Hello MMD and Ian Comer. I have been looking at "Player Piano
Treasury", Edition 2, by Harvey Roehl. The first few pages of the
book summarize the early history of the player piano, including the
statement that the "Aeriol" self-playing piano was an early (1895)
product of the Aeolian Company. See page 5 of the book. However, on
page 17 there is a mention of the Aeolian-produced "Aeriola", a medium
priced cabinet style player. It sounds as if this is the instrument
in the Redlands Museum in Queensland.
I have just looked through my 65-note roll collection and find that
I have three Aeriol rolls. These have just one patent date stamped on
the leader: May 12th, 1891. Of course, this doesn't mean that they
were made in 1891, but I suspect they are not much younger. They play
perfectly well on my 65-note push-up, circa 1912.
John Phillips in Hobart, Tasmania
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