Location: Sydney, Australia. Found it during bushcare.

The brass barb fitting and the powdery filling suggest some sort of kiln burner to me, but the dark green paint on the outside of the tube looks rather ordinary and not like it has been through high temperatures.

The soft, powdery cemetitious filling has a copper-green tint. Only one end has a hole.

If it were not for the brass barb and coppery fill colour I would assume this is just a bit of structural steel from someone’s carport (or similar) that has filled with cement and now been cut to pieces for disposal. But a carport with a barb fitting? WTH?

We find all sorts of garbage in this bushland because it’s sandwiched in suburbia. Traditionally it was a dumping ground (mattresses, furniture, asbestos, whole cars) and today still people use it illegally as a dump (mainly building materials and soil). Lots of random materials get deposited by or uncovered by stormwater runoff & floods too. There is no limit to the craziness of what you find here.

  • Machinist@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    16
    ·
    5 days ago

    Guessing.

    Something to do with fluid mixing/filtration/reaction. Fair amount of quick and dirty, not a production item. Low pressure, just a few psi. Water treatment, meth, process prototype, pesticides, agricultural water.

    There are green forms of arsenic. Wouldn’t go licking it, wash hands after touching. Don’t hang on to it.

    • pastermil
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      4
      ·
      5 days ago

      How would you know that green is arsenic and not copper?

      • Machinist@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        4 days ago

        I don’t know that it’s arsenic. Green arsenic is that color due to the copper in molecule.

        However, that object looks like it did something with industrial fluid. The pipe shell is also painted green. It’s an area where illegal dumping occurs. I’d be cautious. I’ve found sealed 55 gal drums in deep woods before from illegal dumping. Getting rid of toxic shit can be expensive so some assholes illegally dump.

        Until you know what it is, it pays to be cautious. That thing just makes my Spidey sense tingle.

      • smb@lemmy.ml
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        4 days ago

        How would you know that green is arsenic and not copper?

        he already suggested to NOT lick it, guess arsenic would cause death upon licking, so he already mentioned how to “know” that but suggested to better stay alive instead 😉

        @ @[email protected] : it would be interesting to know if the hole is connected right through to the barb or not, suggesting that the powdery chemicals would have to do sth with the barb, or not. then maybe suggesting some chemical processing.

        guessing chemicals by picture and observations is error prone and can be dangerous. if you want to know, send it to a lab. maybe hint it to police mentioning them the meth processing guessed earlier by @[email protected] maybe they’ll analyse it and tell you later what it was.

        • pastermil
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          4 days ago

          I think if you lick random object you find laying around, you’re destined to doom.

          • smb@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            2
            ·
            4 days ago

            I think if you lick random object you find laying around, you’re destined to doom.

            but at least they’re yours once licked ;-)

        • WaterWaiver@aussie.zoneOP
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          2
          ·
          4 days ago

          it would be interesting to know if the hole is connected right through to the barb or not

          I feel very uncomfortable with the thought of probing this thing with long metal rods whilst looking down the end.

          maybe hint it to police

          I guess I could try and send them the pics and ask them about this “suspicious object”. Hopefully it’s just a bong.

          (I can’t quite see it being an arsenic cannon, but yeah I wasn’t planning on trusting my copper oxide assumption regardless xD)

          • smb@lemmy.ml
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            1
            ·
            4 days ago

            I feel very uncomfortable

            sorry, making you feell uncomfortable was not my intention.

            I guess I could try and send them the pics and ask them about this “suspicious object”.

            i guess thats the correct way. just imagine there would actually be illegal chemicals in it and your fingerprints are on it now :o) not mentioning it to them could even create a problem then.

            on the pictures it looks rather blueish to me not greenish and the other guy mentioning meth reminded me of the blue color somewhere in breaking bad, so the idea that the pipe had been used for processing drugs got stuck in my mind 🤷 but my knowledge in this topic is rather limited to half forgotten school knowledge, common sense and movie bullshit…

            guess its nothing, but telling police about it is the right thing anyway. maybe donate them a donut or pizza if its nothing 😉

      • TaldenNZ@lemmy.nz
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        4
        ·
        4 days ago

        You don’t. But you also don’t know it isn’t. And if there was chemical processing involved it could be.

        • LifeInMultipleChoice@lemmy.world
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          4
          ·
          4 days ago

          Alright so after looking at the symptoms of arsenic poisoning, I’m not sure how I can tell it apart from getting a combo at Taco Bell with a large fruit punch.