NavList:
A Community Devoted to the Preservation and Practice of Celestial Navigation and Other Methods of Traditional Wayfinding
Identifying an electric ship's log device
From: Carl Herzog
Date: 2017 Aug 14, 07:18 -0700
From: Carl Herzog
Date: 2017 Aug 14, 07:18 -0700
A colleague acquired the device pictured here, which at first glance seemed to be a ship's log, but if so, I haven't been able to narrow down the identification of it any better. My experience with ship's logs is mostly of the mechanical variety, not electrical.
It may have been measuring something else altogether, or even not measuring but generating. It has what looks to be an electric motor connected to a brass disc between two magnets. The motor appears to feed a variable series of connections that can select which units of revolutions are measured (1,2, 10, 20, 40). It has a wooden faceplate, and seemed designed to set into a larger panel.
Any thoughts on what this may be?
Carl Herzog
USS Constitution Museum
