- #1
jbensink
- 2
- 0
Just got this at an auction and I'd like to know what it is. it's very heavy, and geared to heck and back. nine inches tall. seems serious enough to guide something big. it is machined and engineered beautifully, and everything is still working. clearly high-grade, possibly government contract.
Surely analog, probably pre-1970. start spinning a gear and almost everything else starts turning rods and gears. what doesn't turn, it turns out, starts turning when you start spinning some other part of it. It is PRECISE, whatever the heck it is. it is not damaged. it's got a (partial, some of it is missing) black metal cover with two high-grade plastic view holes in it that more or less match up with some readable gauges on the device.
one wheel says 100 MILS Azimuth; another says ELEV 100 MILS. it could be some sort of guidance device...ordnance? nuke? seriously, this is something special. feel free to pass it on to anyone who might be able to help ID it. I feel it is analog; pretty sure it was designed before computer aided design (meaning, it might have taken months, if not years, in engineering time, then many, many hours of assembly). it's got a hand-etched serial number, in four places that I can see: 8572 (stamped in one place, etched in others).
it weighs about 11 pounds. I think there is little or no steel on it--cast aluminum frame/housing, nickel gears, maybe some titanium. at any rate, reaching out to those who know more so that I can eventually know more. thank you!
Surely analog, probably pre-1970. start spinning a gear and almost everything else starts turning rods and gears. what doesn't turn, it turns out, starts turning when you start spinning some other part of it. It is PRECISE, whatever the heck it is. it is not damaged. it's got a (partial, some of it is missing) black metal cover with two high-grade plastic view holes in it that more or less match up with some readable gauges on the device.
one wheel says 100 MILS Azimuth; another says ELEV 100 MILS. it could be some sort of guidance device...ordnance? nuke? seriously, this is something special. feel free to pass it on to anyone who might be able to help ID it. I feel it is analog; pretty sure it was designed before computer aided design (meaning, it might have taken months, if not years, in engineering time, then many, many hours of assembly). it's got a hand-etched serial number, in four places that I can see: 8572 (stamped in one place, etched in others).
it weighs about 11 pounds. I think there is little or no steel on it--cast aluminum frame/housing, nickel gears, maybe some titanium. at any rate, reaching out to those who know more so that I can eventually know more. thank you!