Hint: The picture was taken in 1956
It is a 5 MB Hard Disk Drive for the IBM 305 RAMAC, the first IBM 'SUPER' computer released in September 1956. This HDD weighed over a ton and stored an 'astonishing' (@ the time) 5 MB of data.
Do you appreciate being able to reach into your pocket & pull out your 8 GB memory stick now - or perhaps even your 3GS iPhone with 32 GB of memory?!? Something to think about, huh?