Mechanical Music Digest |
You Are Not Logged In | Login/Get New Account |
Please Log In. Accounts are free!
Logged In users are granted additional features including a more current version of the Archives and a simplified process for submitting articles. |
MMD MMMedia telelectric |
Pittsfield, Massachusetts data courtesy Bob & Ginny Billings Between 1907 and 1918 the Tel-Electric Company made two different all-electric
piano player systems. The earlier 65-note system originally was called
the
The music rolls for both systems were designed originally to play a note sheet of brass, 3 thousandths inch thick (.003"). The roll of perforated brass sheeting was enclosed in a sturdy brass cylinder: the 65-note rolls played by the Telelectric (Tel-Electric) system were encased in a cylinder 5-1/8 inch long, whereas the 88-note brass rolls for the Telektra system were in a case 7 inches long. The roll number is usually stamped on the first half-inch of the roll or on the end of the roll case. Sometime in the mid 'teens the 88-note "Telektra" system was redesigned to play music rolls of heavy, stiff paper, probably due to the brass shortage during WW1. The rolls look something like miniature standard paper 88-note rolls: the heavy paper is spooled on cardboard cores and the spool flanges are small diameter conventional 88-note flanges with the normal slot at the driving end. A history of the Tel-Electric Company, including about 450 pages of
a catalog of the music rolls produced by Tel-Electric Co. between 1905
and 1917 (about 6,000 titles), is published in volume 6 of The
Billings Rollography.
18 May 2004 |
|
|
|
|
CONTACT FORM: Click HERE to write to the editor, or to post a message about Mechanical Musical Instruments to the MMD Unless otherwise noted, all opinions are those of the individual authors and may not represent those of the editors. Compilation copyright 1995-2024 by Jody Kravitz. Please read our Republication Policy before copying information from or creating links to this web site. Click HERE to contact the webmaster regarding problems with the website. |
|
||||||
|