In the 1980's

CM was so thrilled with her newly learned skill to make perfect circles in the ground that she would make lots of different sizes of them, in different crop and tried even other elements. After having learned to master single circles, she started making combinations, first combinations of two, then three and four. She started to realize that there was a potential in this technique to even make complex patterns and symbols. But for that purpose she would need to be able to create more than just simple circles. Of course she already could make straight lines, but to make lines with neat edges and endings was much trickier than just making vague strokes.

At first she managed to make two straight walls and positioning them so close to each other that the ball could just barely fly between them. If the distance was too small the ball would bump from wall to wall causing unwanted effects. If the distance was too big, the track of bent stems wouldn't be wide enough and the edges wouldn't be neat. Also the ball might not stay on a straight course.

But she managed. The balls entrance to the "alley" made of the magnetic walls was messy and so was the exit, but she thought that for starters she could use the pathways only to connect circles; the circles in both ends would cover the untidy endings of the lines. She really wanted it to be neat!

So now she could at least make the circles be connected to each other with nice straight paths. She made some combinations with these elements, but before long she wanted more.

Rings! If she could make linear pathways, why not circular. All she needed was to create two cylindrical walls close to each other and let the ball run between them. After all that she had already learned, this turned out not to be so difficult.

So now she was making patterns with circles, rings and straight lines connecting them. And many nice patterns she made indeed!

The next step required something new. How to make a pathway have a sharp clean beginning and ending? CM thought that she would need to add two more straight walls in the ends of the alley, but how to make the ball go inside the alley so that the entrance would be sharp?

She decided to bother her mind with the exit side first. It was necessary to somehow suddenly STOP the ball from bending the crop right in the end of the electric alley. Putting just another positively charged wall in the end would just make the ball return back before it reached the end... but how about making it negative?! It would not only draw the ball towards it, but also drain the ball's positive charge thus making it cool down and... disable it from bending the crop!

So this she had to try. And after a few tries, voila! It worked. When the ball reached the negatively charged wall, it lost part of its charge! The result was a clean ending of a pathway!