What Is It? Game 53

This week’s collaboration with What Is It? Blog brings us this strange transparent object: can you guess what it is for?

Place your guess in the comment section - one guess per comment, and please, post no URL (let others play now). You can enter as many guesses as you’d like. Prize this week: Free Neatorama T-Shirt (old design).

For more clues, check out What Is It? Blog. Good luck!

Update 2/11/08 - the answer is:

A Travelure, or as it’s called on the the patent page: a “buoyant traveling device”. From the patent:

…the device makes a steep dive in the water in the direction toward the fisherman when the fishing line is pulled or tugged, the device gliding upwardly and in the opposite direction away from the fisherman when the line is released, retreating to a greater distance beyond its initial position than the distance it was moved to cause it to dive.

It’s patent number 3,401,483 , the diagram on the patent page shows it diving down one foot when the line is pulled and rising back to the surface three feet further from the fisherman, this would be useful for working the bait into difficult locations such as under a tree.

Congratulations to: B-Man #24 who got it right!

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Posted on

February 7, 2008 at 6:09 am by Alex
Category: What Is It

47 Comments to "What Is It? Game 53"

Chauss513
February 7th, 2008 at 6:19 am
Downrigger attachment
Tyler
February 7th, 2008 at 7:42 am
It’s a ray gun.
NiteWhite
February 7th, 2008 at 7:44 am
It’s a glorified sundial…

BTW, how and when do we find out the answer to this game?
Trocar
February 7th, 2008 at 7:48 am
It’s used for fishing. Sold back in the1960’s. You attach it to your line and it would prevent it from getting snagged. It also would put liveness in your lure or bait. Sorry I can’t remember the name..Used to see these being sold at Sporting Shows back then
Michael Johns
February 7th, 2008 at 7:59 am
it’s some sort of a mould for something
Wilhelm
February 7th, 2008 at 8:02 am
An Alien nipple ring obviously
Gerry
February 7th, 2008 at 8:11 am
Airflow deflector for car windows.
Nick
February 7th, 2008 at 8:24 am
Some sort of folding travel spoon.
Willie Harris
February 7th, 2008 at 8:35 am
It’s a deep-planer for fishing with a downrigger
Jeff George
February 7th, 2008 at 9:23 am
It is used for fishing. When troling with a downrigger, it helps the line dive.
Justin
February 7th, 2008 at 9:33 am
a crappy shoehorn
k
February 7th, 2008 at 9:33 am
A duck’s contact lens.
kuujjuarapik
February 7th, 2008 at 9:34 am
It’s a hamburger press.
Dani
February 7th, 2008 at 9:40 am
I forget what it’s called, but you can point it at something and figure out how tall it is. We used it in one of my science classes in high school - point it at the flagpole, use physics or trig formulas to figure out the height. A line is supposed to hang from the bottom hole-y thing and you can figure it out using the angle from the line to the flat disk.
Miao
February 7th, 2008 at 9:47 am
One of those rubber temple pads on glasses.
gregtuchel
February 7th, 2008 at 11:07 am
Definitely a Down - Rigger for fishing. You guys are correct. My Dad had one in his tacklebox.
The lead - filled stabilizer oriented the device, and fishing line was attached to the eyelets; one going up to the rod and one going down, or behind, to the bait. It’s direction of motion would be going up to the left as it is pictured here, with the wide, plastic plane keeping the bait down as the boat moved.
tripleX
February 7th, 2008 at 11:15 am
Maybe it’s a device to check the ‘number’ of a lens. If an optician gets the eyeglasses mixed up, he can check which lens is which.
Jerse
February 7th, 2008 at 11:17 am
It’s a lens and it’s holder for one side of a pair of antiquated glasses
Natalie G-M
February 7th, 2008 at 11:18 am
A Foe-Detector glass.
tripleX
February 7th, 2008 at 11:37 am
Or maybe it can temporarily hold insects or samples of plants, etc. used by scientists or students.
S-r-ex
February 7th, 2008 at 11:39 am
Is it a poorly designed magnifying glass?
Colin
February 7th, 2008 at 11:52 am
A failed pizza cutter
blacksunshine777
February 7th, 2008 at 11:59 am
Used for fishing. It supposedly could get the lure in to places you couldnt normally get by pulling on the line. Always had a display at the fishing expos.
B-man
February 7th, 2008 at 12:03 pm
Actually, the downrigger guesses are close, but not quite. It’s a ‘travelling bobber’. I had one as a kid. You’d tie the rod end to the top eye, hang the baited end off the bottom eye, and cast it as far as you could. Then, by pulling quickly on the line, it would dive under water, then travel several feet farther out as it rose back to the surface. You could work it out quite a ways into a lake that way, or under trees and overhangs that would otherwise snag your casts.
bill
February 7th, 2008 at 12:04 pm
It looks as if it was designed to aerodynamic, actually hydrodynamic (slips easily trough water) as something for the aie I can’t see any purpose, but in the water it would add lift to a portion of a boat, or any other floatation devise. The clear plastic keeps it light so the air volume in the bubble adds significant boyancy and also the clear plastic becomes nearly invisible underwater, so it isn’t unsightly.
bill
February 7th, 2008 at 12:10 pm
After reading the comment I see B-Man has nailed it. Very ingenious invention for making your cast travel farther that your arm can toss it.
Kayakbabe
February 7th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
It’s a hard contact lens quality assurance device used in chinese labs that specialize in cheap production. You put the contact lens into the device and spin the lens around. The device acts like a gage and makes sure the lens is round. If the qa person sees a gap or the lens won’t spin (if it’s too large in some diameters), the lens fails the test.
Brian
February 7th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
A lid to a candy jar dispenser in the old five and dime stores.
Carl from Santee
February 7th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Perhaps it’s a plastic spur for an urban cowboy?
Lemons
February 7th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Starship Enterprise.
JB
February 7th, 2008 at 1:31 pm
chocolate easter egg mold
Bruce Johnson
February 7th, 2008 at 1:43 pm
It is used for fishing. It is a float that the fishing line is attached to and can be maneuvered into position.
PJ in SF
February 7th, 2008 at 2:11 pm
It’s an IUD gone wrong.
Corina Lopez
February 7th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
A air popper for popcorn
Dustin B
February 7th, 2008 at 3:50 pm
Downplane for trolling deep while fishing.
ECA
February 7th, 2008 at 5:32 pm
Its a Float.
for fishing or your toilet…
Joe S.
February 7th, 2008 at 5:46 pm
My dad had one in his tacklebox. I think he used it to make lures dive.
Arthur
February 7th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
um…is it a banana? No, but it could be a banana peeler.
Carl Huber
February 7th, 2008 at 7:19 pm
It’s for checking the accuracy of the shape of the lens.
Miss Cellania
February 7th, 2008 at 8:20 pm
Looks can be deceiving. I think it’s an instrument of torture.
Jerseyjoe83
February 7th, 2008 at 8:46 pm
It’s a downrigger or planer for fishing. When you’re trolling it will act like a waterfoil to keep the rig a a specified depth that matches the preference of whatever species you’re attempting to catch. It’s an old one though for the record, the newer ones are a little more complex.
Mandie
February 7th, 2008 at 10:01 pm
Obviously it’s used to punish small children who are being naughty. You shoot the disc, which is powered by the uranium in the handle, at a disobedient kid. the disc hurts, then later they have radiation poisoning.

But so do you.
emily
February 7th, 2008 at 11:23 pm
its a makeup palette, for mixing foundation shades & stuff.
petr0id
February 8th, 2008 at 8:28 am
it’s a lens for my spaceship! where did you get it?
thenight_1
February 8th, 2008 at 11:53 am
It is a type of fishing float. You can pull on the fishing line and cause it to dive underwater in a specific direction. It will then rise to the top. I used to fish with one of them and used it to ‘cast’ under a fishing dock.
zerobedience
February 8th, 2008 at 5:14 pm
It’s called a “Dipsy Diver” by Lurh Jensen. It’s an older model I remember from when I was a kid.
http://www.luhrjensen.com/prod_lure_select.cfm?Stock=5560&CategoryID=1 2
Randall
February 11th, 2008 at 10:50 am
Its a Pligger-Towforth mechanical hearing aid. No batteries- No wires! You simply clench the indented end between your teeth and face the speaker. The sound is picked up by the parabolic receiver and transmitted to your ‘inner ear’ through your jawbone!

Pligger-Towforth went out of business after a young woman wearing the device accidently swallowed after emitting a gasp of surprise during a marriage proposal and died.

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