Wierd old welding masks. Who knows.

I just bought 4 plain white16 inch Lyon wheel discs of a guy and he had these two welding helmets as well. Can anyone explain the thingamajigs and watchamacallits around the glass ? He also had a vintage welder in a wooden cart.

 

Heres the welder,

 

The mask looks like it might have an old automatic darkening system with two polarizing filters, and an electromagnet to rotate one of them, probably connected to a light sensor.

 

Very cool

 

I think designed to watch A Bomb test !

 

Is that lightbulb looking thing filled with mercury? It looks like it could complete a circuit making the actuator operate.

And that welder, wooden case! Minimizes short circuit potential. Just have to keep the termites at bay...

Finest German engineering on display.

 

Did someone say ,or was thinking "Mercury Switch"....just another one ,of many things ,I like to play with.
I happen to have a stash of old switches or at least the best part of them...the one that's pictured with the wire arm and clip on bottle with wires coming out of it ....that one was mounted in a old freezer for the light that would come on when the door was opened .
Fun stuff to play with...well in school it was ok.

 

Thanks for the interesting replies . Who can pinpoint how old they are, give or take a decade. Who would wear them, a ship welder or similar worker for heavyduty welding maybe. Certainly not your jack of all trades backyard welder guy.

 

Any new ideas about these welding masks ?

 

My first thought seeing those masks was the minion welding mask.