15+ Objects Whose Purpose Would Remain a Mystery Were It Not for the Help of Internet Users
Not all of us can be detectives. But sometimes life provides us with objects whose mysterious purpose is really hard to find at first glance. But what’s great is that there is a team of online professionals who can give you a clear answer to the question “What is this thing?”
At CHEERY, we love to solve mysteries. So we would like you to try to guess what are the objects that some Internet users have found. Just don’t look the answers section immediately.
1. “This is a large chunk of metal. It weighs quite a bit in your hand and hasn’t changed color in decades.”
Answer: The circled “M” logo is the logo of the Réunion des musées nationaux, the French public museums. This is probably a copy of a cuneiform tablet available as a souvenir at the Louvre, among other museums. © Croquant23 / Reddit
2. “I found this in a kitchen drawer. It’s stiff, but still bends a little.”
Answer: It goes through a hole at the end of measuring spoon sets to keep them together. © CleverNomDePlume / Reddit
3. “I have a cross-shaped notch/outlet in my house. I moved in 6 months ago and no one knows what it is, including my agent and 2 handymen.”
Answer: It’s a flush sewer cleanout plug. © jackrats / Reddit
4. “I found this in the bathroom cupboard of the new house I bought. The middle hexagon part is magnetic, the cables are C chargers.”
Answer: This is the Monster Digit 3D LED Art Panels 3-Segment Starter Kit. © TheBeardedWelshman79 / Reddit
5. “I found this at an estate sale. It’s about 3 feet tall, gold-colored, but silver inside. There are some sort of brackets on the back. It’s hollow like a bucket, and pretty lightweight.”
Answer: It’s for grapes! Here is a similar one. © Flatulent_Spatula / Reddit
6. “Small hole thing that water comes out of when the faucet spout is on, what is this for?”
Answer: It’s a vintage spigot with a hose diverter. © lothcent / Reddit
7. “I found this in our little free library. It’s large, hollow, and strangely made with solid wax? Has anyone ever seen anything like this?”
Answer: I used to work for a candle company, I would guess this is a “vessel”. It’s basically a candle that never burns out, you can put tea lights, LED lights, or liquid paraffin candles on the inside that light the candle up without ever melting the wax away. Like a “forever candle.” © MumSaysImHandsome / Reddit
8. “A strange ’bench’ with tubing near the parking lot of an old elementary school”
Answer: Google tells me it’s a “pull slide”. © lDrawnOnwarD / Reddit
9. “I found this weird electric tool. When plugged in and turned on, it vibrates very intensely. It has some spring-like coils on the bottom.”
Answer: It’s a Swedish massager. Your hand goes through the springs and it vibrates the hand as you massage someone. © Impossible_Ad9947 / Reddit
10. “A microphone-shaped object with a transparent globe spotted on the London underground, what is it?”
Answer: It’s a k-pop lightstick. So it’s like the grown-up version of that. © coconutcake / Reddit
11. “I just bought these granny-style panties and there’s a hard button-like thing in the middle front of them. It’s embedded.”
Answer: It’s a quantum chip for menstrual pain relief. © jackrats / Reddit
12. “An old wooden handheld item with multiple metal prongs that aren’t very sharp”
Answer: It looks like a meat tenderizer used for pork skin or firm meat. © MagneticName / Reddit
13. “A cube with different numbers of indentations of different sizes on each face”
Answer: I think I know this one! It looks like something I have for hammering metal. Doming and dapping block. © thelaureness / Reddit
14. “A wooden board with rope, pegs, and holes”
Answer: It’s makiwara for the workouts in martial arts. Wing Chun, for example. © mylesvsthem / Reddit
15. “I found this in an antique collection—an ornate, hollow, telescoping tube with a notched end.”
Answer: It can be a lorgnette handle. © Evilevilcow / Reddit
16. “What is this bubbling out of the ground in my yard? It’s purplish, metallic, and gooey inside. It keeps bubbling even if I dig a thin layer down with a shovel.”
Answer: It turned out that it is from a can of expansion foam the builders had left in the yard. Water got to the can which rusted and leaked, causing the foam to reach the surface. © ckal9 / Reddit
17. “I found this glass tube ’shell’ washed up on a beach, any idea what it is?”
Answer: It’s a stingray’s tooth. © adube1320 / Reddit
18. “Part of a silverware set. It has a corkscrew tip, but it’s not sturdy enough to be used as a corkscrew. Any thoughts for its purpose?”
Answer: It’s a butter pick. © jackrats / Reddit
19. “What is this ferrous metal sphere with a cutout? There were about 100 of them at a scrap yard.”
Answer: It looks like an SMR target that wasn’t polished. They are used in laser measurement. The laser tracker is tripod mounted and the SMR is positioned on the feature to be measured. Highly accurate measurements can be taken on machinery, automobile assembly, aircraft assembly, etc. © Remarkable-Cycle2025 / Reddit
Have you ever happened to find any mysterious objects? Tell us about them in the comments below.