Having seen Niels Berkers' posting yesterday and also being able
to see a number of photos he sent me, it is clear that the Unioliszt
piano is a very rare combination of a Phonola and a Phonoliszt.  It
is surprising that after all these years such an instrument should
surface, having never been documented previously.  This is certainly
a new one for the text books.

I would like to clarify a few points made by Niels regarding the
cross-playing capabilities of the two systems.

The standard Hupfeld 73-note scale uses a pin-ended spool of
11-5/8-inches width.  There are five extended holes in the centre of
the tracker bar, positioned alternately with playing notes, which can
be used for a variety of functions on similar scales using the same
roll width, i.e., Phonola, Phonoliszt, Phonoliszt-Violina, Clavitist,
Helios, and other sub-variants of these.  Each style of roll is
designed to play only on its own instrument.

The Phonola roll plays 73 notes from F to F and uses two of the
extended holes as bass and treble themes, called Solodant, similar in
operation to the Aeolian snakebites.  The Phonoliszt roll uses all five
extended holes to operate the overall piano expression, from pp to ff ,
plus the sustain and a split hammer rail.

Playing a Phonola roll on a Phonoliszt will cause the expression to
stay at ff all the time, with any theme perforation causing a momentary
change to pp and back again.  A non-Solodant coded Phonola roll will
play continuously at ff.  Neither of these is a satisfactory state of
affairs.

Playing a Phonoliszt roll on a Phonola will cause the latter's theming
system to be incorrectly operated by the Phonoliszt's expression chain
perforations.  Again, not satisfactory.

The Unioliszt is clearly an interesting instrument and a precursor
to the Pedal Electric Duo-Art and the Hupfeld Triphonola, both of
which allow playing of standard rolls and reproducing rolls, each
electrically or by foot.  I have always thought that Ampico missed
a trick by not fitting their pianos with foot pedals and thus
preventing owners from enjoying playing standard rolls in addition to
listening to reproducing rolls.  But, there again, the Pedal Electric
Duo-Art is a particularly English invention.

If anyone is interested, there is a detailed article on the Phonoliszt
system in the December 2009 issue of the Bulletin of the Player Piano
Group, GB.

Nicholas Simons, GB