For some time I have been wanting to submit photos and write a bit
about the Welte Philharmonic 10-roll roll changers built by AMI,
the Automatic Musical Instrument Company of Grand Rapids, Michigan.
While I suspect these changers were available to any organ company,
it seems most of them were supplied to the Welte Organ Company for
use with their Philharmonic organs.

The earliest use I have found was a changer with a date rubber-stamped
on the inside of the pneumatic stack of March 5, 1926. The changer
technology derives from the National Coin Piano which used a rotating
carousel holding eight rolls and a selector device that was activated
when a nickel was inserted in one of the eight coin slots.

Since there has recently been some modest discussion about these
changers, including incorrect information (particularly about the roll
changer I restored, as discussed below) I decided now was a good time
for this submission to Mechanical Music Digest.

Several years ago I acquired one of these changers. It was in pretty
bad shape, having lost its original wooden base and original pump.
Everything on it needed a full and complete rebuilding. The restoration
consumed many hundreds of hours spread out over about 1-1/2 years time.
Everything was dismantled down to the last screw, with all parts
cleaned, bead blasted, repaired, refinished, re-leathered, re-wired
and re-assembled piece by piece and finally tested for operation.

There are no known service and regulating manuals, schematics or tubing
diagrams for these machines other than a 2-page guide for service men
out in the field. Thus I had to learn exactly what all the parts did,
how they functioned and how to adjust them for proper operation of the
changer. The devices are a combination of electric, mechanical and
pneumatic actions which all have to work together and function in
specific sequences. I had to figure all this out as I went along.

I was able to find an original [aluminum] vacuum pump and I built an
exact copy of the heavy duty wooden base, copying the construction from
the base of another Welte roll changer I acquired later. (I eventually
had two additional roll changers; one came with an incomplete 10-rank
Welte Philharmonic Organ which I have since sold.)

It took much trial and error to get it to the point of reliable
operation. As with any complex machine from that time period, be it
an auto, a motor cycle, steam locomotive or mechanical music machine,
there are bound to be glitches to be fixed, parts to be re-made or
renewed and problems that surface only after re-assembly.

The changer is a fascinating machine to watch in operation and I have
demonstrated it to any number of visitors. With the AMI selector
device, you push buttons on a remote control box, selecting any number
of the 10 rolls and the machine will automatically turn on, turn on
the organ, play the selected rolls in order, rewinding each roll to the
beginning, and the vertical carousel will move on to the next selected
roll. When all selected rolls have finished playing, it shuts itself
and the organ off.

Munching or shredding of rolls on rewind can not only be a problem with
improper adjustments of the take-up spools, but also with paper that is
brittle from age or poor quality. When I first got the changer working
one of the first rolls I ran through the machine did shred on rewind.
But the paper on that roll was extremely brittle and it would have
self-destructed no matter what spoolbox it was played on.

Since then I have never had any problems and none of the various rolls
I have loaded on the changer were ever damaged. I have spent a lot of
time letting the machine run through lots of rolls to test reliability
of the various functions. I never had any malfunctions of the machine
during the various times I demonstrated it for visitors.

I will submit some additional information to MMD of the restoration
process very shortly.

Dave Krall
Hammond, Indiana
djkrall@sbcglobal.net.geentroep [delete ".geentroep" to reply]

 [ Before and after
 [ https://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/23/05/10/230510_212755_Before%20&%20after.jpg 

 [ Motor and pump
 [ https://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/23/05/10/230510_212755_100_42851.jpg 

 [ Sprockets and chains
 [ https://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/23/05/10/230510_060036_100_4320.JPG 

 [ Rolls installed
 [ https://www.mmdigest.com/Attachments/23/05/10/230510_060036_100_4297.JPG 

 [ Some related MMD articles:
 [ https://www.mmdigest.com/Archives/Digests/201806/2018.06.15.08.html 
 [ https://www.mmdigest.com/Archives/Digests/201806/2018.06.16.03.html 
 [ https://www.mmdigest.com/Archives/Digests/202109/2021.09.25.02.html 
 [ -- Robbie