3 Comments Posted by pitch

The correct term is "sheave", pronounced "shiv". Between the motor and the worm gear is the spring loaded break. You can just see the coil spring that holds the break. An electro magnet compresses the spring and lets the motor shaft spin.

A "Bucky" is the device that holds the sheat of film. Advanced ones have an dose meter built in that tells the xray generator when the film has been exposed properly. So the switch tells the machine to expose for a timed length or let the bucky control the shot.

The fact that the end plate has been removed tells us something of its demise. They probably opened it for maintenance inspection and found that it was time to replace the 1000's of corroded high-pressure steam pipes. After figuring out what that would cost, they just walked away from it without even putting it back together.