Mystery object
This item has been handed in, but it is unclear what it is or what it was used for.
The device has a wind-up motor and when activated one can see some points opening and closeting within. It is all housed in a wooden box, on the front of which is a small plate with “Deutsche Versuchsanstalt für Luftfahrt E. V.” and “DVL”.
On the device is stamped “H. Wetzer Pfronten Bayern No 1200. Scratch here is also (DVL) A7/01286.
On the front of the device is a clock face showing 60 seconds, four input sockets labelled “Kontaktgabe” (contact input) I and II. In addition there are five sockets labelled 0.1, 0.25, 0.5, 1 and 10 Sek. Sek being the abbreviation for Sekunden (Seconds) we think.
We would love to know what it is and what is did or does and what it was used for. Do you have any ideas? Please add your thoughts in the comments box.
March 2014:
Helmut Kalteis, Marketing Director for Endress+Hauser Wetzer GmbH+Co. KG, Nesselwang, Germany has kindly got in touch with the team and has passed on a number of documents regarding this object. As you may have guessed these are all in German but we are working our way through them to fully understand what this object was, its function and purpose.
If you can read German maybe you could help? Here are the three documents:
- FONFA Object – 100 Jahre Luftfahrtforschung (100 Years of Aviation Research) (91.5KB)
- FONFA Object – 140320 Wetzer Chronographen (Wetzer chronograph) (This is a very large file and we are working to make it a little smaller for upload.)
- FONFA Object – ATM – Archiv fur technisches messen (ATM – Measure Archives for technical) (1.32MB)
see http://gluedideas.com/Encyclopedia-Britannica-Volume-5-Part-2-Cast-Iron-Cole/Chronograph.html. There is a diagram of a Wetzer chronograph showing the additional pen, tape and tape reel needed to complete the mechanism.
DVL is a German abbreviation for “German Laboratory for Aviation” and the old DVL was absorbed into the modern “Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt” (DLR), literally meaning “German Center for Aviation and Space Flight”. The shorter translation “German Aerospace Center” is used in English-language publications.,