Exploring the Incubator

I spent a bit of time poking around the incubator today

Here is the business end. You can see the long arm that goes from off center of the drum down to the electric motor.

The motor turns a big gear which tilts the drum back and forth, 45 degrees I think.

This is the main fusebox. Power comes in and is split off, one side goes to a thermostat controlling a regular electrical outlet inside the drum, the other side goes to the motor? I'm still not sure about how the timer and the mercury switch work together.

Update: Wires go from the junction block, through the left fuse and up to the timer, and from the timer to the junction box at the top of the drum. The right fuse is between the junction block and the main on/off switch. 

Two old-style fuses. They say '250v' on their bases.

This box seems to be a timer of some sort.

The round knob with the black line pointing straight up goes to the 'wafer' which seems to be a thermostat. The guage is attached to either a thermometer or a hygrometer for measuring humidity inside the incubator.

Inside the drum you can see the 'wafer', and hygrometer at the top, and the electrical conduit leading to the outlet below. Notice the condition of the inside of the drum, which is made of redwood, is very good.

There are two items plugged into the outlet - a fan and a heater.

Writing on the heater indicates it's a 120v, 150w Chromalox Strip Heater.

This tube sticking into the drum from the front is a thermometer or hygrometer, I'm not sure what the plate with the round hole below it is for.

It's attached to this gauge on the front between the doors

The lower door has vents but they are sealed shut.

 Looking at the inside of the door, you can see how thick these doors are. The point is to keep the drum insulated so the conditions inside can be maintained precisely. I still need to poke around a bit more to figure out what everything is and what it does.

It's a lot of work to do what a hen does naturally!

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