LONDON, England (CNN) — As the first splinters of sunlight spread their warmth upon the South Bank of the River Thames this morning, it became clear that after more than a century, the vision of Victorian engineer Alexander Stanhope St George had finally been realized.
In all its optical brilliance and brass and wood, there stood the Telectroscope — a 37 feet long by 11 feet tall dream of a device allowing people on one side of the Atlantic to look into its person-size lens and, in real time, see those on the other side via a recently completed tunnel running under the ocean. (Think 19th century webcam. Or maybe Victorian-age video phone.)