yeah ive think ive seen one of these before, its just an example of how a generator works. Yes it is an old one, Not sure the value

value is probably nothing. donate it to a high school or something.

This is could be very old … I had one when I was just a kid this may be a reproduction but ones that looked just like this came out of very old crank type telephones they did not have electricity in all the homes that had phones in those days so you cranked the generator this lit a light in the central office and an operator would connect to your phone then you would tell her what person (no numbers yet) you wanted to talk to and she would plug in a cable from that phone into yours and now the phone company provided the power. I used to take mine to show and tell at school have everyone hold hands and the end people hold the wires from the generator a quick spin and everyone was not holding hands anymore …

get ahold of the Antique Road Show. Or something similiar. I am sure that someone would pay some good money for it.

I wouldn't spend a lot of time or effort looking for "some good money" for this item.

Its is a rheostat control for a three phase electric motor that tube on the end is a triac and it was used to control shunting in electrical fields in old AC motors when they were run at low speeds. Other wise they would vibrate them selves apart. I saw one almost exactly like this in high school. It is basicaly a big anchor. But WOW I didnt think there were any of those even left on the planet