I love the aesthetic/emotional/moral dilemma Frank Metzger poses for
owners of 1815-era music boxes.  While I sympathize with the owners
of such boxes, it's hard to argue with his reasoning, or to think that
owners of such boxes would really want the cement added if they thought
the whole matter through.

A parallel relating to mechanical clocks, which is more my area, would
be replacing an early escapement with a more accurate later technology
in the clock movement.  One could improve timing accuracy that way, at
the cost of historicity.  A clock restorer wouldn't seriously consider
doing so only because timing accuracy isn't as much desired by clock
collectors as beauty of tone is by mechanical instrument collectors.

Lou Davenport