Do you find it fascinating when you stumble upon an objectt whose purpose you're unsure of? That seems to happen all the time. After all, the world is a mysterious one, and what was once commonly used may now just lay dormant.
You can say the same about new technology and things we are yet to use in our daily lives. Here are some great examples of new and old objects people needed help to identify.
If you ever see this at somebody's house, don't be alarmed. It's actually a hand flex therapy tool. You can rest your palm on it, then bend your fingers against the tines to help flex the fingers after surgery or an injury of some kind.
If you see this strange-looking belt amongst workout gear, it's pretty fitting. Do you know what it is? Well, according to those who are in the know, it's an arm blaster made for bicep isolation barbell curls. Oh my!
"Small metal device, with a crank that expends the top piece out, which retracts slowly with a gear noise. It has some force, and a small lever on the right to stop/resume the mechanism."
It's is a mechanical timer for a camera's plunger cable release.
If you found this strange-looking thing with a hook, would you know its purpose? Well, the clever folks at Reddit figured out that it was a folding hook for a button. People used it to button up Victorian-style boots.
Have you ever seen anything like this in an elevator? I can't say that I have.
"Those are for installing locks (normal keys with keyways) to enter areas e.g. floor 13. Keyways are at least 5cm (2") deep so they needed a way to orient them sideways as the button assemblies are not deep enough."
The person who found this thought it might've been a typewriter, but the keys are alphabetical, so it seems unlikely. Well, it's actually a keyboard panel from a tabletop jukebox selector. How fascinating? Am I right?
Somebody found this small white box with a red light that occasionally blinks and a transparent red “window” with a circuit board behind it in their Airbnb. As it turns out, it's only a WiFi adapter for HVAC split systems, ha, ha!
Do you have any idea what this is? I thought it was a board you can hang up, but no. Basically, the wooden section slips between the mattress and box springs, and it provides a handle to assist in getting in and out of bed. Aha!
Would you believe it if I told you this was a type of glass for port or brandy? They are supposed to make the alcohol taste better as you’re drinking from the part not exposed to the air.
I find a lot of tools really interesting, but these baffled me. How about you? Apparently, you can use these to strip paint from different wood profiles. (furniture, window frames, dado rails, and such). Would you have guessed that?
If you were hiking in Scotland and stumbled upon this handmade wooden handle and mesh made of wire, would you know what it was, huh? Well, it's a fire beater used to extinguish small fires.
This metal plate on the wall with a cylindrical metal protrusion that has long and thin cutouts on it. What is it? Apparently, this is a temperature sensor. Oh wow!
Somebody got this keychain freebie at work. It breaks apart and has a black, oddly shaped rubber solid part on the inside. It's actually a cellphone amplifier. You stick your phone in it, and it basically boosts the speaker.
If you found this shiny long metal object would you know what it was? I have to admit I have no idea, ha, ha! But the clever folks at Reddit enlightened me that it's a pipe tamper. You have to tamp your tobacco while smoking.
Somebody found this weird object in their kitchen, and they had no idea what it was. Well, it's actually a funnel for making a Portuguese sweet called fios de ovos or egg threads. Wow, I've never heard of that.
What in the heck is this, huh? It's a Campbell-Stokes sunshine recorder.
"You place a strip of card into one set of grooves in the piece that curves behind the sphere, point the opposite side of the sphere toward the equator, and the sphere will focus the sunlight to burn a track on the card. The card has hours marked, and the more the card is burnt, the brighter the sunlight was.”
Somebody stumbled upon this curious stairwell in a park. It basically leads to nowhere. What could it be used for, huh? Well, as it turns out, you would use it to mount your horse. How neat, right?
Somebody stumbled upon this curious find at Jones Beach, NY, and had no idea what it was. No, they're not actually shark eggs, ha, ha! As it turns out, they're just European Water Chestnut (Trapa natans) seeds.
Let me ask you: have you ever stumbled upon a curious object and didn't know what it was? How did you discover what purpose it had? Did you go to Reddit or just Google it?
