mystery object

[bof]

Anyone any idea what these are from:

scale wise the main mechanism is about 8cm wide and the numbered dial about 4cm dia.

They were in a box with a number of other bits, three of which look like coin slots for half crowns.

the cog C fits between the gear cylinder B and gear cone D

it looks as if the thread A should turn to move C up and down and provide a variable gearing ratio, but this won't turn, and seems broken

The cog E is lightly clutched to D

The teeth on the numbered cog fit all the other cogs in the main mechanism.

a first guess would be an electricity meter, but what's the variable ratio gear for?

answers on a newsgroup post please to: u.m, and u.d

[Nightjar]

Pre-payment coin meters would need a way for the price per unit to be changed and that would be my guess as to the purpose of the gears. The dial was presumably connected, probably through gearing, to thread A and it would indicate which gear was engaged, showing either pence per unit or units per coin inserted.

Colin Bignell

[Phil L]

bits of a parking meter?

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember bof saying something like:

The famous Lost Bits of Babbage's Engine.

[james]

In message , Grimly Curmudgeon writes

What's the difference?

[Dave Liquorice]

The numbers are designed to show upright through a window, positioned at about "2 o'clock" from the spindle. "7 1/2" is pretty close to upright. There are 15 numbers and 15 gears in the cone so the numbers probably do show which gear is selected.

There might be some form of latch that prevents A turning unless it is released.

What are the top and bottom views of the mechanism?

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember james saying something like:

Ask the cool operator.

[geoff]

In message , bof writes

Its for hand rolling cigarettes

[geoff]

In message , bof writes

Its a long lost Antikythera

[newshound]

Cross-post to uk.eggheads?

:-)

[Spamlet]

And the mystery might be helped if we knew what needed to be measured in units of 8.

S

[Sn!pe]

Which bit inserts the roach?

[bof]

Yes found another plate in the box of bits, which aligns nicely with the numbered cog to give this:

which confirms nightjar's 'price per unit'

Yes there is, but even unlatched it's jammed

Here's the top view where you can see the cam and latch:

the bottom view is just a flat plate.

So I think mystery solved, thanks to all.

[Prai Jei]

bof set the following eddies spiralling through the space-time continuum:

The integers and halves on the dial suggest it's for checking the sizes of shoes.

[bof]

In message , Prai Jei writes

I guess there must be a second device for sizes 8 1/2 up