Hello MMD Readers,  While we launched our illustrated page with the
British patent drawings of 1924 some time ago, it wasn't until now that
I mustered the fortitude to transcribe the five accompanying pages of
descriptive text, written in "patentese" and using strange sentence
structures.

Possibly the author, patent attorney for Pleyel in London, Monsieur
Cachemaille, had difficulties in translating the French legal text
into another language, or perhaps the muddled descriptions and faulty
punctuation were typical of that day.

At any rate, the entire text is there, which explains the Pleyel
device, and which, in recent times, has been linked with George
Antheil's "Ballet Mecanique".  I think that an examination of these
pages will make it perfectly clear that the Antheil composition was
never composed for 16 pneumatic player actions, especially since the
invention was really meant for a second piano or musical instrument.
Three synchronized rolls would be taxing the concept, but there is an
existing 1929 device, using the Pleyel system, and it's due to be
rebuilt in the very near future. (News of this will appear in our
Newsletters and Antheil URLs when more information is allowed to be
released to the public.)  I can say this, however, that the '29 player,
which features the 3-hole system of Pleyel roll control, has nothing to
do with "Ballet Mecanique", meaning that once again a revisionist red
herring has probably been tossed into this topic!

I have written a "Preface" for the original 1924 Patent text, to assist
in explaining the operation of the Pleyel roll synchronizing equipment.
(The surviving '29 player, by the way, came with a single roll featuring
the 3 'control' perforations, proving that any claims that "it didn't
work" were made without a thorough study of the patent and its intended
use.)

Here's the updated URL with the "Pleyel Patent Drawing":
http://www.wiscasset.net/artcraft/pleyel6.htm

This is linked to the new "Patent Specification/Text" page, featuring
my "Preface": http://www.wiscasset.net/artcraft/patent.htm

(Note, the patent drawings on the first web page are perfect in
Netscape Communicator and Navigator, also Microsoft's IE.  My default
browser, Opera 5.02, distorts the illustration; I hope to correct this
soon by rephotographing the facsimile which the Patent Office in South
Wales sent to me.  We have a higher resolution digital camera here,
which wasn't the case when the prior JPEG image was made.  If you
are using Opera, try one of the other browsers at the present time,
when viewing this page only.)

It appears that composer George Antheil "adapted" an existing patent
idea for the World War II submarine torpedo device, co-developed with
actress Hedy Lamarr.  It's not a very big jump to move a "tracking
system" design, which operated a standard "tempo lever", to vary
radio condenser frequency coils of that period, viz. "knob twisting".
One wonders who at the Pleyel piano factory, just prior to Antheil's
arrival in Paris, was working out the details for this unusual
"synchronizing" system.  He or she seems to have been left out of
the recent 'rediscovery' discussions of the Antheil-Lamarr patents,
concepts which parallel later developments in the sphere of cellular
telephones.

If these subjects interest you -- basically, all player roll designs
-- check out those two web pages listed above!  With a May 3, 2001
"Ballet Mecanique" concert coming to Boston, again promoting the
"written for 16 Pianolas" theory and then probably giving the listener
other types of instruments, one should examine and weigh all the
elements here, regarding this unusual experimental work.  So far,
those who've heard the 1991 Artcraft rolls for solo pianola are more
than satisfied with the technical precision, the pulsating rhythms and
the loud dynamics inherent in a single pneumatic player action.

Regards from Maine,
Douglas Henderson - Artcraft Music Rolls
http://www.wiscasset.net/artcraft/