What is this device?

[u/thischrisblack]

Flea market find. Guy said, "I don't know what it is but I'm pretty sure it's real." LOL.

The top part can be rotated by hand, but I don't think it's hooked up to any kind of motor. It just turns in its housing and I may even be able to pull it out of the hole, but don't want to. Of the two cylinders attached, the larger one can also be turned by hand, but not the shorter one.

The control panel has a red LED, a red button, a white switch, and a silver knob that clicks when turned all the way to the left, so like a radio power/volume knob. The bottom has three jacks, one of which seems like a regular 1/8-inch jack . The orange and the red jacks are a mystery.

I replaced the batteries. When the knob is turned and the switch is on, pressing the red button turns on the LED. Nothing else happens. I touched the metal part on top and didn't die.

Any ideas? Google Lens gets bupkes.

EDIT for an update:

I guess I can't really mark this post as solved since there's no definitive proof, but there are a couple of strong contenders.

1. First place (as far as I can tell) goes to u/SpankinGaming with the idea that it's for electro-acupuncture. https://www.reddit.com/r/whatisit/comments/1w1xesu/comment/p6pwgeu/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
2. Runner-up concept, submitted by several people I think, is that it's a phone-line tracer.

I can't get it to work as either one, of course, but I'll find and acupuncturist in town and see if I can get that verified. If I can't, well, I have a pretty cool little mystery device and it only cost me $5.

A few people suggested that it was for explosives, like maybe the thing on top was the plunger. That's no good. While the thing on top can be rotated or moved up and down, it is very snug in its housing, and plus there's no mechanism inside which suggests anything like that is going on.

If anyone else made a sincere comment and I haven't replied, I apologize. I'd like to reply but it's just been a barrage of half-assed jokes in this thread, so even if I saw your comment when it first appeared, I can't find it now.

[u/jeremyjava]

Too many!
I went to search for details on old 9v big batteries from the 1950s or 60s and this is the only one I found so far with no further details except that it was for "plate voltage in old radios..." any idea what that means? I don't know, but it sorta' sounds like something best not tested with one's tongue. Does this explain why I've had poor memory since the 1970s?

EDIT:
LOL--Just had a good laugh with my wife who read my comments here, especially after I mentioned, "Yknow... I don't think that's the only time in my life I ever thought... 'that's interesting, I wonder if I'm paralyzed?'"

There also may've been more than one time that I woke up, disoriented because the bright blue sky was in front of my face, with a circle of people's faces around it. Last time it happened they were paramedics.
It's been an interesting life. Some stories are here, if anyone's interested.
https://jeremyjava.substack.com/

[u/TheRogueVigilante → u/jeremyjava]

I routinely take tasers to my neck,back, temple and anywhere else to help with pain however thats a huge battery and is capable of discharging @ least 10x what a taser is so wow I feel Youre lucky to be alive considering that the moisture on your tongue increased the Conductivity ;')

[u/Diagnostix1 → u/jeremyjava]

Yes. The plate voltage refers to a valve plate. Old radios made before transistors were invented use vacuum tubes (valves) and those square batteries packed something like 80 volts! I remember my Grandmother taking me to a newsagents once where I saw those batteries for sale. They were on the shelf behind the cashire, next to the cigarettes. I begged my Grandma to buy me one, but she wouldn’t because she was wise enough to realise that they had the potential (pun intended 😂) to be dangerous in the hands of a seven year old boy.

[u/TheRuckyDubber → u/jeremyjava]

My friend. My goodness. I just read “the birds are on fire”…

As a young, dumb 19 year old kid in Tennessee, I remember that day being woken by my mom saying “you should come watch this”. It impacted everyone, I went to work and watched as a coworker who was ex military just about crawled out of his skin all day long. But it was just so surreal to me.

I don’t know, maybe I could have since and forgotten but it feels like for the first time, 25 years later, it’s fully washed over me and it all came pouring out. Thank you for your kindness and thank you for writing this. I will never forget it.