Telectroscope

If you believe artist and inventor Paul St George then his "Telectroscope" connects New York and London via a (very) long tunnel running through the earth's crust, with the images bouncing back and forth using mirrors. . .

One end of the "tunnel" emerges next to Tower Bridge on the banks of the Thames in London - the other is next to Brooklyn Bridge on the banks of New York's East River.

It looks like something HG Wells might have imagined.

Each end has a giant telescope-like construction which appears to punch its way out of the earth.

There are dials, and levers, and thermometer gauges on the side of the 20m long brass and wood construction.

Peer into it and you can see people on the other side of the Atlantic.

Sounds cool -- something that should be made a permanent installation. From the BBC (with video). Telectroscope website here; Wikipedia entry on the original telectroscopes here. Unfortunately, I seem to be a bit late to this story, as it appears the installation in New York and London was scheduled to be taken down last week. CNN had a good writeup back in May.

Posted by David on June 22, 2008 10:19 PM