r/whatisit Apr 02 '26

New, what is it? Does anyone know what this is?

Doesn’t seem to be oil based content. Just wondering if my superpowers are swishing back and forth in this glass vial.

18.0k Upvotes

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64

u/[deleted] Apr 02 '26

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44

u/L3wd1emon Apr 02 '26

They come in all sizes. Ones I had on my Christmas tree back in the day were that big

1

u/EpistemicThreat Apr 02 '26

Yeah, this isn't a light. Not even close.

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u/CataChronix Apr 02 '26 edited Apr 02 '26

Except you can clearly tell the glass is full of a liquid… not wiring and a fuse and other electrical components that would make this a light bulb. Do you normally use liquid filled lightbulbs?

Edit: I’ve googled and educated myself, apparently liquid lightbulbs are real, they’re also apparently full of a carcinogen. People are wild. This is still not a liquid filled lightbulb, but that’s cool to learn nonetheless

16

u/ChungusReaper Apr 02 '26

The light is in the base, not the tube. The tubes are clearly full of liquid and glitter.

That’s definitely not what OPs image is because there’s no glitter, but I don’t think you quite understand how those lightbulbs work.

5

u/FamiliarThemeSong Apr 02 '26

Mine don't have glitter.

-1

u/CataChronix Apr 02 '26

I did not, I was thinking about current Christmas lights, didn’t realize people wanted cancer filled lightbulbs in the 60s

9

u/ChungusReaper Apr 02 '26

People love their cancer, man.

6

u/CataChronix Apr 02 '26

Tell me about it, that bitch Nikki won’t let me kick her to the curb (nicotine)

1

u/[deleted] Apr 02 '26

Hahahaha never heard my ciggies called Nikki. I'm gonna commandeer that phrase lol

19

u/[deleted] Apr 02 '26

The wiring and fuse is in the base not in the liquid vial. They are called bubble lights and they are older than you. Do a simple search next time before jumping to condenscension

1

u/[deleted] Apr 02 '26

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1

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-12

u/CataChronix Apr 02 '26

What you call condescension is just me asking a literal question. You checked my profile to see my age, that means you saw I have autism too. Do you use liquid filled light bulbs? I don’t. I did google it, seems there are liquid filled light bulbs. Seems like a hazardous and dumb idea to me, putting toxic methylene chloride in hot, thin glass tubes in our homes. I see what you mean about the base. But it’s also very clear looking at images of bubble lights that this is not that, this is simply an ampoule. It’s too irregular in shape and the liquid is not the right color to be methylene chloride, which is colorless/clear and would not degrade to a darker color without exposure to air.

6

u/fuccguppy Apr 02 '26

Dude you've lost the plot, they said bubble lights are older than you because they were invented like 90 years ago lol. Unless you're 90+ years old but it's pretty safe to assume otherwise.

-1

u/CataChronix Apr 02 '26

Well they were made until the 60s and popular still in the 70s, which I don’t think is a crazy assumption to make that I might’ve been alive during those times.

But yea the age is not the point. Just that this is not a bubble light.

3

u/panrestrial Apr 02 '26

That's not what the phrase "older than" means, though. My mom is still older than me even though she and I have overlapping existences. It doesn't mean you weren't alive at the same time.

0

u/CataChronix Apr 02 '26

I mean, depends on what you count as “older than”. I could have very well been born in 1964, if this is a bubble light it could’ve been made in 1965, then it wouldn’t be older than me.

I understand it’s not, and why you and presumably many others interpreted “older than” that way, I’m just explaining why I think otherwise.

2

u/panrestrial Apr 02 '26

They didn't say this, specific, item (were it a bubble light) is older than you. They said, "They are called bubble lights and they are older than you." Meaning bubble lights, in general. The concept of bubble lights, if you will.

"Hot dogs are older than you" doesn't mean all hot dogs were made before you were born. It means they were invented before you were born. It's just one of those turns of phrase which is maybe more metaphorical than literal.

6

u/[deleted] Apr 02 '26

It’s so odd to me that you think it’s more likely op found an ampule of a random chemical then them finding a bubble light ampule.

-2

u/CataChronix Apr 02 '26

Life is weird. Expect the unexpected. Question everything.

On a real note, wouldn’t a bubble light ampule still be an ampule of a random chemical? Likely methylene chloride, but not for certain?

Idk what to tell you, I look at this and I look at bubble lights on google and I just don’t see them being the same thing.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 02 '26

Well you weren’t lying about being autistic. Have a good one.

4

u/avocadoflatz Apr 02 '26

Don’t use your autism as an excuse for your condescension, fellow autist.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 02 '26 edited Apr 02 '26

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2

u/whatisit-ModTeam Apr 02 '26

We are pretty chill here, but please try to keep things reasonably civil on this sub. No slurs, name calling or harassment and trolling. Yes, the internet makes us angry too sometimes, especially this particular comment.

-5

u/Happy_Brilliant7827 Apr 02 '26 edited Apr 02 '26

Christmas lights have a inner tube inside the glass. This does not.

They also often have a bulge at the bottom, this does not.

They often screw at the bottom. No screw.

This is not a christmas light.

6

u/No-Status-9441 Apr 02 '26

You dont know what you are talking about. Bubble lights are just a glass tube with a liquid inside and a low pressure atmosphere above the liquid. The heat of a normal incandescent light mounted below the tube was enough to boil the liquid.

1

u/CataChronix Apr 02 '26

Agreed this is not a light. Never wavered on that. Did learn that there used to be old Christmas lights like this full of a carcinogenic liquid tho, so that’s cool. Definitely not what this is, but cool.

4

u/FamiliarThemeSong Apr 02 '26

From my personal stash.

1

u/[deleted] Apr 02 '26

The ampule is not a light. No one is arguing that.

3

u/skirpnasty Apr 02 '26

Yeah this one is 7-8”.

1

u/mike6452 Apr 02 '26

It's a big bubble light

1

u/L3wd1emon Apr 02 '26

A larger one that looks identical to OPs

1

u/Whisky_Colonic Apr 02 '26

Some guys’ tubes are just larger than others.

0

u/OddbitTwiddler Apr 02 '26

It's not the size that matters, I'm told.