I found this in a box of parts - its a wooden box about 5" x 3" x 2" with possibly a switch at one end.
What is it?
Given the wires soldered to it I would say it was a fish killer.
Prior to that it was an ignition coil for a Model T Ford. 4 per car, and some would say, the soul of a Model T.
That's a Ford ignition coil. Each Model T came with four of them, one for each cylinder. This video shows them working.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zCWnmPrxKo0
The presence of the wire on yours suggests that it may have been used on a stationary farm engine.
That there is the soul of a Model T.
Given that there were 4 in each T and that 15,000,000 T's were made over 19 years, that makes AT LEAST 60,000,000 of them were made by various companies.
Add onto that the number that were made as spare parts....and indeed are still being made......how many would you learned gentlemen say have been made?
It is amazing (and not surprising) how many are out there. I rarely go in an antique store without seeing at least one.
That is a Ford coil. Worth about $5 bucks on the open market as is. Restored maybe $40. Certainly not the Holy Grail.
Funny though, many of the antique vendors have no idea what they are, and because they say ford on them they want 75-90 dollars for one. I was in a major mall just recently, the price tag said "possibly a magneto I am told, for a model A" now thats an example of what the guy thought it was. So you can see he had no idea, but he did know he wanted 90 dollars for it! amazing.