A piece of Suction Fiction
Imagine an enormous bubble blown on the side of a skyscraper building, exactly half-spheric and, of all possible things, a huge neon sign attached to it. That will be close to the way it was seen by the citizens on the opening day.
The building had been covered in construction sheets for the preceding two or three months, making the 'bubble' the greatest object of attention for the press as it was freed from its dusty grey covers, reminding Venus' birth from the shell (as the reporters would tell).
The nature of the weird structure was nothing else than suction: the difference of pressure in- and outside of the half-sphere. The owner of the building, some George Cuppster, had the plexiglass dome customly produced at a factory not far from the city and secretly delivered to the construction site. Then, he explained, the corresponding part of the building's surface had to be polished and smoothened to make sure no air could enter between it and the dome. The thing rested on the supports until the special pump had removed enough air from inside, allowing the giant suction-sup stay as it was.
"That sounds amazing, Mr. Cuppster, but what can ensure the safety of the 'bubble'?" asked a reporter.
"Well, there was an example in history: twelve horses tried to pull apart the halfs of a copper sphere with low air pressure in it and failed. It was in the eighteenth century, if I'm not mistaking. The force needed to open the so-called suction cup increases with its volume. So, do you still find it likely that my 'bubble' will be blown away?"
Upon that, the public mind was calmed and satisfied. To make his words sound even more confident, Mr. Cuppster parked his best limousine right under the hanging cup and spent the whole next day giving autographs and interviews from it.
----
The billionaire was awakened in the middle of the night.
"A catastrophe! Sir, your limousine..."
"It was stolen? How?"
"No, the BUBBLE..."
"WHAT?!?"
It turned out that the barometer showed extreme drop of pressure that night, a fine sign of the approaching storm. Though, the strong wind had not yet started to blow when the 'bubble'-titled object fell from its place due to the lack of outer pressure.
The event was followed by numerous MEMEs, posts, feuilletons and eager discussion. It was only the devastating storm itself that switched the public attention from the great suction cup (to a certain degree, of course). As George Cuppster's building stood rather far from the bay, its windows and lighting stayed intact. The only piece of illumination that stopped operating was the big neon sign reading "CUPPSTER" which fell together with the giant plexiglass bubble, tearing its wires and crashing into its owner's favourite limousine.
----
Suction cup hooks work, but not with exessive self-confidence and vainty hanged to them.
That's the moral of my story.