From Radio , The World Authority on Amateur and Shortwave Radio , February 1939.
This strange looking contraption on the picture is used for locating the source of cosmic or interstellar noise with a high degree of accuracy. The black object on the top of the 410 gallon drum is the 1.91 meter concentric line-tuned receiver. Except for a small hole facing the parabolic collector the drum, which is a resonant chamber, thoroughly shields the receiving antenna inside. The reflector, which measures 30 feet across, acts as a collector and shoots the signals into the hole in the bottom of the drum. With the "Sky Scanner" in a fixed position it is possible to hear the star Antares whiz by in about two minutes. The array itself has elicited considerable comment from spectators, most of them suspecting that this is an experimental direction finder for airplanes rather than for static. Grote Weber, W9GFZ, is responsible for this weird affair, E.H. Conklin for the photograph.
For further reading see:
From "Serendipitous Discoveries in Radio Astronomy"
( Workshop No 7 NRAO, P.O.Box Green Bank WV 24944-0002 USA )
Radio Astronomy Between Jansky and Weber by Grote Reber
read by John D. Kraus.
Note by the author:"These Proceedings of this workshop are a very fine
collection of papers".
From "Radio Astronomy 2d edition by John D. Kraus,W8JK:
Pages 1-8 through 1-15.