Does anyone recognize this part?

[treddie]

Hello.

I hope this is the correct forum for this.

I was curious if anyone notices this vintage part? It comes from probably the late 1950's to mid 60's and was used for the interior of the space pod in the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey, which I am back-engineering. There were a number of surplus aircraft parts used in the movie, and I was hoping someone might be able to identify this particular one, if in fact it is of aerospace origin.

I'm thinking there might be a spring under the retaining ring on the side. So it makes me think this was a pressure regulator or flow control device of some sort. Or a pump...The shaft coming out on the left looks like it might be a spline shaft, but the photograph is not good enough to tell for sure. I have removed all of the surrounding details in the image in Photoshop, since they basically just stuck this thing on the cabin wall.

Many thanks for taking a look.

[rwanttaja]

One possibility might be a 90-degree gear box... input shaft comes on the left, gear inside to rotate a similar shaft on the top back. The apparent cap could just be to open the gear box so it can be packed with grease...

Ron Wanttaja

[1600vw]

Ron I would agree. It looks to be some sort of worm gear box. Maybe steering box out of an old car. But it sure does look like a worm gear box to me.

[rwanttaja]

Ron I would agree. It looks to be some sort of worm gear box. Maybe steering box out of an old car. But it sure does look like a worm gear box to me.

I like the suggestion about the steering box...something cheap and common that they could easily find for the movie prop.

Treddie, any indications of size of this thing, in the movie? Are there any scenes with the astronauts in the frame with the device, that you could use to figure out the scale? Or was this on a miniature?

Ron Wanttaja

[treddie]

Hey everyone. First of all thank you for the excellent replies!

The object is roughly 3" square on the face. Unfortunately, there are only two images which shows it well, and the other image has it in shadow...Just visible enough to tell it is the same gadget. Now, it also has another "port" on the far, hidden side, which led me to believe that the one on top and the hidden one were either gas or fluid fittings. But that could be caused by the fact that they stuck a hose on the top one, which biases my thinking. It may very well be a gear box as you all suggest. But notice that the top fitting has a hex nut at its base. Would a gear box treat a shaft exit point like that? That was another reason why I thought it might be a pump or something. Also, what we see MAY only be the visible exposed portion, if the remainder of it is behind the wall.

I will do more research, but take your tack of checking vintage auto parts. Maybe it IS a gear box.

[1600vw]

I believe that nut would set end play.