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First Appeared In: The Perpetual Motion Affair

Invented by: Edward Blackthorn?

Owned by: Unknown

Availability: Unique

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This device was the source of Professor Edward Blackthorn's rise to power and fame within the Royal Society, although not through the celebration of its invention, but through his application of its powers to his own nefarious end. Whether Blackthorn invented it himself or whether he came into the possession of it by other means is unknown, certainly it would reveal a high level of genius marred by lack of moral fibre and a certain amount of laziness if he was capable of its invention. The device resembles a Camera Obscura, in being a concave mirror resting upon a plinth which houses most of the workings, although the precise manner of its functioning has not been uncovered. It is believed that, in much the same way that the sympathetic vibrations of a tuning fork can be received by a guitar string or a tuning fork, the action of light upon a reflective surface, sets up sympathetic vibrations within the matter of the concave mirror of the device allowing it to receive images from any mirrored surface. By use of polished lenses and solar energy it is possible to reverse the transmission and with enough power, to broadcast a photonic beam through a receiving mirror, which can burn any combustable material within the path of the beam. It has also been suggested that the device is capable of translocating items, although this is unproven. The device is targetted by means of inputting co-ordinates in a panel on its side. Whilst the range is not known, it funcations more than capably within the confines of London and is believed to have reached as far as the Mary Celeste, resulting in the abduction of its crew and Professor Aubrey Fleming, by persons unknown.

Blackthorn used the device to his own ends to view plans of rivals and juniors within the Royal Society so that he could plagiarise their ideas and publish them first for the fame and acclaim. He ruined many a career, whilst building his own reputation through this means, including the theft of the plans for the first flushing toilet by Professor Thomas Crapper. Once he was arrested for his involvement in the Vampiric Mill scandal, Blackthorn's scrying device went missing, although it turned up later in the aformentioned abduction of Professor Fleming and his Birdsong Translator. It has not been seen since.