Of this episode of the ceremony, the modest Leo Bergin says: “I was embarrassed.”
A fine canvas, some sixty feet square, had previously been raised at the end of the hall, and, with the assistance of attendants, a large instrument, from which could be thrown moveable views of the earth’s surface, was properly adjusted. With an explanation all too brief, as Leo himself thinks, the first picture was thrown on the wall. It was our planet, represented by a globe forty feet in diameter, revolving slowly on its axis. It was a true model of our globe, on Symmes’ theory, the angle to the axis being 23°, with the north opening plainly visible, and Cavitorus was easily located.
This, we are told, was entirely novel, even to the Committee; but so skilful are the mechanics of Eurania, that from a small model or instrument taken across by the party, this wonderful piece of complicated mechanism was perfected.
What a revelation this must have been, bursting so unexpectedly upon the astonished gaze of these strange people!
But as in the magic hand of the “loved and lost” Leo Bergin there are both pen and brush, I here invoke his genius, for my pen falters.
He says:—
“As the vast assembly gazed in almost breathless awe, the master said: ‘This is Oliffa, our own planet, as it is hurled through space at 68,000 miles an hour, with this brief forty feet expanded to 8,000 miles.’
The Drop Scene, Wanganui River.