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:



Internals of the device: