[Closed] What is this?

Dunno, the pictures don't work...

It's a starting handle for a steam locomotive

Well anyway, was just having a clearout. It's like a UK plug with a dim orange light inside. (?)

Probably a nightlight - does the dim orange light go off in good daylight?

Glowplug. 😬

A nightlight? For what reason? It's not very bright? It's plugged in now, the other photo shows it in all its exciting glory. Maybe it gets brighter at night?

Poltergeist detector.

You only need to worry if the orange light comes on.

oh god oh god oh god

My grandparents used to have something similar. I remember my grandad plugging it in by the upstairs bathroom door so that when he went to the bog at night he could get a rough estimate of where he was supposed to be heading.

Yep, nightlight.
Lights up nothing of value. We used to have one but switched it for something that allowed children to see where they were going.

Better than the one with a light sensor built in though that was triggered by its own light! Flashed on an off like a strobe until it died shortly after.

Huh, really? What a silly solution to a problem that doesn't exist? What's wrong with turning on the light?

at night, when your half asleep? A bright light can wake you up properly.. so you use a night light instead (or blunder around in the dark, in my case)

It'd make more sense placed in the actual toilet then otherwise you'd end up pissing all over the place in the dark no?

Also used for kids with anxiety issues (like my sister) or adults who had long-standing issues with sleeping in rooms with the door fully closed.

My Grandad, after being a prisoner of war during WWII, couldn't sleep at home without the bedroom door slightly open so, subconciously I guess, he knew he could get out if he wanted to. That was fine in his own home but trickier if he stayed at ours when me and my sisters were small. A nightlight like that in the socket by the door gave him the same unconscious reassurance.

Interestingly, unless the story is apocryphal, they're fairly famous thingies. Someone even wrote a song about them way back in the 90's:

We have one, in use.
Actually quite handy believe it or not - on the half landing leading to toilet. Kind of like a homing beacon.

We might have had one in children's bedrooms in dim and distant past. Also recall the ones that were sensitive to some sensor - flickered on and off terribly, then popped.

Yeah we had some when our girls were younger (one with anxiety issues as mentioned above). They didn't work though as they weren't really bright enough to help with the anxiety. One of our girls (11 now) sill has her door slightly open and a brighter light on the landing.