In MMD 990919 Jim Canavan asked about 'Kastonome' piano rolls.

The 'Kastonome' was an expression mechanism used on some player pianos
manufactured by the firm of Kastner, London, England.  It operates
quite differently from the Themodist system.  Instead, of only two
theme ports, as in the Themodist, the 'Kastonome' mechanism actually
employed 90 tracker bar holes, 85 of which were used for individually
accenting the 85 playing notes.  The remaining 5 were not used.  By
using one tracker bar theme hole for each playing note it was possible
to accent any number of playing notes simultaneously as playing the
unaccented notes.  When a theme hole is uncovered by the music role,
the accenting mechanism alters the suction level in the secondary valve
of the corresponding playing note.  This is achieved by a bank of
85 pouches connected to the theme holes.  A full description of the
mechanism is given in the book 'Pianola' by A Orde-Hume.

The 90 'Kastonome' tracker bar holes of ordinary size are located in
10 columns of 9 positioned on either side of the playing notes.  The
system utilizes the very low probability of a theme perforation
coinciding with the start of a playing note to prevent accidental
accenting.  It will be evident that most of the theme holes will be
vertically offset from the notes that they are associated with.

Four columns on the left (bass) side of the tracker bar, and six on the
right hand (treble) side.  The location of the bass theme holes is why
there is no sustain pedal perforations on 'Kastonome' music rolls.  The
first three columns of the treble theme are located where the top three
notes of an 88 note roll are located, and the middle row of each column
is located at the same level as the playing notes.  Interestingly, of
the three rolls that I managed to acquire for a Kastner 'Kastonome'
only one uses the bass theme.

For the record, the 'Kastonome' holes in the tracker bar are connected
to the playing notes in the following pattern:

1  10  19  28                45  54  63  72  o    o
2  11  20  29                44  53  62  71  o    o
3  12  21  30                43  52  61  70  79  o
4  13  22  31                42  51  60  69  78  85
5  14  23  32 x .........y   41  50  59  68  77  84
6  15  24  33                40  49  58  67  76  83
7  16  25  34                39  48  57  66  75  82
8  17  26  35                38  47  56  65  74  81
9  18  27  36                37  46  55  64  73  80

x is playing note 1, y is playing note 85 and theme holes 41, 50, 59
are located at playing notes 86, 87 and 88.  Those shown as o above are
not used.  All tracker bar holes are of ordinary size and spacing.

I hope that the above is of interest.  The 'Kastonome' system has been
mentioned before in MMD, and the articles are indexed in the archive.

While on this subject, a problem.  The 85 tubes for the mechanism
originate from a unit mounted behind the spool box.  This is located
approximately half an inch above, and hanging over, the back of the
hammer heads.  These need to be connected to the main stack immediately
above the playing pneumatics.  This location is underneath the back of
the hammer heads.  The original tubing was lead and curved behind the
hammers.  Even then I believe that central piano hammers rested against
it.  Due to the advanced state of disintegration of the lead,
presumably hastened by constantly being hit, it was replaced by
neoprene.  Unfortunately, the hammers tended to get caught in this, and
so it had to be removed (and not having any Kastonome rolls it was not
missed).  Would anyone like to suggest a possible solution of how to
run this tubing?  It would be nice to have the mechanism working.

Regards,

Douglas Bush
UK.