# What is this thing? \[Strange grid ball\] **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 12, 2013, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-strange-grid-ball/646989 "2013-01-12T20:37:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2013, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-strange-grid-ball/646989/1 "2013-01-12T20:37:29Z")
I found this today in a university salvage yard, while photographing abandoned buildings. I can’t figure out what it is, but it looks like it cost a zillion dollars and is just sitting in the mud and the snow now, next to dismantled aerial towers and what looks like a dismantled metal sculpture. My first thought is that it’s some kind of microwave-frequency device - the stub pipe and so forth look like waveguides I’ve seen and worked with. OTOH, it seems to be built to handle pressure - or maybe its segmented construction is to allow very fine interior machining. Any ideas? [Strange Grid Ball](http://www.dgath.com/misc/grid_ball.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2013, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-strange-grid-ball/646989/2 "2013-01-12T20:46:27Z")
I don’t know, but I need one now. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2013, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-strange-grid-ball/646989/3 "2013-01-12T20:47:20Z")
I have no idea what it is, but someone spent a long time bolting all those sections together. I would guess that it was a prototype for something. All those small sections could (I assume) be made fairly cheaply\* and some grad students could spend a day bolting them all together. \*For example, an entire row, all the way around, could be made from one mold. ---
**Author:** ![KermitTheFrig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/47e85d/32.png) [@KermitTheFrig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KermitTheFrig)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2013, 8:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-strange-grid-ball/646989/4 "2013-01-12T20:49:22Z")
Death Star from a civilization of very, very tiny creatures. ---
**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:** [January 12, 2013, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-strange-grid-ball/646989/5 "2013-01-12T20:50:09Z")
Edited title to better indicate subject. ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2013, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-strange-grid-ball/646989/6 "2013-01-12T20:51:18Z")
> [@KermitTheFrig](#): > > Death Star from a civilization of very, very tiny creatures. 😃 Concur. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2013, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-strange-grid-ball/646989/7 "2013-01-12T20:51:58Z")
> [@KermitTheFrig](#): > > Death Star from a civilization of very, very tiny creatures. That’s all we need…another Chipmunks reboot. ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2013, 8:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-strange-grid-ball/646989/8 "2013-01-12T20:53:06Z")
Does it glow in the dark and make spooky noises? 😃 ---
**Author:** ![KermitTheFrig](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/47e85d/32.png) [@KermitTheFrig](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KermitTheFrig)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2013, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-strange-grid-ball/646989/9 "2013-01-12T21:00:52Z")
“That’s not a disco ball, it’s a space station. . .” ---
**Author:** ![Leo\_Bloom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leo_bloom/32/10377_2.png) [@Leo\_Bloom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leo_Bloom)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2013, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-strange-grid-ball/646989/10 "2013-01-12T21:03:27Z")
Six ninjas to one so far. OP’s patience thinning… ---
**Author:** ![tellyworth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/977dab/32.png) [@tellyworth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tellyworth)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2013, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-strange-grid-ball/646989/11 "2013-01-12T21:19:23Z")
Was it near a university? How big is it? It could be something like a bubble chamber. Probably not exactly that, but along those lines. ---
**Author:** ![AndrewL](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@AndrewL](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AndrewL)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2013, 9:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-strange-grid-ball/646989/12 "2013-01-12T21:24:07Z")
Whatever it is, I doubt it was designed to hold pressure. It seems to be bolted together from hundreds of little pieces. Each joint between pieces is a place for whatever the contents are to leak out, there’s no reason you’d use something impossible to seal properly like this instead of an off-the-shelf pressure tank. The waveguide idea might be correct, that wouldn’t need to hold pressure. It also occurs to me that it might be a mold for casting something. You could fill it with something (cement? molten plastic?) and then unbolt the little pieces to disassemble the mold afterwards. Even then, I’d wonder why it would have to be so many pieces, when a few larger pieces should work just as well. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2013, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-strange-grid-ball/646989/13 "2013-01-12T21:25:49Z")
> [@tellyworth](#): > > Was it near a university? How big is it? It’s in a university salvage yard, along with all kinds of “stored” hardware in and out of various buildings. I’d guess it’s about three feet in diameter. Maybe a tad bigger. I am not sure if it’s sitting on an open face of some kind; I neither wanted to mess with it nor was sure I could move it anyway. I had to slog across fifty feet of slushy muck to get this close and was not about to set my camera down anywhere there. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2013, 9:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-strange-grid-ball/646989/14 "2013-01-12T21:37:49Z")
The pipes attached to it are similarly modular. It looks like it’s a prototype of some process designed to make any kind of vessel or conduit from parts made on a very small scale - like a proof of concept for a portable machine designed to manufacture containers or habitats of any size at destination. Then again, maybe it’s just meant to be a vacuum vessel - still a lot of joints, but they would tend to close under compression. It does superficially resemble some reactor vessels I’ve seen (on paper) - for example: > **[Real-Life Prototype Fusion Reactor in ... 10 Years?! - WebEcoist](http://webecoist.momtastic.com/2009/08/09/real-life-prototype-fusion-reactor-design/)** > > Fusion reactors are the stuff of science fiction or the far-off future, right? Not according to General Fusion, a company that has raised millions of ---
**Author:** ![ZenBeam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/3ab097/32.png) [@ZenBeam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZenBeam)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2013, 9:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-strange-grid-ball/646989/15 "2013-01-12T21:52:03Z")
I’d think it would be for holding a vacuum, rather than holding high pressure. Maybe for doing experiments with plasma. Its interior could have received a final plating after being assembled, to improve its impermeability. ---
**Author:** ![Tangent](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tangent/32/3098_2.png) [@Tangent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tangent)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2013, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-strange-grid-ball/646989/16 "2013-01-12T21:54:35Z")
Could it be a sculpture? You said there appears to be a dismantled sculpture nearby. Maybe this is one, too. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2013, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-strange-grid-ball/646989/17 "2013-01-12T21:55:28Z")
> [@AndrewL](#): > > Even then, I’d wonder why it would have to be so many pieces, when a few larger pieces should work just as well. In addition to what I said above about possibly being cheap to manufacture, it’s also modular and the port holes could easily be moved anywhere within the same row that they’re currently in. The pipe(s) could also easily be turned or twisted easily enough. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2013, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-strange-grid-ball/646989/18 "2013-01-12T21:57:27Z")
> [@Tangent](#): > > Could it be a sculpture? You said there appears to be a dismantled sculpture nearby. Maybe this is one, too. It’s very post-apocalypse/dystopian isn’t it. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2013, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-strange-grid-ball/646989/19 "2013-01-12T22:11:58Z")
I don’t know what it is, but I do know how to find out. It almost certainly came from the physics department originally, and even if the original user has died or moved on, he almost certainly has collaborators, former grad students, or labmates still around who would know what it is. Call up (or e-mail) the physics department and ask. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [January 12, 2013, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-strange-grid-ball/646989/20 "2013-01-12T22:25:38Z")
I just noticed that around the center, there’s a row of bolts facing inward. Something is or was bolted to the inside. The go up towards the edges as well. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-this-thing-strange-grid-ball/646989.md?page=2)