What is this mysterious piece of equipment found in my store room?

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    Equipment Mystery
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Discussion Overview

The discussion revolves around the identification of an unknown piece of equipment found in a store room. Participants speculate on its purpose and functionality, suggesting it may be related to scattering experiments or demonstrations.

Discussion Character

  • Exploratory, Conceptual clarification, Debate/contested

Main Points Raised

  • One participant suggests the equipment might be a scattering demo, where a substance is squirted from a tube onto a spinning wheel to observe the results.
  • Another participant notes the presence of a manufacturer sticker 'Welch' but finds little additional information about the equipment.
  • A later reply describes the equipment as having a flat particle board base and a spring-loaded tube, with a central immobile piece of glass.
  • One participant compares the equipment to a scattering apparatus used in a student lab, which involved shooting small metal balls at a target and measuring angles based on impact marks on special paper.

Areas of Agreement / Disagreement

Participants do not reach a consensus on the exact nature or purpose of the equipment, with multiple competing views and hypotheses presented.

Contextual Notes

Details about the equipment's functionality remain unclear, and assumptions about its use are based on limited observations and personal experiences.

Who May Find This Useful

Individuals interested in experimental physics, educational demonstrations, or equipment identification may find this discussion relevant.

jfmcghee
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I just found this in my store room. Anybody have any ideas what it is?

20200817_130355.jpg 20200817_130409.jpg
 
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No. But my guess is some kind of scattering demo? You squirt something from the tube to the (spinning?) wheel and see where it goes as you move the nozzle side to side.

What do we win if we guess right. Kewpie dolls, or cash?
 
jfmcghee said:
I just found this in my store room. Anybody have any ideas what it is?

Other than the manufacturer sticker 'Welch", I don't see any information. What's on the bottom side of the base plate?
 
It's just flat particle board. The only thing that seems to move is the little tube along a spring loaded screw. The center seems to be just an immobile piece of glass.
 
Reminds me of a scattering apparatus in a student lab which I tutored. There was an adjustable mechanism which shot small metal balls onto the central target. On the rim there was a special paper which acquired black dots upon impact which made angle measurements possible. The angle measurements were then used to infer information about the target.
 

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