We found this little shed right outside Virginia City, NV.Inside was this old machinery.. it was probably used for mining.
Yep, it looks like a winch to me too. I see a second drum, so perhaps it was a winch that could pull a cable in two directions, with the cable looped around a pulley at some distant point and being wound onto one of the drums as it is unwound from the other. (hard to see the gearing, etc., from that image). As for age, that electric motor looks like it's about 100 years old! (just a wild guess, of course)
It looks like a winch, driven by an electric motor. It could have been used for hoisting material via a vertical shaft, or for pulling tram cars.
