On Fri, 28 Feb 2014, David Platt wrote:

A friend of mine passed along a couple of photos of something that looks
like some sort of jig, perhaps turntable related. He hasn't seen it or used
it in so long that he can't remember what it is. Any ideas?

http://webpages.charter.net/mrfixite...y-device-1.jpg
http://webpages.charter.net/mrfixite...y-device-2.jpg

Ummph. This does ring a bell... in fact I think I had one much like
it many decades ago, as part of an AR turntable setup.

If I'm right, it's an automatic tonearm raiser accessory, for use with
manual turntable/tonearm systems such as the AR XA which had none
built-in. It's designed to lift the tonearm off of the record once
the whole side of the record has been played and the stylus enters the
lead-out groove.

My Lenco L-133 turntable bought towards the end of 1978 had that function
built in. I had to manually place the arm and then move the lever to
lower the arm, but when the record ended, the arm automatically rose, and
the motor turned off. I always thought it was a great feature, though I
had at least one record where it didn't work, the record just kept going
around in circles with the needle in the groove.

Michael