These 14 Mysterious Things Never Would Have Been Identified If The Internet Hadn't Come To The Rescue
As always, people are out in the world finding weird little bits and bobs and aren't entirely sure what they are. Thankfully, we've got the r/whatisthisthing subreddit to come to the rescue. Here are 14 recent finds from the sub and what they turned out to be:
1.This small, dense piece of gold someone found in their basement:
u/JackBurtonErnie / Via reddit.com
"So I work at a foundry, and that logo is the same as a competitor of ours called 'Burndy', which is no longer around; they were bought out by Anderson Electric in 1995 and then Hubbell Power Systems in 2009. Burndy Engineering Company was founded on July 19, 1924, and this is a commemorative casting for the 50th anniversary. In 1971, Burndy opened a sand casting foundry in Bethel, CT (not NY, as another commenter stated), so this is where it was poured. In 2017 it was closed and moved to Leeds, Alabama. The casting is most likely brass, and whoever lived in the house before you probably worked at the foundry."
2.This solid steel cylindrical item found while cleaning out a vacant property:
"I think it's the top half of one of these [Vietnam War Era US Navy Practice Bomb]."
"That looks like exactly what it is."
3.This highly insulated glove with a hole through the middle of the hand that was made in Australia:
u/Silent_Syllabub_2351 / Via reddit.com
"Motorbike mitt. My uncle has these on his farm. It keeps your hand warm and lets you use the handles on your bike with ease."
"I grew up in an Australian farming community in the '90s. There was a long-running ad on TV for these sorts of mitts. Basically, you leave the gloves on the handles of your quadbike/ATV/four-wheeler motorbike, so you’ve got your hands free to work off the bike around the farm, but toastie warm when you jump back on a ride on cold days."
4.This piece of vintage wall decor with an embedded wooden circle:
"Hang it on the wall, and it holds something. Likely a broom handle (if there's a recess for the disc), an apron, etc. Growing up, my mom had one with a marble in it that held dishcloths."
"Agreed. [Here's a] broom holder example."
5.This heavy cylindrical aluminum tube with a few buttons:
u/tokin4torts / Via reddit.com
"Kyberlight customizable lightsaber."
6.This small piece of cast iron that fell out of an antique doll:
u/VenusMarmalade / Via reddit.com
"Looks like an old cast iron, beveled washer! They’re used in I-Beam bolting. The beveled ones can be used to level two beams at their point of junction."
The original poster asked why the piece might have been inside a doll and got this response from u/Zenmedic: "Recycling. That is how these things turn up everywhere. They end up getting tossed into scrap piles, but due to their size and weight, they are a popular choice for adding weight to things for little cost."
7.This tall glass cylinder with a lid and strainer of some kind:
u/ParticularFlight3810 / Via reddit.com
"Looks like a Heisey Cocktail Shaker. Here's another link to show the inside of the cocktail shaker."
8.This wooden handle attached to a piece of metal found in an old kitchen drawer:
u/AskShort1600 / Via reddit.com
"A jar lid opener?"
"Back when a lot of food was stored in canning jars, this tool would have been used all the time. The more you turn the handle, the tighter the grip gets, and the easier it is to remove the lid. I mostly use mine for pasta jars and jam lids.
Seriously, do yourself a favor and deep clean that jar opener, and it will last you another 30 years."
9.This small, solid metal object with two powder-coated magnets inside:
"I'm gonna say it's out of an old 5 1/4 full-height hard disk drive. Those were the magnets that actuated the heads. I know this because I used to tear apart our old drives back in the day, and I have one that looks very similar to this on my shelf of old, cool-looking computer parts right now.
EDIT: I found it. Well, the closest I could find...At 0:30, the video shows an internal drawing of the drive. There on the right is the Magnet Actuator Housing Assembly."
10.These ribbed, felt-lined drawers in an antique display cabinet:
u/Optimal_Technician29 / Via reddit.com
"I'm reasonably certain these are for holding luxury pens, such as fountain pens. Fountain pen drawer liners are still sold online that resemble what's in your photos. You'll notice that most of the black stains are occurring at the same place in the trays: that would be the location where the section screws onto the pen body and that's the location that ink sometimes leaks out of.
I'd guess the drawers were once used beneath a display case holding luxury pens (the glass section above). Most of the pens would have been kept in the manufacturers' boxes, un-inked, in the other drawers. But demo pens, available for customers to try out on a pad of paper, would have been kept inked and ready in these trays (thus the ink stains)."
11.This old leather boot with attached metal spikes:
"They're for crushing chestnuts."
12.This small, solid metal tool found in California:
u/3catsoftheapocalypse / Via reddit.com
"Maybe a lace cutter?"
"it is, in fact, an early Australian Strander. Used to cut leather lace."
13.This glass Pyrex tube set inside a metal wire rack:
u/norabeall / Via reddit.com
"It's called a Pyrex Bake-A-Round. Used to make things like baguettes."
"For reference."
14.And finally, this cylindrical clamp found at a thrift store:
u/MyOwnGuitarHero / Via reddit.com
"It's an ice cream dipper; you clamp on the cone and dip the ice cream in chocolate."
If you enjoyed looking at all these interesting objects, check out some other items identified by the internet here:
16 Things People Found And Never Would Have Been Able To Identify Without The Help Of The Internet
18 Weird Things People Found That They Were Only Able To Identify With The Help Of The Internet
15 Things People Would Never Have Been Able To Identify If The Internet Hadn't Come To Their Rescue
Note: Some responses have been edited for length and clarity.
