Buffalo Convention

The Buffalo Convention of December 10, 1908Music TradeReview, New York, NY, Vol. 47, No. 24, p. 31 from December 12, 1908.] established two future roll formats for the US-producers of piano rolls for self-playing pianos. The two formats had different punchings of 65 and 88 notes, but the same width (11 1/4 inches or 285 mm). This made it possible to play the piano rolls on any self-playing instrument built according to the convention, albeit sometimes with a loss of special functionality. This format became a loose world standard.

References

*William Braid White: "The player-piano up-to-date": a comprehensive treatise ... New York 1914 ("The date of convention is given wrongly as 1909")