Roller Organ

For the Autophone paper strip organette, also manufactured by Autophone Company, see Autophone.

Roller Organs were manufactured by Autophone Company from the mid 1880s through the mid 1920s.

If company announcements can be trusted, there were 50,000 Gems in use by 1892, and a peak production of 18,000 per year through that decade. If production slumped proportionally to the workforce, in 1916 they would have produced perhaps only 5,000. Still, by plotting their 40 years of production, over 400,000 instruments may have been produced. Similarly, if the production of rollers was steadily proportional to the numbers of instruments, it is quite possible that well over 5,000,000 rollers were produced.1)

The Autophone Company patented most design features of their roller organs, pinning machines and rollers.

• US Patent number: 363841, Issue date: May 31, 1887, “Mechanical Musical Instrument”
• US Patent number: 315052, Issue date: Apr 7, 1885, “Machine For Inserting Pins In Music-Barrels”
• US Patent number: 322390, Issue date: Jul 14, 1885, “Barrel For Mechanical Musical Instruments”

• “Pedestal Leg” Gem
• Pressure “Box Case”
• Pressure Gem

• Gem Roller Organ (most common model)
• Home Music Box
• “Box Case” Roller Organ
• Concert with Bottom Reservoir
• Concert Roller Organ / Chautauqua Roller Organ (most common model)

• Grand Roller Organ

Although the roller organ mechanism appears simple, it is a masterpiece of design, producing several operations at once: First, the hand crank turns the crankshaft in its bearing, which operates the exhauster by a wooden connecting rod–each crankshaft revolution producing one exhauster cycle. Secondly, through the crankshaft worm gear and drive gear, the motion of the crank is translated at a ratio of 28:1 to the rotation of the roller shaft, and to the roller itself via the alignment pin. Third, the roller shaft uses a 10 threads per inch feed screw and half nut to shift the roller to the right one-tenth inch with each roller revolution. Fourth, a pin trips the carriage release lever at the end of the third roller revolution. The carriage then tilts toward the front on its pivot screw, disengaging the screw from the half nut, which allows the return spring to move the carriage to its original (left) position. And fifth, as the carriage reengages the half nut and the hand crank is paused at the end of the song, the organ is ready for another play. And finally, the pins of the roller open the pallet valves via the valve levers.

• Mean Temperament
• Not tuned to a standard pitch
• most Pressure Gem:
  D#,G#,A#,(middle)C,C#,D,D#,F,G,G# - A,A#,C,C#,D,D#,F,G,G#,A#
• most Gem:
  D,G,A,B,(middle)C,C#,D,E,F#,G - G#,A,B,C,C#,D,E,F#,G,A
• most pre-1908 Concert:
  E,F#,G#,A,A#,B,C#,D#,E,F - F#,G#,A,A#,B,C#,D#,E,F#
• most post-1908 Concert, Gem:
  C#,F#,G#,A#,B,(middle)C,C#,D#,F,F# - G,G#,A#,B,C,C#,D#,F,F#,G#

Since Autophone Company held the patent on the roller design itself, they were the sole producer. Over their years of production, they issued over 1050 titles for the 20-note organs, and over 150 titles for 32-note organs.

Music consisted of a large variety of hymns, popular and classical tunes. Although a large quantity of rollers containing hymn tunes were sold, hymns account for only about 25% of the 20-note titles, and about 10% of 32-note titles. In addition to music for English-speaking cultures, there were more than 200 titles provided for diverse ethnic groups: Bohemian, Finnish, German, Norwegian, Polish, Spanish, Swedish, Welsh.

Full documentation on Rollers (Cobs) may be found online at the Roller Organ Cobography

New music and reproduction rollers, for both 20-note Gem/Concert Roller Organs and 32-note Grand Roller Organs, are now produced by Honor Rolls, and available either directly or from Todd Augsburger's Roller Organ Store.

Supplies specifically for repair of roller organs are available at Todd Augsburger's Roller Organ Store

• Augsburger, Todd. Roller Organs–The Autophone Company's “Ingenious Mechanism”, 2003.

• Organette
• Autophone Company
• Autophone

• Todd Augsburger's Roller Organ Website
• Roller Organ Cobography