Hard 'un, Daddy. Some kind of compass or hard-to-carry navigation tool... Shows angles of sun, moon, stars and earth, maybe planets way out there in space. Probably 1563? Random Date! Cool thing, though.
I guess it is a drawing of a primitive computer designed to duplicate and predict heavenly movements, from ancient Athens, now lost for millennia. The drawing itself is a 19th century imaginative reconstruction, based on a crude sketch found among the personal papers of Samuel Johnson, who had stolen it from the Masons. The Masons, in league with the Knights Templar, had been looking for it for centuries because they wanted to know when the next full eclipse of the moon would be, in order to settle a bet they made with Suleiman the Magnificent. You know, or something...
paul...this is simple...it's a rouletteimator!
it was used in the 20's by cheaters and swindlers who wanted to "beat the system." with a few quick calculations, the gambler could quickly and easily determine the final location of the roulette ball.
although it took some "higher math" (note the calipers A and B - which matter in the whole equation some how...as do the distance of the legs "D").
the actual equation was difficult for the typical gin-soaked gambler, but not for ruprick fumunder (the inventor - who also happened to be one of the first homeschooled individuals in his roaring 20's south Chicago neighborhood).
the equation involved measuring the angle between the calipers and dividing that into the distance between the legs ("D") and squaring it by the heighth of point E off the table/divided by the radius of the table.
the difficulty of course was setting this contraption up without being noticed. thus, the first time ruprick decided to try using his "roulletteimator" in the basement of a windy city jazz club, which was really just a "front" for a bootlegging/gambling house, he got caught. fortunately, for ruprick, he was able to reason his way out of the predicament (he was homeschooled dontcha know...and trained in advanced logic and rhetoric) and in a deal to spare his life, he accepted the offer to "rig" the gambling arenas in south Chicago.
unfortunately, there is not a lot of information available on ruprick and his rouletteimator. he is a black mark and a stain on early homeschooling in Chicago...he died a horrible death in the middle of fixing one of his "rigged" roulette tables. apparently he crossed some wires, there was an explosion, and the roulette ball was lodged into his windpipe. the papers made no mention of his death...truly sad.
It's an early 1900's juicer/ food processor. The top is what does the juicing, the two arms do the slicing and dicing. You just have to give it a quick spin to get it going!
Posted by Anonymous 
Posted by 
May. 21, 2007 - It is...
Helps with charting the stars
from the early 1700's