Range by copyright or earliest known publication date

All cobs with known publication dates (after 1850) are available in a list format.

• Cobs Listed By Publication Year

This graph represents a partial list of known cobs, based on Cobs Listed By Publication Year, Range from Tune Lists (below), and The Roller Organ Cob Handbook, and excluding those with copyright/publication dates prior to the beginning of production (1884).

The release of late popular 20-note titles (#1001 through #1297) closely follows their copyright/publication date. Late hymn tunes (#721 through #760) were released at a much slower rate. New popular 32-note titles (#2001 through #2041) were evidently released for only a short period, circa 1892 through 1896. Many hymn tunes (particularly #1 through #99 and #3001 through #3017) do not appear, as they were dated prior to 1884. Few hymn tunes were released after 1900.

Richard Dutton has an excellent article Some Observations About the Dating of the Music on Regular and Grand Roller Organ Cobs in the May/June 2006 issue of the MBSI Journal (MBSI 2006 52-3), page 23. MBSI Members may access the article online.

Cobs ranges based on published tune lists

The date of published data is especially difficult to establish, as there are often long delays between obtaining a new tune list, typesetting it, and publishing the final page. In addition, some companies appear to have used the same list for many years. The summary is arranged in order of increasing numbers of cobs within ranges.

Some estimates can be made regarding the approximate year of cob release, although they are likely to be inaccurate where data is sparce. For the purpose of estimation, it is assumed that production figures were linear in nature unless actual data suggests otherwise. These estimates may be revised as more data is obtained.