That Shiny Thing, or, Epic Serendipity

I went over to check on what the kids were doing on the computers. One of them had a strange-looking image on there, but she quickly scrolled past it. I asked her to scroll back. I looked closely. I shouted out, "I've GOT one of those! I've been trying to figure out what it was for TEN YEARS!"

And you people on the web were NO HELP AT ALL!

My brother gave me this shiny thing back in 1999 or so. He found it in the Lost Articles box at a restaurant (or bar?) he was working (or not!) at. I posted it back in 2007 on my picture page, with a plea to help identify it.

Nothing.

It took a child, a mere child, to make it happen!

Scroll down past the giant pic!

It turns out it is a sugar refractometer. It is for measuring the sugar content in beer, wine, and syrup. And the like. A link to how to use one.

Now, where did I hide the darn thing?