"It Was Driving Everyone Bonkers With Mystery": 49 Times The Internet Came Together To Identify Weird Items That Had Everyone Completely Stumped

"It's a Georgian/early Victorian mourning ring. The initials beryllium to the mislaid loved one. They were typically made from golden (18k+) and enameled successful black. Yours looks similar it was made astir the 1820s-1840s."

—u/batbrat

"It looks similar a plantation/planters chair. You’d enactment your sore, swollen legs up connected the arms aft sitting connected a equine each day, similar a large pistillate with her legs up successful the aforesaid fashion. This is wherefore the backmost is sloped arsenic well. If you beryllium up straight, it wouldn’t beryllium comfy to enactment your legs up similar that, but successful a reclined position, it’s bully for humor travel and aerial flow. Here's an example photo."

—u/ChesterDaMolester

"Aide de memoir."

—u/Artbrutist

"More specifically, spot this one, which is astir identical to the days of the week typed and has a akin clasp connected Etsy: Victorian Aide Memoire Notebook. The merchandise statement says it's a 'fabulous antique aboriginal Victorian chatelaine adjutant memoire from the mid-1800s. Made of sheets of bone, it would person hung connected a lady's chatelaine concatenation oregon been kept securely successful her pocket, and she would person utilized it to marque notes and appointments for the week to come. It has six pages for the days Monday to Saturday, because, of course, a woman would ne'er person made appointments connected a Sunday!"

—u/DrKenNoisewaterMD

"It's a hook utilized to hoist furnishings to the precocious floors of the building. A pulley is hung from it to assist. The doorbell signifier is apt conscionable to support from rain."

—u/jackrats

"It appears to beryllium an antique tonsil guillotine. The pincers adjacent the extremity grip the tonsils, and the extremity portion slices the tonsils off. Yeah, it looks painful."

—u/sandiercy

"It's a plaque for the caput conduit of a bicycle framework from the Ajax rhythm brand. That's wherefore it's somewhat convex.

The cycles with this logo were made successful the municipality of Albert successful the Somme portion betwixt 1906-1913, conscionable earlier WWI broke out; 2 years later, some the factory and municipality were practically leveled by German artillery fire, and astir a cardinal men were killed astatine the Battle of the Somme determination a twelvemonth after."

— u/Menthalion

"That is simply a Shore Scleroscope! It's an instrumentality that was utilized to trial the hardness of metals. It does truthful by dropping a value down the conduit and measuring however precocious it bounces back, hence the numbered marks. 

Here's a low-resolution video of 1 being used."

—u/MisterLochlan

"This is for removing a cork from a vino vessel if it falls each the mode in. Here's the patent from 1985. The inventor lived successful Vancouver, wherever I besides live; possibly that's wherefore I recognized it. I've seen these around. Pretty definite my ma and dada had one."

—u/S-Kiraly

When the archetypal poster asked however it worked, u/Splint33333 replied, "You conscionable enactment the happening wrong the vessel and the bottommost portion (with the larger bit) nether the cork. Then, you assistance up, pushing the cork against the cervix of the vessel until it flies out. There is simply a 'DIY' mentation with a elemental drawstring and a knot mentation on YouTube." 

"I contiguous to you the vintage Health-O-Meter scale. Yours is conscionable the apical bit; it attaches to the bottommost portion and floats supra it. When you step connected it, the value is shown successful the solid bit, ostensibly. It could beryllium the guts are frozen oregon whatever. Anyway, it's a bath scale, successful effect."

— u/houtex727

"Boot scrapers."

—u/jackrats

"When those were installed, horses were astir apt the main proscription option, and successful addition, cipher carried canine poop bags. I person seen quotes that NYC successful 1900 dealt with 2.5 cardinal pounds of equine poop per day! Vibram hadn't been invented, truthful I would conjecture not a batch of lugged soles. That would marque these some precise indispensable and astir apt reasonably effective."

—u/Random_Excuse7879

"It's a cranial cap. You enactment it nether the caput to sorb leaking encephalon goo."

—u/pervocracy

"You would spot that connected the pillow of a casket for idiosyncratic who has had a cranial autopsy done (removal of the brain). It is to sorb immoderate liquid that whitethorn seep done the sutures utilized connected the scalp. Better successful this than each implicit the pillow due to the fact that it would astir apt beryllium blood. I've been a mortician for 40 years."

—u/BarnacleVisible7526

"Funeral Director/Embalmer here. Agree with the different posters. Could beryllium wrong, but this 1 looks used. Would not urge touching bare-handed. We usage galore chemicals that an live idiosyncratic should not interaction directly."

—u/Michaelpooponu

"It's a vestigial instrumentality deliberately installed into a large fig of imported shirts truthful that they classify arsenic a circumstantial nonfiction of clothing, which avoids a tariff."

—u/Technical_Anteater45

"It’s called a ‘nurse pocket,’ and it’s determination for reasons others commented."

—u/71Crickets

"Dewpan for animals to portion from. The pyramid sits successful a tray and warms during the day. The aerial cools astatine night, and condensation forms and runs down to beryllium collected successful the tray."

—u/Tacoza

"FB Minden mightiness basal for "Feuerbestattung" Minden - Minden crematory. I deliberation you stumbled implicit a chamotte marker from a crematory that was utilized to way the individuality of a assemblage arsenic it turned to ashes and was buried astatine sea."

— u/ParaspriteHugger

The archetypal poster, u/tinaa26, replied, "Thank you. I was assuming it mightiness beryllium thing similar that erstwhile I Googled it. I volition enactment it backmost successful the sea."

"I americium a commercialized diver. I bash operation underwater successful Manhattan. We precocious utilized these nonstop cages connected a task called The Billion Oyster Project. It’s a conservation effort to reconstruct the NYC oyster population. 

What they did was capable these container cages with oyster shells. Then we welded them together. Then, they enactment a container of either unrecorded oysters oregon oyster shells seeded with juvenile oysters connected the apical of this container pyramid. Then we lowered them by crane down to the stream bottommost and staked them into the mud. 

We besides installed factual habitats seeded with juvenile oysters. Our determination was the Gansevoort Peninsula, conscionable southbound of The Little Island and conscionable westbound of the Whitney Museum."

—u/PugetSoundingRods

"I deliberation that's Star Jelly... Great find! Believe it oregon not, nary 1 knows wherever it comes from. Only immoderate chaotic speculations."

—u/Spec_Ops_141

Also, u/Mael_Coluim_III shared much accusation astir prima jellies here and here.

"If there’s a spread successful a cannonball, it’s for a fuse to airy the explosives inside. You should enactment that down immediately and perchance interaction instrumentality enforcement astir ordnance disposal."

—u/George__Hale

The archetypal poster, u/RaedwaldRex, later updated, saying, "Thank you. Rather stupidly, I shook it to perceive thing inside, but I didn't perceive anything. Which, successful hindsight, was astir apt precise stupid. I'll springiness 101 a telephone (the UK constabulary non-emergency line) and spot what they suggest." They aboriginal added, "Two bully service chaps person been and confirmed it's safe. Even fto maine support it. I'm present disconnected to bed."

"Murphy in-a-dor bed." 

— u/adube1320

"It's for a saltation connected the Murphy bed... 1 of the corners acceptable connected that hinge truthful it could pivot retired of the mode into the closet. The closet has to beryllium bed-width. Here's a picture of the hinge successful my closet without the fancy patented sheet astatine the bottom.

Murphy beds were invented successful San Francisco, and you spot their remnants successful a batch of aged buildings and variations."

— u/tyinsf