Genre:

Serial, Proceedings, Spoof

Subjects:

Light, Astronomy, Mathematics, Societies, Physics

    A parody of the British Association for the Advancement of Science proceedings, it opens with a report on a paper by Dr Spectrum on the 'Presence of Prismatic Colours in Potatoes'. This discusses the presentation of 'prismatic colours' to the eye and the appearance of purple rays on the skin around the eyelid when the author was hit in the eye by a potato. Attributes this effect to a rainbow imparting some of its colour to the potato plant. Reports that Mr C Sharpe told the association that the sudden cracking of glass in a pair of spectacles testifies to 'the tangibility and force in the impact of the visual ray'. Announces that Mr Alfred Bunn read 'the report of the Committee for the Reduction of Stars on a Method of Hypothetical Representation, as applied to Impossible Results, by Professor Muddlewitz'. The report is short and full of confusing mathematical and physical terms. The association's president explains the report in 'a more familiar way' and agrees that Muddlewitz's method only applies to 'impossible results'.