Resources are really only good if you realize you actually have access to them. I mean, a bathroom in a classy executive suite doesn’t do you much good if you don’t have a key, right?
But if, instead of searching for some relief, you need a strange object identified, you might not realize that you have access to one of the best resources out there: Reddit’s r/whatisthisthing community.
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The subreddit has 1.8 million members, which is a lot of minds with a wide variety of experience to bring to bear on the weirdest things people can dredge out of their attics. Check out some of the mysteries they’ve been able to solve!
“Handmade instrument bought in Germany (70’s-80’s). I wonder [if] it’s [a] traditional item or something made just for decoration.”
Not just decoration, you can blow in that thing and make music for sure.
“It’s a Diple. Diple, dvojnice or dvojanke (pluralia tantum), a traditional woodwind musical instrument in Serbian and Croatian music,” Reddit user IOnlyHaveIceForYou explained . “Found by searching ‘two fipple.’ This kind of whistle has two fipples. So you get four great words for the price of one: diple, fipple and pluralia tantum.”
“What sort of utility pole is this? Not for cellular net as there was zero reception right next to it.”
It might not look like it but this is a siren for emergency weather announcements, like tornadoes.
I know, it’s a far cry from the old wide-mouth speakers that we’re used to seeing, isn’t it?
“A glass thing bought on second hand. Smooth on one side, spikes and bumps on the other.”
It always baffles me that people will buy things secondhand not knowing what they are or what they’re for, but hey, I guess sometimes you just want a thing.
Anyway, hope this person enjoys their gently-used cheese holder!
“Curved metal item with spikes and what looks like a nail remover that you would see on a hammer.”
Uh, I would be tempted to suggest that maybe this is some kind of weapon but I’d be wrong.
Well, it could probably be used as a weapon but so can a lot of things. Turns out it’s a vintage meat holder, intended to be used to hold a roast in place while you carve it.
“Friend found this in a bag of antique kitchen tools. Looks like a can opener but it’s pretty thin and completely smooth.”
This handy device is a handle for a baking rack or grill — those holes would be for holding a rotisserie. People sure have found a lot of interesting things that help hold onto stuff.
“This device in a nursing home that appears to be halfway between a sink and a toilet.”
Hey, if you weren’t familiar with what goes on behind the scenes at nursing homes, you’d probably think this was just a strangely low, wide sink with a flush handle for some reason.
The reason, of course, is that it’s for dumping out bed pans.
“Found in a storage cupboard at work. The black bits come out. The number order is … weird?”
It definitely reminds me of the electrical panel in my basement but it’s true, the numbering is odd. And unless you’re an old school model train buff, you’re not going to know what this thing is: a sampling or template of button styles for an old push button train control panel.
It never ceases to amaze me what sort of things this community can identify.
“Strange Robot Friend Neighbors Trashed After Moving Out”
This one took some serious investigation on the part of the uploader to confirm, but after taking the thing apart and discovering that it could be hooked up to a water supply to shoot water from a little “ray gun,” it was determined that this robot was part of a carnival game.
“Found in New England, metal with wood handle. In swampy area near railroad junction.”
Ooh, this already sounds like a writing prompt for Stephen King.
And the master of horror probably could come up with some kind of appropriately chilling backstory for this thing — it’s an old hook that would sit on top of a pole, possibly the kind you might use to close windows high off the ground or to help moor a boat.
“Strange metal rose. About 3 or 4 inches long, embedded in concrete in front of a pub. I have no idea what it’s supposed to represent, hoped someone here might!”
Sometimes all you need is the right context to figure a thing out, like this rose which, it turns out, is right outside a pub called the Wild Rose.
So it’s just artwork that accompanies the pub. No word on whether that revelation was accompanied by a forehead slap.
“Two plugs on this outlet, not sure what either of them are for! Found in master bedroom of a house built in late 1970s.”
You could be forgiven for not knowing what this outlet would hook up to because we’re a couple of technological leaps and bounds separated from it now.
This is what you once would have hooked a TV antenna up to. Yeah, you had to rotate the antenna on top of your house to tune into the station you wanted to watch.
“Iron, both found in the East Midlands UK”
Well, you can tell by the hole that this isn’t a nail but at the same time, it’s a bit large for a needle.
However, poking it through fabric is the idea, because this is an old cloak pin, perhaps old enough to attract the interest of an archaeologist.
“Found in an old leather (possibly medical) suitcase. 12cm long, pincers open when red top is pushed down. ‘02406CHR’ printed on back of old card container.”
You know, I probably would have guessed it was some kind of medical gadget as well because there are some bizarre looking things out there that have specific medical purposes.
But no, this is a tool just for grabbing pickles and olives out of a jar. Naturally.
“Kitchen tool made by winco. No idea what it is”
The kitchen might be the only area with more strange gadgets with a specific purpose than the doctor’s office. Take this item, for example.
Would you have guessed that this was for peeling and de-veining shrimp? Me neither. Would you have guessed that such a thing even existed? Me neither.
“My dad found this in his house when he got back from holiday. No idea how it got there but that’s a different mystery altogether. Looks like a syringe but the middle (green) bit has no hole at the end and moves up and down into the clear claws at the end.”
We only get to solve half the mystery presented here: The thing in question is for administering pills to pets. You put the pill in the little claw part and use the plunger to push it out and down your pet’s throat.
Sorry, we don’t get any closure on how this thing ended up in the man’s house, however. That is a head-scratcher for sure.
“Found these tiny metallic (I think) balls in a pile at a truck stop. They’re all perfectly spherical, can’t be crushed or melted. It feels like metal sand.”
A kind and informative person who identified themselves as a diesel technician provided the answer here: they’re balancing beads.
Truck drivers and technicians will use them to balance tires to prevent them from wearing out too fast.
“Blue metal posts, about 2 feet tall, with locks placed all around this open park near the waterfront in Toronto, ON, Canada.”
I get it, I’m curious about things I’m being kept out of, too. The blue things are caps for water testing bore holes.
When you open them, a technician can take a level for the water table below, or take a sample for testing.
“Glass [cylinder] with yellowish fluid containing a glass rod.”
“I work at a Science Museum and we received this object this week. I suspect it’s some kind of tool used for taking measurements, but not sure,” the uploader of this pic explained .
It’s just an ampoule of liquid chlorine. That glass rod in the middle helps it stay liquid.
“Strange pipe. What is the orange sludge?”
That sure does look concerning but it could be worse, as it is for the person who identified the orange sludge in question.
“Iron bacteria. I know because I have this problem in my basement,” they wrote . “It isn’t fun and it isn’t pretty. It is harmless, just icky and a pain in the neck.”
“What is this attachment and why is it round?”
Seeing as the Target balls are made of solid concrete, I don’t think it’d sit so nicely on the back of this van. The real answer is still pretty strange though.
It’s a balancing globe, one of those balls hat circus performers and the like stand on top of and, well, balance on.
“What is this lid on this old copper pan for?”
Though it’s missing some pieces, this is an egg poacher. There are cups that sit in those holes that actually hold the eggs being poached.
“Seen in an old graveyard. About 9 ft tall.”
This functioned as a sort of storage unit for the cemetery. In the winter, the ground would be too frozen to dig new graves, so they’d store bodies in here for the season.
“What is this round object I’ve found on the floor at my new apartment? […] Is this some part of a device?”
Finding what looks to be a microphone in your apartment is pretty spooky, but this finder has no reason to worry.
It’s an electret microphone and had likely fallen off a phone headset, meaning it’s completely nonfunctional on its own.
“What is this thing I saw above a bus station in Germany?”
World’s tiniest rain awning? Nope, way cooler than that!
This is a charging station for electric busses. An arm extends from the top to touch that fixture, and in 10-15 minutes, it’s ready to start its next route!
“My grandma gave me this, and I, nor her, know what it’s for.”
My first thought was some sort of coffee grinder, and I wasn’t too far off. It’s a nut chopper. So, theoretically, it could be a coffee grinder and I was right after all.
“I have seen a couple of these truck covers and have no idea what it’s purpose is.”
This tale has a few angles. At first, it just looks like a custom camper van, which functionally it probably is, but someone who actually lives in the area and had seen the inside came in to say the owner mostly uses it for storage.
“Found in the craft section of a thrift store. Made of metal and there are smaller ones that fit into the back of the bigger ones. Kind of like rivets.”
What looks like a bag right out of some eccentric toy inventor’s workshop are actually decorative grommets or eyelets. Mostly used on clothing articles that feature a drawstring, these are more likely used in crafts like scrapbooking due to the construction.
“What are chicken lips? My parents found this in the back of a pantry of a house they are house sitting.”
I really did spend a minute thinking over if chicken lips were real when I saw this post. Questioned my whole reality and everything.
But no, they’re fake, meaning this is just a gag can.
“Bought this as a purely decorative piece, but then discovered it was hinged and had compartments inside. Does anyone know what it is, and what it would be used for?”
In a fun answer, this could kind of be used for anything you want. It’s an old toy Trojan horse, so maybe once it held toy soldiers but now it holds whatever your heart desires.
“What is this 60 year old newspaper embossed print?”
Winning first place for “best name for an object on this list,” this is a flong. It was the product of a process called stereotype printing: papier-mȃché or plaster poured into a metal mold of a page.
“Small crystal glass pitcher with whiskey decanter style stopper, my best guess is it’s a maple syrup pitcher or something like that.”
This style of pitcher is most commonly used to hold oil or vinegar and is called a cruet, but don’t let that stop you from living your dreams. You could totally put maple syrup in there if you want to.
“My mother says this cast iron thing is for pouring oil, but my grandmother says she’s wrong and can’t remember what it’s for. Help?”
“My grandma and mom grew up in Great Neck, New York and my grandmother had tons of cast [iron] pieces around her home. This was one we managed to find in a cabinet,” Reddit user foureyesfive explained .
Hot oil was on the right track but you probably wouldn’t want to cook with this thing, as it’s generally used to melt lead to make bullets.
“It came with [the] fridge my mom bought. Sat on the inside.”
Genuinely thought this was a Beyblade rip stick, even after reading the title. Imagine my surprise when I learned that, no, it is meant for the fridge, it cleans out the little condensate drain at the back when it gets clogged up.
“What is this clear plastic part with a serpentine groove?”
One of the more niche finds I’ve ever seen, someone recognized this as part of a nightlight because they had the same one when they were little.
“What is this small ceramic bowl we found in our garage? There’s a dimple in the middle and a corresponding hole in the lid.”
A unique and functional design, this is an ashtray! Put out your cigarette on the dimple so the ash falls into the pot below, which prevents it from being blown away in the wind.
