I have a copy of the LP "Mammoth Fairground Organ" in question, and I
can tell you for a fact that the instrument depicted in an engraving on
the front is _real!_  It is a Welte cylinder orchestrion, one of the
largest and earliest of its type to be produced by Welte.  A photograph
of this exact instrument is on page 12 of the book, "Put Another Nickel
In", by Q. David Bowers, (C)1966 by The Vestal Press.

Of course, the image on the cover of the LP is an engraving of the
instrument, and comparing it with the actual photograph reveals perhaps
a few inaccuracies (the engraver wasn't necessarily familiar with the
operation of orchestrions).

I am not too familiar with the pump action on these early orchestrions,
although I've heard that at least some of them _did_ use thin wires
routed over small pulleys (with the movable board of the bellows in
question weighted to keep the wire taut) to provide the up-and-down
motion.  Many (most?) others use levers.

In this photo of a typical Welte pump, the pump uses metal connecting
rods to the bellows:
  http://www.mechanicalmusicpress.com/history/images/iwelte/niddhall/c_feeders.jpg


Since these early orchestrions were mostly hand-wound and powered
by a gravity motor (weight drive), it was desirable to have a slow,
efficient pump action that didn't have a lot of lost motion or wasted
energy, since those weights were heavy, and the owner (or rather, their
servants) weren't too crazy about having to "wind up" the motor for the
orchestrion pump midway through a tune if it ran out of air prematurely!
(Yes, some of them had separate gravity motors for the cylinder and
pump; and of course the reiterating snare drum and kettle drum beaters
had their own separate weight drive, too.)

Imhof and Mukle once advertised (in an ad reproduced on page 2 in
"Put Another Nickel In") that their improved cylinder orchestrions
didn't have levers attached to the bellows, and this supposedly
eliminated clicking and noise.  I'm not sure what they used instead,
but perhaps they used a wire system.  I have never seen an Imhof and
Mukle cylinder orchestrion up close (though there was one on eBay
recently), so I will leave it up to the experts to interpret and
explain what the ad meant by this.

As to the orchestrion in the engraving and photo; it survived as
part of the Welte complex on display and presumably in working order,
until World War II bombing leveled the factory premises.  Apparently,
Welte-Mignon enthusiast Richard Simonton found pieces of this exact
orchestrion in the rubble, but I don't know what pieces, and where they
are today.  Currently existing Welte cylinder orchestrions are few and
far between; I can only think of two at the moment; and neither of
these is a multiple-cylinder model like this one.  Do any
multiple-cylinder Weltes exist?

I know a Hooghuys fairground organ is _not_ a Welte orchestrion, and
one is much louder than the other (though they both have what I would
call a pure, refined tone); but record companies used all sorts of
wacky things for cover art back then, and it is just happy coincidence
that they happened to use an engraving of an actual instrument that
existed at one time.  Even if it looks rather far out (clockwork motors
for the weight drive; multiple cylinders for wider key range, etc.),
I'm sure there are restorers on this group, familiar with these kind of
instruments, who would be only too happy to tell you what all the
interesting-looking pieces of this orchestrion are and how they work.

Andrew Barrett