Parts to ID, please

We have a storage area at our museum, with quite a few items that we don't know what they are. At the present time we have 4 items we are really curious about. There is what appears to be some sort of range adjuster, a transformer (???) in phenolic case, a small mechanism (perhaps 5 inches across, and a small tank. I have attached one picture of each item, but I have additional pictures of each one. Can any of you help to identify these parts?

faafm said:

We have a storage area at our museum, with quite a few items that we don't know what they are. At the present time we have 4 items we are really curious about. There is what appears to be some sort of range adjuster, a transformer (???) in phenolic case, a small mechanism (perhaps 5 inches across, and a small tank. I have attached one picture of each item, but I have additional pictures of each one. Can any of you help to identify these parts?

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Hi,
I'm not an engineer, but I did shovel some coal once.
It looks to me like the third device, with the degreed wheel, looks like a Direction Finder. The device was mechanically attached to the DF loop on the aircraft and as the loop was swung by the navigator, or pilot, the mechanism was linked mechanically to the loop. Once the "null" position was found, the wheel would give a bearing to the station. It is possible that the phenolic case might be the coil windings used with the DF nav. Is there continuity from one wire to the other?
The fourth, small tank, is it hollow? Can you see through it? It looks more like an accumulator to me than a storage tank.
The first picture- does that channel go anywhere in the housing? Does it go to the head? Can you take other photos of it from different views-rotate and roll it?

Zippythehog said:

Hi,
I'm not an engineer, but I did shovel some coal once.
It looks to me like the third device, with the degreed wheel, looks like a Direction Finder. The device was mechanically attached to the DF loop on the aircraft and as the loop was swung by the navigator, or pilot, the mechanism was linked mechanically to the loop. Once the "null" position was found, the wheel would give a bearing to the station. It is possible that the phenolic case might be the coil windings used with the DF nav. Is there continuity from one wire to the other?
The fourth, small tank, is it hollow? Can you see through it? It looks more like an accumulator to me than a storage tank.
The first picture- does that channel go anywhere in the housing? Does it go to the head? Can you take other photos of it from different views-rotate and roll it?

Click to expand...

Hello Zippy,
Thanks for the prompt reply. I'm not an engineer either, but my wife says I act like one. I have attached 11 more photos of the first item. I took these pictures over a month ago, the items are at the museum, and I am working from home. That means I can't answer most of your questions until I get back to the museum again, perhaps on Saturday.

Hmm. Coarse and fine adjustment knobs, the script is obviously Asian (Hiragana, Katakana or Kanji?), steel housing and ball joint actuator in an aluminum housing...
If only there was someone familiar with Japanese writing...
Auto pilot, bombsight?

Shinpachi can read Japanese.

Crimea_River said:

Shinpachi can read Japanese.

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I thought about him. How do we involve him in this thread?

The @ function l used in front of his name will notify him of this thread.

The first item looks like a gun mount, with the adjuster for bore sighting.

"飛行方向 (hiko-hoko)" says "Flight direction" with the arrow.

Thanks brother!

Oh, I like the gun mount theory! That would explain why the assembly is built so strong. Thanks to Shinpachi for translating the Japanese markings. Now, does anybody in these forums have knowledge of Japanese aircraft armament? By the way, the item is 14-inches long and 8-inches high, as in the image 3645 view.

I did make it to the museum on Saturday, so I can answer some of the questions posed by Zippy. The item I called "small mechanism" (image 2888), with the 2.75-inch diameter wheel, marked in degrees, the basic mounting block (what it's made out of) appears to be a phenolic (non-conducting) material. It would then be electrically isolated from the aluminum surface to which the mechanism is mounted. I thin that gives credence to the ADF loop control theory. Further, the that points to the possible relationship suggested by Zippy to 2nd item, which I called a "transformer", image 3679, also made of phenolic, with wires. And Zippy asked about the wires. There are 4 of them. He wanted to know about continuity. I discovered something very interesting. A lot of the insulation has fallen off the wires, exposing finely-stranded black-looking wires. There was no continuity between any pair of wires. Then I happened to try continuity in the same wire only about 2-inches apart. None! The wires do not appear to conduct electricity. Is is possible that, after being buried for some 60 years, that the wires underwent some kind of chemical transformation, and now no longer are conductors? I'm baffled. I need a metallurgist.

Moving to another item, it's beginning to look like the item I called a "small tank" isn't a tank (as in a container for liquid) at all. Rather, it could well be an electrical junction box of some sort. I couldn't look at the item on Saturday because our museum president had taken it home with him (???). I do have more pictures though, and one of them has some markings that could be Japanese writing. Would Shinpachi have a look? See Elect box 3, by the toggle switch. I'm attaching all the pictures of the "box" that I have.

Thanks to all who are helping.

Obscure but can be read like this.

Thank you, Shinpachi.

Is there anybody with enough knowledge of WWII Japaneses aircraft to know what this box actually is, what it does in an airplane?