do you believe in the telectroscope?

The End?

On the last night I took my nephew Shea (son of Paul) down to the Telectroscope since he was keen to see it before its planned closure. The weather in Brooklyn was so bad that there was nobody there to wave at - an omen perhaps.

The Telectroscope then proceeded to break down - something that I don't think has happened before.

I supposed I should not have been surprised. His father may be an engineering genius but Shea is quite the opposite. Last time he came to stay, he managed to disable the London Eye before we had even alighted upon it. The stay before that he caused the Hayward Gallery to be evacuated, ruining three Anthony Gormley installations in the process.

At least Shea got to see *something*:

How apt that my last encounter down the tunnel should be with a mole. The tunnel is being returned to nature and Paul St George, the 'Mole Man' has disappeared  from whence he came. 

The Telectroscope had a natural lifespan after all. It goes back now to being an idea in one man's head, a drawing in a notebook. But we can all attest to its existence.

We believe in the Telectroscope, don't we?

Not One Tunnel, But Many Tunnels!

Before he flitted off to New York again (via the Tunnel presumably), I was lucky enough to bump into Paul St George at a drinks party where he was being much feted by suited business types and mustachioed impresarios.

There was a whiff of Money and Intrigue about the place, fuelled by Paul's revelation that there is not just one Tunnel but many Tunnels!

Apparently it is perfectly possible for a Telectroscope to be 'retuned' as 'twere to connect to locations other than New York. Rumours abounded at the drinks party about plans to open Telectroscopes as far away as Tokyo, Rome - and even Southampton.

It's clear that Paul is attracting the attention of some truly unsavoury types. He seems confident however that he will remain in full control of his fantastical device and not fall prey to base commercial pressures. I left the party wondering if I would ever see Paul again.

Seeing Alison At The End of the Tunnel

It was quite delightful to see my friend Alison at the other end of the Tunnel recently. It is quite a different experience to communicate with someone you actually know via the Telectroscope, rather than wave at strangers:

I now appreciate how the Londonist blogger felt when making contact with her brother:

"We’re both there at the agreed-upon time, and I jump when I see him. Though not life-size, he seems close by – as though through binoculars I’ve just spotted him on the banks of the Thames not far from where I stand. Except that that’s the Brooklyn Bridge behind him.

He waves. I wave. He waves again. I wave again. We stop and stare at each other. So I wave some more. We’ve been communicating in some form or another for 24 years, but this renders us ineffectual.

Unable to talk to him, I turn to the crowd of strangers on my end and do something I don’t usually do and in retrospect find deeply disturbing: I talk to them. “That’s my brother over there!” This elicits the appropriate “aw” I had been aiming for.

Now they too wave at him. I become aware that I’m talking (and probably gesticulating wildly) at the Telectroscope even though he can’t hear me. He’s shrugging at me and shaking his head. Finally, he pulls out his mobile and motions for me to call him. I do, and we have a good laugh about how ridiculous the whole thing felt."

A Meeting of Pugs

Paul St George has sent me a copy of his correspondence with a man who claims to have taken his dog to see to the Telectroscope in Brooklyn. Could it be true that dogs can hear people at the other end of the Tunnel?!

Dear Mr. St George

Congratulations! A brilliant installation. I have just returned from Brooklyn with my 14 year old fawn pug Maggie. I did not realize your artwork would be there.

I think of the various obstacles to arrive there at that very moment. I woke up in Manhattan to a sunny, breezy, Memorial Day holiday, not knowing what I would do today. A decision where to go, then a walk, a bus ride, a train ride, and then a walk again, brought me to the Brooklyn Fulton Landing.

When I arrived I saw the “contraption” I had heard about. I got on line and  wrote a sign. That allowed others to get in front of me. Then, at approximately 1:13 pm EST (New York Time), I peered into your “Telectrocope”  holding Maggie, my pug and the  sign “Maggie the Pug, Send Pounds”. On the other side at that very moment was a woman in  London  holding a Black Pug peering back through the “Telectroscope”. The Pugs waved to each other.

As you know pugs were a favorite in Victorian Times (Queen Victoria banned the cropping of their ears). I have been a creator of pug lore and embellished  history but truth is always stranger than fiction. This event was captured by CW Channel 11 News to be broadcast 10:00pm EST, New York. There over 150 different breeds. To have two pugs (unknown to each other) show up at the same time may be a quality that the Tibetan Monks bred for in the first place, their intuition.

All the best. John
Founder Pug Hill, NYC
www.pughill.org

Paul St George replies:

This is so special! Thank you for telling me. Can we please include your story in our blogs?

You know that dogs can hear through the Telectroscope?

Paul

To which John replies:

Paul: Please feel free to include this (and anything below) on your blog (first names if you please). If you look at the picture I previously attached, the angle of Maggie’s ears clearly show she is hearing at a frequency and pitch that could only be heard by canines and other animals.

It is obvious that it amplifies lower volume and higher pitch sounds heard by canines.

Sometimes, invention has the most unexpected consequences! I continue to tell friends and strangers about his wonderful event. We are sorry that it will come to a close. Finally, we would love to track down the London Pug. It has been a pleasure to be introduced to your artistic talent.

All the best, John

A Triumph in Transatlantic Telectroscopic Relations

Saturday was a triumph in international telectroscopic relations with steampunks of various stripes and colour gathering at both ends of the tunnel. Very good descriptions of events have been published by mlleviolet and andyravensable

Without the aid of pens & whiteboards (curiously absent) the persons concerned still managed to conduct an experiment and make a connection.

Watch the video carefully. At both ends of the tunnel there appears to be a man in matching flat hat, waistcoat and trousers:

How does Paul St Geoge manage to be at both ends of the tunnel at once?

Trans-Atlantic Inter-Era Telectroscope Steampunk Conference

I am indebted to Tobias Fauntleroy for alerting me to this important announcement:

We hereby establish a Trans-Atlantic, Inter-Era Conference for Steampunks, Neo-Victorians, Explorers, Adventurers, Scientists and Enthusiasts of the Vintage Arts, to be held on Saturday June 7.

Members of the BrassGoggles.co.uk community have Proposed that on Saturday June 7, New Yorkers meet in front of their Telectroscope at 2pm US East Coast Time. Londoners meet in front of their Telectroscope at 7pm GMT. Original posting here:
http://www.brassgoggles.co.uk/brassgoggles/?p=852

All attendees are invited to wear their full regalia, whether it be steampunk, neo-Victorian/Edwardian, or vintage garb from other eras or representing other parts of the world. Suggestions for steam-powered fashion may be found here:
http://community.livejournal.com/steamfashion/
http://www.whitemischief.info/photos/steampunk-clothing-at-white-mischief
http://www.whitemischief.info/videos/around-the-world-in-80-days-dressup-inspirations

You are encouraged to bring WRITING IMPLEMENTS and PAPER so that you may communicate the written word via the Telectroscope.

Upon the completion of Trans-Atlantic communications, all London-based Conference-Goers are warmly invited to attend a post-event party at White Mischief "Around the World in 80 Days", Scala, 275 Pentonville Road, London from 8pm-3am, where like-minded individuals will be gathered for music, dancing and some of the finest entertainments known to man or woman.

Steampunk costumes will be on display, as will the splendid rayguns and pith helmets of Stentor Industries, plus live bands, aerial acrobatics, sword swallowing, snake dancing and dancing late into the night with numerous DJs.

Full details on the White Mischief extravaganza can be found here:
http://www.whitemischief.info/about

 

Coming Home (via the Tunnel!)

Paul St George is coming home after his much feted trip to America. But did anyone out there actually see him on site at the Brooklyn end? If you have any photographs of the great man in the Big Apple please do share them with us. Here he is in London (thanks cowfish!):

I am still unclear BTW as to whether Paul travels via the Tunnel or takes the plane like the rest of us. One has to assume there is some rudimentary form of transport down there.

Just a few weeks ago I might have thought of Paul as Charles Bronson in The Great Escape, tap-tapping with his trowel and being tugged to and fro on a trolley hundreds of metres below the ground. But given the grand scale and fine workmanship of the Telectroscopes, I now see in my mind’s eye a motorised carriage – the kind of thing owners of the early Wild West railways used to live in while the navvies banged out the track in front of them.

Or does Paul travel more ‘Lenin-style’ in something steel plated, fortified with blacked out windows, chuntering along slowly beneath the Atlantic, plotting and co-ordinating his own curious revolution?

But I digress. On a more practical level, it must be assumed that the doorway to the side of the Telectroscope is where Paul will once again surface. My daughter and I tried to open said door the other day, if only to see to see what lay on the other side, but it was firmly sealed.

The pressure gauge upon the door did twitch a bit as we tugged, deviating slightly from its typical range of 2 to 4 bar. Which begs more questions: how is Paul managing the extraordinary fluctuations in pressure that must occur in his subterranean world?   And how is the light, being squeezed, travelling and bending its way across the Atlantic, still producing such fine images?

Other Telectroscopes, Other Tunnels (And Their Uses...)

The world’s media has gone crazy for the Telectroscope. Already I have bookmarked over 20 different  news items, including reports in German, French and Chinese, as well as over 40 blog posts. I suspect this is just the tip of the iceberg.

One of the more interesting speculations arising from all this attention has been whether more Telectroscopes should be built and for what purpose.

Tom Taylor writes: "I envisioned a telectroscopic network spread throughout the world, connecting all manner of cities, not just London and New York. I imagined simple devices, without the steampunk-esque glamour, perhaps the size of a bus stop advertising horde. They would stand upright, dotted around parks and public spaces, each one forming a permanent connection to its partner thousands of miles away."

Others, such as commenters Ed and Lanalasagna suggest that Telectroscopes could be used to promote global peace.

In the one brief phone conversation I have had with Paul this week he rather breathlessly alluded to requests from national governments for their very own Telectroscopes. Presumably this would also mean many, many more Tunnels. Is this the reason, perhaps, why so many countries including Britain are racing to claim sovereignty over vast areas of the sea bed?

I fear for Paul. The more attention his wondrous device receives, the more likely it is that powerful and avaricious forces may seek to control what he has created. Could the Tunnel be nationalised, I wonder? Would a foreign power have the temerity to steal or appropriate a Telectroscope and perhaps even use it for warlike purposes? Remember the Iraqi supergun?!

As a young boy I was made painfully aware - thanks to my brother Paul - what a magnifying glass on a sunny day can do to a man (and a gerbil) when placed in the wrong hands.

I sincerely hope that Paul has taken steps to ensure that the Telectroscope cannot be reverse engineered.