What On Earth Is This?

This curious object turned up in a recent donation collection. 

If you are a newby doing genealogy in the last 10 years or so, it's a puzzle. 

If you're a veteran like many of us, you will instantly recognize a 5 inch floppy disc. This is a 2nd or 3rd generation storage device; I think there was a 12 inch and an 8 inch before this.

It didn't hold much data and it was slow, but we though it was fantastic,

My, how technology changes!!