“One of Chuck Hoberman’s best-known museum pieces, the original Hoberman Sphere was installed in 1992 as the central exhibit in the Liberty Science Center’s atrium. The sphere was re-installed in 2007 in the newly renovated museum’s entry hall. Suspended by cables, the 700-pound aluminum sphere expands and contracts smoothly and continuously. Throughout its long history, the sphere has become the icon for Liberty Science Center, logging millions of cycles”
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The first time I saw the Hoberman Speher was November of 1992, two months before the Center opened to the public. I felt giddy at its movement and it took me awhile to realize that it was on a ~20 minute cycle, which (in my PR role)I described to the press as a computerized dance. Now it hangs in the vast entry hall of the Center’s new wing, still amazing people of all ages and from all walks of life. Even if I am not within view, I know when it has reached the part of the cycle where it suddenly pops open, because I can hear the thrilled screams of schoolchildren reactying to the sudden and unexpected moevement. It really is one of the truly iconic objects in any science center I have ever seen.