  A recent series of experiments have demonstrated that a classical fluid
mechanical system, constituted by an oil droplet bouncing on a vibrating fluid
surface, can be induced to display a number of behaviours previously considered
to be distinctly quantum. To explain this correspondence it has been suggested
that the fluid mechanical system provides a single-particle classical model of
de Broglie's idiosyncratic 'double solution' pilot wave theory of quantum
mechanics. In this paper we assess the epistemic function of the bouncing oil
droplet experiments in relation to quantum mechanics. We find that the bouncing
oil droplets are best conceived as an analogue illustration of quantum
phenomena, rather than an analogue simulation, and, furthermore, that their
epistemic value should be understood in terms of how-possibly explanation,
rather than confirmation. Analogue illustration, unlike analogue simulation, is
not a form of 'material surrogacy', in which source empirical phenomena in a
system of one kind can be understood as 'standing in for' target phenomena in a
system of another kind. Rather, analogue illustration leverages a
correspondence between certain empirical phenomena displayed by a source system
and aspects of the ontology of a target system. On the one hand, this limits
the potential inferential power of analogue illustrations, but, on the other,
it widens their potential inferential scope. In particular, through analogue
illustration we can learn, in the sense of gaining how-possibly understanding,
about the putative ontology of a target system via an experiment. As such, the
potential scientific value of these extraordinary experiments is undoubtedly a
significant one.
