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Okay. Whatziss?

By The Armorer on May 25, 2010 | | Comments (43)
And one of you (you know who you are) can't play. Personally, I think someone will get this one pretty quick.
Ha! Caughtcha! 

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43 Comments

By Beth Donovan on May 25, 2010 8:21 AM
 A mobile meteorology station?  That also picks up radioactivity levels when there is atomic testing?
And a seismometer and a stewpot.
 
By Maggie on May 25, 2010 8:35 AM
"And one of you (you know who you are) can't play"

Ok, don't worry.  I will sit here quietly while everyone takes a guess.
 
By John of Argghhh! on May 25, 2010 8:38 AM

Heh.  Princess Crabby, contrary to your firm convictions... it's not *always* about you...!

 
By Blake Kirk on May 25, 2010 8:47 AM
I'm going to essay a SWAG and suggest that it's an early fire-control device for anti-aircraft-artillery.  More specificially, it is intended to determine azimuth and elevation of an approaching aircraft by tracking the sound of the engines.

Either that, or it's an Italian Army field wine cooler.

 
By Jeff Cornelius on May 25, 2010 8:50 AM
Artillery target acquisition microphone system for acoustic dirction-finding in support of counterbattery fires.
 
By og on May 25, 2010 9:23 AM
If you want people to know it's not an LRAD you should change the NAME of the picture to 'Whatziz #n"
 
By Kevin Knoll on May 25, 2010 9:47 AM
It's a pre-radar directional acoustic ear to track incoming aircraft.
   
By Fishmugger on May 25, 2010 10:20 AM
Battlefield microwave relay....or not.
 
By Spiff on May 25, 2010 10:43 AM
Early listening device to detect aircraft, or misconscrewed bune buggy!
Spiff
 
By fdcol63 on May 25, 2010 10:50 AM
The original Mars Rover ..... before the magic of silicon chips.  LOL
 
By BloodSpite on May 25, 2010 11:02 AM
Obama's first Teleprompter
 
By Baroness Ophelia Kensington-Gore on May 25, 2010 11:26 AM
Do you have a picture of the same at a different angle?? 
I understand it is a scanned old photo so we cannot enlarge it but my eyes hurt :o)
 
By v00d3W on May 25, 2010 11:41 AM
Its an old acoustic listening device.
 
By MM2 on May 25, 2010 12:44 PM
It's an "X" version of the Tea Cup ride at Disney Land...
 
By Eric Wilner on May 25, 2010 2:31 PM
Experimental VTOL platform, with three coaxial ducted-fan engines.  Shown with the engine support structure tilted for maintenance.
Either that or, as everyone else has already noted, a Magic Ear for spotting airplanes.

 
By H H on May 25, 2010 6:36 PM
My guess is a direction and range system for either aircraft or enemy artillery.  In a pinch it could probably be used for both duties.  Heck, if you had a good operator the type of aircraft could be identified just like sonar guys can identify enemy ships by the sounds of their screws and equipment.
 
By RetRsvMike on May 25, 2010 7:23 PM
Range fan, 1 each (ducted)
 
By NevadaDailySteve on May 25, 2010 7:24 PM
An acoustic listening device? Please, anyone with half an eye can see it's the rotary wing training device Bill learned on.
 
By Erik in Colo. on May 25, 2010 8:06 PM
VLCPTA2 Very Large Clay Pigeon Thrower

You can easily spot the difference between it and the obsolete A1 the National Guard uses:
the A2 has the three-round burst feature. 
 
By Erik in Colo. on May 25, 2010 8:15 PM
A WW2 German Sehrgrosselehmtaubewerfer
used for training German quad 88mm AA cannon crews

You can easily tell it was used for the quad crews.
The three-round burst feature leaves the crew with one loaded tube if they miss one of the three Lehmtauben.
 
By Navig8r on May 25, 2010 8:44 PM
I see several possibilities here.
1)  smoke generator
2) cloud seeding device
3) orgone accumulator or projector
4) competitor of an orgone device
 
By Navig8r on May 25, 2010 8:47 PM
Forgot to include experimental infrasound weapon.
 
By Navig8r on May 25, 2010 9:05 PM
And no matter what it really is, my neighbor 2 miles down the road would give his most precious unmentionalble body parts to be able to add it to his beacon array for contacting space aliens.
 
By Grumpy on May 25, 2010 11:31 PM
I was doing some extended system maintenance, all day and most of tonight. I have a question and a suggestion. @Armorer, 25 May 2010, 8:38AM, You talk of Princess Crabby's convictions. Would you be so kind as to tell us in what court she was convicted? Then was the basis of these convictions? I would have never thunk it. You always learn something from here everyday.

Suggestion:@Spiff, 25 May 2010, 10:43AM, You use the term "Misconscrewed", others use the term "unscrewed". Knowing the high degree of professionalism on this blog, they will make sure that you are mind screwed correctly in the future.
 
By Grumpy on May 25, 2010 11:35 PM
Finally, should have been added at the end.  8 ^ ) 
 
By BillT on May 25, 2010 11:51 PM
Early mobile chemical decontamination dispenser, ca. 1902. The four dispensing heads are a dead giveaway.

Never fielded due to the lack of a chemical weapons threat from the Boxers.
 
By BillT on May 26, 2010 3:31 AM
An early example of COTS procurement, the M-1917 Device, Illuminating, Mobile, Bomber-Underwing Light Blinder (DIMBULB) was conceived as a low-cost US coastal defense alternative to high-candlepower searchlights, with a specific application against low-level penetration raids by Gotha bombers. Although over 30,000 M-1917s were produced, they were never fielded for several reasons:

1. The Germans refused to fly their Gothas at low level,

2. The Germans had no Gothas capable of transAtlantic flight, and

3. Due to a typographical error in the RFP, it was not configured to use the 75-watt bulbs (to be procured separately) specified in the original patent, and the Army could not identify a supplier of 57-watt bulbs before the Armistice was signed.
 
By SezaGeoff on May 26, 2010 3:59 AM
BillT,
Some versions of Pekin Duck could be misconstrued as chemical warfare items! Go Charlton!
   
By Mythilt on May 26, 2010 8:55 AM
And here I was thinking it was something used to either wind up cables, or keep tension on them.
 
By Spiff on May 26, 2010 10:06 AM
Another brilliant thought - a WW 1 smoke laying machine!  Or mobile seachlight unit...Fans in the heads keep the builbs from burning up...
Spiff
 
By BillT on May 26, 2010 12:17 PM
The Navy uses fans in the heads, but they're not to keep bulbs from burning up...
 
By SezaGeoff on May 26, 2010 6:04 PM

BillT,
Just sinuses!

 
By Terrapod on May 26, 2010 6:56 PM
Early big ear, with azimuth and horizontal mechanical readouts, pre supersonic obviously, maybe WWI vintage? :-)
 
By RerRsvMike on May 26, 2010 7:15 PM
Terrapod:  are you saying they used echo-location back then?
 
By Navig8r on May 26, 2010 11:08 PM
Looks like the acoustic aircraft detector votes have it.  Pic of a close variant at http://jalam1001.posterous.com/pictures-of-aircraft-detection-technology-bef and same exact pic at http://www.lilesnet.com/didjaknow/eardar/index.htm
No detailed descriptive info, though.  http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2007/05/mystery-devices-issue-2.html calls or associates it with "Waalsdorf"
Results of an evening spent with Google.



 
By Colin on May 27, 2010 9:29 AM
Canada was using sound ranging n WWI and claims to be the inventer of the technique or at least the first to use it in land warfare.
 
By PeterT on May 27, 2010 10:49 AM
Many have nailed this already, but I'll second or third it... acoustic DF/HF aircraft tracking device. Azimuth and Elevation info is passed to the gun layers....
 
By Terrapod on May 27, 2010 5:15 PM
Echo was not intended, but could be-be-be??!!  For some reason the server hung and I made 3 attempts to send. Good ole Redmond software allowed all 3 to transmit... Sorry bout that.
 
By skip on May 27, 2010 11:40 PM
Youse guys are going all the wrong way. It mose difnatly is a 100m target fer the .303 Enfield.....I think, or maybe not. Lemme ask my mom upstairs, it's dark down here.
 
By Argent on May 28, 2010 8:40 AM
That is the very first hearing aid.

They forgot the truck with the battery.
 
By og on May 29, 2010 9:12 AM
So whatziss? Hook a brotha up, dude.