There is a London Underground station by the name of Elephant and Castle. Click on the below underground map to enlarge several times and follow the red arrow. As you climb up out of the underground, the above sight will greet you. The actual reason for the name [of that section of London] is interesting enough and is probably fodder for another post, but it isn't the subject of THIS post.In the grassy center of the roundabout at this interchange, there is a shiny aluminum building which is quite modern-looking, though it is pretty old already. This is the subject of many urban legends: What is it? What's inside it? Legends include:
1. Something nuclear
2. The home of Aphex Twin
3. Something even more sinister
In point of fact, it is a memorial. It is a memorial to a much earlier resident of the area by the name of Michael Faraday. If you are an electrical engineer, you know who Michael Faraday was. If not, let me just tell you that the unit of electrical capacitance is called a Farad. To be brief, Michael pioneered electromagnetic induction; he invented the electric motor, or at least the concept and principle. He studied the effects of electromagnetism on light waves. As a chemist, he discovered benzene. He is also responsible for the Bunsen Burner. Actually, he did a lot of things. A REALLY lot of things. Albert Einstein had a picture of Faraday on his wall, along with Isaac Newton. So Michael was a big deal. Below is a picture of him when he was old.
Anyway, the memorial building doesn't contain a nuclear device, and no one - I don't think - lives in there. So what IS inside? A big transformer. For the London underground.
Michael would have thought that was pretty cool, I think.
Incidentally, the building was originally designed to be made out of glass. But... well, you know. Some things look better on paper than in real practical life.
