Hi everybody.  During the weekend I came to the end of a mending job on a
very desirable Hupfeld roll of some Dohnanyi music. Immediately after the
end of the music someone had glued a piece of aluminium (aluminum to you
U.S. natives) foil about three inches long by an inch wide to the underside
of the paper on the treble side.  The foil was on a completely blank section
of paper.  It must have been a recent modification because I don't think
aluminium foil was around in the 1920s and the glue was spirit soluble not water
soluble.  The whole lot came off the paper without trouble but I'm wondering
why it was put there?  I can only come up with a possible modification to a
player to provide an optical or electrical contact reroll signal.

Halfway through this same roll someone had covered about eight snakebite
perfs with a two inch length of sticky tape, again for no apparent reason.
The roll was in perfect shape there; why do it?

Can anyone explain this bizarre behaviour?

Because the repair of rolls is of great interest to me, I've very much
enjoyed the recent discussion about ironing them. Please, Gerhard
Dangel-Reese, keep the pressure on your paper-restoring friend until he does
reveal his wisdom.  I can hardly wait.

John Phillips in Hobart, Tasmania.