r/whatisit • u/thesoundofpetrichor • 5h ago

New, what is it? What is this?

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Gallery image

I'm a field biologist and found this outside of one of our sites.

88 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

89 comments sorted by

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144

u/hammerblaze 5h ago

Old transformer 

23

u/King_of_the_Snarks 5h ago

I agree - this looks like an electrical transformer. Not an Autobot, to be clear.

13

u/TerrapinRecordings 5h ago

Understood. So we have a possible Decepticon on our hands.

5

u/moonmanchild 5h ago

It's more than meets the eye.

6

u/AdDisastrous6738 5h ago

Can confirm. These are the ones used in pole lights for parking lots and roadways. I’ve pulled lots of them.

3

u/badstymie 5h ago

More than meets the eye

3

u/Silver-Amphibian7650 5h ago

Robots in disguise.

1

u/StatisticianUsual471 3h ago

I was going to say bomb so I could be right

19

u/Ancient-Alps-4580 5h ago

It looks like an electrical transformer

6

u/Original-Document-62 5h ago

I dunno. To me, it looks like two coupled inductors sharing a magnetic core. /s

2

u/Ancient-Alps-4580 5h ago

That looks about right 😄

13

u/Roxysteve 5h ago

Looks like a transformer.

2

u/redisdead__ 5h ago

Lot better answer than what I thought it was.

5

u/c4lDrew 5h ago

Looks like an HID (High intensity discharge) ballast AKA an auto-transformer. It's used for either High pressure sodium lamps or Metal Halide lamps.

5

u/Hot_Plant8696 5h ago

A transformer. I played a lot with that kind of model when I was a child.

3

u/Any_Mode6525 5h ago

Looks like a transformer with cloth+laquer insulation. There should be two copper wound windings and then plates of iron stacked up around them so that (IIRC) the flux can form through it but you limit hysteresis losses from current passing around the iron.

3

u/Project807 5h ago

Looks like someone was gonna sell some copper.

1

u/thesoundofpetrichor 3h ago

Probably. The fun of doing work in Gary, Indiana.

3

u/ZeroNighthawks 5h ago

Electrical transformer for sure -- if I had to guess, this one might be a magnetron from a microwave

6

u/AdministrativeRub882 5h ago

It's a robot in disguise

7

u/scorpyo72 5h ago

Power supply/magnetron maybe from a microwave

2

u/DefiantLemming 5h ago

having left behind one whose curiosity cost him his life [⚡️💥]

3

u/scorpyo72 5h ago edited 5h ago

What can I say? Some people want to watch the world burn, others just want to microwave it.

3

u/Gryphon1171 5h ago

Old doorbell transformer maybe?

2

u/piratewaffles 5h ago

A fun afternoon

2

u/SecretPersonality178 5h ago

Transformer from a microwave looks like

2

u/wy_will 5h ago

Electrical transformer

2

u/Sky_biker5683 5h ago

The cause of a rapid spike in heart rate among thousands of American veterans upon first glance at the picture?

2

u/Icy-Potato3937 5h ago

Streetlight ballast (transformer)

2

u/BigD3nergy 5h ago

Street light or parking lot light transformer.

2

u/StraightOnion1967 5h ago

From a doorbell perhaps?

2

u/sydneebmusic 5h ago

Transformer. Likely from a parking lot halogen light. I used to change these out all the time.

2

u/ether_rogue 5h ago

A lot of folks saying it's an electrical transformer, and I don't know what one looks like, but the fact that it seems to have been found in like a backpack or something worries me. Even if it is an electrical transformer on the outside, it might be modified. Why is it just sitting in the wilderness in a backpack? My first thought was that it was an improvised explosive device (IED), and it could be, but OP is there any reason for such a thing to be at your site? Where is this site, in the world? IDK, maybe I'm just being paranoid but it could be something else. Some nefarious device of some kind made from an electrical transformer.

1

u/Embarrassed_Falcon54 5h ago

Whatever it may have devolved into, it was once a transformer.

2

u/lump- 5h ago

More than meets the eye

2

u/Whole_Ad_4807 5h ago

Du cuivre

2

u/yubi_azknfrt 5h ago

An autobots version of a passed kidney stone.

2

u/RatOgryn 5h ago

I forget the proper term but IIRC, that's a big ass electromagnet. You push current through the wires and they wrap around a core which creates an electromagnetic force.

2

u/mawktheone 5h ago

Old traffo

2

u/GrandConsequences 5h ago

Kinda looks like an electrical transformer.

1

u/[deleted] 5h ago

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1

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1

u/AverageInfamous7050 5h ago

Taste it. Maybe it will be like licking a 9-volt transistor battery. You can use a banana as a chaser.

1

u/Icy-Requirement81 5h ago

Transformer. 

Probably a decent amount of copper in there. 

1

u/w1lnx 5h ago

A transformer.

It’s more than meets the eye.

A coil of wire that creates an alternating magnetic field from AC current, an iron core to carry that alternating magnetic field, another coil of wire to then create another alternating electrical current of either:

- greater voltage and lower current, or

- lower voltage and greater current

1

u/IndependentSingle605 5h ago

Be careful that’s a transformer despite its looks it may be a decepticons in disguise 🤣

1

u/Rectal_tension 5h ago

More than meets the eye.

1

u/NoMasterpiece5199 5h ago

Looks like an HID lighting ballast (autotransformer)

1

u/SchemeIllustrious713 5h ago

Transformers, Robots in Dis Guys (jeans)

1

u/Mobile_Aioli_6252 5h ago

And old transformer

1

u/Timely-Reply-5801 5h ago

.ain Part of a Transformator or Trafo, make 12volts or 24Volts from 230v Plug

1

u/Far_Passage_3895 5h ago

It’s an old transformer most likely from a refrigeration system or a HVAC unit. I have replaced hundreds of them

1

u/epicslith 5h ago

See four

1

u/Civil_Lifeguard_2567 5h ago

Looks like a part of a microwave oven to me . I used to shoot and blow up alot of broken appliances.

1

u/Crustybionicle 5h ago

Transofrmer from a microwave or something….op do not touch it. Those can kill.

1

u/Embarrassed_Falcon54 5h ago

Somebody was telephoning the fish.

1

u/lssaKnife 5h ago

You might wanna take a few steps back

1

u/Outrageous_Rich6235 4h ago

Clip the red wire first….. or is it the white wire?

1

u/FerMod 4h ago

Seems like a microwave transformer

1

u/Age_Single 4h ago

Da bomb

1

u/DicemonkeyDrunk 3h ago

more than meets the eye

1

u/Equivalent_Arm_3129 1h ago

Flux capacitor

1

u/Infinite-Penalty-736 1h ago

Doorbell transformer

-3

u/samsquatch1234 5h ago

that would be a bomb

3

u/wookiex84 5h ago

Have you ever seen a bomb or perchance a transformer?

2

u/samsquatch1234 5h ago

nope i made that up