Its hard to tell but it looks like copper peaking through? 
TiredIron said:Johnnyi.....I wish you lived closer to Denver...I like donuts. If your sure what it isn't....tell us what you think it is. I'm not arguing...just discussing. I've learned a thing or two from your ID's over the years. But I think if Garabaldi had two of these matching balls and sent them to me...I could build a fine working fly ball governor and send it back. One thing I wanted to ask Garabaldi is....when cleaned up...is this ball made of copper or brass
http://www.history.rochester.edu/steam/thurston/1878/f29p115.gif
Point M doesn't have to "just" be an attachment point between C & B. Point M can also be a pivot point where it attaches to that arm. This concept drawing doesn't show the arm between point C & B as being clearly ridged.
In this second example I believe this steam engine is a non-running static display and the flyball gov is stuck in the high RPM position. They have no place to go except down where the would be in 0 or low RPM, unless its actually running in the pic.
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2428/3664610901_b3fb2a0f5e.jpg
I never said I was sure what it was and I don't know, but I don't believe it is a governor weight. I might be wrong, and I will provide doughnuts on general principles. (actually I was supposed to offer the $20 against your doughnut so I'm getting off cheap ) I agree with you though, a governor could be made out of this object, but in all honesty the simplist kind of centifical governor can be made out of a length of iron with a hole in it to serve the same purpose as one of the two necessary swinging weights. Like you, I love old iron, and even have seven foot coke bottle steam engine outside with flyball governor, half a dozen hit or miss engines with various trip centifical governors, a couple models I've machined which use governors, and all of these are either trip mechanisms or push rod mechanisms to limit flow. They all require fingers. This isn't saying that ALL governors require fingers or pulling linkage, but the vast majority do. Maybe an old style crank phonograph? Large older music box??
You two, Johhnyi and Tirediron, should start a talk show or radio show like Click and Clack in Cambridge MA on car talk. You two could call it "flyball governor engine talk. Ok I have new pictures. I believe it to be solid because of the wieght. I was messing with the shaft and accidently snapped it off. I cleaned the dirt out of the handle part and discovered the top part is hollow. The handle is connected to a circular disk that seems to have been pressed into the ball mechanism(this tech talk is wearing off on me, I'm sounding like you guys). Purhaps the shaft was stationary and the ball would have moved. 
Not sure of the material, but it seems to be silver plated. I am still a bit nervous that it may be a home made bomb devise. I thought it could be a device that worked like the spring loaded knob on a pinball machine. Maybe the shaft part hooked on to something. You pull the ball back to cause tork(sorry about my spelling). Maybe to spring load a fireing device to a gun or cannon. Totally speculation. I really have no idea what i'm talking about. I found it in a place with artifacts ranging from early 1600's to present. Hope this helps. ![:-\](https://www.treasurenet.com/smilies/undecided.gif "Undecided :-\")
Its a lot harder to inflict humor on the keyboard than listening to their wise cracks and MA accents.
