The lamp Fresnel had made for the Second Industrial Exhibition was installed on a horse statue at the entrance to the tent. Its light and its size drew the interest of many people, yet it was still far short of the size required for use in a lighthouse. By estimate, it would need to be as tall as a person—dozens of times larger than the finished product Fresnel had made at the Royal Glassworks.
Besides the Rosetta Stone, the British Museum's treasured exhibits included the Portland Vase. The Portland Vase had been made using the gemstone cameo technique: a newly made, still-hot dark glass vessel was dipped into molten white glass, creating decorative patterns resembling raised reliefs.
When Fresnel made the prototype, he had not considered mass production. He assembled the ring-shaped prisms one by one according to the positions and angles he had calculated himself. Mr. Turner thought highly of his invention anyway, but making the prism teeth was indeed no simple process.
Paris never lacked novelties. At one exhibition, someone displayed a crystal skull, supposedly made by the Maya thousands of years ago and possessing mysterious powers. Yet Mr. Turner recognized at once that it had been made with a grinding wheel.
He did not expose the swindler, but the sight broadened his thinking. He and Fresnel had the feeling of meeting too late, while Fresnel had even slipped out during class to look with Turner for a lighthouse suitable for installing the lens of his new invention.
Fresnel had not yet graduated. What he was doing counted as skipping class, but Georgiana did not reprimand him. She had already learned her lesson: these students hated lecturing "adults" the most.
The two men chatted behind them, while Georgiana spoke with Maria Edgeworth. Maria did not mention much about