Philip Jamison asked about the stack divide location on the Themodist,
and Robbie replied:

>[ In my 1917 Stroud (Aeolian) Themodist the bass/treble split lies
>[ between E-flat and E above Middle C (keys #43 and #44).  I'm not
>[ sure, however, if the music rolls are standardized at that location.

This question is what might be called in British railfan circles
"one for the anoraks."  (Locomotive spotters wear them.  In my day
it was a grease-spotted grey mackintosh with a button missing.)

The 65- and 88-note Themodist pushups (1906-1916) all have the divide
between E #44  and F #45, as you might reasonably expect.  All the
Themodist Pianola pianos I've heard of between 1906, when the system
was launched, and 1913, when the Duo-Art was launched, are the same.

Then it gets complicated.  Most of the early Duo-Art grands have the
divide at #43/#44 but, I thought until I saw Robbie's note above, all
the early Duo-Art uprights were made to #44/#45.  All the UK-made
Themodist and Duo-Art instruments are #44/#45 and so are _some_ of the
post-Great War American Duo-Arts.  Nearly all Duo-Art rolls in both
countries are coded to divide at #43/#44, but the special issue recuts
and new titles mastered by Gordon Iles of Artona Music Rolls in the
1960s and 1970s have E#44 "themed" on both sides of the roll so they
will play properly on both divides.

The story I have heard is that there was a drawing error on the first
batch of Weber Duo-Art grands in 1914 and the divide was always
intended to be the same as on the Themodist Pianola.  It took several
weeks for the error to be spotted, by which time a lot of pianos had
gone out.

It was then decided to change the divide on all the rolls and standard-
ize on #43/#44 to fit.  But then someone pointed out that this would
make pedal Duo-Arts (the ones Douglas Henderson says should not be
called "half" Duo-Arts, but are), which used the basic Pianola stack,
malfunction, and so in America these were changed over to #43/#44 as
well.  Evidently, from Robbie's note, this applied also to Pianola
uprights sharing the same stack.  In the UK there was more interest
in pedalling rolls, so the instruments there, including the relatively
rare electric-only Duo-Arts, all stayed at #44/#45.  Obviously it was
a matter of using standard stacks.  Plain "Themodist" (in America
"Themodist-Metrostyle") rolls remained "snake-bitten" for #44/#45.

However, I am prepared to have this account comprehensively falsified.
It would be good to have a survey of surviving instruments.  Pianolas
and "full" and "half" Duo-Arts from both countries exist in fair number
in Australia; perhaps someone there can fill us in?

Dan Wilson, London