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Thanks to the handy internet, people get answers to the unidentifiable things they come across.
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What is this long arm thing coming out of my fresh water snail?
Answer: A breathing siphon
3
What would this bit be used for?
Answer: A screw extractor. You can use it to extract damaged/stripped screws and bolts.
4
Eggs (?) in clumps about 1 inch across all around the pond at Kenneth Hahn Park in Los Angeles.
Answer: Amazonian apple snail eggs
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Tiny strainer/sieve made from copper and brass. Found in a box of miscellaneous hardware.
Answer: A colander for a dollhouse. There’s a huge market for tiny kitchen equipment replicas.
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Found these two brass objects on a job site. Crescent moons with detailed tooling engraved on both of them. Anyone have any ideas what they are or their origin?
Answer: These are wax seal stamps
7
Saw this thing almost turn down a one-way road into oncoming traffic in Las Vegas
Answer: An enclosed recumbant bike.
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This thing found by the lock on the outside if a front door in Scandinavia
Answer: A bunch of slugs huddled together
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My Grandpa had this old small phone looking thing. Any idea what it’s called?
Answer: A Grillo telephone
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Found on beach in Florida. About a foot long. Looks and feels like skeletal material.
Answer: It’s the upper mandibel of a pelican
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Found on the floor of a lecture theatre in UK. Feels very metallic. (10p for size)
Answer: Its a Mannaz Pendant Rune Necklace
12
This heavy stainless steel rod was bought in the scrapeyard and it’s been used as a handrail for at least 30 years. Do any of you guys know what was i’ts original purpose?
Answer: It’s a rotor for a fluid driven motor. Commonly used in oil field applications to drill or pump. Search mud motor rotors for more examples.
13
What is this light refraction on a cloud?
Answer: It’s called a sun dog, the light is lightly diffracted by a cloud with ice particles, and reflected by a different cloud without the arc of a rainbow.
14
Any thoughts on what this could be? I found a few of them scattered on the Oregon coast over the weekend
Answer: It is part of the Underside of a molted mole crab shell.
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It has strong magnets inside, the electrode sits between them
Answer: It is a Cold Cathode Vacuum Gauge. We use them in Vacuum Braze Furnaces to measure the vacuum in the furnace when it is below 1 micron and moves into the Torr Scale at 3.0 x10-3 and lower.
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I found this under the back seat of a truck in a junk yard.
Answer: A part of an Ammonite fossil.
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Found inside cremated remains. Triangular less than an inch tall and wide. C and T at bottom. Did not burn so possibly metallic. Felt flexible.
Answer: It’s what’s left of a chemo port.
18
Looks like a seed. Found in Cancun, Mexico
Answer: Hamburger bean. Some people consider them good luck. I have one I keep in one of my purses.
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Found in Madrid Airbnb. Some sort of board game with dice and chips. Would love to look up the rules!
Answer: It’s a version of Parcheesi
20
Somekind of old shovel/e-tool thingy. Has the text ‘1972’ on the head. Have been told it’s a redecorated Soviet e-tool but i’m not sure.
Answer: It’s a military trench shovel
21
What is this jelly like substance in my beef and broccoli??
Answer: It’s a glob of corn starch that is used as a thickening agent in sauces.
22
Found on a fishing boat in Cambodia, from a guy hand diving for scallops.
Answer: A species of sea cucumber
23
Spotted a couple of these tag-like objects around the Hoover Dam. What are they for?
Answer: They’re survey markers or plaques used for monitoring settlement or movement. They sometimes are retro reflective and a surveyor with a theodolite either manual or automatic will check the distance of the survey plaque.
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Found next to a bombing range in California.
Answer: It’s a DBU-33
25
What are these small metal door things on this building in Chicago?
Answer: Coal chutes
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My mom has had it for years. The gold piece on the bottom unscrews and there’s a glass vial thing with a cork that we’re assuming is a stash. The two brown pieces unscrew and at the end it looks like more pieces can be added.
Answer: It’s a smuggler’s flask cane/walking stick
27
Scaffolding? Party deck?!? It’s permanent with holes in the back. Can’t get up there easily and it’s in an alley.
Answer: They’re platforms that will eventually hold utilities like electric or hvac equipment for the building. They build the raised platforms to utilize the alley space otherwise it would be cramped.
