Hi all,  I read with interest Andrew Ott's posting in the July 5
posting in the MMD about storing music rolls and I think Jack Breen and
a few others have said it very well about rubber bands, but I will add
my two cents worth also.  But first I will address a few of the other
questions that Andrew asked.

What _is_ the best way to store rolls, anyway?  In the dark?

Rolls are already in the dark inside the boxes, so for the rolls that
is not too much of an issue, except for the acid in the box material
can darken the paper of some rolls.

Now, the boxes and box labels are another issue.  When exposed to UV
rays from sunlight, the boxes and box labels on some brands do have a
tendency for the ink to fade.  So, I would say, do not expose your roll
boxes to a lot of sunlight.  Roll cabinets or other storage cabinets
are great for keeping rolls from too much sunlight.

Temperature: 70-75 degrees?
Humidity:    40-60 percent RH?

It is best to keep your rolls -- and your pianos, for that fact -- in
a nice environmentally controlled room, but most of us do not have the
funds for the costs of such a room to keep temperature and humidity
to a perfect state.  The temperature and humidity ranges listed above
sound quite reasonable.  I would try to maintain the temperature fairly
constant throughout the year. With today's homes we do have heat for
winter and cooling systems in the summer

The same is true for the humidity.  Try to keep the humidity fairly
constant.  Between winter and summer in some locations throughout the
country there are vast swings.  So in the winter I have both a room
humidifier as well as one on the heating system to keep the humidity
up as high as possible.  The summers here in Virginia are not a problem
with humidity.  Everything is happy.

Do not store your rolls in an attic as it gets too hot and the rolls
are going to get damaged and dry out.  I have even seen some flanges
have warped from the heat.  On the same token, do not store your rolls
in a damp basement where they can become damp and moldy.

Horizontal, I presume?  If you look at most collections of rolls you
will find that 99% of all rolls are stored horizontally.  Works great
you can read the labels on the shelves, and the paper stays in a normal
playing position.  I do not recommend vertical storage as the paper on
the rolls has a tendency to unwind, slide down to the bottom of the box
and in time can warp the paper and cause it to not play right.

Best insect protection: moth balls?

Moths???  Moths are not interested in music rolls!  So forget smelly
mothballs.  You do have two main insect pests who love music rolls.

The silverfish is one pest, who loves the glue used on roll and box
labels.  They eat right through the labels and devour the glue.  You
can get many products for silverfish that work great.  I usually find
one that are like corrugated cardboard and they have the stuff inside
the corrugated part and the silverfish go in and eat it and their life
is history.

Termites are the other destructive pest for rolls.  If you find
termites, you have a greater problem and you need your house fumigated.
Termites don't have much musical ability and their holes do not really
add much to the music.  At least I have not found any rolls that
sounded better with their added holes to the paper.  Have anyone else
found a better composition?

Another pest who sometimes likes to eat rolls and boxes are mice. They
can do a lot of damage as well.

Rubber band, or no rubber band?  (Where can one get the right size of
rubber bands for 88-note rolls?)

Over the years when music roll companies produced rolls they used
sting, paper seals and unfortunately discovered that rubber bands were
a lot cheaper to put on their rolls, to keep the rolls from unwinding
during shipment to the dealers.  The only purpose for using string,
paper seals and regrettably rubber bands was to keep the paper wound
tight during shipment.

Rolls with the string could still be used, but it is not necessary and
string sometimes has a habit of getting in the way of some reroll
mechanisms on some pianos that are equipped with part of the reroll
system on the take up spool and the roll usually rewinds.  You can cut
the string off and discard it.  Later it became more economical to wrap
a paper seal around the roll.  This was the best method, as you tore
off the paper seal and discarded it. No problems with this method at
all

Unfortunately, someone in the music roll companies discovered that
rubber bands were cheaper  and faster to use than the paper seal and we
are in the mess we are in today because of it.

Who invented the rubber band?  Look it up on the Internet.  But there
seems to be two or more people responsible for the mess.  One is
Stephen Perry of London, on March 17, 1845, and the other person is
William Spencer on March 7, 1923.  In college I had a professor who
was of Russian decent and he always claimed the Russians invented
everything first.

In any event: throw those rubber bands away as soon as the roll comes
in the door!  Eliyahu and Jack told you about some very important
issues with rubber bands and why you should not use them.  Here are
a couple of other good reasons not to use them.

Sometimes as you pull the rubber band off the roll, you may find the
end tab being ripped off also.  Very upsetting.

Sometimes the rubber band has the tendency to slip between the flange
and the paper coils and, as Jack and Eli told you about the gumminess,
you will probably not notice the rubber band until you play the roll
and find the roll tearing to pieces where the rubber band stuck to the
paper and flange and is now tearing your treasured roll.  So the bottom
line is this: *get rid of all those rubber bands!*

If you would like to see what rubber bands do to a fine collection
of roll, I welcome anyone to come and visit and I will show you how
destructive rubber bands are to your collection.

Musically,
Larry Norman - from the heart of the Beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains
of Virginia.  Beautiful days, and I am going to have a bumper crop of
tomatoes unless the deer find and eat them.