[ Ref. 190823 MMD, Welte-Mignon (Licensee) Recording Process ]

I might as well involve myself in this discussion as I have direct
knowledge of the American Welte pipe organ perforator (built by
Wurlitzer for Welte in Poughkeepsie) as well as some indirect
knowledge of the American-built Welte recording machine now at the
Museum of Music Automatons in Seewen, Switzerland.

I had extensive discussions with Merv Fulton of Tulare, California.
Around 1952 or so, Merv purchased the Welte recording machine, Welte
perforator, the single-punch punching machine for punching out the
ink lined masters that came off the recording machine (Merv refers
to this machine as the "sewing machine", because that's what it
looks like), all of the Welte Philharmonic organ roll masters (well
over 1,000 masters) and about 4,000 Philharmonic production copies.

Merv had had communication with Dick Simonton at the time and it
was Simonton who referred Merv to Wallace Kimball.  Merv built a
pipe organ to play the Welte organ rolls and produced a series of
LP recordings.  When he finished with this project he sold the
organ, sold the perforator, the "sewing machine" and all the rolls
to Bob Johnson of Rossville, Georgia (a collector/dealer).

Bob spent several years selling Welte organ rolls to various collectors
and sold the perforator to Durrell Armstrong at Player Piano Company,
Wichita, Kansas.  The recording machine, however, Merv sold directly
to Jim Ballantine, enthusiast and owner of a machine shop in New Jersey
who was going to partner up with Durrell to record new piano rolls for
a new pneumatic player system Durrell planned to market to piano
manufacturers.

The recording machine as it exists now is missing the inking mechanism.
The general belief I heard is that Ballantine had removed the mechanism
from the machine and it was somewhere in his cluttered machine shop and
that when he died his family probably did not realize it went with the
recording machine and so it went to the dump with a lot of other stuff
as they cleaned out the shop.

The recorder (minus the ink mechanism) eventually found it's way through
various owners to the museum in Switzerland.  There are photos of the
recording machine that show the inking mechanism in place and the belief
is that these photos were taken in Ballantine's shop.

However,  this story on how the ink mechanism disappeared is not
correct.  And the photos were not taken in the Ballantine shop but
rather in Chicago in a storeroom at the Kimball factory.  I showed the
photos to Merv Fulton and told him the above story and he told me that
those photos could not have been taken at Ballantine's shop as the
photos show the inking mechanism with the rubber still on the steel
spindles.

Merv said that when everything arrived in Tulare from Chicago (occupying
a full railroad boxcar) the rubber had dried out, cracked and broken
apart, and was lying in pieces on the bottom of the bedplate.  We both
came to the conclusion that the photos had to have been taken at Kimball
and were most likely taken by Dick Simonton.

As to the disappearance of the ink mechanism, Merv related how he and
his brother crated up the machine and shipped it by motor freight to
New Jersey.  A couple of weeks later Merv gets a phone call from a
distraught Jim Ballantine who said that when the crate arrived, one
side was broken and smashed out and the ink mechanism was missing.
Merv could only conclude that perhaps the crate was knocked off a
loading dock somewhere during it's journey and the ink mechanism got
destroyed.

Why the damaged ink mechanism was not delivered along with the rest
of the recorder is up for speculation.  Perhaps the freight handler
responsible for the damage got rid of it so as to claim it was never
there.  Who knows...

Anyway, prior to crating it up, Merv and his brother made a 16-mm movie
of the recorder in operation, pretending to record the organ.   You can
see it here:

https://www.musikautomaten.ch/mma/en/home/britannic-orgel/story-of-the-welte-company/capturing-performances-in-freiburg--leipzig-and-new-york.html 
https://player.vimeo.com/video/305685076?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0 

Stay tuned for Part 2.

Dave Krall

 [   Showing the inking mechanism partially slid out for servicing.
 [ http://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/19/08/25/190825_154522_Inking%203.jpg 
 [   Mechanism fully in place engaged with mechanical drive.
 [   One of the rubber covered steel spindles sits on the bed of the machine.
 [ http://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/19/08/25/190825_154522_Inking%204.jpg 
 [   View with the mechanism in place.  There is a fold down shelf
 [   used to support it when pulled out for servicing.
 [ http://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/19/08/25/190825_154522_Recorder%20Large%20A2.jpg