It’s not often that we get to find a homegrown mystery . To stumble upon a strange and foreign object, unaware of its purpose, can cause feelings of wonder and curiosity to rise.
It’s healthy to indulge in that, as the people in this list did. They found odd objects and took to Reddit’s r/whatisthisthing community in search of people who could identify them, which they also found. Case closed!
“Metal tool, probably farm implement, with handle and pointy end.”
Though it looks very odd, even a little medieval, this device’s true use is far tamer than those who jump to worst-case scenarios would think at first.
It’s a set planter! One side holds water, which gets poured when you pull the handle, and the set gets dropped down the chute into the dirt.
“[As] seen on i70 somewhere in [Missouri].”
These large, futuristic-looking blocks of technology are what’s known as a sodar system. They’re used to monitor and assess potential future locations for wind turbines and turbine farms.
“Hand sewn cloth item received with kitchen stuff.”
What looks like a large, convoluted towel does actually have a specific use.
This is designed to carry casserole dishes. You put the dish in the center under the strap, pull the strap up, and feed the strap through the two loops in the corners until they all fold inwards and completely cover the dish.
“Green rectangular key with 3 pins on one end and CISCO, CAS, and a ‘0’ printed on it.”
The first explanations telling people what this was a little technologically advanced, but thankfully someone watered it down. Cisco is a company that makes networking equipment, and this thing, called a cable access system pad, is used in a device that helps them control signal strengths.
A worker likely just dropped it one day!
“Royal mail cabinet with no slots by the side of the road in North of England. What is this cabinet for?”
This little not-mail box is called a pouch box instead. Mail carriers will sometimes have their bags delivered to them through these boxes.
This post also helped me learn that some people call mail carriers posties, which I think is very cute.
“4 pieces total […] Metal rods and a straps all over the place. Device is hinged in the center where the pieces attach.”
If you thought this looked vaguely medical, then you’d be right. The most popular guess was a femoral traction splint, which is used by emergency services to stabilize femur fractures.
I only say ‘guess’ because a rather important part crucial in the stabilizing process was missing from the package, but no one is planning on using this one anyway.
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‘Small metal object with handle that twists for ‘vents’. Has with internal mesh and kind of fabric. Also cover.”
Another item in the neverending line of hyper-specific cooking tools, this is actually a small burner. It can be used for fondue pots, as a portable smoker, or to simply keep food warm.
“A hose coming from a fire hydrant to a metal box. What is this box?”
No need to fret, this isn’t your local fire hydrant being locked up, it’s actually a pressure logger. They’re just testing your hydrant’s water pressure. Someone noted that this one is rather old school, as most pressure logging is done electronically.
“These strange dust patterns keep showing up on screens of my apartment windows.”
It’s not that the dust keeps showing up in that pattern, it’s just that dust keeps recollecting in this already marked area.
Someone identified this as the work of previous tenants who used to smoke with a fan in the window, and said it likely wouldn’t go away until the whole screen was given a good wash.
“Carved wooden (clown?) head. Neck is a long screw that goes through carved out mouth, does not reach to top of inside of head.”
Though frightening, very, very frightening, it has a perfectly tame use. He’s a nutcracker. Put the nut in, twist the screw down, crack the nut.
I can’t imagine wanting this in your house, let alone actually using it, but… that’s what it is!
“Some form of clock or timing device.”
A clock was pretty correct, as was a timing device, as this is a night watchman’s clock. Somewhere on this piece there is a keyhole in which the watchman would insert their watchkey, and record the time they reached their stations.
“Building type with slits raised above the ground.”
This is a type of storage construction known as a Hórreo, and was mostly used to store grain. It being on stilts was to keep rats and mice from eating said grain, though theoretically it could be used to keep any foodstuffs away from animals.
“Some kind of oil field equipment possibly?[…] There are two of them sat on the bed of two 18 wheelers.”
Oil was a great guess on this finder’s part! Someone identified this as a gas chiller/reboiler used in the processing of natural gas and oil.
“This was in my bandaid wrapper instead of a bandaid. Almost rubbery. Solid construction, not sticky, same on opposite side.”
At first, this was identified as a vague production error, which wasn’t false, but someone then came in to provide more detail.
This is an overlay used in quality control, namely quality control regarding the size of whatever’s being produced. One just happened to slip into production and get shipped out!
“I saw this in a theater, what it this piece of metal?”
An answer I certainly didn’t see coming, that’s a light. Those glass pannels flip up into tables, and those pieces function as lights to illuminate said tables. The uploader said he’s never seen one turned on, so maybe for this theater, they’re just decorative metal bars.
“Grey & white cylinder with what looks like a camera.”
If it looks like a camera, walks like a camera… well, not walking, but this definitely is a camera. Though the user was initially worried as it looks to be pointed right at their window, others assured that these cameras have wide lenses and is angled down slightly, meaning it’s probably just watching the shared property.
“Strange glass vase/device purchased from an Op Shop?”
Believe it or not, this is a type of lamp. Called a Russian oil lamp, this one is a wick and a wick holder. Someone explained that they were designed to have colored oil poured inside, which would then fill the spiral and the points in the globe, making for a neat effect.
“Flew over my house tonight. Seemed like maybe a low flying satellite but it had this tail and the brightness wasn’t constant.”
This user actually caught a pretty cool sight. What looks like peak UFO sighting is actually the second stage of the SpaceX Falcon 9 launch that happened, and they managed to snap a pretty clear pic of it!
“Little red dot, metal border. No idea other than that?”
Little to go off of but revealed all the same, this is an old bingo chip! Apparently, the metal ring is so they could be quickly picked up with magnet rods. They were seemingly included in children’s science kits as well, as many other users said that’s where they knew them from.
“Metal item found in an area of the Southeastern US with a lot of civil war history. I’m not sure what it is and would like some further insight.”
While the exact era of this item couldn’t be identified, though the person who found it really wanted it to be a Civil War relic, it was deemed to likely be a lead projectile fired out of a rifled barrel specifically, hence the markings.
