inde-
pendent music roll companies.  For a time, there was a Pine Tree Music
Co. in Thomaston, ME, next door to Don Rand's house.  I've got a couple
of hand-cut rolls, which they did on a Leabarjan manual perforator, and
several which were factory-duplicated along the lines of the Gaiety
March.

Douglas Henderson

 [ A big thanks to Douglas Henderson for sharing this interesting
 [ history with MMD, and to Matthew for 'bringing it all together'.
 [ I doubt that it could be found elsewhere.  -- Robbie