The PerfOMeter (Post # 90)

No, this is not The Alfatross' heater fan motor before
cleaning. The Antikythera Mechanism, found on a ship
that wrecked more than 2,000 years ago, remained
 unidentified for 50 years after its discovery.
Wikimedia Commons.

In archaeology it is not unusual to find an object you can't identify.  If it is incomplete, a part of something else, identification is even harder. A good example is the "Antikythera Mechanism".  Discovered on an ancient Roman shipwreck in 1900, it was not identified until half a century later when a researcher realized it was some kind of mechanical device devised 2,200 years ago to predict astronomical and calendrical events. The scientific world was flabbergasted. More than 1,000 years ahead of its time, it has been called the first analog computer.

The Alfatross' Burg Dynometer

That doesn't happen as often in "carchaeology". After all, automotive technology is barely 120 years old, and is pretty well documented throughout the whole period. The Alfatross' version of the Antikythera Mechanism is its Burg Dynometer, which I have mentioned a couple of times previously, mainly in frustration over our inability to identify it and learn how it works.  

Thanks to the burgeoning internet and researchers like Wayne Mikosz who know how to use it efficiently, we recently discovered another example of the Dynometer being offered on a European auction site. By the time we learned about it the item was no longer being offered. Apparently there were no bids.

PerfOMeter road test results reported in Auto Age, 1951.
They loved it! 

But Wayne was not discouraged.  He turned to his own "archive" of old automotive literature where he hit pay-dirt: an advertisement in the first issue of a magazine called Auto Age for the "PerfOMeter," along with the results of a "road test" performed by the Auto Age staff!

The road test was conducted in a classy Jaguar
 MkVII saloon!

The advertisement was wildly enthusiastic. Would you like to know your car's actual horsepower? Its wind and rolling resistance? Its stopping distance in feet? The condition of your brakes? The gasoline best suited for your car? The results of an expensive repair job on your car? Well, the wait is over! Now, for only $22.50 you can have the answers to these and many more questions about your car's performance with the PerfOMeter De Luxe Model 104 available from the Autosphere Corporation of New York City.

The PerfOMeter, like the Burg Dynometer, works on the pendulum principle with the internal pendulum's motion dampened by baffles in oil and mechanical compensation for variations in temperature and atmospheric pressure.

The Alfatross' Burg Dynometer is virtually identical to this
illustration in the PerfOMeter ad.  We were particularly
interested in the configuration of the mounting strap that
allows the meter to swing freely under the dash.

We weren't interested in the advertising hype as much as in the explanation of how the instrument worked and how it should be mounted to the instrument panel. The reviewers at Auto Age spent a considerable time testing an example they were given under actual road conditions and were impressed. Their explanation for how the manufacturer could make so many claims about the information it could produce was succinct:

" How can one instrument supply so much valuable data? First you must realize that many of the items of information listed above are interdependent, that figures for one can be transposed into facts about another if you're willing to go through the math involved. (You must also realize that to obtain really useful results from the PerfOMeter you'll have to read the 64-page instruction manual carefully and spend some time absorbing it.)"

The PerfOMeter dial face is somewhat different than that of The Alfatross' Burg
Dynometer,  and a whole lot more visually complicated, but the functions are the
same.

But we still have questions.  We now know that the Dynometer was not a new-fangled contraption in 1955, but when did The Alfatross acquire it? It seems unlikely that it was a feature provided by Zagato, even though it is clearly meant for an Italian market.  More likely it was added by the first or second owner while the car was still in Italy.  Regardless of when that happened it is yet another indication of an as-yet undiscovered racing history.