r/whatisit • u/Hangry-24-7 • 1d ago

New, what is it? Uncle holding something

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Picture of my wife’s uncle as a boy 7 or 8 yrs old. Grew up on a farm in western NY. This picture dates back to around 1947 or 1948. What is the boy holding? Is it a toy? Or some sort of farm tool?

Update — yes this photo was enhanced using ai to take the graininess out of the original picture. My wife is giving a copy of the image to her cousin for an 80th birthday gift along with other photos.

The AI bashing on this post is unbelievable! How come nobody is bashing the fact that I used a scanner to create a jpeg of the image as opposed to creating a duplicate from a photo negative in a dark room and sending out 250 copies thru the postal service?

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u/Hangry-24-7 1d ago

Here is the original scan

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u/No_While6150 1d ago

Ha! now your uncle looks deranged.

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u/hijinks55 1d ago

Right? I was about to be all judgmental about op using the ai version, and now I’m just like, oh.

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u/TheSwearJarIsMy401k 1d ago

I’m almost certain this is a telescope, it looks like a chain attached to the top cap that covers the lens, I’m just trying to figure out if I can find an exact match or if it was like a “send in this ad and $4.25 and we’ll mail this to you” situation

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u/Houdinii1984 16h ago

My dad had a periscope that looked just like this. The ends come off and it telescopes out a bit like an antenna. You look through a bottom port and you can see whatever the top part is aimed at.

His looked about the exact same, but skinnier. I vaguely remember seeing them in the back of boys magazines in the 80s, too, but that's a bit past anecdotal.

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u/Rocco_al_Dente 1d ago

Vintage aluminum fishing case

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u/TheSwearJarIsMy401k 1d ago

It could also be something like that but it’s definitely not that specific case 

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u/Cold_Dead_Heart 1d ago

Agreed. I think the thing on the side looks like an eyepiece.

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u/BrunoReturns 1d ago

Solved? This is definitely it. It would make a great gift for the "baby's" 80th birthday!

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u/Hot-Meat-11 1d ago

Oh. Now I see. That is clearly the tool that opens the portal to this dimension where we are now. Locate it and destroy it to get us off of this cursed timeline.

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u/Emergency_Bench_7515 1d ago

Bro the upscale looks shit compared to this. Everyone looks human in this photo. In the AI photo everyone's been handome-ified.