ID:
422
Maker's Name:
Fairchild Aviation Corp.
Where made:
USA
1941?
A mechanical analogue computer that uses gears to relate local sidereal time (that can be established using a sextant) to longitude.
It was used to determine the longitude of an aircraft without having to perform all of the normal calculations.
The US patent linked below seems to cover this device.
It was donated to the collection by a member of the Astrophysics Group at UQ that flourished in the 1970-1980.
Before the advent of personal computers and microcontrollers it could have been used to help orient a telescope.
Hyperlinks:
