[ Ref. 180424 MMDigest, Seek Scale for 30-note Piano Melodico ]

In 1888 Giovanni Racca presented his first two Piano Melodicos at
the International Music Exhibition in Bologna.  During this exhibition,
Mr. Paul De Wit bought a Piano Melodico from Racca and brought it to
Germany.  Shortly thereafter, Otto Spaethe of the company Wilhelm
Spaethe of Gera bought from Racca the rights (Patent) to build the
30-note Piano Melodico in Germany.

It is not known how many 30-note instruments Racca built.  For
information, I attach some photos of

The only 30-note original Piano Melodico built by Racca existing to
date is the number 60, owned by the Fondazione Franco Severi Onlus.
This instrument will never be restored, out of respect to the
manufacturer, and it will remain as it was found.

This instrument is part of a collection with 20 different Piano
Melodicos, some of which are unique, plus more than 20 kilometers
of music on perforated cardboard, and a lot of original documents.
All this historical material belongs to the Fondazione Franco Severi
Onlus.

Among these instruments, we find the Piano Melodico belonging to the
Queen Margherita of Savoy, exhibited in the "Musicalia" museum managed
by AMMI: http://www.museomusicalia.it/ 

There are four different kinds of perforated cardboards: 30 notes,
48 notes, 73 notes, and 73 notes plus two holes for automatic
forte-piano, used in the Verdi and Falstaff models.  The cardboards
are made in the shape of zig-zag, roll, and continuous ring [belt].

AMMILab, coordinated by Flavio Pedrazzini, has built devices and
equipment to scan the Racca perforated cardboards and to realize new
ones.  A project is currently underway to scan over 20 kilometers of
music, see  https://sites.google.com/site/wwwammilab/home 

Photos of the original Piano Melodico 30 notes by Racca, and of
three of its 70 cardboards (I believe they are the only existing ones)
perforated and hand-written by Giovanni Racca, are at
https://photos.app.goo.gl/yxDyZKnUyWwFXlmr1 

Best wishes from Italy,

Franco Severi
President AMMI, Italian Association of Mechanical Music.
President Fondazione Franco Severi Onlus
http://www.ammi-mm.it/ 
http://www.museomusicalia.it/ 
http://www.ammilab.com/