mysterysolved

Some kind of injection array for a particle accelerator or other physics experiment?

Close Clark, but I'd say it's a spectroscope or spectrometer -- possible a prototype for a calutron mass separator for radionuclides... The it could be from the astronomy department of a university used for studying the spectra of stars & nebulae.

I agree that it seems to be a spectrometer. Note the light bulb at the right rear of the apparatus.

This one raises a whole lot of questions. It looks to me like each tube ends in a light bulb, a diffuser, and a rotating shutter. Are all the rotating shutters connected to a drive shaft, to operate in sync, driven by the motor and chain coming up from below? Are the seven tubes optics to collimate the light sources? There seem to be some spare ones at the far left. Why seven? What would you want to illuminate with a pulsating light source? The man seems to be holding a lens, so my guess is that the black apparatus with the gears is where the results would be photographed or filmed. There's a rectangular gate (at the focal plane?) with a strange-shaped mask inside. I think the small telescope-like device at the left end could be a critical focusing magnifier.

I think this is probably at the National Bureau of Standards. See www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/npcc.15853/?co=npco for a room with the same trim on the walls including brickwork below the lower stripe.

Looks like a metal lathe; the cage device probably encloses the drive motor to keep fingers, arms, etc. from getting caught or being shocked.

This is a (near) duplicate of an existing photograph in the Harris & Ewing collection of The Library of Congress.
C. W. (Clarence Wirt) Hecox (1872-1951), an instructor in the machine shop at McKinley Training School, Washington, DC, supervising a student using a lathe in the manufacture of practice shells for the U.S. Navy. The basket weave dome is a venting cover for the lathe motor (in addition to the other safety features Bolobilly said).
– excerpted from original caption, with information added. [1] [2]


As a bonus ;) it appears to me like the student in this photograph is also featured (2d from left) in another photograph
in the Keystone View Company collection of The Library of Congress. "Doing their bit - students of McKinley Manual Training High School, Washington, D.C., with 4-inch shells they have made."

Thanks Bill Forbes for identifying the machine. Also, thanks Pixel Wrangler for locating near duplicate image that has a good caption. We'll update this photo's catalog record with this information.

A large flashbulb?

I'm wondering if this is another item from the Smithsonian featuring an important item from their collections and an attractive young woman. See americanhistory.si.edu/exhibitions/lighting-a-revolution for some of their Edison bulbs.
One of the earlier Smithsonian items in this What's the Story? album is

www.edisontechcenter.org/incandescent.html has some history on flash bulbs as well as regular incandescent light bulbs.

That's a good guess.. see also

Even in the high-res view it's not totally clear what's inside the glass lamp. The date would be early, and the size a bit large for it to be a flashbulb (unless it's a prototype); and I don't see crumpled foil or wire wool inside (but maybe it has already been fired).

When I first saw this photo I also believed it was a light bulb, but on closer inspection of the high resolution file, I wonder if that's not a plant in there. Could it be some type of terrarium? Also, if you zoom in on the pocket on her jacket, just above her arm, there's some type of cartoon animal embroidered. Does that look familiar to anyone?