# What is this machine? (Supposedly the Nazi "Die Glocke" Wunderwaffen)(Cue Theramin) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 30, 2020, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-machine-supposedly-the-nazi-die-glocke-wunderwaffen-cue-theramin/854754 "2020-05-30T20:40:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2020, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-machine-supposedly-the-nazi-die-glocke-wunderwaffen-cue-theramin/854754/1 "2020-05-30T20:40:57Z")
Many here I’m sure are aware of the rumor/popular myth of “Die Glocke” (“The Bell”), a mysterious device built in secret by Nazi Germany using fiendish superscience—described alternately as an anti-gravity device, a time machine, and a “death ray.” A purported photograph of the device, or one like it, has even been floating around, seen here, apparently sourced from the first book to reveal “Die Glocke” to the world, Polish author Igor Witkowski’s _The Truth About the Wunderwaffe_… Obviously, all hogswash. Kitchy, endlessly entertaining hogswash. 😃 My question though, is: what is the device shown in the photograph? I seem to recall that someone tentatively identified it as some piece of (fairly mundane) equipment used in physics research, and specifically one that would have been found in an Eastern European university—and thus, likely, something Witkowski might have seen or seen a photo of in his college days, and could artistically repurpose into a secret Nazi machine—but, I can’t find anything specific about that in my own notes. A [Quora post I’ve found makes an argument](https://www.quora.com/Can-somebody-explain-the-working-principle-of-the-Die-Glocke-or-Nazi-bell) that it’s an electromagnet from a Poulsen spark gap transmitter, including a patent drawing that’s both an almost dead ringer for the “Glocke” photo, AND includes cutaway details that match up with purported diagrams of “The Glocke’s” innards (The outline of the Induction Coil being reinterpreted, as I recall, as a rotating cylinder filled with glowing radioactive mystery goo. A very versatile component, that!). So…can anyone help me out in identifying for certain the specific piece of hardware pictures in the photo linked above? ---
**Author:** ![Banksiaman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/banksiaman/32/3334_2.png) [@Banksiaman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banksiaman)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2020, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-machine-supposedly-the-nazi-die-glocke-wunderwaffen-cue-theramin/854754/2 "2020-05-30T22:10:42Z")
‘_The owner of this website ([weekinweird.com](http://weekinweird.com)) does not allow hotlinking to that resource_’ Would that have happened if it was just a Poulsen spark gap transmitter? I think you’re getting in a bit deep there, **Ranchoth**. We can’t go looking for you at their secret moon base, if you disappear. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [May 30, 2020, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-machine-supposedly-the-nazi-die-glocke-wunderwaffen-cue-theramin/854754/3 "2020-05-30T23:34:14Z")
All I can say is that it’s a vacuum chamber with a lot of wires running into it. Could be almost anything inside. ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2020, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-machine-supposedly-the-nazi-die-glocke-wunderwaffen-cue-theramin/854754/4 "2020-05-31T02:41:22Z")
The picture of the patent for the Poulsen device is more akin to an Edison phonograph. It is a wire recorder. It isn’t a cross section. There is a vertical cylinder, wound with a spiral of wire, you can see the vertically moving tracking device on the left that follows the spiral. The actual machine is quite small. Maybe 40cm high. There is no dome shaped enclosure, just an arch shaped bracket that holds the bearing at the top. Even the title gives it away. It isn’t a transmitter. It has no resemblance to the fiendish device. ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2020, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-machine-supposedly-the-nazi-die-glocke-wunderwaffen-cue-theramin/854754/5 "2020-05-31T02:49:16Z")
To add, a quick search turns up a bit of info on the Poulsen recorder. ArsTechnica has a picture of a real one. [Forgotten audio formats: Wire recording | Ars Technica](https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/11/wire-recording-forgotten-audio-format/) One suspects that the actual layout in the patent was never put into production, and the horizontal format prevailed. But the mechanics is clear. ---
**Author:** ![Bill\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/50afbb/32.png) [@Bill\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bill_Door)\ **Post date:** [May 31, 2020, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-machine-supposedly-the-nazi-die-glocke-wunderwaffen-cue-theramin/854754/6 "2020-05-31T02:56:05Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > All I can say is that it’s a vacuum chamber with a lot of wires running into it. Could be almost anything inside. Don’t be silly. If it’s a vacuum chamber, by definition there’s nothing inside. _Ipso Facto_. ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2020, 12:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-machine-supposedly-the-nazi-die-glocke-wunderwaffen-cue-theramin/854754/7 "2020-06-01T00:54:05Z")
“Die Glocke” was a porcelain gun that didn’t show up on X-ray machines and cost more than what you make in a month. ---
**Author:** ![Melbourne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b5e925/32.png) [@Melbourne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Melbourne)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2020, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-machine-supposedly-the-nazi-die-glocke-wunderwaffen-cue-theramin/854754/8 "2020-06-01T02:14:38Z")
If it helps, note that the jpg linked in the OP is rotated 90 degrees. The housing is horizontal, the disk is vertical, the wires are at the right. Also, my WAG is that the jug/container sitting on the floor looks like it is made of plastic, hence much more recent than WWII. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2020, 5:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-machine-supposedly-the-nazi-die-glocke-wunderwaffen-cue-theramin/854754/9 "2020-06-01T05:38:19Z")
> [@Melbourne](#): > > If it helps, note that the jpg linked in the OP is rotated 90 degrees. The housing is horizontal, the disk is vertical, the wires are at the right. > > Also, my WAG is that the jug/container sitting on the floor looks like it is made of plastic, hence much more recent than WWII. Good catch. Rotated correctly, Google Lens came up with [this](https://litresp.ru/chitat/ru/%D0%A4/farrell-dzhozef/bratstvo-kolokola-sekretnoe-oruzhie-ss/4) Russian site, which was too big for Google Translate to translate. It has the same photo, but edited to be more murky, and with the jug shopped out. Translating the photo caption, it is > [@](#): > > Plasma trap and focal device from the Institute of Plasma and Laser Microdisintegration in Warsaw (from the book by Igor Vitkovsky “The Truth About Miracle Weapons” ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2020, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-machine-supposedly-the-nazi-die-glocke-wunderwaffen-cue-theramin/854754/10 "2020-06-01T05:42:41Z")
And that is very probably [The Institute of Plasma Physics and Laser Microfusion](https://www.ifpilm.pl/en/). ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [June 3, 2020, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-machine-supposedly-the-nazi-die-glocke-wunderwaffen-cue-theramin/854754/11 "2020-06-03T01:32:41Z")
I knew I could count on you guys. 🙂