MAGIC OF THE DINNER TABLE.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1913, 22 November 1913, Page 11

MAGIC OF THE DINNER TABLE.

THE IDEAL HOME.

There are some wonderful interesting things at the Ideal Homo Exhibition' opened at Olympia yesterday by Princess Alexandra of 'l'eck, writes the London correspondent of the "Sydney Telegraph" 011 Octobcr 10. In tho olden (lays the delights of playing with water were forbidden to the child in tho nursery. But children, like women, arc demanding emancipation from effete conventions, and in the centre of the nursery, at the exhibition stands a white tub with a real fountain playing in it: There the child can play at pirates, at navies, at mermaids, and at boat races till he grows weary. The whole nursery, in. fact, is fitted to please tho children of a country with a great sea history. The walls are all painted to represent the rolling waves, so that the child sits on an island "entirely surrounded by water," a model Victory .mounts the foaming billows, and a great lisli plunges through them. The tiles by the fireplace have enthralling pictures of animals and birds, lions and bears, liorses and dogs, robins and giraffes, so that the little man may sit on the hearthrug and droam of forest and jungle. Tho cushions have Wo colours; there is blue for bright days, apd gold and orange for the dully weather. The bedroom is decorated so that the child will think he is sleeping among the tree-tops. Over . his head is a wonderful night of stars, with the Milky Way across the ceiling. The electric light is a silver glistening moon, the night light, is a fair mushroom covered with tiny elves and fays. He sleeps in a great big blue egg. The Genii at Work. But of all the wonderful exhibits collected 'under the one roof at Olympia tho electric dinner table comes first The dining-table is a nest if mysteries. The guests sit at an oval tablo, which is gracefully illuminated by tiny lights concealed in the hearts of lilies and roses. When all are seated the hostess may say in an ordinary conversational tone: "I think wo aro ready now." . No servant is visible; the hostess docs not ring a bell or press a button; but mysteriously there 'appears before her a pilo of plates. Then the pile moves courteously round the table, leaving one with- every guest. Oysters appear in tho same quiet mysterious way, and s\i on through all the courses, tho plates being collected again as soon as tlioy are empty. As soon as tho guest, for example, removes, the ladle from tho soup tureen, the tray comes to a stand, and cannot proceed till the ladle is ■ Replaced. The circuit does not oven need to be regular. The fish, for example, may pass the gentlemen, and serve the ladies first. Tho wine will pass tho teetotaller and the invalid, but later there will - appear mineral or barley water. The explanation of the mechanism does not kill the interest. Tho remarks of the hostess indicating the progress of tho dinner pass into a microphone receiver . concealed' among

the ornamentation of a lamp on the ceiling. By means of electric wires it is carried into the room below, and there it is magnified so that the servant can hear it easily as if it were a gramaphono record. Ho then places the required articles on a tray, which rises straight up, and appears at tho head of the table, ami commences to make a circuit round a prepared groove. Bread suddenly appears without being asked for. And how does the dish pass tho gentlemen and stop at the ladies? This is!even more simple when the explanation is given. Concealed on the wall near the ceiling is a little convex lens, not more than an inch and a half in diameter. The lens is the total reflection prism of a periscopo, by means of which the servant in the room beneath can keep an eye 011 all that is happening at the table, and so can sot the mechanism in motion to meet a'ny npfcfl ' » Crowds arc flocking to see this exhibit, which seems a solving of the domestic problem for tho well-to-do.