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The Whatziss, day three...

By The Armorer on June 2, 2011 | | Comments (12)
Mebbe this will help.  Mebbe not.  There *are* pictures of this on the web.  Not many, mind you, but they're there.  And they aren't all my pics from the whatziss, either...

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12 Comments

By Colin on June 2, 2011 8:08 AM
A bushing in bad shape for a gear , which is missing.
 
By John of Argghhh! on June 2, 2011 8:20 AM

Well, yes and no.  It's really an axle for a gear, which is not always in place.  It's only emplaced when needed.  And it isn't needed often, given the lack of wear on the teeth.  And it's very low speed, so the condition of the axle isn't that critical to proper function.

 
By John of Argghhh! on June 2, 2011 9:06 AM
Colin is correct (as I realized as I was hitting submit on that last comment) there is a bronze bushing on that axle.
 
By Raging Tachikoma on June 2, 2011 9:12 AM
Are we looking at a traversing or elevating mechanisn  for a field piece or mortar perhaps. Likely elevation as ther is no scale visible to denote how many mils right or left the piece is being deflected.  For elevation you typically use a quadrant, then again that scale might be part of the carriage/mount for the ordinance.
 
By og on June 2, 2011 10:18 AM
No, this looks very much as if it's meant to turn the outer ring as seen in the previous picture, which clearly has a sort of  "Thread". So this whole assembly is inserted into something, and I suspect there is a crank handle that goes onto the bushing and turns the whole "Ring" thus locking the whatsis to the whatsis-socket. Or extracting it therefrom, if that is your desire.
 
By J.M. Heinrichs on June 2, 2011 4:08 PM
 The original intent was to make ice cream ...

Cheers
 
By Grumpy on June 2, 2011 7:45 PM
Are those gears in the position they would be normally in? Would the piece that fits over that bronze bushing have a gear meshing into larger gear? Would the smaller gear be attached to a hand crank? It does not appear to be strong, but looks can be deceiving. Because of the type of corrosion, I figure it's aluminum and out in the weather all of the time. Would you be so rotten, as to bring components of a sea going vessel on the main mast?  
 
By Terrapod on June 2, 2011 7:58 PM
Crank axle and drive gear for a small cannon platform? Looks like zinc coated cast iron and has a copper bushing on the shaft which makes it an outdoor item.
 
By John of Argghhh! on June 2, 2011 8:07 PM
Grumpy, you clever little gnome, you!

Not quite right, but very close.  Well done, sir!
 
By Quartermaster on June 2, 2011 8:32 PM
 A winch, perhaps? We didn't have winches permanently mounted on the main mast on Courtney (don't remember any on Sylvania a 32K ton tub), but the thing was only 2000 tons displacement. We had hand operated winches in other locations on the weather decks and the hand operated winches were aluminum. The one in the pic could be a winch for one of the boat davits, or something similar.
 
By John of Argghhh! on June 2, 2011 8:37 PM
You're all ranging too far afield now.  Not a winch.
 
By Mark Matis on June 3, 2011 6:59 AM
If not a winch, then maybe a wench?
}:-]

Once again, I am confident that it is NOT any part of any model of B-52.