Immaculate Telegraphy

Here’s a composite of all the tools together, a sort of...

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:41:07 -0500

Here’s a composite of all the tools together, a sort of metal age electrician’s alphabet.

Some people have viewed this project through the lens of sustainability. While self-sufficiency and locally sourced material would certainly seem to be sustainable, my methods fail quite spectacularly in environmental analysis. For one, I used an estimated 20 kg of charcoal to produce perhaps 20 g of metal. Much of this was wasted in the learning curve, but it was used just the same. This is a fuel to metal ratio of 1000:1. The worst modern metal process I am aware of, the Pidgeon process operating in China to produce magnesium with coal, has a ratio of 25:1, 4000% more efficient than my process. Sourcing charcoal from forest fire trees uses carbon that would probably end up in the air anyway, but this resource would run out so quickly if used on any scale. Moreover, I had zero emissions control. While roasting my copper ores, I directly vented all the gases being produced. The noxious sulphur dioxide, chief precursor to acid rain, gagged me when I got too close. Moreover, I got sick twice after this phase of the process. At first I assumed this was from the sulphur, but after further reading, my symptoms more closely resembled mild arsenic poisoning. Arsenic is a heavy metal usually found in ores of copper that sublimates away during the roasting process. So I have to issue a “don’t try this at home” warning. The only way I can see this process being described as sustainable is that I was distracted from more effective activities of consumption for 6 weeks. But this is easily canceled out by the 3 round-trip cross-continental voyages taken to complete the project.
Copper production on the island of Cyprus probably ended because of complete, and permanent, deforestation to make charcoal. In other words, more primitive or Earthy processes are not necessarily more sustainable. My project is about the origin of technologies- the ability for them to emerge out of context- but not their ability to sustain themselves. A sustainable society is not really the most natural option; humans began as a nomads exhausting the resources of places and then moving on. Maybe people in the future will look back on us just as we can look back on our predecessors, and see the answer to a lasting society lying on the ground all around us, just waiting to be put together with the right information.

Here’s the last video from this session, showing the...

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 15:50:36 -0500

Here’s the last video from this session, showing the assembly of the telegraph. Step by step, I’ve shown how a person could have made an electronic technology without the aid of industry- and thus at any point in history. Of course, no one past modern times will ever need to do this, even in the event of complete social collapse; there will be so much metal and material lying around to repurpose. Human industry has had a significant impact on the landscape, and the boundary between natural and artificial origin would be an arbitrary distinction to future techno-scavengers. As I have said earlier, it also difficult to imagine someone in pre-modern times desiring this object, since it’s electronic effect is so subtle, and a group would need to adopt it together for it to become useful.

Really, my premise of creating a place outside history falls apart if it is subjected to much scrutiny. Mineral County Montana, where I executed the project, has plentiful metal ores. Most of the ores on the surface, however, have long been removed by people. I scavenged the piles left over from hard rock, pick axe and dynamite mines. Nowhere in this area could I find flint or sharp rocks needed to begin the project (200 miles away in Idaho’s craters of the moon was the closest) so I started the process making stone tools with non-local materials. This metal rich area is an unlikely site for a prehistoric internet because it was uninhabited. The Clark fork river valley barely had an Indian trail going through it in this area. It was tall, ancient trees and rocky cliffs, with little rainfall or game animals to hunt, probably beautiful but not hospitable.

Here’s a video of the successful smelting furnace in...

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 11:42:49 -0500

Here’s a video of the successful smelting furnace in action. This technology was unquestionably the biggest barrier in the process. Once I had a fire hot enough to smelt copper, I was able to make iron in a couple extra days. The tiny little pocket of fire is about focus, I think- focusing the energy of charcoal and air to reach a temperature not found ordinarily in nature- in fact, probably the hottest sustained spot anywhere up to the radius between me and an industrial plant, a temperature beyond the scale of anything domestic or wild, probably only found naturally in magma and lightning. Creating these yellow fires, a transformative circumstance that doesn’t exist ordinarily, gave humans a leverage: we could create materials that had different properties than the things lying around us. I would like to convey that this is a really, really, powerful feeling. It made me feel like I could do anything. Of course, in the end, I came down from this buzz somewhat, once I realized I spent 6 weeks developing a skill set that was useless outside of the game I set up for myself. There is no reason for me to continue honing my metal age metallurgy; the experiment has only been useful in offering perspective, for myself and hopefully others.

Here you can see the voltage generated when the switch is...

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:13:00 -0500

Here you can see the voltage generated when the switch is closed, outputing to a voltmeter. .36 volts isn’t much, but it proves the concept. I was getting .7 earlier, but it drops as the potato slices dry out. To get a more useful voltage I would simply need to rinse, lather, and repeat, so to speak. Smelt more copper, forge more iron, and make the pile taller. Of course, at some point I would come to a crucial understanding: one person cannot build an electronic communication network by themselves, because you need at least two people to communicate. I have a switch, but no one to receive a signal, no cooperation to build a wire network to connect them, no one to learn a system of signals with. Even if one paleolithic person was bestowed with the knowledge I gathered over the past months, they would need to convince a group to participate. I suspect this is as great a barrier as anything. Even Morse’s telegraph in 1850 was mocked in congress as a conjuring trick.

I’ll be posting the video of the second session’s activities sometime this week, as well as some more documentation and musings. I’ll be thinking of what to do with my alternate industrial legacy, hopefully I can show it somehow. Thanks to everyone who followed and offered support along the way. Thanks especially to Elizabeth Wanda Filardi for coming out on the first session, creating all the video and media and calming down my inner caveman. Big thanks to Eyebeam for supporting the project through their honorary residency, and the Johnson Creek Ranch for hosting it and feeding me good, non-paleolithic food.

…and here it is. The Immaculate Telegraph! This crude...

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:55:37 -0500

…and here it is. The Immaculate Telegraph! This crude little beast is a powered electrical momentary switch, or telegraph key. It was built with no modern tools or materials, effectively proving the premise I believed all along: that electric communication could have been built at any point in history- if the information, desire, and free time to build it was available. I’m terribly proud of this thing. As I flew back to New York, I felt that I was carrying a miraculous object, an electrical object unlike anything else in the world, because the entire lineage of tools that led to it is preserved and recorded. Of course, as I looked through the massive heat ripples of the idling jet engine exhaust, I saw the smallness of my little charcoal furnace, and was truly amazed again at the energy scale of our society. So many engines, so much utilized power roaring smoothly and continuously.

Here are the discs that form the voltaic pile, the most simple...

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:13:57 -0500

Here are the discs that form the voltaic pile, the most simple electric battery. One of the iron discs is not pictured, as is it set into the clay cup that will hold the pile. The copper could be pounded flat while cold with a stone, while the iron needed to be orange hot to pound. I dropped the bits into the furnace-operating in it’s third role as a forge- and then set them on an anvil stone and pounded them with a rock like a blacksmith. Alternating iron, potato, copper, gives a voltage that increases with each stack. Finishing these iron bits gives me the last material I need to create a working, powered telegraph key…

My mom grew this potato in her garden. It will be the...

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:28:29 -0500

My mom grew this potato in her garden. It will be the electrolyte between the copper and iron in the battery. Contrary to the popular misconception, potato and lemon batteries are not powered by the vegetables; the dissimilar metals used for the electrodes contain the potential difference, and the potato acts as a medium.

sure enough, I got this iron bloom yesterday evening. A bloomery...

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:20:24 -0500

sure enough, I got this iron bloom yesterday evening. A bloomery furnace doesn’t actually melt the iron, so it must be repeatedly reheated and beaten to remove impurities. That’s what I’m working on today.

I tried to take the day off after getting copper, but I was too...

Wed, 04 Nov 2009 15:09:00 -0500

I tried to take the day off after getting copper, but I was too excited, and nothing seemed more fun than this. So I ran up Iron Mountain (my furnace is at the base of it) and grabbed these rusty looking rocks from the collapsed shaft of a mine. A bloomery furnace, to make wrought iron, is around the same temperature as a copper smelting furnace. With a few discs of iron, I’ll have electricity.

COPPER! After about six weeks total in the field, I have arrived...

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 12:44:41 -0500

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.

No copper! The gracious Ball family, my hosts for the project,...

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 20:08:38 -0500

No copper! The gracious Ball family, my hosts for the project, took turns on the bellows for a bit more than an hour. I pulled this lump from the furnace, still hot, a couple of hours after we ran it. It looked promising, but when I cracked it apart, it was only glassy slag, a purple like the original mineral. It stank powerfully like sulphur while it was still hot.

There is good news, however. Assuming that this ore is really is chalcocite, the fact that it vitrified means we achieved at least 1130 C, which means the furnace is hot enough for the reduction and fusing of copper oxide. The problem, I imagine, is that the first stage roasting was far from complete. Oxygen will leave elemental copper in favor of the carbon of charcoal- sulphur, however, will hang onto the copper. To try again, I can roast what I have left more thoroughly. Also, I may have found small bits of malachite, which I believe is easier to smelt from, by another mine. Not vanquished yet!

Chalcocite after open air roasting. I woke up yesterday with an...

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 15:27:30 -0500

Chalcocite after open air roasting. I woke up yesterday with an alcohol-free hangover, which I think was the result of the sulphur fumes this produced. This ore is now ready to go, so today is the day. I hope to have the much coveted lump of copper tomorrow morning.

fairly pure chalcocite, I think

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 15:24:10 -0500

fairly pure chalcocite, I think

Second attempt pushes much more air. There are only two wood...

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:05:04 -0400

Second attempt pushes much more air. There are only two wood ribs, giving it a shape like the classic European fireplace bellows. These are too difficult to operate both of them by myself. Anybody in western Montana and feel like putting on a suit to pump some bellows?

Sewn bellows first attempt. My fingers are sore from sewing with...

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 16:00:58 -0400

Sewn bellows first attempt. My fingers are sore from sewing with an antler and shards of flint. This one doesn’t work great. This technology is a crucial gateway; without it, my charcoal fire will never reach the 1100 C that it needs to reduce and fuse the copper. Ribs of bent wood give the bag a crude shape as it inflates, and a femur is the outlet. A foldable flap is open and closed by the operator’s hand, functioning as the intake valve.

The fire is visible through this tuyere, or air intake. The...

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:51:24 -0400

The fire is visible through this tuyere, or air intake. The chimney creates a natural draft that pulls air through these holes, making the fire hot enough for roasting without any bellows- but not yet hot enough for smelting.

The clay furnace, with a mortared stone chimney. The lid is open...

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 15:48:29 -0400

The clay furnace, with a mortared stone chimney. The lid is open and what is hopefully chalcocite ore, Cu2S, is roasting on a rock in the center. This roasting in open air will replace the sulphur with oxygen, leaving cuprite, Cu2O, which can be reduced to pure copper in a yellow hot charcoal fire. The ore changes from vibrant purple to dull brown, and stinks pungently like sulphur dioxide- so I can at least be sure I’m working with a sulphur compound

Apologies for the long delay in getting a post out, I am...

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 12:33:02 -0400

Apologies for the long delay in getting a post out, I am ironically hobbled by my computer, which has erased all of it’s applications and will not accept a new operating system. But enough about slightly out-of-date technology, and on to severely out-of-date technology.

I have constructed a new furnace into a hillside, with a very small clay chamber and a chimney. The first thing I’ve learned might seem obvious: one cannot build a chimney out of wood. It went up in flames pretty promptly, you can see the section that is burned out in this photograph. Anyway, I’ve replaced it with mortared stones, and the furnace has a great natural draft. The hot air from the fire rises, creating a low pressure at the base, which atmospheric air rushes in to fill- passing through the coals and combusting, providing heat to the chimney! It’s like an engine really. But forced air is necessary to get to 1100 C, and my old bellows system won’t work in the crumbly hillside. I’m trying to sew the skins into something respectable today, otherwise I’m going to need a crew to blow through reeds in shifts. I based the dimensions on a furnace in the Andes powered by breath- it’s just barely possible. Needless to say, I’m hoping for bellows.

I'm back

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 11:37:00 -0400

I’ve arrived in Mineral County once again, armed with some new knowledge and the most precious commodity: time, two weeks of it. Construction of a new smelting furnace starts right away, and hopefully before long I’ll have shiny lumps of metal in my hand. A telegraph is a short hop from there, a conceptual leap more than a technical one. Liz was unable to join me this time, so I apologize that the video will be sparser and less interesting for sure, but I’ll try to keep you posted as I go. Montana is far bleaker now, leaves are off the trees and frost is on the ground. The sun is slow to rise over the mountains in the morning, and has yet to peek through the low clouds and fog. But the promise of a white hot modern fire, and the digital clicking of information set free from accident and inheritance are keeping me warm.

The results of a five hour firing loaded with roasted...

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 23:51:07 -0400

The results of a five hour firing loaded with roasted chalcopyrite ore. Nothing. For now, we remain stuck in the neolithic: able to process wood, stone, plant fiber and leather, start and maintain charcoal fire, locate metal ores, but unable to separate them from their compounds. Not hot enough? Not reducing enough? For this first session, I’ve fallen short of the miraculous, but I’ll be back to the furnace in October. I’m sure persistence is what ensured that these things happened in the first place.