Gary Blair wrote in 991201 MMDigest (fwd):

> ... This 'Accordion' looked like a cross between a
> Hohner Pokerwork (in design) but with buttons on the
> side a la a Bandoneon.

Obviously you have seen a 'Tanzbaer' (dancing bear), which is an
electronically controlled instrument built after the model of an
accordion controlled by punched paper and built about 1910 at
Leipzig, Germany by A. Zuleger (now re-built by Drehorgelbau im
Zacherlhof, J.&A. Bluemel, Grassau/Obb., Germany).

The buttons are only for the show, they have no other function.

> You have to insert a cartridge which then plays the tune
> for you, as long as you pull and push the bellows.

Yes, you can check out this cartridge from the attached picture.
The cartridge is also usable in the 'Harmonipan' monkey-organs
of Hofbauer from Goettingen, Germany.

Hofbauer employs an encoded scheme to store the tunes in the EPROMs
(Electrically Programmable Read Only Memory), therefore you have to
use his arrangements exclusively. :-(  However, you can load and play
MIDI files of your choice with a cartridge from Oberdorf Computer-
technik (a guy who formerly worked at Hofbauer).

You can check the archives of MMD (Mechanical Music Digest) at
http://mmd.foxtail.com/ .  There are several articles dealing with
Hofbauer organs, especially at "Automatic Music Digest 96.08.20"

As there is not much information available from Hofbauer-Goettingen,
maybe Hal O'Rourke, who is a member of MMD too, can give you more
useful hints and tips, as he seems to be the agent of Hofbauer
in the U.S.A.

Hope this will help a little.

Cheers!

Claus Kucher

 [ I placed the photo images from Claus at the MMD Pictures
 [ site, "MIDI Controller for Hofbauer 37-key Street Organ",
 [ http://mmd.foxtail.com/Pictures/hofbauer1.html  Several
 [ articles about Hofbauer products are listed, with links,
 [ at http://mmd.foxtail.com/Archives/KWIC/H/hofbauer.html
 [ -- Robbie