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15 Times People Found Something Strange, And The Internet Helped Identify It
By Kelley Greene,
3 days ago
If you ever find something and have no idea what it is, never fear: the internet has answers. On the subreddit r/whatisthisthing , there's an unending stream of people who seem to be able to identify just about anything you can imagine. Here are 15 interesting things people found recently, along with what they turned out to be.
1. These five identical, thin wooden planks with 3 level steps:
These "are for old windows that don't stay up. Each step is a level for how high you want the window...The joys of living in an old home!"
2. These pieces of black corrugated plastic with a fabric cover in the Gower peninsula:
These are used to "survey for small animals, typically newts, frogs, snakes, etc., which will shelter under the squares, making it easy to count them."
Plus, "for chimneys with cooking ranges connected to them via horizontal flues, one could also light a very small fire in one of these things just to get the updraft in the chimney started so that the main fire in the grate would then draw properly."
4. This heavy metal bar with the word 'Puritan' stamped into it, found in the basement of an old New England home:
"It's an ingot. Looks like maybe lead. It's simply a convenient form for storing the metal to be melted for later use. Often stamped with the foundry's name that molded it.
5. This rusty old thing found in a river in central France:
"It's a plaque for the head tube of a bicycle frame from the Ajax cycle brand. That's why it's slightly convex.
The cycles with this logo were made in the town of Albert in the Somme region between 1906-1913, just before WWI broke out; two years later, both the factory and town were practically leveled by German artillery fire, and nearly a million men were killed at the Battle of the Somme there a year after."
8. A 6" round metal ball found about a foot under the sand at Yaupon Beach in Oak Island, North Carolina:
After a couple of suggestions that this might be dangerous, the original poster confirmed that it's "Likely a 6" Civil War-era cannonball. After consultation with the local authorities, it has been given to a local conservatory group. They are keeping it submerged as a precaution. (It was inspected and deemed inert due to the extensive saltwater intrusion, but they claim to take standard precautions regardless.) They are going to proceed to set it in an electrolysis tank to descale and better identify it. May be up to a 6-month process, but claim I can have it back after restore."
10. This giant windowsill outside of someone's kitchen window:
Some folks suggested this was likely part of an icebox. The original poster replied that they were "able to find an advertisement in a 1910 catalog called 'The Western Architect and Builder.' A company in Cincinnati called The Architectural Stone Co. seems to have manufactured what they call a Composite Window Refrigerator. Here is a link to the advertisement ."
"Back in the day, windows arrived at the construction site in pieces and were fitted, assembled, and installed by finish carpenters. So every one was slightly different in size. Since wooden storm windows and screens fitted inside the window molding, they were also all different sizes. Knowing which one went with which window before you carried it up the ladder was a big time saver."
12. This heavy round object found in a creek in central Ohio:
"It's beaten up enough to be a cannonball, but those are almost always made of iron...Chances are it's a mill ball — you need a zillion of them to accomplish their task, and since it's in a creek, it could have ended up there in any number of ways since some ball mills need water added too. It could also be a ball bearing, but it's awfully light for that task (and a bit too beaten up!).
Lots of prehistoric people made balls out of rocks for the same reasons we make and use balls today. Later on, earlier settlers sometimes used balls made out of the rock (usually porous rock) to set up filtration systems and drainage setups — just like we put gravel, say, under a fire pit today to ensure nicer drainage, etc."
"It's a Chrismatory. Per the Modern Catholic Dictionary: A three-compartment vessel for each of the three holy oils: chrism, oil of catechumens, and oil of the sick.
The vessel is often inscribed with the Latin abbreviation for each holy oil: SC ( sacrum chrisma ), OS ( oleum sanctum ) or OC ( oleum catechumenorum ), and OI ( oleum infirmorum )."
14. This 18-inch tall heavy metal item featuring a round piece of glass:
"I present to you the vintage Health-O-Meter scale . Yours is just the top bit; it attaches to the bottom part and floats above it. When you step on it, the weight is shown in the glass bit.
Ostensibly. Could be the guts are frozen or whatever. Anyway, it's a bathroom scale, in effect."
"It's for a variation on the Murphy bed...one of the corners fit on that hinge so it could pivot out of the way into the closet. The closet has to be bed-width. Here's a picture of the hinge in my closet without the fancy patented plate at the bottom.
Murphy beds were invented in San Francisco, and you see their remnants in a lot of old buildings and variations."
So, I have to ask: have you ever seen any of these items before, and do you think you'd have been able to identify any of them at first glance? Let us know in the comments! Oh, and if you'd like to check out some more random items identified by the internet, take a look here .
Note: comments have been edited for length and clarity.
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