Mark P's guess of gas burner of heat exchanger sounded good to me so I searched the Post archives for May 1926 using similar keywords and found the following article. No photo was included so it's not a positive match but it sure seems like a plausible explanation.

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Washington Post, May 23, 1926.

Apparatus Stops Noise Made in Oil Burning Heaters

New Invention May Supplant Other methods.
Says Frank Harbin.

A development, which experts think, will supplant other methods of home-heating, was announced here yesterday by Frank P. Harbin, of the Automatic Heating Corporation, 1719 Connecticut avenue, northwest. By this development, operating noise of automatic oil heat is cut to the vanishing point. It was perfected by engineers of the American NoKol Co., who nine years ago made automatic oil heating of homes a practical, modern comfort, Mr. Harbin said. …

Demonstrating the new equipment yesterday before a crowd of interested home owners, Mr. Harbin showed how a closely-confined flame, loses every trace of customary, low-blowing sound within two minutes after starting. This he explained, is accomplished by bringing back from the chimney some of the inert gas that results from complete combustion of any fuel. It is piped through a small tube, mixed with fresh air, and fed back into the flames.

“No one but chemists and combustion engineers have ever thought about this gas,” Mr. Harbin stated. “It is colorless, oderless, inert. But when the right amount, accurately measured, is fed back into a flame along with the fresh air which every one knows any flame must have, it dilates the flame. When I say dilate, I mean it causes a given anount flame flame to occupy more cubic inches of space than before.” …

That there is definitely a wigwam for a goose's bridle.

It's a sad day indeed when 20 Shorpy experts in a row fail to identify the flagship product of the North American Veeblefetzer Corporation. In fact, it almost makes me MAD.

This appears to be an early version of a Kindle or Nook. My other thought is that it is able to translate 2 or 3 books at a time and then the device is hooked up to a Mergenthaler Linotype machine and printed in the language chosen. My final thought is that it is a snake safe that opens from the top, the reptile is then inserted and the books placed atop the unit to prevent the Ophidian from escaping. I shall do further research before continuing to comment.

Ahhh, the long lost photo of Mr. Lux trying to determine where to put the electrical cord on his prototype vacuum cleaner, later to be named the Electrolux.

offering from the R&D team galvanized Smith's decision to fire the whole darn lot of them.

I never, in my lifetime, expected to see a real life doohickey. Shorpy has done it again. Thank you so much.

That this is a "swamp cooler" for a car window.

It has something to do with grading eggs, but I don't have a clue as just how!

And it's kind of guaranteed to sometimes reverse male pattern baldness.

1926 model.

First in a long line of high-quality products.

But those early anti-grav units really did a good job of keeping your desk from flying off.

If I put my thumb in here?

It's an automatic finger nail clipper.

The chains on the wall seem to permit opening and shutting a couple of somethings...

Order in the next ten minutes and you get a second Clank-O-Matic absolutely free!

This was an early model. Later models had many improvements in usability and comfort, and the decorative badge depicting a ruffled grouse in flight was moved to the front for easier access.

ex. post facto - Mad #44 "Veeble People" Jan 1959 issue.

The large hose almost says to me that it has vacuum pulling on it. But the valve seems more like a natural gas fitting. Looking at the top, is that a flue connection? My guess is it's some sort of gas burner, heat exchanger.

So I will guess: some kind of space heater.

it should be an open and shut case.

Not only did he build a better mousetrap, it's only slightly bigger than a bread box.

That looks remarkably like the gas tank on my 1967 Land Rover Series IIa.

Granted, this picture was taken a full 18 years before Land Rovers came to exist, and the pipe is too large to head to the engine. I wonder if it is a tank of some sort?

And remember, it comes in your choice of brushed brown, cherry red or sunshine yellow.