Bill Finch asked yesterday about Wurlitzer rolls.  The answer was
buried in Matthew Caulfield's highly informative posting that followed:
the master rolls and perforator are at the Allen Herschell Carrousel
Museum in North Tonawanda.

Visiting this year's AMICA convention, I was told about the
'perforating club' which meets at the museum every Wednesday, led
by Dan Wilke from QRS.  They are quite happy to have visitors.  The
convention started on Wednesday, so no sooner were we booked in than
we set off again to see the perforators!

They have done a very nice job of cleaning the perforator and
presenting it and the master rolls beautifully.  It was nice to see the
old machinery running and producing a real product, not just a static
museum exhibit.  The perforator is unusual in that it automatically
compensates for the buildup of speed as the roll plays by altering the
punch step advance.  This was talked about in MMD a year or two back,
and it was nice to have that background when looking at the equipment.

Each tune has a separate masters, often a short one run through twice
or even three times.  Each roll is a one-off, in that it's put together
manually by the machine operator.  It takes them a couple of evenings
to make a 10-tune roll, involving 20 or more passes of master rolls -
all of which have to be aligned and rewound by hand.  I was surprised
by just how intense the whole activity was!  Given the age of the
masters, it requires more than a little artistry to keep it all going.

I think any enthusiast would be made welcome if they were in the area
-- call Dan at QRS to make sure.  It's worth the trip.

Julian Dyer