# Name of Duck Object

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-of-duck-object/217523>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 7, 2003, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-of-duck-object/217523 "2003-12-07T06:41:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Netbrian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/71e660/32.png) [@Netbrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Netbrian)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 6:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-of-duck-object/217523/1 "2003-12-07T06:41:34Z")

</div>

Hi! When I was younger, I remember my grandpa had this funny little novelty. It was a testtube with a duck on the top, and a bulge at the bottom, partially filled with red liquid. The duck would bob his head several times, until he touched a glass of water, at which point he’d reset and start over again. What was the name of this thing?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 6:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-of-duck-object/217523/2 "2003-12-07T06:46:29Z")

</div>

[Drinking Birds](http://www.backstreet.demon.co.uk/oddstuff/drinkingbirds/drinkingbirds.htm)! Nowadays they make the tube into the body of the bird, and the stand into its feet. The resemblance isn’t that great, so they put a top hat on it, to make it look more like a bird.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![orianabird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e95f7d/32.png) [@orianabird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/orianabird)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 7:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-of-duck-object/217523/3 "2003-12-07T07:31:33Z")

</div>

A similar apparatus is a glass tube made of one bulb with a very long neck set into another glass bulb so that you get a dumbbell shape. There’s fluid in the bottom bulb, but the neck of the top bulb extends below the surface of the fluid so that simply inverting the whole thing won’t make the fluid flow from one bulb to the other. However, if you hold it upright with the bottom bulb in your hand, your body heat makes the air in the bottom bulb expand, forcing the fluid up into the top bulb.  
Pretty neat.  
Anyone know what those are called?  
Thanks

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![LadyMack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4491bb/32.png) [@LadyMack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LadyMack)\
**Post date:** [December 7, 2003, 9:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-of-duck-object/217523/4 "2003-12-07T09:01:20Z")

</div>

[Here.](http://thetoyisle.safeshopper.com/30/2745.htm?487)

😃

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\
**Post date:** [December 8, 2003, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/name-of-duck-object/217523/5 "2003-12-08T20:05:46Z")

</div>

> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Achernar \*  
> \*\*The resemblance isn’t that great, so they put a top hat on it, to make it look more like a bird. \*\*

Actually, the only kind of birds that commonly wear top hats are cartoon penguins . . .