I picked this up this past week, along with two others like it. After much convoluted research I discovered what it is and does. Now, it's your turn.



Lynn

Is it for measuring? Does it have a counter?
Can we see the other side and /or with the bowl raised?

I'd guess the pan rattles when the handle is turned, so it's for separating something in powder or granule form, c.f. gold panning...

You know, I just recently looked at a machine very much like this one. It was used to test substrate for road building. As I recall, you put a wet sample of the substrate in the bowl and turned the handle. After vibrating the bowl for a specified time, you measured how far it had pulled away from the edge and could extrapolate from that how the material being tested would work to build a road on.

So it's not a basketball launcher?

It looks like one of the soil testing machines that I used in sedimentology lab in graduate school.  You mix certain weights of soil and water together and then put it in the tray.  I think you cut in half and then tap the tray by turning the handle.  You count the number of taps until it flows back together, dry the dirt out, and then use tables to determine plastic limits I think.

wvtools, I think we're both talking about the same machine. I may be all wet, no pun intended, in how I remember the way you measured the effect on the sample.

RWalters,

Sorry; I did not see your post.  I think the properties you test are called Atterberg limits; upper and lower plastic limits, if I remember correctly.  The other test involves making "play dough" out of your soil and then rolling it out on a table to see how thin you can roll it.   I remember that one because some of the results ended up looking like dog turds after you dried them out in the oven.  We even made a presentation copy to put on another grad students desk.

JMH

wvtools,
I believe you nailed this one. If you Google Atterberg Limit testing, you get lots of views of machines just like this one. Loved the "presentation copy" story.

Yep, it's called (according to some sources) a Casagrande, and is used to test Atterberg limits.