Anybody know what this thing is?

Ok. I came across this earlier this week. Saw metal and wire, so naturally I grabbed it. **** thing was heavy as hell, greasy too. For the life of me I cannot come to a conclusion on what it might be.

Looking more closely at it, and starting to break it down the thing is made up of brass, copper, steel from what I can see so far.

I just have no clue what it is, never saw anything like it.

scrap_quest_1 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

scrap_quest_2 | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Not sure what the first 2 photos are
the rest look a lot like Beach Haven NJ

My oldest has a house down the GSP in the Court House and I still have one in the Wildwood area

Hope Sandy didn't get you too bad

are those switches on the side? i can't tell

No switches at all on this thing. The sides have a series of rods coming out, which hold small spools of coil in place on the inside. Then there are series of gears which come in close contact with those spools. It's very interesting and strange at the same time...

hard to tell but it looks kinda like the insides of an old organ .

Wow - this is interesting, I never thought of something like that. It could be that this was some one off item, I almost wish there was somebody around where I got it from to ask. Well I am going to be breaking this thing down, and its gonna take some time. I see that my brass bucket is going to be filling up pretty quick though...

Originally Posted by volvoscrapper

NJ was home to hundreds and hundreds of machine shops, tool & die makers, etc. up until 20 years ago or so. From the looks of that thing, the fact that the metal isn't finished like a finished product, I would guess first that it was a "special machine" -- what the machine shops used to call any kind of custom built device for manufacturing, packaging, spooling, or whatever. The fact that the rotating things look like tuners or amplifiers throws me for a loop. It's quite possible this is a one-of-a-kind item, built to order by a local machine shop or fabricator for a specific function as specified by a small manufacturing firm. In which case the answer could prove to be quite elusive!

whatever it is, it cost a pretty penny to build

only the wires that you see, no evidence of a cord that would plug into any other electrical source. Couldn't tell if there was any kind of outside covering either...

I second the motion: a tuner of some sort for picture 2.

I happen to know that this is mechanical tone generator from a Hammond organ, and from the looks of the capacitors, it is at least prior to the mid 60's vintage. Complete and even non-working ones are worth some good money to those that refurbish these classic organs. Don't scrap it until you know you can't market it that way.
I've got a couple of these in my shed, one working pull, and another needing a capacitor re-do.