I recently obtained an original, German Red Welte Vorsetzer, and it has
a pneumatic that baffles me.  It is under the left door (the center door
is the spool box and the right door covers the wind motor).  It would
seem from looking at it that there is a handle in the front, and the
handle is going through an elongated hole in a second piece of metal
that limits how far up the hand lever can move.

The pneumatic does not connect to anything mechanically, but there is
a 3/16" rubber hose leading into the pneumatic -- where the other end
went is a mystery.  There is a small flap valve on the top of the
pneumatic, and a second flap valve inside.

When I blow through the small rubber hose leading in to the pneumatic,
I see the internal flap valve moving up.  The only thing I can possibly
imagine this thing doing is being used as a tracker bar pump!  I believe
there is not a single piece of rubber tubing in this Vorsetzer with the
exception of this tube, and this is because a stiff brass tube, like
everything else in the Vorsetzer, cannot be used like a rubber tube to
cover over an individual hole in the tracker bar prior to sucking out
the lint.  Also, the ultra-heavy-duty construction of the metal parts
surrounding the pneumatic suggest that they didn't want any overly
enthusiastic pumping to rip the cloth, or to rip the handle off that
is used to raise the pneumatic.

If anyone out there knows what this is, or even if you want to make
a guess, please write back to MMD.  Thanks in advance.

Randolph Herr

 [ See the photograph at the MMD Pictures site,
 [ http://mmd.foxtail.com/Pictrures/  -- Robbie