"Found at a car/truck graveyard today. The additional frame was added to this coupe DeVille & has wiring to the frame with lights, the logo, & a number on the side of it. Anyone know what it’s for?"
A: "It’s a harness racing starting gate."
"A friend from Michigan posted it and I have no clue. Someone mentioned they thought they saw something similar in an episode of Man in the High Castle, maybe in the kitchen area."
A: "It’s a jewelry display case. This Art Nouveau interior was designed by Alphonse Marie Mucha in 1900 for the boutique of Persian jeweler, Georges Fouquet."
"Gave to me by my now ex-stepfather, he told me it belonged to his grandfather and was used in some war. The thing weights a lot, isn’t very big, is hollow, and looks a lot like a bomb. We live in Brasil, and from my knowledge, we weren’t involved in many wars. Can someond indentify what this is?"
A: "it is a AN-MK-23 PRACTICE BOMB."
"Received as a Christmas gift cannot for the life of me figure out what it’s purpose is"
A: "Reverse image search came up with a mason mouth gag. Historically used to keep patients mouth open during surgery to prevent suffocation."
"Metallic ring with central slider and numbers engraved. "
A: "Sundial pendant"
"This is about the size of my hand, made of/with some kind of metal (I think copper)"
A: "Based on the morphology and symbolic motifs appears to be a copper Incan axe head. Pre-columbian, and definitely real. Could be ceremonial but would depend on size."
"Found by my grandfather on a New Jersey beach after WWII"
A: "It’s a powder flask for a musket."
"Its made of really heavy hardwood. Unsure of the age unfortunately. Given by family friend."
A: "Its half a viking chair"
"Fell out of one of my dad’s record sleeves… dangerous roach clip or dated 70s hair accessory?"
A: "Curtain hook. It slides into a pleated curtain."
"One of many large concrete troughs along one side of an old railway line, now used as a walking track. They are spaced roughly 50-100 m apart, and only appear on one side of the track where there is a small stream. No obvious bolts or other attachment points. Dad’s legs for scale."
A: "The concrete objects are catchpits. They are concrete rings with a horizontal drainpipe entering on one side and another leaving on the opposite side. The bottom of the catchpit is lower than the drainpipes, so as the water flows out of the upstream pipe and into the catchpit it reduces in speed and therefore deposits any silt it was carrying into the bottom of the catchpit. The water then flows into the downstream catchpit, carrying less silt than it did previously. When the level of the silt in the catchpit reaches the bottom of the downstream pipe the silt needs to be removed to keep the system worling. This used to be dug out using shovels, (a disgusting job), but is nowadays removed by vacuum pumps. It’s a way of helping to keep the drainage system clean. The fact that there’s a stream flowing alongside shows that the drainage system isn’t working"
"Found this in old dumped housewares. It’s a piece of solid glass, so it can’t hold anything inside. It’s about 15cm long and has a plated copper cap."
A: "It’s a broken off piece of a towel bar."
"We ordered a pacifier from a baby store and received this instead. It’s about 7”."
A: "It’s an “Automatic Transmission Pressure Switch Manifold M14001”"
"This came with our son’s new bike. There was nothing about it in the manual Santa left, and a reverse image search found nothing."
A: "It’s a derailleur guard."
"On the ceiling in a hotel. There is a smoke detector in the same room as this. It’s completely smooth on all sides besides the gray thing in the middle"
A: "It’s a PIR sensor. It detects if someone is moving in the room. Usually used for automatic lights or for the alarm."
"Got this weird kite-like folding disk thing for Christmas, any ideas?"
A: "It’s a kayak sail"
"Ceramic piece with needles on the inside?"
A: "It’s a frog vase. It’s to hold flowers upright. :)"
"What is this quaker-looking spread eagled ceramic man‘s function? found a similar item online that’s clearly a teapot, but want to know what this is used for."
A: "It’s a Toby made by Tony Wood."
"At first, I thought this stuff was snow, but I look closer I see it seems to be either cotton or something similar, with sand or salt sprinkled around. It’s not cold to the touch, slightly sticky."
A: "Yeah definitely batting, which is what one uses for fake snow in a movie (I worked on hallmarks) and yeah sometimes they definitely leave it out over a weekend if they still need that location for shooting."
"Got this keychain for Xmas. It requires batteries and the “button” doesn’t do anything. What is this thing!?"
A: "It looks like a personal alarm. You pull the pin out (the keychain) and it will scream."
"This came after ordering an Oshino Shinobu keychain on eBay. No idea why or what. What is this thing?"
A: "That looks to be a replica of the ‘stand arrow’ from the very popular manga/anime series: “Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure.” It is used in the show to awaken one’s fighting spirit or ‘stand’."
"Tiny forks with a thick prong on the left side. The upper fork is of similar size. Probably bought in England. Made of metal. Third pic is of the top right of the case."
A: "Smaller are cake forks – Bigger is for serving the cake."
"Some kind of stopwatch with a number scaling I don’t understand"
A: "It’s a tachymeter "
“Hollow silver oval found in our kitchen drawer, we don’t remember buying it.”
A: "It’s to rub on your hands after chopping onions or garlic. It gets the smell off."
“Found these things on the beach. They felt like jellyfish but they look different.”
A: "These are egg masses laid by the predatory Conical Snail that lives in the sand. Each contains hundreds of snail eggs."
“What is the hollow part of this for? Never seen anything like it before. Cat for size reference.”
A: "Possibly a phone table with storage space for the phone book. "
“Found on the street in a residential area in Australia. Top button makes a loud ‘click’ when pressed in. The device seems to be mostly hollow.”
A: "Most likely a dog “clicker” for training them. "
“My contractor brings this with him into my house every day and I’m not sure what it is. It says ‘Uruguay’ on the front”
A: “Yerba Mate teacup, they are all over in South America.”
“Cups on lanyard found on a Lake Michigan beach (glasses for scale)”
A: "Kayak plugs. Keeps water from entering holes intentionally built within the boat."
A: "It’s used to melt down lead."
“Kitchen tool. No idea what it’s for.”
A: "It’s a shrimp peeler. "
“Wooden object mounted on a metal base purchased at a vintage store”
A: "it’s for cheese making. You run it down the mixture after you add the rennet. "
“Found in a storage cupboard at work. The black bits come out. The number order is... weird?”
A: "Those plastic bits appear to be different models of “caps” to use for a human to manipulate some kind of mechanism, like the buttons for selecting the speed of a fan. "
“My wonderful boss is retiring and while cleaning out her desk today, she pulled out this mystery item. She’s been trying to identify it for over 10 years!”
A: "These are table shuffleboard disks. "
“This hollow bumpy thing was in my quarantine care package. On either end are 5 small holes arranged in a pentagon.”
A: "A hand massager, really common for older people. Pressure points are really important to Korean people."
“This shower knob is behind the bathroom door. We just bought this house and have no idea what it is for. Water rushes through pipes when we turn it on but we have no idea where the water is going.”
A: "It’s a valve of the evaporative cooler that cools down the air. "
“My dad found this in his house when he got back from vacation. Looks like a syringe, but the middle (green) bit has no hole at the end.”
A: "It’s a pill dispenser for pets, the pill goes into the claws and you use the plunger to shoot the pill to the back of the throat. "
“A gift to the Sultan of Brunei. What is it?”
A: "It’s a coconut meat grater. You husk, then cut it in half, and rub the inside on the metal part. The meat is grated and falls into a bowl."
“Arrived in the mail for me. Small glass tubes with 2 tiny ball bearings in them. No idea and not something I ordered.”
A: "Rattles that you can put inside of fishing lures so they make noise to attract fish. "
“Found in a London apartment I rented”
A: "It’s a ham holder — Serrano or Iberico."
“A miniature mask I found in NZ”
A: "Balinese ‘yawning’ dance mask. It looks like a miniature version of the actual masks used in Balinese dance performances. "
A: "It’s for photography. You might want to light a subject with multiple flash photography lights, and this is one way to synchronize them."
“Weird metal worm squiggle, found in the kitchen. What is this thing?”
A: "It’s a bookmark."
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I didn't know what these were, but I found a whole bunch of them in my parents' basement and I used them to hold up christmas lights lol