I have an idea for a really big wireless aerial. I want to listen in to outer space, to find out what sort of programmes they have. I'm a bit fed up with Luxembourg and as for the Light Programme... Anyway, my aerial will be sort of dish shaped, and really really big. I'm trying to draw up some plans to send to the council. I'll have to get planning permission; this aerial is going to be big, really really big like I said so there's a good chance some little council oik will pedal past on his bike and spot it, and tell his boss. Does anyone know how to draw a parabola? At least I think that's what it's called. It's like a big curve; not part of a circle though, it's different to that somehow. I've been messing around with a pencil and a loop of string and two drawing pins but I can't seem to get it right. I think part of the problem is that I can't get one of the drawing pins far enough away. That one has to represent the stars, you see, so it has to be a long way off. I had it stuck in the banister outside my bedroom door but the landlady went mad. Another thing, looking ahead, does anyone know a cheap source of curved railway track, steel girders, big electric motors, and chicken wire?
Bernard Lovell