Hello everyone,  Could you help us figure this thing out.  We
have a Becker Bros. player, serial #48615 circa 1916, in for complete
restoration, and we're having trouble figuring out what that mysterious
mechanism is in the bottom of the spool box.  In fact, the whole action
upper and lower is one that I haven't seen before.

It doesn't contain a tracking system that I'm aware of: the roll is
held in place by equally tensioned pins, one is the usual drive pin.
It really can't move left or right.  Under the tracker bar at the take-
up spool, we have a weighted spoon valve lever, sensing the presence of
paper, which in turn controls the amount of bleed to a pneumatic that
is designed to move the take up spool ends closer together hugging the
newly wound paper.

Has anyone seen this before?  Would it be some kind of tracking aid?
The spool box also contains pneumatically operated brakes for the
take-up and feed, like those found on later Shulz players.  Pictures
can be made available if need be.

Regards,

Bill Boulton