Warbird Information Exchange

Hiya,
I've come across another mystery aircraft (maybe) part that I just can't figure out. It's part of a collection pulled out of Darwin Harbour near a WWII RAAF Catalina base; it came up with Pratt & Whitney engine parts (cylinders, pistons, crank case etc), some station boxes, phone cables and wiring from a Magnavox RL24C interphone system and some Bendix upper turret parts. It's made of micarta and has remnants of copper alloy cable / rod (?) stubs in some of the holes. Has a part # DP5230M in one corner, and the holes on the convex side are marked sequentially from 11-5 on upper row (also marked "B") and 4-1 then 14-12 on lower row. I've attached a few photos (scale rod is in 50 mm bars)
Does anyone recognise this or have any idea what it might be? I'd very much appreciate any thoughts or ideas!
Thank you,
Caroline

That is a distributor block out of a magneto. The leads from the spark plugs attach to that block,

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Matt Gunsch, A&P, IA, Warbird maint and restorations
Jack, You have Debauched my sloth !!!!!!
We tried voting with the Ballot box, When do we start voting from the Ammo box, and am I allowed only one vote ?
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It looks like a distributor block out of a magneto. The ignition leads went into the holes you see. The numbers are probably the cylinder number that each lead would go to.

(EDIT) Matt, we need to coordinate with each other!

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Rod Schneider
Ball Ground, Ga

It's a magneto distributor block.
From Pratt & Whitney R1830 if I'm not mistaken

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Lest Hero-worship raise it's head and cloud our vision, remember that World War II was fought and won by the same sort of twenty-something punks we wouldn't let our daughters date.

Hi Matt, Rod and shrike,
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!
You guys are absolutely amazing.
I should've twigged that the numbers 1-14 might be a hint (!). Though I would never have figured this out without your help.
R1830 sounds perfect too.
Thank you again so very much