Sparks, Waves and Wizards: Communications at Sea

Sparks, Waves and Wizards: Communications at Sea is an interactive, one-of-a-kind Bay Area exhibition that tracks the colorful history of maritime communication, from hand-held semaphore to orbiting satellite. The first new permanent addition to the Maritime Museum since 1992, Sparks is stationed on the ship-shaped Museum's top floor -- a unique vantage point which offers stunning bridge-to-bridge views of San Francisco Bay. There, for the first time in San Francisco history, the general public can see, hear and chart the movements of boats at work on the Bay with the aid of a computerized Coast Guard map of Bay vessel traffic. The exhibit also features a walk-in, authentic recreation of a 1943 Victory ship radio room (on the Museum's second floor) which contains a working radio operator's station.

We invite you to "visit virtually" via the Quicktime presentation below. The "VR" may take some time to download (it's about a 450K file), but then you will be able to explore a 360-degree view of the exhibit.

You will need a QuickTime Player plug-in for your web browser, if you don't already have one (it's free to download, and available at the link above).

Instructions: Imagine you are standing in the middle of a room, and can turn around to survey the room's contents. You can look in either direction, and zoom in to examine something interesting. Many of the displays and panels in this VR are linked to web pages that will pop up when clicked.

To "turn around" with your mouse, start *slowly* sliding the cursor over the image in the direction you wish to turn, then click-and-hold-down the left mouse button. To turn with the keyboard arrow keys, click once in the image to make sure it is selected, then hold down an arrow key to move in the arrow's direction.

To zoom in, use the "shift" key. To zoom out, use the "control" key. The keys may be slightly different for Macintosh users and non-standard keyboards -- try the keys on the lower left corner of your keyboard.

To find the web page links, zoom in a bit, then move slowly through the exhibit. Watch for the cursor to change (into a finger pushing a button), then click. A web page will load. Scroll down the page to see the panel's text and images. To return to the VR, use your browser's "back" button.