The Dolmetsches

The Dolmetsch twins, Otto and Ludwig from Salzburg in Austria, are two of the few mathematicians who have been permitted to view the Vavasor papers. However, as a result of the incident that occurred during this viewing, they were also the last mathematicians permitted to view the papers - at least until the events described in The Truth About Archie and Pye.

The Glühwein Incident

The viewing of the papers took place in a sealed room in the cottage that had once been owned by Archie and Pye themselves but which was now occupied by their younger brother Isaac. The morning passed without incident, apart from a brief moment of excitement when Otto burst out of the room claiming to have come across a proof of the twin prime conjecture. However, this has since been disputed.

At around four o'clock, raised voices were heard in the room. Isaac went in and found to his horror that one of the twins had spilt a mug of hot glühwein over one corner of the papers. Ludwig was frantically trying to clean the mess up, while Otto was reduced to sobbing in the corner of the room. Isaac immediately dismissed both Dolmetsches from the house and resolved not to let anyone else view the papers ever again, only changing his mind when he called in George Burgess to write the official biography of the Vavasor twins.

Neither Otto nor Ludwig has spoken about the incident publicly since.

Other work

Otto and Ludwig are both employed at the University of Innsbruck and have continued to publish interesting and valuable work in the field of advanced number theory. However, they have not received the attention they deserve, perhaps because they have stopped attending conferences following an increasing number of occasions where one of their rivals has barged into them at a reception with an aggressive cry of "Whoops!"