Perhaps one of the reasons for the development of the fan accordion
Duo-Art expression system is that it plays both U.S. and U.K. roll
styles well.  Right now I have two fans and one standard, all grand
pianos, all in the same room, and the comparison is most interesting.
I have many U.K. rolls and the fan systems play them as well as they
play the U.S. rolls.  The main difference seems to be fans get
fabulously soft without dropping notes, have a different volume curve
but top out like a standard.  I like them both.

In my hunting up the history of the fan-system, I have found information
about five Steinways with them, serialized in 1927.  _None_ of these
pianos were electric drive, cone gear exchange long-play pianos (of
which there may have been several hundred).

The important thing about the 1927 serials is that, even taking the
tardiness of Garwood into account, it could mean the fan system was
developed in 1925-1926.  There are several that had the spoolbox
(electric roll drive), expression system and stack _above_ the keyboard.
The existence of electric magnets would indicate a Concertola may have
also been connected.

It seems the fan systems were not to have been intended as a
replacement to the standard system, as both were available to the end.
Thus the long-play Steinways of the early '30s and the Chickering
drawer-model Duo-arts of the mid-30s have standard systems, while
possibly the last Duo-Art built was a drawer model with a fan system.
One of the 10 Steinway "D's" (269100), built/completed in 1931, was a
fan system with the spoolbox (electric roll drive), expression system
and stack above the keyboard.

I question the thinking that fans were "experimental" models; there
were too many for me to believe that.  There is too much engineering
involved for it to be explained as "cost-cutting".  Also, for the
reasons above, I do not believe fans were intended to replace the
existing system, like the "B" Ampico seems to have been.  Having said
that, it is interesting the Ampico "B" doesn't seem to have been
installed in the last 500 Ampico's -- the spinets.  But I am not an
Ampico man and have no idea why the "B" might have been abandoned at
such a late stage.

It does seem to me that a lot of effort went into engineering these
little sweethearts, too much for the return of the "A" as just a
cost-cutting measure.  I have two excellent rebuilder-friends, one
is an "A" man, the other a "B" man, so I know both Ampico systems have
staunch and knowledgeable followers.

I have read many pronouncements made with much certainty (but at
times with little documentation) over the years.  Without factory
documentation about everything/anything I have said about any of the
above, I can only wonder.  It's the mystery that keeps me looking for
more information.

There _must_ be more printed material about the fan-systems and the
Concertolas that Frank Adams had in his Duo-Art manual.  Has anyone
found it?  I'd love to know more.

Bruce Grimes