It's the damper/valve that selects whether the fan pulls fresh air into 
the car directly (from the exterior, thru the filter which was affixed 
to the face of the box) or whether it was directed/diverted through the 
heater core. The control-arm was actuated by a stiff-steel-wire that 
passed thru a wound-wire-sheath to the damper arm on the side of the box 
(which isn't shown), attached to the slide-control on the dash. I'm sure 
some of you are old enough to have driven in such cars of the 
1950s-1960s when such systems were universal ... but the same system is 
still pretty-much identical in modern cars (except the damper is 
controlled by pneumatic actuators under control of your car's computer, 
rather than having the direct control through your brain-to-hand action 
*hee*hee*)


On 1/23/2017 1:48 PM, Bob Skiles wrote:
> It's the air-flow-control damper for an automobile 
> air-conditioning/heater system ... though I don't recognize (know) the 
> model, it's probably from late-50s to early 1960s ... it might help if 
> you hadn't omitted a picture of the most important side of the 
> artifact (that showing the control-arm linkage)
>
>
> On 1/23/2017 1:17 PM, Sarah Heffner wrote:
>> Does anyone know what this artifact is? It was found in association 
>> with a treehouse that was likely used in the mid-1960s. I thought 
>> this might be a lantern but I have not been able to find any images 
>> of lanterns that look like this. Is it some sort of food processor? 
>> Any help with IDing is appreciated!
>>
>> The artifact is 5" wide at the base, 6" wide at the top, and 6" tall.
>>
>> Here is a link to the Dropbox folder with the pictures: 
>> https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wt25uopzl2qchp8/AADT3ge6W9AHXYah0qxZNSYea?dl=0
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>