I bet it is some sort of gambling device.

Looks maybe like the cartridge holder inside the barrel of a gatling gun?

Someone's almost-a-fan invention?

It's a real head scratcher. More so because the digits only go to five. Does it look like it might have had hands like on a clock ?

I'm with Bob. The teller at the bottom makes it look like a gambling machine. The interesting part is that the numbers are in different orders in each section.

Reminds me of the old rotary phones.

the numbers only go from 1-5 and they change in each section of the 12. I looked into sundials, nothing there, then I though a gambling device, nothing there either I haven't got a clue.

It's a clock innard gear - for one big old metal clock !

JoAnn if anyone on that facebook page figures out what it is please post back and let us know. I am intrigued lol. Since it has it's own stand I doubt it is the inside of a clock, I think it is it's own device. The number series is interesting and yes they do only go up to 5.

I'm procrastinating instead of making dinner. I did some searching around. New hypothesis: It has something to do with betting on races. There's something known as the "partial wheel bet" which lays the bet across part of the field. It combines a guess for two options for the win with a bet for the place. It also works for trifectas.

If this is a game, then you'd spin the wheel, and the pointer would show the section with the win, place and show for the first race as the first three numbers, then the field for the next race as the outer five numbers. Or something like that. I don't really want to learn the minutiae of race gambling for this. Suffice it to say that my guess is that it's a gambling game based on the idea of race results, or perhaps a randomizer for choosing the order of your real life bets.

why would it have 12 sections for a race, I believe the 12 is for months of the year. JMO

JoAnn, if I'm right, it's not all one race. It's like a wheel of fortune, or roulette wheel, where you place your bets, spin the wheel, and the section by the pointer is the outcome of the race. Or maybe, if you don't know which horses to choose, you spin the wheel and place a bet on an actual race using it.

Certainly, the twelve sections could be for months, or hours, or something like that. For the gambling game I posited, I don't know if the number of sections is related to racing or just fit nicely in the design.

I found 2 more pictures of this thing

oh that is good I was correct it is at an angle which makes me still lean towards some type of sun or moon dial or phase of the moon thing.

That last picture, the third one, is adding more information. There is a spring under head of the bolt. This spting puts a friction load against the disk. I do think its purpose is to generate a random selection of a set of numbers. If the number sets had 6 numbers, I'd suspected a random selection of colors from a color wheel where there are 6 colors: 3 primary and 3 secondary colors. But no, the numbers on;y go from 1 thru 5.

Maybe its a decision maker. When you can not decide among choices, assign a number to each choice and spin the wheel to see what it chooses. I really don't have a clue. I hope someone knows what this is.

Post this over on the "Antiques and Collectibles" forum. There is a better chance that someone there knows. Do include that last view.

This thing is bizarre! I haven't a clue. Nothing about it makes any sense to me! I can't wait to find out what it is!

Early lottery wheel? I think it's tilted so that the numbers can be seen more easily, by someone sitting, or standing, in front of it. Since only the numbers 1-5 are used, each section of numbers adds up to 21--I wonder if that has any significance? 12 sections, 8 digits=21, total 252.

ETA, while searching for anything using numbers 1-5, I found this website for bell-ringing instruction--scroll down for number sequences. I have no idea if there's a connection--further down there are changes for 6,7,&8 bells, but most of them seem to use 1-5:

Bell-ringing or tintinnalogia

Also, the center section seems to have less patina than the outer section. Possibly there was a label or another disc that's missing?

On Reddit, where this is also posted, they posited the bell ringing, then someone who said he had experience with ringing the hours said that it wasn't.

That's where I found the other pictures on Reddit. I don't think its bell ringing either, I googled images and nothing comes up with whatever I put in.
Its a real mystery to me.

This is just what I'm thinking and has no real basis other than my suspicion; I think that it's an old gear and that the stand is not part of it's original use, just someone attached it for display. Just a thought. I do believe that it's a gear though because of the notches.

Cars often have 5 gears. Maybe it's something with that?

anyone have the Reddit link to this item?

I have a few more ideas.
Some type of dial for a safe or lock.
Something to code things for the postal service.
Early coder for military like on a ship.
Code for a telegraph

Here is where I found it.
reddit

This far fetched but could it be a perpetual calendar?

Thanks Joann. I have just spent a good hour on that site looking at the what is its lol.

When I found the bell-ringing site I posted, I was thinking hand bells, but the wiki link posted on the reddit page states that hand bells have more bells than church bells, not fewer. Oh, well, those pics are really out there on the 'net, so someone should recognize the object.

I looked a few also Raven. Just killing time. Intereseting though

The numbers are raised and look backwards in the picture. This makes me think that it is used to imprint or emboss the numbers onto something.

The number aren't backwards. The ones at the top are upside down. The pointer is at the bottom, so they all are right side up relative to the outer edge. Raised characters are normal for cast pieces. They could definitely be used to emboss something, but why a bunch of different orders of 123 on the inner circle and 12345 on the outer?

New postulate:

Reference: http://www.nagcr.org/pamphlet.html

Its a count wheel for "change ringing" of bells. The inner ring of numbers are for a 3-bell set and the outer ring is for a 5-bell set. Examining the simpler inner ring starting with combination 1 2 3, the count changes in the sequence below. The bells would be rang following the sequence in the table. There is a pattern for how the numbers shift per row.

1 - 2 - 3
3 - 1 - 2
2 - 3 - 1
2 - 1 - 3
3 - 2 - 1
2 - 1 - 3
2 - 3 - 1
1 - 2 - 3
1 - 3 - 2
3 - 2 - 1
1 - 3 - 2
2 - 1 - 3
1 - 2 - 3

Alternate guess:

It is a bell ringing sequence for a clock. Each set represents a particular hour. However, I think the "chance ringing" idea is more plausible.

The bell ringing thing makes the most sense. Maybe it was attached to some clock gears and at each hour you could see the numbers through a window hole which then alerted someone to ring their bells?

It could have been a setup aid in a tower clock. The pointer could have shown the setup person the cam sequence for ringing the bells.

I don't know the answer, but there was someone on another site who claimed to know how to ring the changes who said that it wasn't right for that. Perhaps he was wrong.

The link that I posted under "new postulate" shows a set of rules for change ringing and the number sequences on this wheel does not follow that rule exactly. The sequence shown on this wheel does go through the various permutations in an orderly fashion. The sequence should be designed so that the bell tones harmonize or plays a tune.

Ok, just to toss the idea out there, I sent your pic to a guy I work with. We both work with some old school military folks. Navy, Air Force, Marines, Army & Coast Guard.

If this thing has anything to do with a military device, they're gonna know about it!