Some sort of tube?

[ALAMOTX]

Found near a 1878 house.

It reminds me of the old vaccum tubes from the tube radios

Any help is appreciated!

 

[BioProfessor]

Does it come apart? Anything inside?

Daryl

 

[ALAMOTX]

does not come apart.

nothing inside either

 

[trikikiwi]

I take it, that's a lens I see at the pointy end
- and are they two long solder marks I see around the middle ?

I am going to make a WAG that, it is the 'remains' of an old mechanics timing light.
Along the lines of this:-

http://tinyurl.com/y27nlru

Mike

 

[72cheyenne]

I take it, that's a lens I see at the pointy end
- and are they two long solder marks I see around the middle ?

I am going to make a WAG that, it is the 'remains' of an old mechanics timing light.
Along the lines of this:-


http://tinyurl.com/y27nlru

Mike

That is a great guess Mike. Very well could be.

 

[Charlie P. (NY)]

Possibly a tractor "initiator". Before we had sophisticated voltage regulators and alternators a small current draw had to be kept in the field of a generator to get the polarity right to energize the circuits and charge the battery. A spinning motor doesn't know which way the polarity goes and this was a method of making sure you were charging the battery with the proper field input.

I'm not describing the electronics well, but that is what I believe the part might be. The little light showed the circuit was working and also set the field in the proper polarity.