What Is It? game 220



It's once again time for our collaboration with the fantastic What Is It? Blog! Can you guess what the thing in this picture is? Can you make up something interesting?

Place your guess in the comment section below. One guess per comment, please, though you can enter as many as you'd like. Post no URLs or weblinks, as doing so will forfeit your entry. Two winners: the first correct guess and the funniest (albeit ultimately wrong) guess will win T-shirt from the NeatoShop.

Please write your T-shirt selection alongside your guess. If you don't include a selection, you forfeit the prize, okay? May we suggest the Science T-Shirt, Funny T-Shirt and Artist-Designed T-Shirts?

For another picture, check out the What Is It? Blog. Good luck!

Update: the mystery item is a miner's plummet, the lighted wick was sighted with a transit by surveyors when doing layout work in dark mine shafts. Steve Pauk knew that, and wins a t-shirt for his efforts!  The prize for the funniest answer goes to pismonque for this quip: "Commemorative souvenir torch necklace from the 1928 Summer Olympics. Didn’t really catch on because it tended to catch on." And we also found that everyone loves to say (or type) the words "plumb bob." Thanks to all who played this week! Find out the answers to all this week's items at the What Is It? blog.

Comments (92)

Looks like a divining pendulum. Could be one of the few the US Army experimented with in the 70's. Soldiers were sought out for their aptitude and tested for 'psychic' powers. They were given a map and a pendulum and told to locate VC tunnels in Vietnam. The Pendulum would hang from the soldier's hand and gravitate toward tunnel entrances- supposedly. I must assume we abandoned the divining pendulum for more practical techniques, like satellites, dogs, a pair of eyes, or even a newspaper.
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The business end of the Overcompensator's Pencil. During the investment bubble of the 1920's, prominent US banks made the switch to this lavish pencil to provide customers with a posh way to fill out less serious documents (ink, of course, was required for official signatures). The chain was an attempt to keep the pencil secured to the counter, but during the bank runs of the early 30's, angered customers discovered that the solid gold shaft could be easily pried off, leaving behind the nearly worthless brass tip. Complete models are incredibly rare since many of the golden shafts were melted down to be sold.

Particle Physics Insult, Ash Grey, Medium
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Breast chiller - made of metal, women could put cold water or ice in there (it would chill the metal) then stick between their boobs to cool them off.

December L. M. (any shirt XL)
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Madonnas left nipple shield to be used for an "accidental" wardrobe malfunction during her Superbowl performance. The plan was scrapped last minute for a guy that dances on a rope because he was actually more entertaining than Madonnas 65 year old nipple.

Schroedinger's Cat: Wanted Dead And/Or Alive

Mens Choc Med
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It's the lack of perspective that's throwing everyone off! You've all got the scale wrong. That's Professor Otto Lindenbrock's deep-earth penetrating vessel, with which he journeyed to the center of the earth! It's seen here lying on fresh Iceland snow after being ejected from the earth's core during the 2010 eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano! Why, the anchor chains are each 50 meters long alone!

Cleverly Disguised as a Responsible Adult, XL
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It is a urn for the ashes of a murdered loved one. You place some of the cremains in the pendant and wear it around. Then when you come across the murderer (or, lets face it, someone that they just plain didn't like) you use the pendant to stab them in the heart, allowing your loved one to take revenge from beyond the grave (the best kind of revenge).

Arch Enemy - XL
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A surveyors 3D Apparatus (Designation Demarcation Device) More commonly referred to as a plumb Robert. -Note the hardened (Unabtanium) point for precise incrementation of hard places to find.

Makers do it with tools. XL (...dark color?)
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It's the "Point" That "Oblio&Arrow" went searching for, after banishment to the pointless forest. in the animated classic "The Point" by Harry Nilsson. ....Pshaw, plumb Bob? do you see a name tag? I see a Point!

Neato Bot walking, XL
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Some jokes are timeless like those jackass guys that put bottle rockets in thier rears. Back in the day they even used a matching rear mountable lighter.

Brainier than ther average bear XXL natural
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yeah, a plumb bob for mines...to be more accurate, a highly logical flame powered plumb bob that the canary lights when he feels a bit woozy.

any schrodinger cat shirt
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This is a maquette of the main character from the new Pixar movie "Wall-E 2: BAD Robot" written and directed by J.J. Abrams.

The few details I have found out is that it centers around Wall-E and Eve having a baby and trying to raise it. BAD or Bio-Automaton-Delinquent like all kids doesn't like his parents and runs-away. Traveling across time and space Wall-E and Eve search for him to convince him to come home. One of the stops he makes is in 1963 San Fransisco where he is chained up at Alcatraz.

Bloody Heart L
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Looks like a plumb bob for surveying at night. The bob would be placed over a point/benchmark and the wick would be lit so a surveyor could see it through a transit at night for a more accurate reading. There are less wind and heat effects on the atmosphere at night.
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Not just any plumb bob, it's a super secret model of the new plumb bobs for The Sims 4 (not yet announced, but who are we kidding? You know they're gonna do it someday), the chain was attached to a programmers desk, but it was stolen and leaked by some unscrupulous person or persons unknown.

Consciousness- XX large
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Back in the 1920s, the conception of living automatons (robots) gave rise to the impending need for something to prevent electric boredom. Thus, robot dildos like this were created but, alas, the rise of robotic enlightenment failed.

Resurrection explained men's large ash grey
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It's a Holy Armor Piercing Core Rigid 57mm Anti tank round, which shall be fired at yon evil panzer on the count of three, not two, not four and definitley not one.

T-shirt, Black , 'I'm not tense..'
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After much deliberation and testing by a room full of ten year old kids, this device was chosen as the fastest way to indiscriminately poke out some eyes.
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...everbody is right - it's a plumb bob, but why such a name?
because in wayback time they were made of lead - known as "plumbum" back then - hence the atomic symbol for lead - Pb - howsaboutthtat!
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It's a pendulum used in science/discovery centers all around the world to demonstrate the rotation of the earth. Not pictured - the pins some poor grad student has to set up every morning to restart the clock.
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The archaic Plumb Bob, so named in the Middle Ages for its common use in plumbing the depths of The Bobs, the offshoot of the Masons, practitioners of intentional obtuse carpentry.

Star Trek Command T, Medium
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Ear Wax Removal Lamp used to draw ear wax from the ear canal. Serves a dual purpose for said ear wax as a recepticle to fuel the burning lamp.

PB & Jellyfish, L, Serene Green
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It's a censer, the kind used in religious ceremonies. Something like incense is burned in it and the officiate walks around, spreading the scented smoke by swinging the conical pot from the end of the chain.
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It's a steampunk ear piercer. Stick it into your earlobe and keep pushing until you get the right sized hole for your new earrings.

pink freud mens LG
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It's a pendulum used for divination. I've seen people use them to get 'answers' - Yes, No, Unknown.

Depending on the rotation/movement - clockwise/counter clockwise/still, etc. you 'mentally' program it for your answers. If you want clockwise spin to mean "yes" then it is. You want it to mean "no" then it's no. Psychics use these quite often although I am a skeptic over the results since people tend to move their hands to make the pendulum move toward the answer they want.

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It's a primitive refillable pencil that the three wise men filled with Frankincense, left so that the Baby Jesus could write them a thank you note when he was older (as proper etiquette dictates).

Schroedinger's Cat Trap, size M.
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I believe it is a Miners Plummet Bob ( Plumb Bob ) that is used in the mines by the surveyers to plumb down from the ceiling for the center lines.

Schroendingers Bet T shirt XL

Craig Clayton
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