[ I typed the price incorrectly in MMD 020127.  The correct price
 [ (without shipping charges) is as Julian reports following and the
 [ price is equivalent 25.71 USD at todays Interbank exhange rate.
 [ -- Robbie

Further to the details already given about how to order this book,
there's a far easier way for the web-enabled who have a credit card!
It is listed on amazon.de, cost 29.80 euros (58.28 DM).  Try URL link:

http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/3932863348/qid=1012221901/sr=8-3/ref=sr_aps_prod_3_2/302-3486701-4700024

 [ This minimal version works for me:  -- Robbie
 [ http://www.amazon.de/exec/obidos/ASIN/3932863348/

Postage to most of Europe is 7.16 euros plus 1 euro per book, to the
rest of the world it's 15.34 plus 2.53.  I phoned round a few friends
who got 4 copies to share out the postage -- now a few people have seen
it I could have made that 8 copies!  The only hassle (for me) in
registering with Amazon.de was linguistic, but the translation services
on the web saw to that.

The book is extremely impressive, and I really recommend anyone with
any interest in this area to purchase a copy.  It has many photographs
of the recording artists in the studio, plus fascinating photographs of
Hupfeld showrooms around the world, and a few photographs of the roll
production.  The reproduction of the photographs is very fine, on good
art paper, so you can make out the smallest details.  The text gives a
full analysis of the rolls and the photographs.  Albert Petrak is well
advanced with an English translation which I look forward to seeing!

I am amazed that the book is so cheap; for such a specialist subject
I think it's quite wonderful value.

Taking on the guise of Dan Wilson's "Cornermen" -- One little snippet
is that the rolls were spooled as they came off the perforators, so
they must have been cut from back to front (which explains the
upside-down inspection mark on Hupfeld rolls).  The perforators all
have a large master roll sitting on top with a pneumatic system to
operate the interposers, with line shafting driving the perforators
themselves.  Each perforator has its own suction supply sitting besides
it.

Down the line of perforators you can see a fine assortment of different
models of pump, which must have been taken from pianos.  The mixture
of pumps is rather at odds with the otherwise pristine neatness and
regularity of the factory floor.

Julian Dyer
London, England (nearly: 30 miles west in Wokingham, Berkshire).