At the close of the era of the pipe organ automatic playing systems, the Moller company retained its perforator, master rolls and all records for its Artiste player system. It is believed that this is the only system where all this original material survived together and intact. About 1992, Jim Weisenborne acquired the original perforator, master rolls and all records and documentation from the Möller factory. Ultimately he donated all this to the American Organ Institute at the University of Oklahoma in Norman, Oklahoma. Charles Kegg was friends with Jim and he was aware of the travels of all this treasure. When they landed at the AOI, Charles contacted the AOI and offered his services to help restore the perforator. Over a period from about 2012-2020, several times a year he traveled to Norman for a week at a time and worked on the project where it finally again became functional was making new Artiste rolls from original Master rolls. Here you can find a video of the perforator in operation at the AOI:

At the same time it was recognized that the Master rolls were becoming quite fragile and soon the information on them would be lost. Research was done studying techniques used by others here and abroad to record the roll information in a usable form. The Master rolls are quite large, about 27" wide and weigh 30-40lbs each. This size did not lend itself to methods used by others and a new method was needed.

In 2020 during the Covid pandemic, the University closed down the AOI and disposed of all its assets. Charles was able to take possession of the perforator and all associated materials, with the blessing of Jim Weisenborne. That same year, the perforator and all its accoutrement were moved to the Kegg organ shop in Ohio where they now reside. Here is a photo of the room showing most of the system, just after unloading was complete.

The perforator is on the right. The black file cabinets have all the records and documentation including the stop registration files. On the shelves around the room are the approximately 789 Master rolls.

Since 2020, Charles has engineered a system to capture the information on the Master rolls with complete accuracy. Sensors on the interposers of the perforator indicate their position at each step of the perforator and send them to a computer. Here they are recorded in a proprietary MIDI format, stepping forward with step of the machine. You can see a video of the recording process here:

When a new roll is needed, the file is loaded into the computer and a special trigger machine built by Charles is mounted to the perforator. This machine takes the place of the Master roll. It receives the computer information and positions the punches just as the Master roll did. We will be posting a video of that process soon. Here is a photo of the perforator with the trigger machine in place.

And a closeup of the magnet blocking pins over the feeler pins.