This is the roll label for probably the most novel piano roll idea ever developed! Sadly as with many ingenious ideas it was an evolutionary dead-end! The big cost in roll production was spools. To sell cheap rolls Murdoch & Murchoch of London came up with this idea. The rolls were sold without spools! You bought one special spool with a detatchable end, slotted the roll onto the spool, put the end flange on which locked with a ball bearing type joint and away you went! Special library cases looking like large books were sold to house the rolls.
In this picture on the left is the removable right hand spool end. You can see in the bottom of the central hole where there is a captive ball bearing which engages this end flange when you push it onto the spool assembly. On the right is the right hand end of the spool assembly. You can see the groove in the brass end piece where the bearing clamps into. Through the end projects the standard 65-note drive lug. You can also see the groove in the spool bar which engages with a thin wooden or metal dowel stuck to the inside core of the roll. By having the roll thus engaging onto the spool the roll core doesn't simply slip and slide around the spool bar in rewind. Ingenious. The flange on the other end is fixed like normal and looks like a normal roll flange with a straight pin through it for the other side's spoolbox chuck.
This is what the end of the roll looks like. It just comes all on its own like this! Inside you can see the rod which engages into the spool. The inside of the roll core tube is papered over and the paper runs over the rod to hold it into place. In this example the rod is wooden. 65-note and 88-note versions were made. The idea was short-lived however which is a shame. The tunes on the rolls are usually just standard early fare with average arrangements.
As everyone seems to have difficulty getting spools and boxes for new rolls they make perhaps we should look back to this idea once again!
