30 Times Reddit Users Helped People Find Out What They’re Looking At (New Pics)

Whether you’re rummaging through stuff at a garage sale, walking around in an antiques store or simply opening old boxes in your grandparents’ attic, you’re bound to stumble upon an occasional item that you simply have no explanation for. And while you could spend hours doing research to figure out what you’re looking at, you could just simply ask the helpful internet detectives of the What Is This Thing subreddit.

#1 This Is A On Gate Blocking Road Access To Some Cell Towers. Why So Many Locks, And How Would Someone Even Open It?

Image source: FactorialANOVA

Answer: You can open the gate by unlocking only one padlock. The way it’s designed means that multiple people can use the gate, and if one person loses their keys, only their padlock needs replaced. As opposed to one padlock with many keys, you’d need to give tons of people the new key.

#2 Found This On The Side Of The Road In My Neighborhood. Thought It Was A Brain, Then Dissected It And Now I Have No Idea. Lots Of Small Lobes, Fuzzy Inside, Rubbery?

Image source: Godbleththismeth

Answer: You my friend, have just dissected dog poop. Someone’s dog has eaten paper towels in abundance. They can’t digest it and it comes out like this

#3 Strange Weapon I Found In A German News Clip About The Turkish Coup

Image source: lumpyluggage

Answer: Drone killer. It sends a strong and very directional radio frequency signal to jam the receíver on the drone to cause it to crash.

#4 Floating Home Found Tied To A Fence On The Beach In Southern California

Image source: mtdunca

Answer: It’s floating duck house or similar structure for local waterfowl. They give ducks a place to sleep safe from predators or to escape water predators (usually snapping turtles and such).

#5 Unknown Glass Object Filled With Unknown Liquid, Found In An Early 1900’s Barn. Any Leads?

Image source: The_Donnel9801

Answer: Fire extinguisher.

#6 Im Waiting For The Bank To Open And They Have This Card Facing The Street. What Is It Used For?

Image source: bangsoul

Answer: Former bank employee here. It’s definitely a safety signal. We switched ours quarterly and it is to let other employees know that it is all clear to open.

#7 This Structure I Found While Walking In The Woods, The Metal Bit Is About 2 Feet Wide And Looks Like It Could Uncomfortably Fit A Person In It. My Guesses Are A Well, Sewer Or Time Capsule. For Context I Live In Eastern Massachusetts. We Plan On Going Back To Open It

Image source: Darkstalkker

Answer: Definitely a man hole. Do not open it. DEFINITELY DO NOT GO IN IT! Manholes are notoriously deadly because they contain low oxygen percentages and high concentrations of poisonous gases such as hydrogen sulfide and methane. First responders usually find two dead people in manholes – the first one that went in and succumbed and their friend who watched them pass out and rushes in to help.

#8 Witt? An Unusually Shaped Sink Possibly In A Corridoor, Spotted In A Property Listing On An Older House. Looks Quite Narrow, Probably Too Small For Washing Boots

Image source: Cisco800Series

Answer: It’s called a butlers sink, or cleaners sink. It’s used for cleaning, filling buckets, emptying out waste so housekeeping can wash down surfaces without wandering through the house.

#9 About The Size Of My Hand. Found In The Trash. (I’m A Trash Man). Any Ideas?

Image source: anxietyattacks77

Answer: Laser cut “perpetual” calendar.

#10 What Is This Ring My Uber Driver Would Randomly Click?

Image source: DannyMThompson

Answer: Hes praying, thats a counter. The prayer involves repeating a phrase a certain number of times. Traditionally you kept track on your fingers or with a string of beads. This device does the same job.

#11 Two Spoons Attached To A Wooden Handle At The Thrift Store?

Image source: HoagieDillJr

Answer: It’s a musical instrument literally called “spoons”. Used as percussion by clacking the spoons together.

#12 Found Metal Detecting In A Minnesota Park Where Other Objects Around 1860s Have Been Pulled

Image source: turtlesupremelord

Answer: Mold for casting lead soldiers

#13 What Is This V-Shaped Scoring? Found In Germany

Image source: seriousffm

Answer: That’s an old way to collect sap to make turpentine. It’s called “cat face”

#14 What Would Cause My Friends Lawn To Look Like This After The Snow Melted

Image source: branevomet

Answer: That’s some major vole activity. They look a lot like mice, but tend to be very active under winter snows and like tunneling.

#15 Weird Metal Tube (Now Dented) Found Metal Detecting In Se Iowa On A Farmstead That Stood From The 1890s-1960s. Seems To Be Made Of Copper, Found 4″ Down, And Has A Bat-Like Symbol On One End. It’s Closed On Both Ends And Feels Hollow

Image source: Baidon

Answer: It’s 1940s lipstick by Coty.

#16 Small Red Container. The Lid Has A Small Spoon Attached To The Inside

Image source: HiFructoseCornSizurp

Answer: Snuff container

#17 Open Spoon With Spikes; Trident-Like Fork; Tongs With A Chicken Foot And A Perforated Spoon. All Antique Silver

Image source: hamster-cow

Answer: Olive server, lettuce server, ice tongs. Having a talon on ice tongs is a novelty feature, but there are a lot of them out there!

#18 Found This Metal Object In Auckland, New Zealand. Banana, Hot Wheels Car And Fruit Pie For Scale! Metal (Brass?) With Screw Thread At The Bottom And Coloured Plastic Rings Around Shaft, Some Opaque, Some Transparent. Found On The Shoreline At The Ōtuataua Stonefields Reserve, Near The Airport

Image source: McArgister

Answer: I’m sure this is the handle to a machinists hammer. It’s the common item to make when learning how to turn on a lathe. I made one nearly identical when I first started.

#19 Found While Cleaning Out A Deceased Estate. At First Glance Looks To Hold Liquid, But Has A Large Hole In The Bottom So, What Is This Thing?

Image source: Silverslade1

Answer: Wasp Trap. Sweet fluid and dish soap go in bottom. Stinging insects fly in, dish soap eliminates surface tension and coats them. They die/drown.

#20 Small Scoop With Alligator Clip As The Handle. Found It Cleaning Out The Kitchen

Image source: SCruzed

Answer: Coffee scoop with bag clip for coffee bag.

#21 What Is This Boat Off The Coast Of Long Island, NY With Three Tall Smoke Stacks?

Image source: reddit.com

Answer: Not smoke stacks, piles. It’s a working barge, and those piles are lowered into the sea floor to stabilize the vessel while working. They are very commonly used on maritime construction projects such as bridge and tunnel building, surveying, shore protection, etc.

#22 Any Guesses As To What This Plane Part Is? Fell Out Of The Sky In Colorado When That United Engine Failed

Image source: baltor85

Answer: I think that’s a vape pen dude

#23 What Is The Use Of This Fourth Piece Of Cutlery I’ve Seen In A German Museum?

Image source: FlyWithTheCars

Answer: It’s a baby food pusher, quite common in the 1800s – early 1900s

#24 Found On My Driveway. The Rcmp Arrested My Neighbour Last Night; Could It Be Related To That?

Image source: Gicemen

Answer: a taser dart.

#25 Glass Vase Thing Found In A Thrift Store In Navarre, Fl

Image source: xlgiraffe18

Answer: It’s a kind of wine bottle used in Spain, specifically Catalonia. You drink from it by pouring a stream through the air and directly into your mouth. I’ll see if I can find the actual name.

Found it. It’s called a Porron

#26 This Building Was Found In A Country Estate In Scotland. It’s About The Size Of A Large Shed And Has Small Slits And Platforms On The Outside. What Is It?

Image source: Cheap_Doughnut7887

Answer: It’s a bee hotel. The bee house version instead allows for multiple complete hives where the bees live, which I suppose is less like a hotel and more like condominiums.

#27 Metal Sphere With Russian Writing Found On A Bahama Beach

Image source: hydrogennanoxyde

Answer: It probably contained high pressure nitrogen (-196 C is the boiling point of nitrogen). Likely used to spin up the pumps of a rocket motor as it started. A sphere is the ideal shape for containing high pressure gas/liquid.

#28 Old School Chem Set Maybe? Found In Abandoned Building With No Info On It

Image source: HeroinHero666

Answer: Bach flower remedies. They are solutions of brandy and water—the water containing extreme dilutions of flower material developed by Edward Bach, an English homeopath, in the 1930s.

#29 What Would Be Shipped In This Strange Shaped Container?

Image source: Moeextoic

Answer: it’s a ( human or equine) sperm shipping container.

#30 Found In A Garden. Metallic Object That Closes In On Itself

Image source: ScZi

Answer: Looks like a Hindu ritual box. It is missing the middle piece that would sit in that central hole.