The Telectroscope was built by artist/inventor Paul St. George and connects New York and London via a massive tunnel you can look through and see out the other end.
"The Telectroscope started off as a totally unintentional hoax in the 1870s," explains St George, who is the leading expert on this forgotten backwater of Victorian technology. "It came about through an error. A French editor misread a report about the invention of a thing called the Electroscope - which is all to do with static electricity - and called it a Telectroscope. He also misinterpreted its purpose. "The fascinating thing is that his misunderstanding of what it did - to communicate face to face over a vast distance - really caught fire.
Needless to say there is no such massive tunnel. The end portals were just made to look like they're heading through the earth. In actuality, they're connected via "fiber optic cabling, and an HD camera and projector on either end provide live streaming video. But who really cares, you can still look in one end of this device in New York and see out the other in London. You'll find one end next to the Brooklyn Bridge, and the other across the pond, next to Tower Bridge."
I've got to admit, it's a pretty neat art piece.
So yeah, HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND EVERYONE! Have fun and be safe. But not too safe (the firework war is still a go).
A couple more pictures of the thing after the jump.
