do you believe in the telectroscope?

The Telectroscope Kid by Ashwin Tharoor-Menon

This is a true story that I wrote that was published in the India Currents Magazine in the USA. I was 9 years old when this happened.

In the 19th Century, a man read in the newspaper about something called an Electroscope. He thought it was called a Telectroscope and he misunderstood the meaning of what it was.

He thought it was a giant tunnel that goes under the ocean and when you look through it you can see people on the other side of the ocean. Nobody ever invented it but on 2nd June 2008 I went to Tower Bridge in London to see an amazing thing called a Telectroscope.

It is a giant webcam so when you look into it you can see across the ocean to see people next to Brooklyn Bridge in New York.

When I looked into it there were lots of people on the other side. I saw Brooklyn Bridge in the background. In London it was really sunny with blue skies but in Brooklyn it was raining but normally it is the other way round!

People on both sides of the Telectroscope had whiteboards to write on to communicate to each other. There was one boy who looked about 10 years old holding up a board with his mobile phone number on it. My mum texted him and he texted back! I found out that his name was Andres and he lived in Manhattan. When we texted each other he gave me his dads email address and I gave him mine. I was really excited because I had made a friend across the ocean through a Telectroscope. My Mum and I were laughing and smiling because I had made a friend in an amazing way.

Over the next weeks Andres and I exchanged many emails. I found out many things about Andres such as his hobbies and his family. I got to know that he likes a lot of sports like basketball, American football and soccer. I found out that he had a baby sister and that he lived on 45th street between 8th and 9th in Manhattan. 

I told him about my hobbies and my family and I told him that I was coming to NY in the summer so I might be able to meet him.

When I went to New York, it took a long time to find him because I didn't have access to my email and he told me where he lived and his phone number on one of his emails. I called him and we made a date to see each other. We agreed to meet at 2pm outside Wall Street Station . It was a Saturday. On the tube to Wall Street station, with my mum and my brothers, I was feeling nervous and excited about meeting Andres.

When we got out of the tube station we were walking to find him. I couldn't remember exactly what he looked like because I had only seen him for 3 or 4 minutes. I was hoping he would recognize me. He did recognize me. Andres and his dad waved to me as soon as we got there. When I was walking towards them I was feeling tense but when I met him my tension left me because he was very friendly. He talked to me a lot about different things in New York. 

His dad took all of us to where he works. It was on a very high floor of a building and there was an amazing view of Brooklyn Bridge and the river that separates Manhattan and Brooklyn. His dad showed all of us where the other end of the Telectroscope used to be. After that we went back down and took a water taxi to Brooklyn. While we were on it there was a marvellous view of the Statue of Liberty and all the tall buildings in Manhattan. 

When my mum was my age, living in India she had a pen pal in America and they used to write letters to each other and it used to take 3 weeks for letters to reach them. Now I have an e-pal in America and it takes a few seconds for my letter to get to their computer. It's unbelievable how much technology has changed in the last 30 years.

I asked Andres to maybe get his own email id so he could reply to me more often. I said goodbye to Andres and his family and we got back on the water taxi and went back to Manhattan. It was an overwhelming experience to meet Andres and his family. Just from seeing a boy through a Telectroscope to going to where he lives and actually meeting him was incredible. Maybe one day he might come and stay in my house and I might go and stay in his.

Found it

Look at the change of colour. The whiter material shows where the real tunnel entrance has been plugged. Someone has made a hopeless attempt to disguise this as a modern cave with a rectangular doorway.

Where did the Telectroscope go?

When I first saw a photo of Paul St George taking his leave of this world, and then another the next day of the Telectroscope's 'aura' burned into the boards at the Fulton Ferry Landing, I thought it was a joke:

'Call 911 the Telectroscope has Disappeared!' read the caption. It should have come as no surprise that such a magical device should leave as mysteriously as it arrived. But I did not think it had really disappeared - only that it had returned perhaps to the workshop from whence it came.

Recently though I have been trying to catch up with Paul to confirm or deny the rumours that further tunnels may be opening up soon, with new telectroscopic installations to follow. But where is Paul? I cannot find him.

He was always elusive, I know, preferring to blend into the crowds that gathered around his ancestor's invention.

But I feel sad to think that I have lost him and that the Telectroscope really might have been stolen away, never to be seen again. Better it were lingering in a yard somewhere, or perhaps locked away in a ministry building. God forbid it should be sold for parts on eBay!

Keep your eyes peeled. Let me know if you see anything that might suggest that the Telectroscope survives. I would hate to think that what you are reading now is the end of this extraordinary adventure.

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 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

 

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.

An Account of a Visit to the Telectroscope

Benjamin Carnys has very kindly sent me a link to his entertaining and informative article about a visit to the Telectroscope. It starts thus:

"London is a town of many patient wonders. The architecture of a thousand years gives the city a chaotic, hapharzard quality; as a visitor, you can never be sure what marvels you might find waiting around the next corner.

It was, therefore, considerable good fortune with which I learned how the serendipity of the City might lie in wait on the banks of the River Thames, a stone’s throw from the Tower Bridge. There may be found the Telectroscope, a wonder almost unparalleled, even among all the great cities of the Earth."

The full article can be read here>>