In the early years, I worked on a few Aeolian Duo-Art Reproducing Organ
player units.  The biggest problem was the quality of paper used in
making the rolls.  Even back in the late 1940's this paper, used to
produce Aeolian Duo-Art rolls, was becoming brittle.  It was not much
better than ordinary newspaper!   The design of the tracking system and
the odd expanding and contracting sectioned tracker-bar, combined with
poor quality paper, did not lend kindly to the rolls at all.

The perforations in the roll are very finely spaced, and have to
straddle an upper set of tracker bar holes, and meet squarely with a
lower set.  The tracker bar has two rows of holes!  I am not sure, but
I think each row had about 88 holes.  (It's been over 40 years since
I encountered one of these player units.)

Some Duo-Art organ roll players do not have an automatic rewind.  The
roll has a port for rewind (# 176?), but some players use this
perforation to stop the roll when it reaches the end.  The roll then
has to be manually switched to rewind.  Other Duo-Art Organ players
will automatically rewind, and shut off.

The first Aeolian Duo-Art I encountered was in the home of George
Eastman in Rochester New York.  The playing mechanism was in a cabinet
that resembled a large television cabinet, with doors on the front.
It had a top panel that lifted upward to expose the tracker bar, and a
small electric light to view the roll.

Many rolls had badly torn edges, which could -- and did -- throw off
the tracking.  Accurate tracking is extremely important, and if the
rolls did not track properly, wrong registrations would come on.  You
have not lived until you hear a Bach fugue played on only a set of
chimes, with trumpet and Vox Humana accompaniment!

Each port on the tracker bars lead to a leather pouch that would press
an electrical contact.  There were problems here also.  Contacts would
get dirty and not work, or they would arc, and stick, requiring
disassembly of a glass cover to remedy the problem area.

When the rolls are in good condition, and track properly these organ
players are amazing!

The other units I encountered all had the same problem: poor paper used
to produce the rolls.  (Wurlitzer Player Reproducing rolls used far
better paper)

The last Aeolian Duo-Art player I worked on was very similar to the one
you describe.  I spoke with the original owner, who said the organ
never had a console for hand playing, just the player unit!  The player
mechanism was housed in a custom-built cabinet to match the walls of
the music room.  (Pine, I believe)

The pipes chests, reservoirs and switching devices were located in the
basement surrounding a replica of a German Beer garden.  The stained
glass windows were artificially lighted from behind.  If one wanted
louder music, one only had to open a window in the "Tavern".

There were also tone channels, from the basement chambers, that lead
upward to the music room.  There, on opposite walls, were matching
grills made of brass filigree, and a silk-like material behind them.
A Weber Duo-Art grand piano was also in the music room and had evidence
of being connected to the organ playing mechanism, but had been
disconnected.  Again, very few Duo-Art Organ rolls, because most had
deteriorated beyond repair.

I do have a dim memory of someone starting up a roll cutting project to
preserve these Aeolian Duo-Art Reproducing organ rolls, and hope they
succeed.  Not many persons could afford a reproducing pipe organ, and
those that survive are few.  Many of these fine reproducing organ
players were disconnected, discarded, considered obsolete, and too
expensive to keep in good repair.  The George Eastman Duo-Art mechanism
met this fate.  Therefore there is not much of a demand for Duo-Art
Reproducing Organ rolls, like there would be for Duo-Art, Welte, and
Ampico Reproducing piano rolls.

The music produced from the Duo-Art Organ rolls is fantastic.  You
have not lived until you hear one play!   I hope there is some way to
preserve these recordings, be it new copies of old rolls, or by
preserving the information remaining on existing rolls.

Bruce Clark