Originally Posted by
miriam
It is not a treadle though - those industrial machines some times have pedals like that - but that is just what makes it go fast or slow - it would have a clutch whether a motor or a bike powered.
I have a similar set-up. The pedal does look like a treadle pedal, and even into the 40's these machines were set up as treadles with the option of motors. I understand that during WWII the Navy had some of these as treadles on ships for use by the sailors. (If it is not a treadle, that is the clutch. My clutch is a solid plate, however, and that one is like the wrought-iron pedals on treadle machines.)