Originally posted by Jondolar It's for hanging your laundry, right? :-)
And the younger folks among us are asking, "HANGING laundry? What's THAT mean?"
But, all seriousness aside, and by way of example, I'll name the object and post the next mystery object:
Television antenna: a device consisting of a number of rods tuned to various lengths in order to receive radio-frequency signals from a "broadcasting station" (defined elsewhere), allowing the user to enjoy audio and video produced by means of a "television", generally a metal box containing a cathode-ray tube device and a tuner consisting of a very large air-gap capacitor, and using "vacuum tubes" for electrical amplification of signals received.
Ok, name this object (and I haven't a clue - it popped up in the mud when I was playing in the yard with a backhoe); distinguishing characteristics, appears to be a chrome-plated brass disk, three inches in diameter, with a threaded concentric hole and a legend saying, "Western Electric Company" and "350W":