The Ivory Arm

A dentist's surgery in a London suburb on an overcast summer afternoon, soft light through white net curtains, beside an empty dental chair of chrome and dark green leather a tall black wall plate with a curved top, from an ivory streamlined bracket a two-jointed ivory scissor arm with a black spring reaching far out to a box-shaped ivory tube head with a short black cone in a yoke, lower on the plate a rounded ivory control housing with vent slots, two chrome-ringed dials, plain with bare pointers, a glowing red lamp and a large round switch knob, black cables in loops, a hand in a white sleeve turning the tube head.