Each of us has an area of niche knowledge . Heck, some of us might know about all sorts of niche things . But there’s no way that any one person can positively identify every little thing they see.
Fortunately, there’s the r/whatisthisthing subreddit . It’s basically a one-stop shop for people who want to know what the heck they’re looking at, or possibly holding.
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“What is this thing used for? A book with black blank pages alternating with thin translucent pages.”
If you’re of a certain age, you remember these crazy things called photo albums, where we’d display actual physical photographs without the aid of a smartphone. This thing is simply an unused photo album.
“Found on beach in Alaska. About the size of a pea yellow/amber color. Almost waxy feeling but not plastic.”
I was hoping this was ambergris, since that stuff’s super valuable, but this is more likely a bunch of glass floats from fishermens’ nets that have become polished by ocean currents.
“Found these in a bin in my backyard after doing some yard clean up. They are metal and round on one side.”
It wouldn’t be a r/whatisthisthing post without a visit from the bomb squad, would it? These are practice rounds for 40mm grenades. Yes, the bomb squad was called.
“Black stone object found buried in a garden in Somerset, UK. Ornate carving on front, uneven scratch marks on back.”
We’re not sure what the carving means, but the material is Whitby jet , something found along the Yorkshire coastline. People have been carving it into trinkets for centuries.
“What are these small circular disks that keep turning up in the stomachs of seabird chicks on Lord Howe Island?”
Here’s a sad one, since these things are definitely not good for birds. They all appear to be from medical waste, as several are friction lids from pill bottles.
“Made of metal, about 5 inches long.”
We don’t hear much about cobblers nowadays, but the shoe-repair business used to be much bigger than it is today. This is an anvil, used as a kind of mold, for a cobbler to repair shoes.
“Pyrex globe with ceramic. Found by a relative this morning.”
You know how each toilet tank has a float inside, usually made of rubber? In the olden days, they had floats, but they were made of glass. This is one such example .
“Bought a coat dress from vintage store in North Eastern US and found brown powder sewn inside while letting out seams. Haven’t touched it but it appears to be sewn into the entire garment. Think the coat is from the ’60s or ’70s.”
I wanted this to be an example of vintage drug smuggling, but it’s nothing as exciting as that. The powder is just old foam padding that’s deteriorated with age.
“At an AirBNB in a beach town on East Coast, US. Kitchen island has these ‘indents’ with a handle? Seems like repurposed wood but curious if there is a purpose in the kitchen or just a design?”
This would be perfect in a nautically-themed house, as the handle-looking thing definitely came from a hatch door from either a ship or a barn.
“Random-ish straight but not parallel lines next to my office building… What’s happening here?”
This is known as evaluation trial trenching . Basically, before a big project, some trenches have to be dug out to ensure that there aren’t items of archaeological significance in the ground.
“This is a steel wire frame with two glass marbles. It was found in an old garage among various stuff. The marbles can turn inside the frame.”
These look fun to clack together, and I’m sure they are. But the official use of this is to sharpen razor blades .
“Bunk beds (?) in a crawlspace of a home from 1959.”
This honestly looks like some kind of secret prison or something, but it’s something that was pretty common in the 1950s: a bomb shelter. Those racks are probably either beds or benches.
“What is this thing? An inflated plastic bag sticking out of the window of one of the houses on my street.”
This one’s kind of neat. The bag-looking thing is a positive pressure vent, which is essentially an exhaust system for expelling mold from a house.
“Found a large metallic cylinder on the beach of Husavik, Iceland. What is this?”
It’s a bomb, right? It has to be a bomb.
As it turns out, it’s totally not a bomb. It’s just a submarine detector that somehow washed ashore.
“What is this ostentatious wooden alcove that doesn’t match any other part of the house?”
We can’t be totally certain of this one, but it appears to be an inglenook — basically a cozy little reading nook in a house. They’ve largely fallen out of fashion.
“What are these metal things on the corner of these stairs and what is their purpose?”
This one’s pretty straightforward. They’re corner dust guards, designed to keep dust from accumulating in hard-to-reach areas, while also making it easier to sweep.
“What is this? Found in the Red Sea on the coast of Egypt. It looks like it’s entirely made out of sand and is connected in a corkscrew design. Found in shallow water and it falls apart easily.”
This is obviously something to do with some kind of sea creature, but what? If you’re not a marine biologist, it would be understandable if you didn’t realize this was cemented-together sand made by a moon snail.
“Small cylindrical object found in green pouch at corner of wash rag. Appears to have copper coil in it.”
We’re not sure where the wash rag came from — perhaps it was just padding for the smaller object. The smaller object , for what it’s worth, can be put in surgical gauze and used to detect RFID or x-rays.
“This little hole appeared in my parents’ bedroom.”
If you think this looks like a bullet hole, well, you’re on the right track. The hole was most likely made by a BB. It still isn’t ideal, but it’s better than an actual bullet.
“Heavy (brass?) part. Discovered in the belongings of a WWII veteran. Can rotate and unscrew parts, as displayed.”
When someone finds something from a WWII veteran, there’s about a 50/50 chance they’ll need to call in the bomb squad. Fortunately, that isn’t the case here. This is just a timed artillery fuse.
