title_body: What is this brewing equipment and how it is used?
upvoted_answer: It looks like an old syphon or vacuum coffee brewer.  The coil on the bottom vessel heats the water to boiling and is forced up thru the center to the top vessel where the ground coffee is placed.  Two interesting things are what looks like a plug to seal the pour spout in the center ring to hold in the pressure and something I haven't seen is a sealed top vessel that has what looks like a whistle to the right of the lid.  I guess that is to let the person know when the water is completely in the upper chamber and the coffee has started to steep and to turn off the heat so the bottom vessel can cool drawing the brewed coffee into the bottom vessel.  Clever idea if it worked.