This might look like an ordinary brick, but it’s not. It’s got quite an interesting story to tell.
Forty-fifty years ago, a lot of the technology that we now take for granted wasn’t readily available. Take the laser for instance. You can get a laser pointer for a couple of pounds these days, but fifty years ago a laser was a toy one could only find in a research lab.
It so happened that a young scientist was at the time working in one of these research labs. One day he got an unexpected visit. The producers of the latest James Bond movie wanted to talk to him. They were looking for a laser for some special effects in the movie. It turned out they came to the right place. They got their laser, and even a custom built “time bomb” (actually just a display with a counter on a refurbished barrel). The person doing all this is in fact one of my colleagues. He is now retired and comes in only once a week and he had a brilliant career.
Being a sort of “consultant” for the movie (which is called Goldfinger, by the way) he even got to go on the set once. As a souvenir he took one of the “gold bricks”. “It used to have a shiny golden colour” he told me one day, “but my wife’s been using it in the kitchen”.
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