Years ago I "restored" some sub-master rolls for Harold Powell at
Klavier.  The masters were made of a quite robust material, but the
sub-masters were of the cheapest acidic paper with virtually no grain.
They were so brittle, in some cases, that they could not even be unrolled
without breaking.

The restoration was necessary because the some of the masters had been
lost, and all that was left was the sub-masters.  According to Hal,
originally production was done with the sub-masters, and when they wore
out they were discarded.  The masters were used only to make sub-masters.

Hal had somehow come up with a solution(!) that made the unusable brittle
sub-masters at least copy-able, so new masters could be made.  This was a
blue liquid used by beauty salons to add body to hair.  (I still have
some of it.  It would be interesting to experiment with it again.)

The method was to spray a fine mist on the roll, then as the liquid
penetrated the paper, slowly unroll the paper onto a smooth, large
diameter cylinder.  I used a 5 gallon water bottle.  In a few minutes
the fluid would dry and the process was repeated.

The fluid softened the paper so that it would not break, then as it dried
it would provide a sort of flexible matrix that held the paper together.
It was never intended that the "restored" rolls be used for anything than
to create new masters, but they did hold up well for at least a few
years.  If the fluid is organic, which I suspect, it would not be a
prudent treatment for anything one wanted to keep.  I envision hordes of
microscopic critters feasting on it.

Bob Billings

 [ I wonder if one component was a wetting agent (a surfactant or
 [ detergent?) like Kodak Photo-Flo.  This liquid has no odor, other
 [ than it smells "wet"!  -- Robbie