Question about strange 1800s melodeon

[Big Squeezy Accordions]

Hello, I am restoring a very old "Imperial Accordeon" melodeon. It has 3 stops. The ones on either end are an octave apart. What is highly unusual is the the middle stop activates a set of reeds usually a 6th, but sometimes a 5th above the lower reed. I have a Hohner Imperator with a quint set of reeds (a 5th above the piccolo reeds), and have worked on Tiger accordions with the quint a 5th above the clarinet reed, but have never come across an accordion with this feature. I'd be curious to know if anyone has seen this before.

 

[Gonk]

Interesting for sure. Do the reeds, valves, and wax all match and look original?

 

[Big Squeezy Accordions]

Interesting for sure. Do the reeds, valves, and wax all match and look original?

Yes, absolutely. It has long zinc plates like a bandoneon with brass reeds. The plates were held in with nails and no wax, though I substituted screws and added wax around the edges after working on the reeds, most of which had become misaligned. It shows no sign of ever having been worked on before.

 

[Gonk]

Very curious indeed. I'd post it over at melodeon.net!
One more question occurs to me - are the notes on the 'quint-ish' plate all in exactly the same scale as the other plates?

 

[Big Squeezy Accordions]

Yes, all the notes are in the key of B, except for some that really far out of tune. I was planning to post on melodeon.net and am just waiting for my registration to be approved. For anyone interested, here are the notes (as I believe them to be intended, some being a semi or even whole tone out of tune) from lowest to highest:
1. close D#3 B3 D#4, open E3 C#4 E4
2. close F#3 D#4 F#4, open A#3 F#4 A#4
3. close B3 F#4 B4, open C#4 A#4 C#5
4. close D#4 B4 D#5, open E4 C#5 E5
5. close F#4 D#5 F#5, open G#4 E5 G#5
6. close B4 F#5 B5, open A#4 F#5 A#5
7. close D#5 B5 D#6, open C#5 A#5 C#6
8. close F#5 D#6 F#6, open E5 C#6 E6
9. close B5 F#6 B6, open G#5 E6 G#6
10. close D#6 B6 D#7, open A#5 F#6 A#6

 

[Gonk]

Hmm, ok. But if you don't "correct" the ones that are a semi or whole step out, what do you have?

 

[Big Squeezy Accordions]

Hmm, ok. But if you don't "correct" the ones that are a semi or whole step out, what do you have?

The low and high "regular" reeds on 8 close are G, which I assume was intended to be F#. The high reed on 9 close is C rather than B, and the high reed on 10 close is F rather than D#. Since none of those notes would make sense on a 10 button B melodeon, it's safe to assume that they are just very out of tune on account of the thing being at least 130 years old.