Gerardus Mercator’s Globe

Origins
Gerardus Mercator was a cartographer who created a new world map, with the continents shown flat on a map without including the way the curvature of the earth affects the shape of the landmasses. He was the first to call a group of maps an atlas.

Effects
When touched, the wooden panels slide apart and an area the size of eight feet becomes enveloped in the globe. It projects a three dimensional view of the world from space, which can be turned and rotated when the user moves their hands in a similar fashion. It appears as a predecessor to modern day holograms, which was used as a basis for the Hugo-1 System projection.