I'll be honest: I probably would have just thrown those beaded pins away without realizing they went to something.
Though it may seem like everything's in a state of flux right now, one thing that's always consistent in the world is people finding weird little thingamajigs that they've never seen before and having no idea what they are.
Lucky for us, these days we have the geniuses over at thesubreddit, who are ready and willing to identify just about anything. Here are 27 recent odd finds from the sub and what they turned out to be:"It seems like part of a projector mechanism. The wheels help guide the tape, and the silver part is a shutter that can be swung in front of the light source to block the heat from damaging the tape when it's stopped. The holes allow enough light so that maybe you can still see the image well enough to know where you are in the film and navigate around the dark room.""Yep, that is the gate for a 16mm projector. The screen goes down so the film does not burn from the heat of the projection lamp.""It's a water meter that measures subsurface water flow. It's either for a long-term study on water interstitial flows or for a slope stability study. It has the extra bit on top for mounting a pole with a flag for finding it in deep snow in winter and spring.","Well, holy cow. That's it. Has to be, my grandfather worked for IBM for over 30 years. It's a strange pin to have mixed in with what he gave me. Thanks!""It's a decorative 'lantern.' This particular one looks like a late 1950s-to-mid-1960s design. This kind of wood-dowel/domed/vaguely Moroccan-influenced decorative hanging lantern was pretty popular back then. Some people put actual small candles in them, but most people just hung them for decorations .that looks exactly like yours, except the listed item has a hanging ring. Yours might be missing the ring, or perhaps you never had one. There are similar-looking designs from the 19th century and earlier that had a glass globe or shade inside, which you could lift and put a small candle under. Like the glass chimney from an old-fashioned kerosene lamp, but smaller and inserted into the 'cage' of the lantern during the manufacturing process. Again, it would only be used with little tiny candles, though, and nothing that could throw substantial heat up against the dome of the lantern body."WWII German steel map case ruler, made by Schussweitenmesser in 1938. When drawing a battlefield map, if you know you are in a spot and you wonder how far from that spot your weapons can cover, you use a ruler like this. For example: if we take cover within this grove of trees, can our guns cover that road x distance away?""HOLY SHIT, I FINALLY KNOW SOMETHING! I've been waiting a few years for this. This is almost certainly the inside of an electromechanical power meter you'd find on a house. The top coil measures voltage, and the bottom ones measure current.""I bought one of those balance ball chairs with the wheeled base, and the ball has almost exactly this tape; mine was white.""Just be aware that these things aren't safe to handle when they are busted open. They contain lead and cadmium, which oxidize and come loose, and sometimes other icky stuff like mercury. Plus, phosphorus and other traces of stuff you don't want to eat or inhale or track all over your car and house. Not dangerous like playing with arsenic or a cesium core, but nothing you'd want to handle and then eat a bag of chips with your contaminated grabby bits.""This is the answer. When I was a kid, Easy Off didn't come in a spray can; it came in a glass jar with one of these brushes that went around the mouth of the jar.""They look like they fell out of a beaded Christmas tree ornament or a piece of decorative fake fruit. Do/did you have anything like that? Think of stuff"It's a lens for a graphic arts process camera. You can see one with a similar scale mounted in theThese were used to shoot layouts of full magazine or newspaper pages for printing, as well as for making posters, and became obsolete around the 1970s. That one is from around the 1920s or so.""It's a former to shape spectacle lenses on an automatic lens grinding machine. This former spins slowly on a spindle that the lens is also attached to, and it follows the pattern on the grinding wheels. First pass shapes the lens and then a second pass adds the bevel that keeps the lens in the frame.""If lost in nature, give it three long blows and then pause to wait for a response before repeating. Sounds in groups of three are widely considered a sign that a person is calling for help.""Patent number comes back as a measuring and dispensing cap for alcohol bottles. Change the dial to adjust how much liquid is dispensed.""Catalytic effusion lamp! I have a couple of these, and they are marvelous. Fun to use, and Lampe Berger makes some lovely scented fuel. You can also make your own fuel by putting some essential or fragrance oil into denatured alcohol, I think.""A hose guide. It lets you drag your garden hose around and keeps it from taking out your plants when you yank on it from around the corner.""That's a copper, an early washing machine. You boil your laundry in it, then use a posser to get the dirt out. You'd then just need a mangle to have a laundry day just like your Granny used to have.""Water level indicator for hydroponics. Goes directly into the planter with the top sticking out so you know when to add water.""I got these with my plant pots from Lechuza to monitor the water levels in the reservoir under the dirt.""DON'T TOUCH THEM, MOVE THEM, OR EVEN THINK ABOUT KEEPING A NEW SHELF ORNAMENT": Some People Were Suuuuuuper Lucky That The Internet Stepped Up To Identify These Random Things They Found In 2025 “That Will Kill You Within Seconds”: Some People Are VERRRRRY Lucky The Internet Stepped Up To Identify These Random Things They Found “Be Careful If You Ever Remove Anything”: Some People Are VERY Lucky The Internet Stepped Up To Identify These Random Things They Found
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