Featured What Is This Thing?

It is ~5" long; the bulb is ~1 1/2" X ~2 1/4". It weighs all of 7 grams.
The needle-like tip, 1/4" forward of the hole, is 0.080" diameter. I cannot accurately measure the hole, but it eyeballs at about half that diameter. The tip is sealed; that is, the only vent from within the glass envelope is that wee hole.

It is blown, of course. So the thing was created before the hole was opened in the needle, using the now sealed tube; then by some almost magical craft that hole was added. Under a 10X triplet, the vent looks like a steep-sided volcano, the hole being the caldera. Oh, yeah...the glass is very faintly pink.

I suspect this is a medical tool, perhaps veterinary. I've shown it to quite a few folks (I got it ~25 years ago) without becoming the slightest bit wiser.

I have, in short, broken my pick on it...an' humbly offer y'all a chance to illuminate the darkness surrounding this bauble. Thanks for lookin'!

 

I'd go with watering bulb and chuck it

 

u don't even want to know my guess...!!

 

Something used in a chemistry lab?

 

Well, that's certainly helpful!

 

Surely could be...but what?
Komokwa won't divulge where his mind has run with it...but I have an idea.

 

Hmmmmm...

 

holes not big enuf..

 

The puzzle includes this conundrum: if it were designed to dispense some liquid, how would it be filled with enough to be helpful...and then how would that liquid be applied where needed?

 

a syringe could fill it..

 

Very early drop dispenser for ears, eyes or @Bronwen said, "a chemistry lab?" A finger over the hole to control flow?

 

What if there was something in solution with water that you wanted to separate out by heating the solution in the bulbous part & letting steam escape through the little hole. As komo said, it could be filled by syringe or pipette. (I'm just making this up.)

 

Me too.

 

sometimes a bauble is just a bauble...

 

There's a bit of truth!

Perhaps we're all overthinking the dang thing!
What if it were an assigned project...say, in a class to teach laboratory glass-forming skills?
Let's agree to offer an 'A' for inspiration...and an 'F' for function?

NEXT!

 

Hmm let me try...Antique Opium Glass Pipe

 

Obviously a man who hasn't found peace in an Opium den.
No Cigar!