(Photograph courtesy of Art Reblitz.)

Step 1: Marion Wright plays a popular tune in real time on a two-manual recording console. The bundles of tubing at the upper left are connected to a recording machine that draws pencil lines on a moving roll of blank paper.

(Photograph courtesy of Art Reblitz.)

Step 2: P.M. Keast edits the hand-played pencil master, correcting mistakes, making the rhythm perfect, and adding lines for expression, registration — and for orchestrion rolls, percussion.

(Photograph courtesy of Art Reblitz.)

Step 3: Phil Oberg hand-punches the beginning and end of each hole in a pencil master roll. His right hand manipulates a series of small levers that engage individual punches when the long lever on top is depressed, while his left hand turns a paper advance wheel. The paper has sprocket holes along each edge, while a ratchet controls the advance one precise step at a time. All equipment from the arranging board to the reader on the perforator had the same paper advance to maintain rhythmic accuracy. After this step, another worker cut out the slots between Oberg’s beginning and ending perforations (not shown).

(Photograph courtesy of Art Reblitz.)

Step 4: Mr. Larson operates a production perforator. The paper is fed through the perforator face down with the punches entering from the back surface so the slight burrs surrounding the holes will face away from the tracker bar.

(Photograph courtesy of Art Reblitz.)

Step 5: Miss Harmes compares a batch of production rolls to an original for accuracy. The device in the foreground is a single-punch editing perforator used for correcting mistakes and adding any holes that the perforator missed due to the mechanism sticking.