I just read an exceptional article by Larry Doe, posted on his
blog, about late Ampico rolls and their production.  Anyone who is
interested in Ampico or Duo-Art rolls should read it and look at the
accompanying pictures that illustrate his findings.  You can view his
blog at http://doesigns.spaces.live.com/

The article answers some questions about late Ampico rolls that have
been a puzzle for many years.  It was a revelation to find out that
many late Ampico rolls were not produced from the familiar 3-to-1
roll masters but were punched from Duo-Art-style cardboard masters on
Duo-Art perforators.  This also explains why many of the late Ampico
rolls produced by Harold Powell (Klavier) were not perforated from
3-to-1 master rolls, the masters didn't exist and the Ampico
perforators could not use the cardboard masters.

To make copies of these late rolls Powell had a 1-to-1 perforator
constructed to punch these rolls from original copies using one of the
original Ampico perforators as the basis.  This is all explained very
well in Larry's article plus many other interesting facts like his
editing and reconstruction of an unpublished Ampico roll from an
existing cardboard stencil.

I have one of Larry Doe's archival scanners and have scanned recuts
from Klavier and Givens.  It is possible to recover the punch matrix
from rolls that were perforated on the original equipment with the
3-to-1 masters because they are, for all intents and purposes, original
rolls.  Some late B recut rolls have been scanned but the punch matrix
could not be recovered and now we know why: they were made from 1-to-1
copies because the masters did not exist.  Since some original late B
rolls were punched from cardboard stencil masters and perforated on
the Duo-Art perforators, that would also account for the difference
in appearance of the scanned roll images.

As a dedicated collector I'm quite excited to learn that Keystone will
be back in production with the ability to produce quality recuts of
any Ampico roll not just those from existing masters.  Fascinating
information to me -- great job, Larry!

Michael Swanson
Morgan Hill, Calif.