Hello, everyone: semi-retired chemical engineer here. One of my interests is antique / classic American cars. As such, recently I ran across this device in a daily blog from
Hemmings, the antique/classic car authority. Is anyone here able to identify from these pictures what it is (apart from some sort of welding machine, reportedly a motor/generator device) and the approximate vintage? Thanks very much in advance.
The device itself:
![](https://assets.hemmings.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/IMG_5033-970x1228.jpg)
Internals of the device: