What Is That, Part II: Mrs. Loomis & Ms. Wimmer's Classes Guess

In anticipation of their museum field trip, Whitehall Elementary third and fourth-grade students were asked to try and identify a mystery item from the museum's thousands of artifacts. Mrs. Head and Mrs. McLean's students provided written guesses last week; here are Mrs. Loomis's and Ms. Wimmer's student guesses via quick interviews with the Ledger.

• It looks like a conductor of some sort. It would conduct electricity, like those towers outside. It kind of looks like one of those but in a smaller version. And, let's see, it looks about 50 years old. Amelia Schober

• I think it's a hat. You put it on like this [balances it on his head] and it looks like something someone would wear. It's missing a strap, but you'd put it around your head and then it's all ok. Caleb Perdue

• I think it's either a cheese grater or it's a bug zapper. I have no idea how old it is, I'm not going to just guess something like that. Lance Popalis

• It would make a great cheese shredder. I guess it's 80 or 90 years old. Jace Yates

• I think it's an electric conductor. The power could run from in here and it comes down through here and then there might be poles underground. I think it's 40 or 50 years old. Mia Kidwell

• I feel like it's a weird-looking cheese grater. It cuts or grates big blocks of cheese. I have no idea how old it is. Sara Risher

• I think that looks like a bird feeder. I feel like it would feed big birds, not little birds. But maybe little birds. Bella Travis

• I think it's something that comes over a lamp. The lampshade. And you would put a candle or something underneath there and then it would bring the lights out. I think I saw a number on the bottom of it [checks the bottom] nope, never mind. I don't know how old it is, like, maybe a 100 or 200? Kimber Glaus

• I think that's a really old cheese grater. I think it grates the cheese and it grates cheese in the big blocks. I think it's 59 years old. Seth Randel

• I feel like it could be like an old-time traffic cone. A really really old one, but like the ones we see all the time, but just old. It would be used in construction on the roads. I think it's at least 30 to like 40 years old. Maybe 60. Kelsen Thompson

• I feel like it could be something that was used like maybe forty, maybe 70, even 100 years ago. It was used to take the scales off of fish. They'd grab it with their hand and then they'd run it down the fish and it would take off all the scales. It's really old, it's 40 to 100 years old. Wyatt Duersch

• I think it might be a lamp or a lamp shape. Or maybe one of those things where you can squeeze a lemon. But I think it's a gas lamp shade. I think it's a few 100 years old. Emily Gaboury

• I feel like you put some sort of candle in it, but I'm not sure why. cones in a cave in the winter. It'd be used as a light source or something. I want to say 100 to 150 years old, maybe 200. Aftyn DeShaw

• I think that looks kind of like the top of those weird chimneys. The old ones aren't like the one's today, but they pump out the smoke. They aren't chimneys like we have. I think it is 150 years old. Rocky Ball

• It kind of looks like a cheese grater. It feels like one, it could be used for like, I think cheese. It's really sharp right here. It's at least 30 years old or maybe 50 years old. Zoey Zitnik

• It looks like something that could conduct heat and or electricity. I don't think it is a part of something else, I think you would use it is it in a light post or in the kitchen. Judging by how it looks I'm gonna say it's about 80 years old.Archer Yates

• Is it a cheese grater? I think it's a cheese grater! [touches it] Hmmmm...no, it's not a cheese grater. Is it a hat? Or maybe the top to a lantern? You can put the candle in it right here and then close that down. I think it is 126 years old. Brynn Welch

• I think that is a bird feeder. So you take the bird feed and put it in there and, well, I think it's missing a piece. Probably the bottom and then you hang it from the top here and I think hummingbirds use it. I think it's fifty years old. Camri South

• I think it's a cheese grater because you know how those things have like these little things [pointing at the pointy grates] basically. Yeah, it kind of looks like that...but I don't know what this is...this little top part. But I think it grates the cheddar cheese and that it's 100 years old. Blair Ressler

• I think it's a hat [laughs and puts it on]. I think it's a hat that you wear in the cave and then you put a candle in there on your head and you light it on fire. I think it's fifty or a hundred years old. Ceilli Moriarty

• I think it's either a chees grater or a lantern. I think it's more the lantern because it looks like something you can put a lightbulb in and then the light comes out. I think it's, like, a hundred and fifty years old. Jaylee McLean

• I think it might be an old mouse trap or a lantern. But since it doesn't have a bottom, I'm leaning more toward it as a mousetrap because it feels like in the older days they didn't really talk about mousetraps a lot - they might have just used a rock and a stick - but this feels like a good mousetrap because they could have set it in the corner and put a little trigger on it. Isabel Julien