About Ball: if one "story" above any other sickened me, it was the account that Ball would light a flare and whirl around it like a Dervish while fiddling... yeah... right-oh! You might want to also look up McCudden's book, for he mentions Ball and the violin... You can get a first hand account of Ball from
HORSES DON'T FLY (Frederick Libby, Arcade Publishing 2000; there was also a website by Libby's granddaughter Sally Ann Marsh, Horsesdontfly.com, but I think it's been since vacated). Ball was a young, decent, idealistic type, someone that I would have been proud to have known...
About the valve: this reminds me of a story of a Professor of Anthropology that I once had, Edmund Carpenter. He was always uncovering fakes and frauds in the world of Native American art. Once, an art dealer or friend asked, "Ted, what's your secret?" As in, did he use some type of chemical testing or otherwise to deduce an object's authenticity? Professor Carpenter just answered: "I use the telephone." Which is to say, whenever some piece or artifact came his way for purchase, something that was unique and in fine condition, the professor would contact dealers to see if an identical piece had recently been offered to them. He was thus able to trace the "history" of many a fake. In short, if it's too good to be true, it probably is...