COPPER! After about six weeks total in the field, I have arrived in the metal ages. This morning I drew a large lump of slag out of my furnace and broke it apart to reveal these 5 or 10 grams of elemental copper. They should be enough for my telegraph switch and half the battery to power it. It is a tremendous feeling to pass from one age of human history to another. The heavy little nuggets of metal feel more precious than gold in my hand; I can’t stop gazing at them, I’m almost worried they will evaporate. While the first smelters didn’t know it, the had the material to make electricity in their hands. One more metal, iron or zinc, and I will have a controllable voltage- leaping forward to the 19th century in hours.