Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Miscellaneous/2012 September 24

Welcome to the Wikipedia Miscellaneous Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

September 24

Identify a couple of mysterious objects?

File:Objects on the ground near Lake Monroe in Clear Creek Township.jpg

Go to this image and look at the objects in the top right and bottom left corners of the highlighted area; can you guess what they are? This ground is near Lake Monroe (Indiana), although not so near that it's subject to flooding; the remains of a farmstead (from before the Hoosier National Forest was created and lands purchased from the subsistence farmers who inhabited it) are nearby, but the presence of newish-looking glass bottles, Coors cans, and complete styrofoam cups shows that the area has gotten some human traffic much more recently than the Depression. I picked up one of these; it seemed perhaps to be a kind of masonry (I'd guess as dense as a brick, although lighter because it's hollow), and not at all the plastic that I was guessing. If I'd taken a wider-angle photo, you'd see nothing different from what you see here: more broken pieces of limestone, more grasses and other small plants, and lots more leaves. It's in a hollow at the bottom of a very intermittent stream, comparable to a wadi in the Near East. Nyttend (talk) 05:35, 24 September 2012 (UTC)

Actually, I think I know what you're talking about, but my eye was drawn to what looks like a handgun lying in the leaf litter in the top center of the picture... --Jayron32 05:42, 24 September 2012 (UTC)

[edit conflict] You mean the shiny metal thing, just right of a small branch? I don't particularly remember seeing it when I was walking around here a few hours ago, and judging by the things that I did see, I'd say that it's more likely to be a large piece of glass. Nyttend (talk) 05:55, 24 September 2012 (UTC)

Yeah, that. You're probably right, but it looks suspiciously like the handgrip on a handgun, is about the correct size for same, and there's some dark obscured thing which is at a right angle to same buried under the leaves which could be a barrel. That's what I first saw. Have you checked out the "kiln furniture" idea? --Jayron32 06:31, 24 September 2012 (UTC)

The shiny metal thing looks more like a radio, mobile phone or walkie-talkie to me. Looks like an antenna sticking out of its bottom right. --Viennese Waltz 07:57, 24 September 2012 (UTC)

Just a stab in the dark on the white square objects: they look to be made out of the sort of ceramic used to line small pottery kilns. I can't find any parts in that exact shape, but compare to this page advertising "shelf parts" for a kiln. See also this pic. If you do a google image search for "kiln furniture" you get shitloads of pics that look very much like your mystery objects. No guarantee that's what they are, but this looks very close. Perhaps there was a potter nearby. --Jayron32 05:53, 24 September 2012 (UTC)

Hollow structural tile? It was often used for silos and underground telephone lines. Usually glazed on two sides. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 23:41, 24 September 2012 (UTC)

I was thinking it might be a metallic cigarette case with an extruding pin that opens it when pressed down. 69.62.243.48 (talk) 21:26, 24 September 2012 (UTC)

They're pieces of fire brick, which is used to line fireplaces and furnaces, both residential and industrial, and, as Jayron pointed out, pottery kilns as well. Dominus Vobisdu (talk) 08:45, 24 September 2012 (UTC)

Fire brick for lining fireplaces are solid, but you're on the right track, in that I think it is the same material (high alumina ceramic). I think these are flue liners e.g.[1] for a high-temperature furnace or kiln flue. Basically something like this product [2], but with a design more like this one: [3] SemanticMantis (talk) 18:59, 24 September 2012 (UTC)

If the white surface on the nearer fragment was glazed, rather than just white, it would be structural glazed facing tile: it usually has a yellowish clay base, much like kiln tile. Given the location, I'd agree that it's more likely the remains of kiln lining. Acroterion (talk) 21:34, 24 September 2012 (UTC)

If we are looking at the bottom of a "very intermittent stream", then the items could have been carried by flowing water from a distance away. Bus stop (talk) 21:43, 24 September 2012 (UTC)