Most people have one or a few things they know a lot about. Be it a hobby, a specific brand of trivia knowledge, or just a lot of random facts. Every person carries a wealth of knowledge!
When all that wealth comes together, they’re capable of great things, like identifying mystery objects and solving internet obscurities like these!
“Where are these numerals from? Coworkers pocket watch, bought in Istanbul a while ago.”
The numerals are Eastern Arabic numerals, which makes sense given where the watch is from!
“Metal holder of some sort?”
This is a bottle holder but a very specifically shaped one, likely meant to hold bottles of Snake Juice or any other similarly shaped container!
“Unknown glass object filled with unknown liquid, found in an early 1900’s barn.”
Of course, your first thought might be some sort of lightbulb — as was mine — but apparently, we’re both way off base.
It’s a fire extinguisher with a sort of grenade mechanic; chuck it at the fire and let the contents put it out!
“They’ve been showing up on the beach by the hundreds for the last month!”
Called plastic bio filters, they’re often used in aquariums to, you guessed it, filter the water. As to why they’ve been washing ashore? It’s likely a shipment of them ruptured, causing them to spill into the water.
“Plastic object that beeps and red led flashes repeatedly. The top section clicks and rotates. Found in the parking lot of a bar. Tried to kill it with water but it still screeched.”
The reason water didn’t kill it is due to it probably being a security tag from a local retail store.
They’re designed to take a real beating before turning off, though here it seemed to already be too late.
“We noticed that the shower was getting white spots where the water comes out. We isolated it with a plastic bag, and after a week this white powder accumulated. Is it something added to treat the water?”
Less of an object and more of a happening, but still something to be identified all the same.
That being said, it’s just limescale, but a whole lot of it.
“Floating home found tied to a fence on the beach in Southern California.”
It’s a floating duck house! A little shelter built for ducks and other waterfowl to escape from predators such as snapping turtles.
“Possibly farming tool? Bottom left part feels like it should fit in your hand. I got this with a bunch of general shed tools, mostly woodworking tools.”
A specific-looking tool for a specific job, this is a wire strainer, built to maintain tension on fencing wire.
“This rack type drawer is mounted in a kitchen cabinet. This is as far as it pulls out and the bars do not rotate or come out.”
I thought it looked like a drying rack, and that’s kind of true! You’re meant to hang gloves and washcloths on it, both for storage and drying purposes.
“Found at antique store. Label said ‘key.’ Key to what?”
It’s a water meter key! So probably not too useful on a personal level — especially if it’s older — but still an interesting find.
“Red Pyramid in Desert near Superstition Mountain, CA. On [satellite] shots since 2000 at least.”
Someone in the comments had been to this mystery pyramid before and explained that it’s a defunct bombing range for the U.S. military. Brightly colored pyramids were used as visual references by pilots.
“What is this thing? It’s made of felt and seems to be full of cotton.”
I remember when these were being advertised across the internet some two years ago. It goes in between the seat of a car and the center console, stopping items from falling into that crevice.
“This just plopped out of my sugar-free soft drink while I was drinking it and it was so surprising I had to spit it out. […] Is it dangerous?
After some investigation, not dangerous at all, and not even the fault of the manufacturer! Many pointed out that it looked like a gel pill capsule, after which the poster did confirm he takes fish oil pills.
He either went to wash it down with his drink and it fell out or dropped in, but either way it dissolved and looked totally different later on, causing him to think it was something else entirely.
“Wooden objects. Ball is roughly baseball sized. Found while cleaning out an old desk.”
From top to bottom, these are a darning ball, glove darner, and a darning mushroom. If you don’t know what darning is, it’s a sewing technique for repairing holes and wear!
“Hanger like thing found buried on my land.”
They’re actually holding it upside down for this picture. When it’s right-side up, that curved rod on the bottom held a plastic tinted film, as it’s an auto sun visor frame for vintage Polaroid cameras!
“A grey device with a cord on it. […] Found at a park.”
It does look pretty ominous if you’re unsure of its origins, but it’s super common! This is a trail camera, likely installed to check wildlife numbers and interactions.
“Coworker bought a really old Masonic mansion to convert into a haunted house. They found this in it. Any idea?”
Firstly, your coworker sounds cool as hell. Secondly, it is related to the Freemasons. This is a “jewel” that a junior warden of a Masonic lodge would wear.
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“I work in a restaurant, we had a customer complaining that they found that in our chicken – it’s not a part of any equipment we have in store. Any ideas?”
What looks like the world’s tiniest wrench is…well, kind of that. Someone said it looked like a wrench ring, one that might have broken off anywhere down the line from the farm to the table.
“Metal small tong looking thing […].”
Tong-looking is right, and they are used in a similar fashion, but for something more specific. It’s called a crimper, used to imprint designs and patterns while cake decorating!
“At the beach in Southern CA. Alive with claw things that moved in purple sheathes.”
Now for the scariest thing on the list, this. It’s not some horrid alien monster though, it’s just a cluster of goose barnacles with both an egg sac and some random feather stuck to it.
While the uplaoder was traveling through the Spanish countryside, they started noticing that old houses tended to have these unusual elevated rooms.
And as they soon learned, these are grain storage spaces called hórreos . As for why they’re elevated, that design decision was apparently made to keep pesky rodents from eating away at the grain stocks.
And if it seems like rats and other tricky critters would be able to scale that, they thought of that too. That’s why there’s slate at the base of the hórreo .
When this person bought a frying pan from Macy’s, it came with this strange, solid object.
Although it was heavy with a magnetic bottom, its overall rigidity made it hard to figure out its purpose.
And as it turns out, that’s because it’s not complete. This is part of the store’s security tag remover that fell into the bag after the unit apparently fell apart without anyone noticing.
Somebody became curious enough to buy this from a thrift shop for two dollars despite having no idea what it is.
And the good news is that if they ever want to make their own rugs, they’ve brought themselves one step closer to doing it.
That’s because this is a punch needle used for tufting rugs, which is a process that makes them soft and fluffy.
After one professional spent some time away from the work studio they rented, they discovered that the building owner had installed this unit that had a blinking red light in it.
Since this happened without explanation, they were concerned that this was some unusual means to spy on them.
However, they soon found relief in the reality that this is an occupancy sensor that automatically turns off the lights when it doesn’t detect anyone in the room to save money.
This small tool would have likely seemed mysterious enough without those four buttons in the middle.
And it’s a testament to the impressive knowledge of r/whatisthisthing users that this was identified since you’re not likely to see people using them much anymore.
This was apparently compatible with old CAD drafting programs. It was supposed to work with a grid mousepad and each of those buttons toggled a different drawing setting.
While it’s generally a pretty tall order to ask folks to identify an unidentified bright object in the sky, the uploader provided just enough detail to make that possible.
Because once users were made aware that they live in south Florida and that this happened at 6:30 pm, they were able to match this image up with a ballistic missile test that had been launched nearby from a Trident submarine.
I guess that’s the only context where this wouldn’t be an ominous sight, then.
While this would be pretty easy to write off and discard if you’re unfamiliar with it, the uploader is pretty lucky they became curious about it.
To first address what this is, we’re looking at a Dzi bead. They have unknown origins, but are typically found in Central Asia — particularly Tibet — and are often used in spiritually protective amulets and traditional medicine.
So why is the uploader so lucky to know all this? Well, it turns out that Dzi beads that look very similar to this one have sold for up to $700.
Although it certainly doesn’t look like a typical camera, one person was worried that their neighbor had set this up to film them.
However, the fact that it was pointed toward their house turned out to be purely coincidental.
It turns out that this is a solar panel and those are generally supposed to be pointed south when you’re in the northern hemisphere.
