I have been returning to the pictures of this particular artifact 2-6-S-32 more and more lately. I have referred the pictures to some of my fellow engineering buddies to seek their opinion as well.
As you suspected, it appears to be a damaged piece of technology. Electromechanical in nature, the main body of the artifact is non metallic with a scalloped edge, and a metal pin protruding from one side.
It is our humble opinion that this was part of a sliding (probably side to side) mechanical switch . The bent metal pin with rounded/ blunted tip was the "slider switch" handle. This handle was originally fitted with a wooden handle/knob and the pin was blunted or made bulbus to prevent the wooden handle/knob from pulling off. The main body of the artifact was located inside the equipment case, the handle was obviously on the outside of the case for use by the operator. The hole in the case was slightly larger than the diameter of the knob pin and probably was about one half inch wide to allow the operator to slide the switch left of right.
The non metallic main body appears to have a straight "scored" channel on it which coincides with the "sliding switch " idea. The scalloped edge , ridges/valleys were fitted with small, spring loaded pistons or balls , one per valley. By moving the knob left or right, the pistons would lift or fall perhaps activating or deactivating electromechanical relays or switches. BTW, the switch might have had much more than one half inch of travel. It could have had several inches of travel, selectively activating " particular" relays from an entire bank of relays.
The electronics of the day, relied heavily upon mechanical switches, rods, pins, cams, wheels and dials to achieve its purpose. ......so assuming we are even close to the truth here, the question might be.....would there be a use for this type of switch on the Electra,,,,,or the LORAN station?
Still working on this.
Michael Forbes