Can anyone I.D. this dial looking object?

It was brought up on another site. There has been a ton of rampant speculation. But, no one seems to know what it is or what it is for.

Any of you guys know what exactly it is?

Its Origin is surely American and if I were a gambling man Id say its part of a vault to an old bank

mid 19th century

I'm thinking that it's part of a carnival game.

Yeah, I would say it's definitely a game wheel of some kind.

W.A.

If you search 19th century game wheels some kind of similar items come up.
Not sure how it was played for the numbers involved.

Probably be told to pick three numbers, 0-6, one for each ring. What's not obvious to the math-challenged is that only a quarter of the combinations are available, so if you don't look at the wheel and explicitly choose one of the available options, you have a high probability of choosing an impossible combination. If you do choose one of the available combinations, your odds are still only 1:54.

The numbers aren't uniformly distributed, with one set of the 3-number combinations repeated 3 times, and another only repeated once, which would makes this a randomizer that would favor certain combinations. I would have thought randomizers would aim for uniform distribution, so it could not be gamed by observant individuals.

My guess is that it only means something when paired with some other contraption that it was sitting next to.

Portable Aztec long count calendar

A carnival game is a good guess, but I was really hoping someone would recognize it and know for sure.

The problem with a randomized or game is that the wheel doesn't spin free. It has a spring that holds tension on the wheel. So, you can move it - but you can't give it a spin.

The friction spring would keep it from being spun, so not likely a roulette type of thing.

Well, hmm...

The twelve divisions probably provide a clue. 12 hours, 12 months, the circle of fifths, a camelot wheel...

Another guess might be an encryption key for an accompanying code book. But it's made of cast iron, which would mean there are others out there somewhere. Which would also mean there's a foundry that made it, and which might infer that the code was none too secret...

W.A.

is this yours? (op)

it doesn't look like cast iron to me, in the pics.
bronze?
zink alloy?
I'm curious.

wouldn't need much of a foundry to make them...

It looks to be cast metal so they probably made a bunch of them. Part of an Enigma coding machine?

Looks like a well-preserved antikythera mechanism:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antikythera_mechanism

Mabe a manual computer? Something like a Babbage engine?

Nada.

I'm betting is got to do with wagering, horses or cards.

I'm thinking a look up/reference wheel thing used at a factory, like for use in making weaving patterns where you have a combination of three primary colored weaving threads (inner three numbers), then you can use the colors associated with that combination (outer five numbers) .
Just a wild ass idea/guess.

It might just be a thing someone made so people would ask questions about it 100 years later

1-3 in the inner ring of three numbers.
1-5 in the outer ring of five numbers.
8 digits total in each section. 8 indents per section on the outer rim of the wheel.

I have no idea what it is. But now I want one.