Originally Posted by lemon

Sherman's goofy grin made a reappearance on his crinkly old face as one of the younger students, a miss Ella Bishop.. hey, hadn't Alice mentioned her before?.. answered his question. "Brilliant, Miss Bishop, absolutely brilliant!" He beamed at the girl, and then repeated what she had said for those who couldn't hear. "Miss Bishop is correct. This is a Bell Jar, a very rare piece of laboratory equipment that speeds up your aging." He grinned at her once more and then turned back to the other students. "Does anyone have information to add to Miss Bishop's description of the jar and its capabilities?"


This time, the elderly man was so impressed that he clapped his hands in amusement and started to bounce in his wheelchair. "Perfect, Mister Vanderbilt! Wonderful!" Yes.. okay.. he was becoming a bit giddy. He toned his excitement down.. just a tad.. he didn't want to seem to be mad, now did he? No, Mr. Clark was not going bonkers, he wasn't. "The cycle of life and death! Mister Vanderbilt is right on target, everyone." He nudged forward the jar a bit more with his wheelchair.

"The cycle that the jar demonstrates is called the time cycle, or, as Mister Vanderbilt said, the cycle of life and death." He smiled once more at the boy. "When an object is placed inside the jar, it rapidly goes through this cycle. This means that, hypothetically, if one of you were to stick your head inside of the jar, it would turn into the head of an adult. Then it would become all wrinkly, like mine, and then it would wither and die." This is why you do not stick your head in the jar, children. "Afterwards, your head would start again as an infant's. Isn't that amazing?" He gazed at the children, a glint of wild excitement in his eyes.

But, then he added hastily, "BUT. Do not put your head in the jar, children, please." Beam.

"Now," Sherman began to wheel around again, in a pacing manner. "This jar had slight significance in the Battle of the Department of Mysteries in good old, '96, approximately 83 years back. Does anyone care to explain what role the Bell Jar played in this particular battle?" They should know, shouldn't they? After all, they were able to answer the first question, which was much harder, in his opinion.