Help me know more about this strange pickup

[Hecube]

I bought this on eBay for the novelty factor. It was advertised as an archtop pickup but I have a strong suspicion it might be in fact a contrabass pickup.

It works but the output is somewhat weak. It's supposed to have been made in the 40s. The pickup came with the original tags (The Turner Co. Cedar Rapids, Iowa, serial #9539).

The reason I think it was made for contrabass is that it's difficult to make it fit in a guitar f-hole...

[ibobunot]

The Turner Co. the nation’s third largest microphone manufacturer and the leading manufacturer of pressure embalmers....

Turner Microphones - 1972

[Hecube]

It's a contact pickup and it's quite ingenious. The black circle you see on the right makes contact with the wood. The wood vibration is transferred to this pad which in turn activates a single magnetic pole in a coil. It's basically a magnetic pickup but instead of a string activating the pole, it's the vibration transferred from the wood.

[Hecube]

Originally Posted by ibobunot

The Turner Co. the nation’s third largest microphone manufacturer and the leading manufacturer of pressure embalmers....

Turner Microphones - 1972

Nope, it's definitely a pickup.

That page you dug up is all I can find...