I have no idea, but two people lifting on one end barely budges the thing. It's a monster.

We're not sure, actually. Our house used to be a soap factory, many decades back, and much of the interior reuses equipment from that era. Since then, the holey thing, whatever it was, was converted into a reception desk (the open half looks like it was simply cut off with an oxyacetylene torch) and now we're turning it into a fish tank. It's really cool-looking, for sure. Any guesses as to its original function? It's made of inch-thick steel, all around, so it may have held some serious pressure if those holes were added later.

Here's another photo of it as a desk, btw.

Er, yeah. Sorry about that...