news:web.415343ee95cfa299dd1d87f30@news.povray.org...
> I was sent this image to identify, but I can't tell what it is.
> Can anyone here tell what it is. The words look like they might be
> French.
>

Ok, let's do some sleuthing here. My first guess is that it's a nautical or
aeronautical instrument. In fact, the "up" and "down" markings seem to
indicate some sort of early flight instrument.
Now, the writing around the case isn't very legible, but the last word looks
like "Derrien". It's a French surname, so it could very well be the maker's
name.
Now let's turn to Google: Derrien + instruments turns up a bunch of
unrelated links but this one is interesting:
http://www.adlerplanetarium.org/history/websters/d.htm
Bingo! Derrien was a sextant maker and was associated with Le Prieur... and
"Le Prieur" can also be read on the instrument just before Derrien! So it
looks like the full name of the makers was Le Prieur-Derrien.
Now, who was Le Prieur? He was a naval officer and a rather intersting
fellow http://www.ctie.monash.edu.au/hargrave/le_prieur.html
He's credited with several feats and inventions: first man to fly (in a
glider) in Japan, invention of the first air-to-air combat rocket, of an
early scuba system and of various nautical and flight instruments, including
an early flight drift metre called a "navigraphe". This system can be seen
somewhere on this (famous) flight panel (Maurice Bellonte's navigator
panel), though it's impossible to know if it's the one in your image.
http://storage.mfa.free.fr/histpoint3uk.html
Therefore my guess would be a Le Prieur navigraph engineered by Derrien, and
used from 1925 onwards on French-made planes. Of course, Le Prieur created
other instruments (he died in 1963), so it could be something else...

G.

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