I have taken a slight interest in the Artrio Angelus.  The reference
to the US patent 1168691 gives a good insight into the system.  I also
have a roll, no. 8030, "My Baby's Arms", played by R. O. Erlebach.

According to the patent, the allocation of expression ports on the
tracker is uneven.  The only expression on the bass side is the snake
bites, whereas on the treble, there are two ports to the left of the
snake bites, and another ports to the right of the snake bites.

However, examination of the roll shows that there are only four rows
of punchings to the right of the treble snake bites.

I have a Recordo system and this has the 98-hole tracker.  The table
below gives some data using the terminology of counting in from each
end of the tracker to get the numbers.

Port	Recordo  	Themodist	Artrio

B1	Bass Hammer	N/A      	Used singly
B2	N/A      	N/A      	Rewind (with B1)
B3	Loud Pedal	Loud Pedal	Loud pedal
B4	N/A      	Snake bite	Snake bite
B5	Rewind   	Snake bite	Snake bite

T0	N/A      	N/A      	Accomp
T1	Treble Hammer	Hammer Rail?	Accomp
T2	1st Inten	N/A      	Accomp
T3	2nd Inten	N/A      	Accomp
T4	3rd Inten	Snake bite	Snake bite
T5	4th Inten.	Snake bite	Snake bite

From B1 to T1 there are 98 holes on the Recordo.

The scales I have seen in the PPCo 1983/5 catalog give the functions
for the Artrio.  There are 100 functions, but if the snake bites take
up two hole rows, then there should be effectively 102 hole rows punched
on an Artrio roll.

This is too wide.  A roll can take only 100 rows.  The PPCo catalog
says in one part there are 85 playing notes but further on says 84
playing notes.  I think the figure is 84.

In the roll I have, there are only four places through the roll where
hole B1 is punched.  If this is an accompaniment port, then the other
accompaniment ports are not punched on the roll I have.

Without looking too closely at the roll, it appears that extensive use
of the treble snake bites has been used and my guess is that the theme
system has been used to set the treble playing level and the bass level
is set at minimum for the whole roll, except for four small sections
(about 2 inch each).

So is the hole spacing less than 1/9-inch for the treble expression
hole spacing?  Could be, but given the Wilcox and White company used
the Themodist system, it is hard to believe that the hole spacing to
the edges of the snake bite perforations was non-standard.  That would
leave the edge space to have six holes located where the standard
spacing would give only five.

To give the same edge clearance, for six holes to go where five would
go would give a hole spacing of 0.089 inch ((1/9) /5 *4).  To put five
holes where four previously were would give a spacing of 0.083 inch.
Looks like I'm not the only one a bit confused.

I also note that I think it was David Krall who made the Artrio his
specialty.  There was some attempt to find an Artrio collector in
Australia.  I do know of the person referred to and I did contact him
recently to give him the roll I have.  Unfortunately, communication was
difficult and to date not much progress has been had.  It is not clear
if this guy still has the Angelus grand piano.

Paul Rumpf
Melbourne, Australia

 [ The familiar accenting device using "snake bites" in the music roll
 [ was called "Themodist" by Aeolian, "Melodant" by Wilcox & White,
 [ and elsewhere it was called "Solodant".  See image at the link below.

 [ Artrio-Angeles 7512, Verdi-Liszt: Rigoletto Paraphrase, Ethel Leginska
 [ http://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/17/05/31/170531_211422_AA7512b.png