In Gulliver's Travels, Swift's satirical treatment of contemporary science, particularly as focused in the section dealing with the Grand Academy of Lagado, reached great new heights. (On one day in 1710, Swift visited Gresham College, the Tower, a puppet show and Bedlam. How his imagination must have responded …)
The first man I saw was of a meagre aspect, with sooty hands and face, his hair and beard long, ragged, and singed in several places. His clothes, shirt, and skin, were all of the same colour. He has been eight years upon a project for extracting sunbeams out of cucumbers, which were to be put in phials hermetically sealed, and let out to warm the air in raw inclement summers. He told me, he did not doubt, that, in eight years more, he should be able to supply the governor's gardens with sunshine, at a reasonable rate: but he complained that his stock was low, and entreated me "to give him something as an encouragement to ingenuity, especially since this had been a very dear season for cucumbers." I made him a small present, for my lord had furnished me with money on purpose, because he knew their practice of begging from all who go to see them. (III.v)
Now, via we make money not art, news of Parans — a Swedish company specialising in designing, developing and offering products for natural lighting:
Imagine an indoor environment where the variation of the outdoors light is always present, or a house that has sunlight in every single room. Now, Parans releases the first sunlight-transporting product of its kind.
… The sunlight is collected by panels outdoors. The sunlight is then transported through fibre optic cables. Indoors, the sunlight flows out through beautifully designed luminaires.
The products consist of the light-collecting panel SkyPort, the light transporting cable SunWire and the light emitting luminaries Björk. The Björk luminaries are beautiful to use in a wide range of spaces, such as boutiques, stores, offices, entrances, etc. Almost any room is improved when natural light is introduced. The flexible SunWire cable makes installation very easy, also in existing buildings. The SkyPort panels are with standard building elements easily mounted on practically any roof.
Parans' luminaires … give a mixture of parallel light beams and ambient light, just as when the sun strikes through the foliage of a forest. This is the reason why the patent-pending luminaires are named Björk, which is Swedish for birch tree. By installing Parans system, you will be able to tell the weather even in the absence of windows or skylights, re-establishing a connection with the outside environment.
Something beautiful … (What would Swift have made of it?)
