Late style Lauter players often incorporated a locking device on
the upper right hand spool chuck.  This device was to stop the roll
motor from turning while using Lauter's own tracker bar cleaner.

In these late Lauters you will find a hole on the upper left hand of
the spool box and a felt lined hole in the top of the "kick board."
(The kick board is the bottom board in which the player pedals are
located).  This felt lined hole is just below the keyboard around the
area were you will find the flat spring which holds the kick board
in place.

The purpose for this felt lined hole was to store the tracker cleaner
when not in use.  This cleaner consisted of a funnel shaped piece of
wood with a 3/8" nipple on one side and an indentation which matches
the tracker bar profile.  This indentation was covered with leather
with the exception of a 3/8" hole in the center.  The 3/8" nipple on
the other side of this funnel had about a foot and a half of gray
tubing which ended with a special 3/8" brass nipple at the other end.
The open end of this brass nipple was shaped like a snakes mouth in
the open position.

To use the tracker cleaner you would lock the right hand upper
spool, remove the tracker cleaner from the felt lined storage area
and then you would push the snake end of the cleaner into the hole
in the upper left hand side of the spool box.  You would then pump
the pedals to create suction and run the wood funnel across the tracker
to suck out the dust.  Behind the upper left hand spool hole was a
hollow block of wood that had a spring loaded pallet valve resting on
the inner side of the opening.  When you pushed in the snake side of
the tracker cleaner this would lift the pallet and allow vacuum to
enter into the tracker cleaner.

This must have been a short-lived gadget.  As you can see by my
explanation it is difficult to instruct the owner how to use it.
It must have been easier just to give or sell each new customer
a regular tracker bar cleaner.  In all the years I worked on Lauters
I only found one complete unit.  I saved it and have it up in my attic
with my spare Lauter parts.  It took me quite a while to figure out
what all the holes and the locking device were for.

I say this was short-lived because if you find later model Lauters you
will see the upper right hand chuck still has a notch in it for the
locking device but no other signs of the tracker cleaner can be found.
I'm sure Lauter made up lots of spool chucks for this device and
decided it was not worth the effort.

So, if you have the locking lever, look for the hole on the left
hand side.  If there is no pallet box behind this hole, look for two
staggered screw holes on the other side and also look for a hole in
the kick board.  Please post to let me know what you discover.

By the way, MMD'er Phil Jamison bought one of John Ellem's rebuilt
Lauters from my other posting.  Did anyone else pick up pianos from
John?

Paul Manganaro