What Are These Medal Things On The Corner Of These Stairs And What Is Their Purpose? Answer: Corner dust guards. They make it easier to sweep dust out of the corners.

What Is This Large Vessel I Found In The Basement Of An Old Psychiatric Hospital? Answer: Looks like a great big autoclave.

Object Found While Hiking Off-Road In Bosnia. Notice The Spikes Near The End! Wondering What It Is. Answer: DON'T GO HIKING IN BOSNIA IF YOU DON'T KNOW WHERE ARE YOU GOING. it is full of unmarked mine fields.

Iron Cone On Either Side Of A Gate Outside The Entry To A Building In Bath England. Answer: It's a snuffer. A visitor to your house would use it to put out their torch.

Old Ruler. I Don’t Know How It Is Used Or What Does It Measure. Answer: Slide rule, logarithmic calculating device. These put humans on the moon.

Sunset Pic I Took From Jfk Airport. Could These Shadows Be The Manhattan Skyline? Answer: I live near Mt. Rainier and this happens too, only at dawn. The mountain casts its shadow on the underside of the clouds. This is just as impressive as that.

Small Elephant Filled With Water Left At Flat After Party. Debating With Flatmates Over What It’s Purpose Could Be. Answer: It's a melted reusable ice cube

Found At A Used Book Store. All Parts Rotate And The Markings/Months Makes Me Think It Could Be For Mapping? Answer: An astrolabe, the ancient times GPS. Used usually for navigation, also for time measure and other science uses. I got one similar as a keyring.

Brass Or Copper Like Thing In Bathroom Door Handle. Answer: Copper kills bacteria and germs.

Found On The Dashboard Of An Old Gmc. A Lucite Like Material, With Ridges. Answer: It's a traffic light viewer. Traffic lights back in the day were mounted on the same side you stopped on which sometimes made it difficult to see the light if you were first in line, this helped reflect the light from above so you could tell when the light changed.

What Is This Growth On My Mugs After I Microwave Them? Answer: Ceramicist here. So clay bodies are porous, depending on the material. Porcelain is dense, and earthware and stoneware is less. Either way liquids can move through fired clay. Glaze that goes on the outside can look solid, but can have hundreds of tiny cracks and holes. When you microwave liquids or just let them sit in a ceramic vessel they can seep through and crystallize in the cracks and holes. This usually only happens with hand made or cheap ceramics.

Sliding Tray With Holes On Both Sides Of This Sofa. Answer: Tray table. It has another piece to it. It’s a tray with matching pegs. Tray goes on top and the pegs slide in. They fit together so the tray sits tightly. Then you take the tray back to the kitchen and put the sliding part back so it’s not in the way.

Thumb Protector Possibly, But For What? Found At A Yard Sale. Answer: Old timey fish monger/butcher thumb guard.

This Little Hole Appeared In My Parents' Bedroom. Answer: Was a kid. Shot my parent’s window with a bb gun once and got grounded for a month. Hole was exactly this.

Came Across This While Hiking Behind An Old Mine In Southwestern Pennsylvania. Several Miles Off Of The Old Access Road. Appears 40 Feet Long, Nothing Written On It, Appears Nothing Is Inside Of It. 25 Feet Or So Off Of The Ground. No Sign Of Life Around It For Miles. Answer: That, my friend, is the daddy of all deer stands.

4m High Funnel With 3 Outlets Near A Playground And A Beer Garden In Germany. Answer: It's a three-way basketball hoop (Balltrichter mit drei Ausgängen). You can score, but you don't know who gets the ball next. My kids school just got one. The kids love it.

What Are These Blue Reflecting Markers For? Mounted On A Pole, Facing The Field. Answer: They are reflecting the headlights of cars to the fields, so that deer avoids crossing the road. So it's for safety of cars and animals.

Random-Ish Straight But Not Paralel Lines Next To My Office Building… What’s Happening Here? Answer: You probably live in the UK, where planning authorities often require developers to do "evaluation trial trenching" to make sure there are no important archaeological artifacts that might be destroyed by excavation. If the trial trenches turn up anything interesting, a more serious archaeological dig may be required before building can begin.

These Bakery Window Decorations From Kiki's Delivery Service. Answer: Knäckebröd. The movie's aesthetics is heavily inspired by a trip Miyazaki took to Sweden. Yes just to clarify its a Swedish/Scandinavian hard bread.

These Little Specs On My Bed? Every Time I Dust Them Off, They Reappear Within 2 Hours And I Have No Idea How. They Just Kind Of… Spawn? It’s Really Grossing Me Out. Answer: The shape (slightly oblong) looks like termite frass (poop). It's likely they are eating the wood beams in your ceiling and have made a hole through the non-wood material of your ceiling to have a place to dump their poop. You should get the place inspected ASAP.

What Is This Thing Used For? A Book With Black Blank Pages Alternating With Thin Translucent Pages. Answer: Photo-Album. You stick paper photos on the black pages. The transparent pages are for protection.

Blue Glass Thing Found At Goodwill. About 5 Inches High With A Hole In Top. Answer: That is a whale oil lamp. Hand blown glass. Very odd blue color. Not cheap !

Found A Large Metallic Cylinder On The Beach Of Husavik, Iceland. What Is This? Answer: Solved! We asked around and it turns out that these are submarine detectors, nothing to worry about, no explosive inside!

Small Plastic Pouch With Red Gel And A Metal Disc Inside. Answer: Hand warmer. You can "click" the metal piece and it will start a chemical reaction and heat the pad.

This Is A Steel Wire Frame With Two Glass Marbles. It Was Found In An Old Garage Among Various Stuff. The Marbles Can Turn Inside The Frame. Answer: It's a razor blade sharpener.

What Is This Hatch I've Seen On The Outside Of Houses In The UK? Answer: It's a boot scraper, for getting the mud off your shoes before going in. They are pretty common.

Bunk Beds (?) In A Crawlspace Of A Home From 1959. Answer: Yep, bomb/fallout shelter. For 1959, effectively the same thing.

Seen While Walking Down The Street. A Ziplock Bag Tacked Above A Door. Seems To Contain Water And A Few Pennies. What Could This Be For? Answer: Homemade mosquito/fly deterrent. The light reflecting off the water and pennies is supposed to scare off pesky bugs.

What Is Using This Little Wooden House In My Garden? Answer: It's for any of the solitary bees, like mason bees.

What Is This Drain In Front Of The Door Of This House? Living In Snowborne Areas, I Never Saw A Drain Like That Anywhere. Anyone Know The Purpose? Answer: To kick snow off your shoes.