I'm trying to identify the device seen below, pulling the trigger connects the lower contacts and pushing the thumb plate closes the upper ones.











Anyone know what language the text on it is?

Thanks for taking a look.

581028 - Hard questions on a Monday...

First question: Don't know.

Second question: Nope, but since it does have numbers and a couple of letters that seem to be for an English market? ( "No 10612" ) so I would guess it was made in Hong Kong or maybe Singapore... both were former British Colonies.

Okay... guessing time (with a little Sherlock Holmes deduction/infering)...

I think it is not a firearm, but rather shaped like one---just as a soldering gun isn't a pistol either but it fits the human hand better than a straight tool would.

There appears to be a wire connected to the inside of the chamber, like I've seen in an automatic lawn watering unit in a front lawn(It died, btw..). It looks like the device has inlets and outlets for either air pressure or water pressure, like a flow control valve.

There doesn't appear to be rust inside of it, so maybe it was either never used or it was for air flow... ???

I'm leaning towards an actuating switch for a pneumatic press or something in a factory. Something a worker could squeeze while holding a blank sheet metal item while the press engaged and made it into a bowl or some such.

If that were the case, being from Singapore or Hong Kong would be a reasonable guess.

But it's only a guess.

Sullivan013

No War Office mark, which would tend to rule out it being British or Empire military.

Thanks for the replies.

I posted this device elsewhere on the web and someone offered this translation:

"The first character 安 is likely the phonetic rendering of some kind of firearm (?) made by a company that starts with the sound "An"-- Anderson? The second character 式 means "style" or "kind".

No positive ID yet but I'm leaning towards the suggestion that it was a firing trigger for some type of Japanese warship.

I dont think those are japaneese charicters. The
B and the NO kind of make that seem unplausable
I have a very old shot gun that has some of those type markings.
I believe those are craftsmans marks. They identify the guys that made that thing (by hand)

Shockey

Electrical Firing Mechanism for Naval Artillery

Japanese and thats not called brass, but Gunmetal (Bronze) likely dates from pre 1942 as most similar devices I've seen started to be made out of Steel once shortages came about.