In the massive book by Charles Davis Smith, "The Welte-Mignon --
Its Music and Musicians", there is a section covering the 1915
agreement between Welte and Wurlitzer.  I digested it for an article
in the Player Piano Group magazine, looking at the history of the
Mignon system.  Without having any direct knowledge of the issues,
what I came up with was as follows.  It explains Spencer Chase's rolls,
which I don't think previous postings have managed to do!

  "On 12 February, 1914, Edwin Welte arranged for The Rudolph Wurlitzer
Manufacturing Company to take 48% of the common stock of M. Welte &
Sons, with Edwin to remain in charge for 5 years.  The price paid was
$72,000.  Wurlitzer never exercised their rights to buy the preferred
stock.  The arrangement was short-lived: for some reason, late in 1914
or early in 1915, Wurlitzer sold their stock back to M. Welte & Sons.
They should have received back their original sum, although Wurlitzer's
records show that half was never paid.

  "Welte had been in some form of supply arrangement with Wurlitzer
since 1910 or even earlier, and had known the Wurlitzer family for
decades.  Wurlitzer were one of the world's largest mechanical music
firms, and their more populist lines complemented the Welte ones.
Wurlitzer soon introduced the "Wurlitzer Electric Piano - Autograph
style", adopting one of the various Welte descriptions of the Mignon.

  "This was an 11.25" format system: Welte's wider rolls had excluded
them from this burgeoning standard, and because the Wurlitzer product
was aimed for public entertainment venues it would not compete with the
T100 domestic instruments, even though the same master rolls could be
used.

  "These Wurlitzer machines used Welte expression units with everything
else from Wurlitzer.  However, the 11.25" rolls were made by Welte.
The Wurlitzer contract gave them some rights to the master recordings
which were maintained after Welte stopped perforating rolls.  In later
years forms of the Welte performances appeared from other roll
manufacturers, adapted for the different non-Welte mechanisms then
fitted.

  "The classical repertoire they had acquired was of very little
marketable value in the realm of coin-operated pianos.  Sales were
negligible, with only 13 units sold from 1915 to 1918.  The rolls were
used in modified form for the Apollo / Artecho machines they sold into
the mid-1920s, which had an entirely different mechanism.  Although the
terms of the agreement were that the roll labels should state they were
licensed from Welte, they do not."

It sounds as if the rolls being scanned by Spencer Chase are the
original Welte versions, not the (presumably more common) later Apollo
variants.

What's interesting about this system is that it appears to be the
origin of what became the Licensee format, and is an original Edwin
Welte variant of the Mignon system, not one of the companies that later
laid their hands on the system after Edwin's ousting from the American
business (his last direct involvement being in July 1914).

The Wurlitzer Autograph dates from 1914 or 1915, and the Licensee was
introduced in Autumn 1916.  The Freiburg-designed T98 "Green" system
using 11.25" paper didn't appear until 1924.

Julian Dyer