What is It? Game 46

This week’s collaboration with What is It? Blog brings us this strange contraption: can you guess what it is? (And no, it’s not a magic lamp!)

Place your guess in the comment section - you can guess as many times as you’d like but please don’t post any URL (let others play). No prize this week, you’re playing for fun and bragging rights!

For more clues, check out What is It? Blog!

Update 11/23/07 - the answer is:

Candle lighter, it’s filled with kerosene, which is carried by the cord through the tubing to the small holes.

Congratulations to James #7 who got it right! (I have to say that felix’s answer of C3PO codpiece made me chuckle!)

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Posted on

November 22, 2007 at 4:47 am by Alex
Category: What Is It

38 Comments to "What is It? Game 46"

Mr S
November 22nd, 2007 at 4:52 am
It’s a Martian kettle.
Eugenio Martínez Sierra
November 22nd, 2007 at 5:34 am
Can be:

A place to keep ink with a thing to lean a feather.

Or a Oil Lamp. I think it´s a Oil Lamp
felipe
November 22nd, 2007 at 5:58 am
I guess it is a water heating device
lenny
November 22nd, 2007 at 6:13 am
iv`e never seen anything like it but i think you fill ii with hot water and use it to warm up an arthritic finger joint.
but it was made in springfeild so who knows .
ask homer.
cooper
November 22nd, 2007 at 6:24 am
Well, the little spiral thing is either, (a) to cool something in the contents or (b) to hold something. The flat bottom seems more indicative of something designed to be heated, rather than for stability. My guess is maybe there are two chambers inside this thing and it is a portable still of some kind, maybe to purify water?
felix
November 22nd, 2007 at 6:49 am
its C3P0’s codpiece
James
November 22nd, 2007 at 7:08 am
Older version of our modern day equivalent of a candle lighter. Protruding area can be lit to provide reach into gaslight lamps and provide ease through not having to strike many matches to light several lamps around the house.
Javi
November 22nd, 2007 at 7:09 am
It may be a pot to haet liquids with a handle to take it(vertical), and other to keep it over the fire.

Or a distilling device, or part of it, working like an italian coffeepot.
Philip Chapman-Bell
November 22nd, 2007 at 7:14 am
A vaporizer. A candle burning under the coil would heat the contents of the kettle to a simmer and fill the invalid’s room with healthful eucalyptus and camphor fumes.
Sue Dunham
November 22nd, 2007 at 7:38 am
I think # 9 has got it.
I was thinking mosquito fogger, but his answer seems more appropriate to the times.
Miss Cellania
November 22nd, 2007 at 8:43 am
It’s probably some instrument of torture.
nick
November 22nd, 2007 at 9:05 am
tea pot
nick
November 22nd, 2007 at 9:07 am
bee hive smoker
ted
November 22nd, 2007 at 9:10 am
It’s deceptive because it’s upside-down. It’s a funnel.
It looks just like one used for canning, except it has that spiral loop - possibly used for distilling or simply to attach it to a stick for a pivot.
Andi
November 22nd, 2007 at 9:25 am
Ink well with candle holder?
Craig Clayton
November 22nd, 2007 at 9:42 am
A vessel to warm medicines, it is heated by a small alachol burner.
Alex2
November 22nd, 2007 at 9:44 am
It’s an alcohol or fuel lamp. The bottom coil has a hole for vapor to escape and when lit heats up the top coil to change the liquid fuel to a gas.
laliace_tr
November 22nd, 2007 at 9:45 am
a kettle perhaps
Chris W
November 22nd, 2007 at 9:45 am
A steampunk marital aid.
xander
November 22nd, 2007 at 9:46 am
It is a small wick lamp. The twisted handle would be dissapation of heat enabling someone to carry it without burning their fingers.
steve
November 22nd, 2007 at 10:12 am
It’s a portable still for hillbillies who like to travel.
bob
November 22nd, 2007 at 10:31 am
it looks like a mini-samovar, or something of the sort.
Onyxium
November 22nd, 2007 at 11:00 am
It’s an ink warmer. Cold ink won’t flow well. The tube is placed in fire and the ink gets warmed.
Jewbacchus
November 22nd, 2007 at 11:13 am
It’s an old gas/alcohol/kerosene lamp. You pump the pressure up with the thing on the left, and there are small holes on the right for lighting the gas/liquid coming out.
alabamycologist
November 22nd, 2007 at 11:14 am
Not an oil lamp, an alcohol lamp.
L
November 22nd, 2007 at 12:25 pm
Candle holder?
sarah hurley
November 22nd, 2007 at 1:30 pm
ink well
Chris
November 22nd, 2007 at 1:37 pm
Famous Kennedy’s long lost kinky toy in the special ‘Sprinfield turns hot’ Simpsons episode
SE
November 22nd, 2007 at 2:04 pm
It’s to heat things up. You put the hot water in the hole, close the cap tightly, so the heat doesn’t escape, and let the heat make its way though the coils to warm up something that is stuck in there, clothes-pin style.

Or it could be a dunce cap. Place it on the head, of the punished child (there’s no bottom - it’s hollow) an hang a paper from the coil, stating what the child did wrong.
casalang
November 22nd, 2007 at 2:28 pm
I think Onyxium has it right. The coil resembles an immersion heater, and probably extends into the chamber. The lid certainly looks like old ink pot lids, with a flat stable bottom to avoid tipping.
Lenny Nero
November 22nd, 2007 at 3:33 pm
Not a lamp, but a small alcohol fondue or chafing dish burner. You place alcohol inside the can, there is a wick to the coil which by the flame’s heat generates pressure in the can and keeps the alcohol flowing through the small holes in the ring which perpetuates the cycle. It functions much the same as a vintage alcohol blow torch. Also similar are the new-fangled aluminum can stoves seen on many backpacking sites.
scotty g
November 22nd, 2007 at 3:34 pm
its either a kettle, or a iron press. can be heated and then used to press clothes.
Look at the other clues, guys
November 22nd, 2007 at 4:08 pm
The linked page tells you several things. Read the other clues. Many guesses don’t work if you know the other facts.
lis
November 22nd, 2007 at 4:36 pm
hmm, you know in the trenches in ww1, the soldiers made things out of whatever they could find. it sort or looks like a cancle holder/snuffer made out of whatever some soldier could find.
Toasty
November 22nd, 2007 at 7:08 pm
It’s an inkwell from right around the turn of the century. That’s my story & I’m sticking to it…
Sean
November 22nd, 2007 at 8:16 pm
It’s an alcohol lamp. Similar models of modern manufacture are still sold.
xander
November 23rd, 2007 at 7:15 am
It is an old miner’s lamp, oil wick circa turn of 19th century.
Alex
November 24th, 2007 at 12:31 am
Great guesses you guys! C3PO codpiece, hah! Congrats to James #7 who got it right (it’s a candle lighter).

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