The Thousand Lamps

The computer hall of a government research laboratory on a mesa in New Mexico, rows of grey cabinets on a raised floor of pale square tiles under long fluorescent tubes, in front a nearly square console one metre sixty high in dark grey-brown with a rounded top edge, three stacked fields crowded with tiny lamps and toggle switches, many lamps glowing warm white, in the lower third a pale rectangular meter insert above three black knobs, at the lower left a grid of round white push buttons and a few keys in red, green and blue, every surface plain and unmarked, a technician's hand in a white shirt sleeve turning a knob.