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he magazine of radical science and peoples' technoloav
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Shal UNDERCURRENTS Number 6 ~ a r c h / A p r i l1974 Digging for victory. ....... 3 Dinorwic.. ............... 4 BRAD.. ................. - 5 Acoustic Ecology. ........ .6 EDDIE CURRENTS ....... .7 Cuba. ................... .,8 Letters. ................. -9 Alternative Electronics.. 10 Heat Pumps.. .13 Organic Living. .I8 Windmills.. .............. 20 Guide to AT .............. 23 Petrol Stinks.. ........... -25 It's a Gas .26 Peoples' water Power.. .31 35 What's Left of AT.. Sense of Tumour. ......... 39 An AgitKrop Manifesto.. .40 Science Fiction.. ......... .41 Dark Side of the Mind*. ... -43 45 Secret Life of Plants. Shelter ................... 47 Energy Scrapbook.. ...... - 4 9 Everbeenadne. ........... .5 1
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SUBSCRIPTIONS £2.0 for six issues by surface mail anywhere. Air Mail r a t e s on request. Single copies and back issues, 35p including f postage. To avoid being ripped off, we have decided to copyright (6) articles in UNDERCURRENTS from now on. But we will give permission freely to nonprofit groups who wish to reproduce material , without charge, provided they give credit to UNDERCURRENTS.
I t is UNDERCURRENTS policy not to c a r r y display advertising, but we do include small ads a s a service to readers. Small Ads cost l p per word, up to a maximum of 150 words (bigger ads by arrangement), and must be pre-paid. RADICAL SCIENCE JOURNAL
, Number 1: January '74. The aim of the journal i s to provide a forum for serious and extended analyses of the history, philosophy, ideology and current practice of the sciences, from a radical perspective. The journal i s edited by a collec'tive. The journal will appear three times a year.
1 Contents of this issue: -
Jack Stauder The relevance of Functionalist Anthropology to Colonialism and Imperialism.
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Mike Hales - Management Science and the "Second Industrial Revolution. ' I David Dickson - Techology and the Social Construction of Reality. Reviews by: Brian Easlea, Modes of Thought by R Horton and Finnegan. David Albury, Scientific Knowledge and its Social Problems by J R Ravetz. Contents of future issues include: Robert Young - The Ideology of Nature an Interpretation of Lysenkoism.
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Read the new FREE EARTH WALDEN TWO, a novel by B S Skinner (Macmillan paper- magazine. The contents a r e now divided into 3 main back) i s a book outlining his sections: ideas on a behavioural/ INFORMATION ON experimental-based communALTERNATIVES including ity. Twin Oaks (Louisa, Virginia 23093, USA) is a six- articles, practical know-how, year-old community, based on social change, reviews and news, etc Walden Two lines, that INNER/OUTER SPACE a publishes literature on their section devoted to the Occult, history. Between them they Astral Projection, ESP, represent the theory and philosophics. Star People.. practice of the idea. Also the beginning of We would like to know of any ANDROGYNE which i s an people who a r e interested in embryonic movement for forming a similar community people who feel androgyne. in this country. (If there CLASSIFIED SECTION includalready is one, what is your ing useful contacts all over the address ?) If there a r e such UK a s well a s abroad, plus people, we shall be delighted FREELY INSERTED personal to organise a weekend meeting messages. to exchange ideas, discuss We a r e a non-profit publicpossibilities, etc Several ation and we barely cover our points though: the basic philtotal expenses. If you want a osophy i s scientific/rational, 'opy, you can either send 14p in this country it seems + 4p postage for the current likely that a high proportion issue, or, preferably, of outside work would be subscribe. Send 50p for 3 necessary, i. e. conventional issues, o r  £for 6. jobs for half the labour force which covers one year at any one time - if anything (bi-monthly printing), to: along the above lines i s to be 103 South Street, Lancing, established, with property iussex. prices a s they are, unfortunately capital will be needed a s well a s people.
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Sorry if this all sounds a bit fierce, but if anything i s to start, the initial people will have to be fairly efficient/ organisation-minded. So if you a r e interested, please write to us. We will allow two weeks from the publication of this information before assessing interest and replying. (S. a . e. or re-use sticker would be appreciated). John and Sally, Chance Two, Dicks Lane Wharf, Rowington Green, Warwicks
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Gary Werskey - Radical Scientists: The Uses of History. Articles on: Abortion, Automation Operations Research. Reviews of books by: J Habermas, W Leiss, R Jay, B Easlea, T Schroyer, T Roszak. Single copies 30p per issue. Annual subscriptions (for three issues):  1 post paid for individuals, £ post paid for libraries. Air mail subscripitions on application. Page 2
Read "In the Making", a directory of proposed productive projects, 1974 edition, from 71 Thirlwell Road, Sheffield 8. (50p sub. or 15p each incl. post).
1 1 .
It doesn't do mu&
II
but at leastit does
aqufetly
rised the power supply for a onestor radio designed by George rs and Victor Papanek for remo istr~ctsin India. It had the distinctive tyle of good old AT; a home-brewed miracle i f scrap materials bringing pow (or information) t o the people. In this case, an old tin can and some bits o f wire were woven into a thermo-couple. Any available fuel (dried cow dung etc) was burned inside the tin to heat the junctions just inside, thus producing a voltage. Any dissimilar metals welded or twisted together in an A:B:A sandwich should produce a voltage when one A:B junction is hotter then the other. (Most of our beer cans are now thoughtfully made with a steel body and an aluminium top . . .), The idea is nice and simple, but in practice it mav be difficult to get working effectiv
Alternative Electron! LEMON BATTERY
in the order of tens of microvolts/degree
I
OVED
Peter Harper In Undercurrents No 3, Bjorn Eriksson and I, with a lot o f help from our friends, compiled a 'guide to sources and contacts' in alternative technology. I t served its purpose, but dated quickly, and a new one is long overdue. The trouble is that so much has happened since the paleolithic days o f 1972 that if we tried to cover everything in the same depth as we did then, we'd fill u p a whole issue and more. The only alternative is to break the material up and print it bit by bit-presumably in the usual categories: 'food', 'shelter', and so on. And that is what we're going to do. BUT there's one snag: it'll take a long time to get round to some subjects that happen to come low on the list. So this first instalment will be a general selection over the whole field so that people can get started. Before I start I should say that I don't really 'know' what alternative technology 'is', so my selection is pretty arbitrary. The last list covered what Bjorn and I happened t o be interested in at the time, with odd suggestions from other people wanting a plug for their own favourites. I continue this venerable pattern. Don't think I've read all the books because I haven't. Neither have I met all the people. I've tried to pick people and publications through which (I estimate) anyone can most quickly get to grips with the 'subject' as 1 see it. I have taken a fairly 'traditional' approach to the scope o f alternative technology. I don't know whether this is good or bad. Basically it's just me again. There are many things conspicuously absent that might be in there i f I had taken a somewhat different interpretation. To name but n of them: scrap technology (both in heavy industry and among hippy coprophiles), government uublications. extension services. university research (with a few exceptions) DIY facilities and manuals, workshop textbooks, tool suppliers, the Science Museum, community action and people's services, land trusts, moiotov cocktail factories, the commune movement, women's garages, honest farmers, builders, water diviners. technicians of the sacred. . . Maybe
some of these will have their hour in future instalments. Those who are new to all this might find i t difficult to know where to start. I've tried to organise the material in each section into a 'basic' part which would probably be best t o start on, and an 'additional' part if you get bored with the first lot. Within each part I've tried to arrange the items In order not necessarily o f quality (a hairy thing to do anyway), but o f accessibility and o f relevance to the centre-of-concern of what I'm calling 'traditional' AT, whatever that may be other than a feeling in the water. For foreign or otherwise difficult-to-get material, I've tried to indicate where it can most easily be obtained, usually by means of Cryptic Letters, to which the key follows: FB = Freak Bookshops: indicates that the item can be found rather generally in movement bookshops, a list of which can be obtained on request from Rising Free. SB = Straight Bookshops: overground publisher and distributor, so item might be found in WH Smiths etc or sometimes in more trendy or specialised booksellers. BL = 'Books'of Leeds, 84 Woodhouse Lane, Leeds, Yorks (tel Leeds 42483): getting a distribution network together; stock a lot of American material; often very expensive. CO = Compendium Books, 240 Camden High Street, London NW1 (tel 01-485 8944); split into two parts, one Political, one Freak\; p.eni\ 01 loreign stull wnich 15 otnei wise iiu;ce\~.h e ; w de range. Rf Ri.itia / t v t . 197 Kin* Crab, Road. London ~ 2 1 tel , 01 -837 0182 very good on radical magazines, booklets, genera! ephemera and pleasantly scruffy reprints of Great Works etc.
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BIBLIOGRAPHIES BASIC Any one of these should be enough to get you started. For the relevant addresses see below. 'Alternative Technology: A guide to sources and contacts' in Undercurrents No 3 AutumnIWinter (1972). Extensive but rather out o f date; partly annotated;
unwieldy format; covers most special areas: with theoretical introduction Copies still avaisaole from Peter Harper, W Lexham Gardens, London W8. Designing for Survivalt in Architectural Design July 1972, edited by Colin Moorcraft; classified but unannotated bibliography. Survival Scrapbook series, particularly nos 1 (Shelter), 2 (Food) and 5 (energy) have excellent and partially annotated bibliographies on the topic covered. (FBI Alternative Sources o f Energy issue no 9; (Feb 1973), a complete issue on sources, periodicals, groups; elaborately classified, some annotations; naturally it's strongest on energy, but has plenty of material on other topics also. (BL) The Last Whole Earth Catalog (Penguin, 1972) contains an enormous amount of useful information about sources, notwithstanding ideological shortcomings, (SB, FBI PERIODICALS BASIC Undercurrents, 'the magazine o f radical science and people's technology', 275 Finchley Road, London NW3; Ă‚ÂŁ for six issues wherever you are, bimonthly. Essential (of course, what else could 1 say?) politically all over the place, but it's got soul (You're fired'-Ed) (RF, CO, BL, FB, %me SB) ti11
'In the Makinq' a directory of pfliiposed projects in self-management technology, and pcoplc who start or to work in them';71 Road, Shefficld S8 9TF. Yorks;'$0p a year for two full directories and supplements, or 15p for annual issues. A s is running guide to projects and people looking for projects, i t is absolutely indispensable;also contains short articles and lcttcrs etc. No 2 is availahlc now. (BL, FB) ~~
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From the USA the most important iournals are: Alternative Sources o f Energy, Rou te 1, Box 36B, Minong, W1 54859, USA; 5 dollars a year, bimonthly. Very good, and getting bigger & better issue by issue; includes articles, reports, reviews, letters, '
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events etc; and journal of the New Alchemists, New Alchemy Institute (East), PO Box 432, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA; normally obtainable via associate membership o f the institute (25 dollars) but 10 dollars should buy a few issues' worth. A fine mixture of whimsy, reports o f activity on the New Alchemy farm, freaky graphics, and straight (original) scientific papers (eg 'Studies of the ecology of the Characid fish Brycon guatamalensis in the Rio Tirimbina, Heredia Province, Costa Rica, with special reference to i t s cultivation as a food fish': but that's only a loss leader). We are trying to organise bulk exchange between Undercurrents and these two journals so they can be easily obtained in Britain, but at the moment they must be obtained from the USA.
Science for People, BSSRS, 9 Poland Street. London W1: bimonthly. . . £ a year. Radical orientation, often has sympathetic articles on AT. Radical Science journal, 9 Polan London W1; 3 times a year, £1lust started; heavy 'socialist1Marxist' articles of a theoretical kind. Pretensions t o academic quality. Almost human. New Scientist, 128 Long Acre, London WC2, weekly, £9.7 a year, sing1 1 8 ~Very . good indeed for keepi date on the straight science worl of social comment and occasional material directly relevant to AT. (")
technology,
etc of autono
servicing. Have designed several 'ecw houses'and have a grant to build one ORGANISATIONS Good on energy Attached to the gro The best guide to these is undoubtedly are Robert and Brenda Vale (Mr and In the Making It is only fair to say that Autonomous Housing) 'The Horse and many of the activities being pursued by Gate', Witcham Toll, Sutton, Ely, Cam these groups can be severely disrupted by tel Sutton 723, currently converting an Mother Earth News, PO Box 70, too many enquiries and visitors, so be old pub; and Phil Stcadman, 83 Norwic Hendersonville, NC 28739, USA, bisensitive, and don't be surprised i f you Street,Cambridge; tel Cambridge 620 monthly, 8 dollars a year outside the get told to piss off, especially if you're who has recently returned from c USA, single copies $1.40; and i t s the BBC or News of the World ing a survey of AT and related ac sibling; (BL CO FB) in the USA. ~ifestyle!(ugh?) PO Box 2300, BASIC Society for Environmental Improvem Hendersonville, NC 28739, USA, same Undercurrents Limited (used to be National Centre for AlternativeTe rates, are both extremely useful for Partnership) nonprofit company, logy, Llwyngwern, Machynileth, M practical things and sheer information, democratically run and limited by gomeryshire, Wales; correspondent although they lay on the homespun Guarantee. Basically the people who PO Box 7 1 , Godalming, Su produce Undercurrents under the philosophy a bit thick sometimes. 480. The site is a spectacular abandoned (BL CO FB) benign guidance of Godfrey and Sally slate quarry; backed by a mysterious Architectural Design 26 BloomsBoyle. Meetings are held every Wednesbenefactor, and orchestrated by Stev bury Way, London, WC1; monthly, day evening , lei 01-794 2750, to Boulter. Good on methane, a £6.4 a year, C4.30 for students; £9.4 discuss content, address envelopes, get propulsion; site available to a & £6.0 overseas. Has an excellent track drunk etc. Anybody is welcome, ing to test out hardware. 0 record of articles and columns on AT, except the Special Branch, who should ATourists in June. ring first. mixed up with the flotsam and jetset of Low Impact Technology Ltd; Catesby, the latest architectural gimmickry. Street Farmers: Street Farm House, Molesworth Street, Wadebridge, Cornw (Subscriptions only, or single copies cash Thames Polytechnic Playing Fields, tel Wadebridge 2996. Markets AT tools with order). Kidbrooke Lane, London SE9, tel with consultancy service by the redouta ADDITIONAL 01-850 8333. Green anarchists, do Andy 'natural, endless, free' MacKillop, The following often contain articles about urban guerilla architecture that almost Poster catalogue 15p. AT or related matters. works, and are very funny. Built the Rational Technology Unit, Architectural Peace Mtw, 5 Caledonian Road, London (first?) ecohouse and now turning their Association, 34 Bedford Square, London N1, weekly, £ a year, special 7 week attention to the conversion of ordinary WC1 tel 636 0974. A fine team, Gerry sub for'-90p,or 7p a single issue; running suburban houses. Foley, George Kasabov and their cronies, an exc'ellfent series of little pamphlets; BRAD (Biotechnic Research and writing and experimenting. Good on the lat2st"windworkers manual' is more Development): c/o 8 Lambert Street, urban AT. A lot of things,happening practicslthan anything we've done in London N1, tel 01-607 61 37. An here, and a number of useful bibliographtindedrrenrs. (FB) active community on the point o f comies on various specific topics (wind, heat ~esurg~rtce, 275 Kings Road, Kingston, pleting a large-scale semi-autonomous pumps etc). Surrey;'Bmonthly, £15 a year. 'journal house in the Welsh border country. See K i t 'I've sold my Lancia' Pedier: 119 of the fourth world' and organ of green Undercurrents No 2 'Blueprint for a Park Hill, Clapham, London SW4; tel decentralism. (FB) Soft Technology Research Community' 01-622 6713. One-man research team Towards Survival, 79 Sutton Avenue, Should be very good at building by now. working on cheap methods for autonEastern Green, Coventry CV 5 7ER; Well heeled. omous housing. £1.8 a year. ' A monthly journal of Rad-Tech in Pact: 71 Thirlwell Road, University o f Strathclyde Dept o f survival policies, economics, population, Sheffield ss 9TF; t e ~Sheffield 57945. Architecture & Building Science, see undercurrents 3 c ~ a d i c a l environment, food, sustainable technoIogies, politics, resources'. Good series of ~ ~ ~ h workers' ~ ~ l ~ ~in an i ~ t George ~ : St. Glasgow. Much interest and all sorts of very articles on eco-nomics i n the 'nice' tradiurban community'. Among other promising research. Designs for some tion of socialism. things, working towards radical technot-loo-freaky eco-houscs in the Orknology products and processes suitable The Ecologist, Catcsby, Molesworth ncys; computer programs for calculating Street, Wadebridge, Cornwall; £ a year, for an eventual worker-controlled wind-generator and solar collector outmonthly. Frequent articles on technical factory. Produce In the Making. alternatives among the cries o f Doom. Cambridge University: Technical Research puts under various conditions. Tame physicist. Imaginative put down to earth. 1 ~ ~ v i r ' o n m v n438 i N Skinker Boulevard, Division, Department o f Architecture, Page 24
whenever sunlight energy is available. Photochemical smog i s a choking irritant that attacks mucous membranes - t h e eyes, mouth, the throat and lungs of its victims, lowering resistance to respiratory diseases.
inks!
Carbon monoxide substitutes for oxyhaemoglobin and forms carbonyl haemoglohin in the blood stream, causing oxygen starvation and eventually brain damage.
PETROL ACCOUNTS for over 60% of atmospheric pollution. Its manufacture in vast quantities i s a misuse of oil-resources. What is petrol? Petrol is a mixture of hyd (compounds containing c a r
Sulphur oxides a r e washed out of the air by rain a s corrosive sulphuric acid, and a r e poisonous to inhale. Particulates lodge in lung-tissue, and a r e proved to be carcinogenic. (Cancerous). City street litter in USA contains 1%lead metal by weight more than some lead ores. Lead is a cumulative poison of the central nervous system, and is directly implicated in the high incidence of mental illness among city children. USA legislation. (There is no equivalent UK legislation, and British roads a r e the world's most crowded.) Stimulated by photochemical smog problems of the west coast cities, the Federal Clean Air Act was amended in 1970 to set in advance increasingly stringent levels for permitted exhaust pollution. Table 2 shows the Californian standards for 1974 and 1975. together with the current best levels of emission for an average V8 engine running on petrol and on propane. and indicates that vropane is far and away the cleanest fuel available. Even this is not the whole story, for some hydrocarbons a r e more dangerous in the atmosphere than others, although USA legislation lumps them all together. Those resulting from petrol use a r e considerably more reactive than those resulting from propane use, s o they form more smog.
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also present. What happens when it is burnt? Because such a large number of differing hydrocarbons occur in i s substantially impossible to in r the right amount of oxygen, and to c the correct combustion conditions, to burn all the compounds comp The emission from a petrol e therefore contains u (HC), carbon monox incomplete oxidation, sulphur oxides (SO) from impurities, nitrogen oxides (NO) resulting from oxidation of atmospheric nitrogen inside the engine, and solid particles. See table l Ăƒ When these substances are in the atmosphere, what happens? Photochemical smog is formed when hydrocarbons and nitric oxide combine and recombine in a chain of 13 reactions,
There i s considerable doubt that the planet can cope with continued, increasing burning of fossil fuels. An increased level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere may lead to the build up of a 'greenhouse' effect, whereby radiation i s reflected back to earth instead of escaping to space, the earth heats up and the polar
TABLE 2
ice caps begin to melt. (One estimate i s that if all fossil fuels were burnt, then 0 there would be an average 9 C r i s e in world temperature, a 50 feet r i s e in sealevel and a vastly increased carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere). Only 2% of oil extracted i s currently used a s raw material for the entire chemical, pharmaceutical and plastics manufacturing industries. We h u m 98% of an irreplaceable resource. Our proposal, that greater use of Liquefied Petroleum Gas should he made, must be seen in this perspective. It too i s produced from oil, and to hurn it rather than use it over great time for the real good of mankind, i s certainly not to b e advocated. However, if you must power your 20th century personal mobility module with 350 million year old decomposed vegetables, then do it a s cleanly a s you can with paraffin gas. A far better way, though, is to generate and use your own methane - a naturally regenerated resource.
Paraffin gases as an alternative Because the paraffin gases a r e of simple chemical formulae, it i s relatively easy to hurn them completely, a t best producing water vapour and carbon dioxide only. (hi practice, this isn't wholly achievable.) No additives a r e required. WE PROPOSE, THAT AS AN IMMEDIATE,, EASILY ACHIEVED PROJECT. YOU CONVERTYOUR CARTORUNONONE OF THE PARAFFIN GASES. If yon also pool your resources with other c a r users, and share journeys to work, yon will have made a significant personal contribution to decreasing pollution resource depletion. What a r e the paraffin gases? The paraffin gases all have the same basic chemical formula CnHn+$. The lightest, with only one c a r pn atom per molecule, is methane (CH4 h then come ethane, propane, butane androthers we need not consider. Heavier ,paraffins a r e liquids and waxy solids. ' P , ~ a f f i n ' (kerosene) i s a blended mixture, containing some paraffins, hut many other substances also. All paraffins, a s you would expect, have closely similar physical properties. Table 3 shows how the physical properties vary in relation to molecular weight.
EMISSION OF POLLUTANTS FR3M RECENTLY TESTED TYPICAL ENGINES (USA V8sl AND PORTHCOMING STANCARE
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(Petrol i s included a s a comparison. i s not a paraffin.)
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Because butane and propane a r e relatively easily compressed to liquid to b e transported, they a r e known as Liquefied petroleum Gas. (LPG), since they a r e obtained from oil. Methane i s not an LPG, because with a boiling point of -159 F (-162 C) it requires refrigeration and pressure storage of considerable sophistication t o b e maintained a s a liquid, though it can be partially compressed for use. Methane i s sewage gas ....INorth Sea Gas!.. Natural gas. It i s both a fossil fuel and a constantly generated fuel. Its main drawback i s this: without expensive, energy-consuming refrigeration and compression, and heavyweight storage tanks, it cannot b e easily transported. (However the process i s used, and Algerian methane is imported to UK in refrigerated tankers.) A c a r with an inflatable methane bag at fairly low pressure can c a r r y conveniently only about enough gas for 50 miles. (This may be a criterion for spacing communities in a biotechnic society!) The immediate effect of requiring an increased output of LPG and l e s s gasoline would be an increased output of diesel oil. But with changes to refining equipment this does not have to be the case. With sufficient expenditure it i s now possible to'split up the crud^ oil in virtually any desired way. You can now s e e that there a r e two alternatives for action. The palliative solution, using LPG a s a clean fuel derived from oil that could be put to better uses, i s the one open to you if you a r e city bound. The Biotechnic solution only works if yon live i n a rural environment with lots of natural waste available, and which will yield gas at a steady rate limited by the size of the input (excrement, mainly) to your degcstors. (Techniques are, however, being developed t o enable even urban dwellers to generate substantial quantities of methane, by feeding digeste r s with special inputs' such a s algae, sugar beet, and other organic material with high photosynthetic conversion efficiency. We'll have more information in up-coming issues of UNDERCURRENTS.) What happens t o the engine running on paraffin gas pollution reduction. From table 3 it can b e seen that the ideal air/fuel ratio for propane, by weight, i s 15.7:1, For petrol it's 14.8-1. Therefore, if llb. of the ideal Propane/ air mixture i s burnt. 1280 btu a r e produced. (Propane has 21600 btu/lb.) And if lib. of the ideal petrol/air
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mixture i s burnt, 1280 btu a r e again produced. (Petrol has 20200 btu/lh.) The figure for butane i s 1290 btu. As a consequence of its volatility, methane needs no pre-heating, and can b e efficiently introduced into the engine using the simplest technology. It i s an excellent fuel. having a low flame speed and high octane rating. Propane and butane, separately and a s various mixtures is available commercially for a wide variety of uses. Oil is currently cracked to yield large amounts of petrol, small amounts of LPG and relatively small amounts of fuels heavier than gasoline. (Such a s diesel oil.) So from a llb. charge of mixed fuel and air, very much the same amount of power can b e extracted. But of course the LPG/air mix has a smaller mass of fuel. That's good. But it is also l e s s dense, s o there i s some difficulty getting the same weight of charge into the cylinders a s one would using petrol. Because of this, a power reduction of about 6 4 % is to b e expected. There's nothing to worry about here - y o u ' r e simply using l e s s fuel, and most modern c a r s a r e overpowered anyway. The inlet valves will run at a slightly higher temperature, but exhause temperatures a r e slightly lower, because the engine i s running with l e s s power. It is said, (particularly by the lead manufaciurers) that lead deposits prevent 'sink' a form of valve wear caused by hard particles of iron oxide embedded on the surface of the valves and seating. - This
TABLE 3
Pl-hSICAL PR3PERllES
i s dubious, sad valve wear is unlikely to be significantly changed,
The deposition of carbon in the cylinders i s reduced dramatically, and the deposition of lead ceases. Wear to pistons and cylinders is greatly reduced. Oil dilution by combustion products is dramatically lowered. An oil change will last 15000 miles. In short, if LPG were t o sell at the same price a s petrol, the savings gained through lower maintenance costs and reduction of oil consumption would repay the cost of conversion. All- LPG containers must have a 'Class I Certificate'. (Home office report on L P containers.) This means they must be fixed in position, b e tested to withstand specified pressure, and have certain fittings and safety devices. It i s not legal to use gas bottles in a vehicle. The 'Motor Vehicles Construction and Use Act' requires all pipework carrying gas above 15lh/sq. in. pressure to be solid drawn steel, having metal to metal joints. This i s wildly over cautious, an; will be revised soon to allow the use of copper pipe o r bundy tube (brake-line type flexible tube). Since a methane system operates at low pressure, it is outside the scope of the regulations. But enterprising private motorists woulc b e very hard to trap, and bottled gas is a little cheaper than petrol. And the furore associated with the prosecution 01 a man who refuses to pollute a s he drive would be a delightfully embarassing ever for any selfconscious regime.
OF FUELS
ADDITIONAL The Henry Doubleday Research Association 20 Convent Lane, Backing, Braintree, Essex Decades o f research on small-scale organic gardening, and a decentralised research programme with subscribers all over the country taking part in experiments Annual subscription £ for quarterly newsletter, reports and materials; newsletter alone 15p each Brunel Environment Group c/o Jack Parsons, Department o f Sociology, Brunei University, Uxbridge, Middlesex; tel Uxbridge 37188, Have a site and some money t o build Brenda Vale's prizewinning eco-house on the campus, and designing a 4 megawatt windmill Hmmm . New Alchemy Institute (bast). PO Box 432, Woods Hole, MA 02543, USA Pledged to 'restore the lands, protect the ¥~ea1) and inform the earth', ;>te\vard\' hut not ~ 5 ' ~ase itt ,ounus HJIC an t'xncriincnt.il id1 m nn Cdne Cod where they do research in fish-culture, companion planting, wind-power etc; run a decentralised research programme with readers o f Organic Gardening and 1 ~
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occasional pieces.
Sandy and Eugene Eccli, R Kingston, N Y 12401, USA. node in the network o f alter
capitalist methods in a net article 'Revolutionary engineer A D Vol 43 No 3, 1973). British Society for Social Responsibility in Science (BSSRS): 9 Poland Street,
ployed etc. Undertake various radical BOOKS/ARTICLES/PAMPHLETS projects, including currently a mobile BASIC pollution monitoring project. Publishes Articles: Science for People and occasional From back numbers of Undercurrents: pamphlets. No 2: 'Soft Technology: Blueprint for BIT: 146 Great Western Road, London a Research Community', by Janine and W11; tel 01-229 8219. 24-hour informaRobin Clarke; tion service on every variety o f alterNO 3; 'Radical Technologists: Workers' native life and love. Publishes Bitman, Control in an Urban Community', by currently Bitwoman and prospectively Dave Hayes. Robin Fielder and Mavis Bithuman, riddled with information on Kirkham; 'Eco-Unit' by John Wood; publications, groups, events-£ a year 'Alternative Technology: Guide to or 25p single copies. They also produced the Book o f Visions, catalogue o f alterna- Sources and Contacts' by Peter Harper tive projects, mostly crazy,many relevant and Biorn Eriksson. No 4: 'Ramifications and Propagations to AT (out of print but try to borrow of Street Farm' by Bruce Haggart and one). Graham Caine; 'Environmentalists Intermediate Technology Development versus Ecologists', interview with Group Ltd: Parnell House, 25 Wilton Murray Bookchin; 'What k i n d o f Road, London SW1V 1IS; tel 01-828 alternative?' by Mike Grev. 5791-4. A very important source of No 5: 'What's what, wind-watt-wise', mater'd tor \ma I--,(.iiletechnnloflei in by Earle Barnhart and Marc Sherman; h e "Initd Wur u. Not noted lor : i s 'Technology for Decentralisation' by r.idlc~li-imhut nli'nt! o f cxnrri~'nce. John Wood; 'Transfiguration among Publish a "sefuicataiogue of materials the windmills' by Peter Harper. Tools for Progress, £1 Technology for an Alternative Society' Brace Research Institute: McDonald by Robin Clarke, New Scientist, 11 College, McGill University. St Anne January, 1973, p 68; the articles in the de Bellevue, 800 Quebec, Canada. Also special issue o f Architectural Design specialises in Third World problems; entitled Designing for Survival (July y good and useful series o f technical 1972); articles in a special issue o f pamphlets. Write for list of publications, Impact of Science on Society, V o l 2 3 miscellaneous publication No 17. No 4, Winter 1973 entitled 'Appropriate Volunteers in Technical Assistance Technology' (UNESO, Place de Fonetenoy (VITA): 3706 Rhode Island Avenue, Paris 7, France: SF), 'The Sun's Not Mt Rainier, MD 20822, USA. Also con. Running Out', by Godfrey Boyle, Time centrates on Third World issues, but not Out No 203,18 Jan 1974; 'Notes on exclusively; publishes useful Village Soft Technology' by Peter Harper, Technology Handbook, 7 dollars. Write Theoria to Theory (sic) Val 8 N o 2, for list o f publications, which include April 1974. Gordon & Breach 'Bat Control' and 'Smoking fish in a dboard smokehouse'. BOOKS-PRACTICAL TYPE oject De Kieine Aarde (Small Earth eject): Munsel 17, Boxtel NB, the Survival Scrapbooks 1 Shelter; 2 Food; therlands. A growing Dutch group that , 3 Access to Tools; 3a Play; 4 Paper have established an experimental farm Houses (not available in Britain yet); and publish the excellent magazine De 5 energy; graphically splendid, with good bibliographies; good to start off Kleine Aarde (small earth), i f you read with although on the whole there is not Dutch, 20 guilders a year, quarterly, enought detail to tell you need to know from same address. Basically into ecoabout specific things. The latest one technology, from the simplest to the most sophisticated. on energy i s particularly good. £1.50 'La Terrisse', La Ribeyre, 071 40 Les Unicorn Books, Nant-Gwilu, Llan fynydd, Assions, France. At the extreme austere Carmarthen, Wales. neo-primitivist end o f the AT spectrum, (CO, RF, EL, FB) run by Philippe Arreteau and his The Owner-Built Home by Ken Kern; colleagues. Very good on organic Sierra Route, Oakhurst, CA 93644, USA. gardening and doing without Very good discussions with detailed everything. plans, including AT cliches like solar Gothenburg Alternative Tec heating. Group: Bjorn Eriksson, Institute Self-Sufficiency by John and Sally Theoretical Physics, Chalmers Tekniska Seymour, Faber 1973; down-to-earth Hogst-ola Fack, 5-402 20 Goteborg 5, treatment of growing food for a family Sweden. Working on an inventory o f on a smallholding; vegetarians need not resource-conserving technologies. apply. And of course, lots o f people who don't Shelter: Shelter Publications, Box 279, call themselves 'alternative technologists' Bolinas, CA 94924; dazzling successor or anything like that, but who know a to Domebook 2 (which is still available lot more about it than we do. from BL although out o f print). Imagina~
~~~
UNDERCURRENTS? tive and gentle exploration of the whole idea of shelter in the style and format of DB 2; includes the evocative essay Smart Bur Not Wise by Lloyd Kahn; bibliography. (BL) Collected works o f the Technical Research Division, Dept of Architecture, University of Cambridge (see above). A complete list is included in In the Making No 2. Very high quality, but they cost quite a bit. I think the following are particularly useful: 'Economics o f Solar Collectors, Heat Pumps and Wind Generators', and 'Economics o f Water Collection and Waste Recycling' both by Gerry Smith (60p each); 'The autonomous servicing o f Dwellings' by R Church, G Crouch and B Vale-very good summary of the rationale for autonomous housing, with many tables of data (£2.20)'The autonomous House' by Brenda Vale-description o f a prizewinning design, (£1.00) 'The autonomous Servicing o f Dwellings-Design Proposals' by G Crouch: another autonomous house design (7%). Methane, Fuel o f the Future, by Bell, Boulter, Dunlop and Kieller; Andrew Singer, Publisher, The Mill Cottage, Bottisham, Cambs; 75p paper, £ hardback. A useful introduction with a good bibliography, but not very practical i f you want to roll your own. For this you need (FB) Methane Digesters for Fuel Gas and Fertiliser New Alchemy Institute (West), 15 W Anamapu. Santa Barbara CA 93101, USA: 3 dollars. Gives ext figures on what you can expect f various sources and amounts o f org waste, and blueprints o f two small-scale digesters . A model o f AT publishin Systems 'D': Societe Parisienne D'Edition, 43 Rue de Dunkerque, 7501 1 Paris, France. Series of booklets (9F each) with immensely practical plans for D I Y work. In French Try No 9 on windmills from scrap parts. New Sources o f Energy United Nations 1964 (HMSO- sales No 63/1/41). Locus classicus (as they say) for responsible1 respectable medium-to-large scale alternative sources o f energy. Seven volumes' 1 General. 2-3 Geothermal; 4-6 Solar; 7 Wind. Various prices, often very hard to get hold of. I got a set at the UN for about 30 dollars, but they can be bought separately. Three excellent examples o f concise practicality are the Peace News handbooks on bikes and on windworking (5 Caledonian Road, London N1) and the BIT Squatters Handbook (5p from BIT) BOOKS-THEORETICAL TYPE BASIC post-Scarcity Anarchism by Murray Bookchin, Ramparts Press, Berkeley Page 30
CA 94704 USA 1971; 3 dollars. You rcally should read this. Contains the famous essay 'Towards a Liberatory Technology'and proposals for just that. decentralised production and living. (BL. FB) Fields, Factoriesand Workshops, by Peter Kropotkin, Blom 1968. about £ if you can find the thing; a justly celebrated classic, and the sequel to (SB) The Conquest o f bread, Allen Lane the Penguin Press 1972; £3.00 Small is Beautiful by EF Schumacher, Blond and Briggs 1973; £3.25 A paean to the intermediate scale by a 'Buddhist economist'; quaintly inspiring. with a dash o f old time religion. (SB) Tools for Conviviality by Ivan D lllich, Calder and Boyars 1973; £2.25 Proposes a ceiling on technological development, and 'conviviality* (= graceful play) as criterion instead of efficiency. Brilliant rhetoric but maddening gaps i n the (SB) argument. The same goes for Energy and Equity also by Illich, Calder and Boyars 1974,60p. Focuses on transport and tries to argue that we all lose if anyone goes over 15 mph. Concise anyway. (SB) Sources, edited by Theodore Roszak, Harper Torchbooks 1972; contains many germane essays, including one by Bookchin, two by Schumacher, and an excellent article on transforming the city environment by the newspaper Berkeley Tribe (co) A Landscape for Humans by Peter van Dresser, Biotechnic Press, El Rito, New Mexico, USA, or through New Alchemy Institute (East). A discussion of the economics and technology of decentralisation in the context of the region where the author lives. Some books which haven't been published yet but should be worth looking out
.". .
fnv.
Alternative Technology and the Politics of Technological Change David Dickson, Fontana: Lots of political theory; for a foretaste see David's article in first issue of Radical Science journal. Radical Agriculture edited by Richard Merrill, Harper and Row; 'a comprehensive collectiun of writings (mainly new material) by activists trying to Create
wiser uses o f the land and help return people onto the landscape*. Alternative Sources of Energy a books bits from back numbers of ASE (see above), still being compiled ADDITIONAL Cornmunitas: Means o f Livelihood ana Ways of Life Paul and Percival Goodm Vintage 1960; Wildwood House. A seminal and now classic work on diffes ent ways of organising production and community life. (FB, SB, Liberation and the Aims of Science, b Brian Easlea, Chatto & Windus, 1973; 'on the obstacles to creating a more beautiful world': a debate on scien and life in the finest tradition of romantic Marxism. Anarchy in Action by Colin Ward Allen and Unwin 1973. Anarc everywhere now, i f we would up and take hold of it. Essays by the former editor of Freedom and Anarch.
(5 Where the Wasteland Ends: Politics an Transcendence in Post-Industrial Socii by Theodore Roszak, Faber 1973). A manifesto of transcendental radicalism alternatives to materialist dessication i left-wing politics; and lots of Blake. (5 News from Nowhere by William Morri Routledge 1970, paper, Morris's classi Utopian novel, with 'simplicity, direcl ness and sensual delight'; socialism with a compassionate rather than ( ideological basis. Cottaae Economv, bv William Cobbel ~ e d r i cChiveri) New Portway Reprints 1966; another classic o f one of the ma colourful and irascible English radical of the early 19th century. Strategy for a Living Revolution by George Lakey, Grossman 1973. No violent revolution, beginning now Paths in Utopia by Martin Buber, Press 1958, Erudite discussion of the bases of utopian thought and its nece sity;utopianism as a strategy as well a goal. Design with Vai'ure by Ian McHarg, Doubleday 1969. A comprehensive approach to 'ecological planning'; hcautiful maps and pictures. Living the Good Life. by Helen and Scott Nearing, Schocken 1960. The s of two now octogenarian ex-Party members doing their own thing in Vermont. Workers ' Councils and the Economic a Self-ManagedSociety Solidarity pamphlet No 40, 123 Latt Road, London E6. Some proposals f libertarian socialist organisation of p duction dating from 1957 in the walof the Hungarian uprising; translated from French, with contemporary co ments from Solidarity. Decorated wi hedgehogs. Really. (RF, CO)
'/if
SMALL-SCALE
WATER-POWER
RUNNINGS W I L D GEORGE
Model of an undershot water-wheel from Venafro Italy.
Reconstruction of the mills at Barbegal, near Aries, 240-520kg per hour Output Of flour. AD 508-16.
WOOLSTON
Norse mill.
SITES x l l t t the a n t 1 of c o n t r o l of natural sources o f energy a" a means of s o c i a l control q u i t e s o purgen:ly 1 the r . i a t o ~of c o r n - a l l l i n g by water-power. There 18 notn,Pa new in t e t r a n s l a t i o n o f t a t w i l and mutual dc~e:.denclea i n t o a dependence upon t h e h i g h e r human a u t h o r i t y . What i a new in o m t i d e s la t h e e x t e n t of t h e a p p r o p r i a t i o n and i t s accompanyiw . i r o n m e n t a l d e s p o l i a t i o n . The euphoric na'vity o f t h e Large Dam i d s h a s a l o n g and dishonourable h i s t o r y , w i t h p r e l i m i n a r i e s in t h e feudal l o r d ' s " r i g h t s of sake". I f the l o r d of t h e manor b u i l t a water-mill, h e could compel a l l of h i 1 t e n a n t s t o g r i n d t h e i r corn a t h i e m i l l . Millowning l a n d l o r d s a t about t"i time of tr.o Doaesday Book began a c t i v e l y t o o r e v e n t t h e t t i o f any otner nsills than t h e i r own, and t o ? m i a h any t e n a n t s who t r i e d t o .-o o u t s i d e t h e nanor t o g r i n d t n e i r corn. This proto-monoooly s v s t e a i s somewhat ingenuously described by a t e e n t h century corn-millinn i n d u s t r i a l i s t i n t h e ' H i e t o r y o r corn H i l l i n g ' : P r i a i a r i l y o f course no i n j u s t i c e was involved i n t e n a n t s b e i n g compelled t o grind a t s i l l s b i i i l t e s o e c i a l l y f o r t h e i r converience and comfort by t h e l o c a l c a p i t a l i s t and landowner, t h e manorial lard. But t h e n e c e s s i t y f o r t h e e x e r c i s e of t h e s e ohilant2-ropic m o t on t h e a t o f l d w n e l ; Ă&#x201A; passed away. and i n l a t e r
no e
t h e s p e c i a l p r i v i l e d g e s of t h e l a n d l o r d s abandoned.'' M i l l i n g aoke terminated a t l e n g t h when t h e n i n e t e e n t n c e n t u r y Local A u t h o r i t i e s found themselves compelled t o buy o u t t h e remain in^ rights. There were a couple 0 9 savage twists i n t h e f e u d a l system of The l o r d , f o r e x m n l e , was to have c o m ~ l e t e" t o l l ~- m i l l i n # u~ sake. and hopper freedomu over both h i s t e n a n t s and h i s rent-payina i l l . These r i g n t s meant t h a t t h e l o r d was n o t expected t o pay r t o l l . n o r was he w e n Mcnecited t o wait h i s t u r n a t t h e m i l l . -v "Hopper freedom" was eh." a b s o l u t e o r d e r t h a t upon a r r i v a l of t h e l o r d ' s own g r a i n a t t h e m i l l , t h e hopper s h u t e was t o be c l e a r e d , v a l t i r a t e n a n t s pushed a s i d e , and t h e l o r d ' s corn t o be ground and d e l i v e r e d a t once. Nothing seems t o have been behind t h i s o r d e r t t h e zeed t o ira::ress t h e v a s s a l s with t h e power and d i g n i t y of t h e i r r u l e r , Even t h e expedient o f s u p r e s s i n g a n o l d e r and p o t e n t i a l l y s e l f - s u f f i c i e n t t e c i u i o l o g was known t o t h e f e u d a l l o r d , who took ate?* t o ensure t h a t hand-mills were n o t used s u r r e p t i t i o u s l y i n t h e homes of h i s tenants. t h e l o g i c of soke, by which a n a t u r a l l y d i s p e r s e d e n e r a resoi-fce "as concentrated i n a few a t r i c t i v l i a i t e d l o c a t i o n s ar.d i t s use ffiaintaitiid is t h e c o n t r a 1 of a priviledised few, f i n d s i t a e l f can, times magnified i r . o w own times in s p e c t a c u l a r oio.iects f o r o r b i t i n g solar power s t a x i o m , e l e c t r i c i t y frcm eewa^i", e t c . ~
~~--. ~
~
Control over natural dependencies i s c o n t r o l over people:
IN SETTING PERSON AGAINST PERSON AND HUMANKIND AGAINST NATURE, CAPITALISM HAS LIMITED AND RESTRAINED
IN
MECHANICS
THE TUNNEL-VISION
DISCOVERY AND UTILISATION LITTERED
WITH
BANAL
AND
OF
WHICH
SKILL AND INGENUITY RESULTS
FOSSIL-FUELS
SHODDY
FROM
HAS LED
INVENTIONS
TO
EVEN
THE A
WORLD
Exactly where and how to draw off water-power depends upon ambient conditions and a total energy plan for the area. The conception of riparian rights (shares in the use of a river) should be extended to include all the communities of the biosphere. Other available sources of renewable energy might appear less tempting in terms of "free" fuel and low labour costs, but in the case of water-power the full cycle of ecological effects is long and full account must be taken even in small-scale projects. An installation which is capable of directly driving several machines simultaneously or alternatively may be more useful than one which crudely converts all of its energy into electricity at high loss. "Isohyetal" or rainfall contour maps can be used to determine quantities and probabilities of flow. Records of surface water run-off where available are more reliable. The observed states of water ecology in a stream may also give clues, if we knew just how to read them and could establish a reliable yardstick. (Just such an ecological yardstick has already been developed to give astonishingly accurate information about prevailing wind directions and forces. Five progressive types of deformation of trees are checked by Griggs in Putnam's 'Power from the Wind' 1949). The existence of certain types of planaria, minnow, trout, and roach, etc. together with a knowledge of water purity, temperature and sediment might yield useful information about "stream history" indicating depth and velocity of flow year-round. The roots of trees such as the willow which extend out into the water leave an automatic record of force and depth of flow. More conventional means of measuring stream flow are given by Eaniffl. The "bucket method" of measuring flow rate is suitable for y l l streams (<1ft 3/sec.) Medium-sized streams (>1ft /see.) require a "wier" method similar to that described in James Leffel Co. literature and reproduced in UC 2. For larger streams there is an aooroxmate but apparently quite adequatenfloating stick method", as used by Leonardo, whose practice it was to walk along the river bank wheeling an "odometer" and singing musical scales up and down to measure time: The available gross quantity of power depends equally upon flow-rate and head (theoretically P=F x E) but this takes no account of losses in pipework or channel, wheel or turbine, etc. Head is the height of a body of water. An idea of the importance of this factor may be got by puncturing a series of holes up the aide of a can. filling it with water, and observing the behaviour of the jets as it empties. A sophisticated method of measuring on-site head is to sum a succession of measurements made with a surveyor's level and scale, but a carpenter's level or a
Page 31
UNDERCURRENT
Chinese meniscus level and scale would be sufficiently accurate. (The meniscus level ia a bamboo tube floated on the surface of a rice-cup full of water. The tube is used for sighting along). All measurements of flow should of course be made in the season of least flow if a guarantee of "firm" power is desired. Sites on rain-fed streams have an amiual flow pattern phased with seasonal precipitation, but those on glacier-fed streams have maximum flow during melt period. Maximum "finn" power is obtainable from run-of-river type schemes, which rely upon good supplies of running water and eliminate the need for a dam. The least reliable source of water-power is from tidal mills unmodified by pumped storage. In the golden age of tne corn-mill the dependability of water-power was prefered, whenever possible,to the "inconstant" wind. Days of calm or storm could immobilise a windmill, but a well -regulated and well-sited water-mill could depend even in times of drought on a useful head of water. In areas of tne globe such as Europe where mean annual rainfall almost never varies by more than a factor of 1:2, and monthly means are not much more, good sites are not rare, particularly if you are not in competition for the 6 6 or so of remaining unexploited potential at large-scale sites. qchemes are divisible into those without storage and those n t n . There is broad differentiation a m o w t atoram schemes between those using moderate head and large catchment area (e.g. by a wier at the exit to a shallow pond) and those ussng higher head and snaller catchment area (e.g. by temporarily arresting a mountain torrent). The most successful schemes are modest. If the intake to the headrace represents quite a small proportion of flow borrowed, not only is a "firmw supply better guaranteed, but the stream is less likely to resent your intrusion. Flood waters overtopping the dam would often be fatal. Floods must be allowed to flow via a spillway over, under, through or around the dam. A wide spillway crest or vier provides the usual solution. Fast flowing water or water under great pressure is a formidable and destructive
-
adversary. It can disintegrate a dam, push it bodily forwards, tip it over, or gradually undermine it by seepi or erosion at the base.
THE
CAPTAINS
Page 32
INDUSTRY
C a p i t a l i s t s , d e s p i t e t h e dynsmic innovati-i^ r o l e they have been c r e d i t e d with by, a-aongst o t h e r s , V a n <m-i Enrela i n t h e Co'ac'unial Manifesto, depended f o r s e v e r a l hur.d:ed y e a r s l a r g e l y on the e r p l o i t a t i o n o f unaided hsaan mu$cle-p~wer. However, s e v e r a l c e n t u r i e s before t h e g r e a t "captains of indus'tr introduced t h e i r I n d u s t r i a l Revolution, watw-power was used e x t e n s i v e l y t o support t h e emergent c i n i n g and m e t a l l u r g i c a l i n d u s t r i e s . Water-power was used f o r mine d r a i n a g e , forced vent t i n , and for c r u s h i n g ores; but human l a b o u r ( t h e "eotechnic" machinery of wage slaves! remeined t h e Fundaaentsl source o f pow It van n o t u n t i l t h e 18th century and t h e peak of t h e "paleotecr.' era t h a t t h e manufacturing c a p i t a l i s t s r e - a t t a i n e d t h e l e v e l 0 1 f e u d a l l o r d and began t o r e a l i s e the p o t e n t i a l of a r t i f i c i a l ~ O V I lources under t h e i r m o n o p o l i ~ t i ccontrol. I n m i a n d , new texxi: i l l b e t o p l i f r a t e along t h e w s t e r c o u r s e s and with Vne l n t r o d u c t i a n of such products of laecnanical cunning aa the j i e - i cropping-nachine. punched card loon, ma s p i n n i n g jenny,the movement r e a l l y began t o g a i n i t s own momentum. The p?incipal a( of h i p i i t t i t s d process o f t h e d e g r d a t i c ; i f t h e i n d i v i d u a l worker i n t o a "mere appe.-.dqe o f t h e machinew, was t h e use of small-scale water-power. This too w a s t h e period the Luddites. whose t s r r e t s were o f t e n machinery o p e r a t e d by >at! -power and owned by corn-aiilling i n d u s t r i a l i s t s . I n a. s h o r t ;pa( of time c a p i t a l i s m had passed from a a t a t e of labom-power besed industry,which was e s s e n t i a l l y continuous with the ~ l a v e - W e e 3 economy t h a t o r i g i n a t e d some 5 o r 6 COO years e a r l i e r ii Neolith: ew aonrces axtensi-' times, through t h e s t w e of U s i w ambient m and i n t o t h e "neotechr.ic"era o f large-scale f o s s i l f u e l as*. A l l t h i s o w h t t o make it c l e a r t h a t although a monopoly of eneo r e a o u ~ c c ai s an e s s e n t i a l orzan of masa s o c i a l reo-Maaion. t h e reaourcea do not n e c e s s a r i l y ha\e t o be l a r g e in s c a l e . An e c o l o g i c a l l y souid and nif'hly d e c e n t r a l i s e d economy is n o t withoi ita d e t ~ i m e r i ? a llisas f o r society, wnen c o n t r o l I s i n t h e i o n 6 h d . = d l - s c a l e d e c e n t r a l i s e d e x p l o i t a t i o n e x i s t s in o w om day i n much i n t e m e d i a t e technology as w v o r a t e d by develcpment bodies f o r t h e t h i r d world. (See'Science f o r People' No.20).
Ship-mill
Timber dam at Luiroj&-vi, Lapland, Finland. Rocks are used to weight the props, and priming planks are driven n t o the earth.
OF
The c o n t r o l of n a t u r a l v a t e r resources f o r t h e production of food and energy h- h m an I m p o r t a t r o l e as a means of 80c:al c o n t m l
(corn-mill
aper-
UNDERCURRENTS!b
me~entlarg^-scale hydro-electricity demands prodigi01.13 waste o f resources and destruction or enviroment.as c a t a l o ~ e di n uc5. The mu1 output i n Britain is estimated as 16 x lOkUh/year ('Fuel his i s generally claimed to be a v e r y high proporpolicy' HMSO). tlon of ~ o t ~ n t i a but l , plant ~ p o o r t ~ i t i eunder a about 250kW are conaidered 'wnecononilc". O f l c i a l estinates distort the f a c t s ihoxt h natural distribution of water-power and omit a l l the potential s that 'by tapping the mall hyaropower s i t e s . ~ a l c ' u l a t i ~ nenow
where there is a naturally high fall of water. The bucket or "float" is designed so ee to retain water until its 'work" is done. Breastshot wheels, like overshot, turn by weight, but in the opposite sense of rotation. The underihot w eel uses heads of la5 loft. and flow rates of 10-100ft./sec. and gives an efficiency between 6675%. The developed undershot or impulse-wheel (a turbine) has an efficiency of 80?&-90^ or more. and is used for high heads and low flow rates. Size and weight per hp is small, Construction of a Nichell (Banki) type turbine is possible with welding equipment and a small machine works such as those used to rçpai farm machinery. With turbines two different principles are involved impulse and reaction. Impulse turbines use high-pressure jet(a) directed at the buckets. Head of water is converted into kinetic energy. There is much scope for variation of design and number of jets and buckets to extract maximum efficiency. Reaction turbines uae two sets of curved vanes, one stationary and the other free to rotate. Water leaving the guide vanes supplie~energy to the runner, partly by pressure and part in kinetic form. A totally submerged horizontal wheel would be the logical extension of the principle of the Nichell (Banki) type turbine in which water passes twice through the runner before discharge. A horizontal wheel might work on the principle of the "panemone" ( s e e fig. 5 in John Wood's article in UC 5 ) , and would presumably be relatively large, and rotate slowly but with high torque and be suitable for use in rather sluggish streams.
-
3
-
a working relat-
ati~factorilyby earth but moving water is not. Earth is therefore not suitable as a spillway. Crib dams are good in timber country, and are usually weighted with rocks. Pile-driven planks are used to prevent seepage. A timber d m is capable of forming its own spillway over the crest. Concrete and masonry dams must be built down to a solid footing to prevent leakage and shifting. Spillways present few problems. Tensioned tarpaulins have been used recently in Russia to provide cheap and easily re-locatable water-power from small-scale sources. Adequate
GEAR are attractive waxer-wneeis are zar : m m ooaolebe ~peciallywhere fluctuations in * es are large. lOhp (7.5kW) is easily available f eized water-wheel, and 40-60 PC45kw) from a large one. This power is most useful for slow-speed applications, though DC generation is possible. Gearing and belting (with inherent friction loss) is required to run most machinery. Suitable applications include flour-mills, agricultural machinery, pumping for drainage or water-supply, forge-hammer, blast-furnace bellows, fulling of cloth, sawing timber, domestic equipment, and processes mch &B paper making and manufacture of explosives. Constant speed-regulation is barely practical, so water-wheels are used primarily to drive machinery which can take larffe fluctautions in rotational speed. A water -wheel, became of its rugged design requires much less attention than a turbine. It is self-cleansing. andunlike a turbine does not need to be protected from debris. The horizontal wheel of the Norae-inill is capable of a rather inefficient 0.5hp sufficient however to replace a moody donkey with a "tireless" machine. Vertical wheels are of three main types overshot, breast and undershot. The terms refer to the point at which water flow actuates the wheel. The first two use weight of water falling into buckets, while the third is driven by the force of the current, as is a turbine. The overs ot wheel uses heads of 10-50ft. and flow rates of 1-50ft /sec. and gives an
-
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9
Gearing with wood engaging in iron reduces wear on slowspeed machinery. The two different materials "marry" better together, quieter and smoother running being also obtained. In the traditional European water-mill the primary gear-wheel was of water-resistent oak, and the other gears would be of hardwoods such as apple, hornbeam, beech or oak. Paired gears were not placed in exact ratio t.3 one another but differed by + one wandering tooth. This wae another trick for reducing wear. Wooden cogs or teeth were either dowel sections with rounded ends engaging in a "lantern" wheel, or beveled chips of wood wedged in place between a pair of iron hoops. Gears would be engaged or disengaged to drive machinew according tc the flow of water and the demand for power.
E-LEC-T-RIC-ITY
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An electric water-power installation can produce either DC or AC current. DC current is just as @ad as AC for producing electric light, running a radio, etc, but for most existing household and agricultural machinery which was built for the national grid an expensive replacement of all motors is necessary, DC current does not require regulation of the turbine or wheel, but banks of storag* batteries will be necessary. In producing AC the flow of water must be constantly controlled by some kind of cybernetic device, which is characteristically expensive. Flow regulation requires governors and complex valve shut-off devices ocsting more than turbine and generator combined.
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assumption, of peop c linkerin& vk I n tcchnuloeici.il ,itcrndl,&esthere d r ~two ' main blocs -those that think the system is bound for physical collapse; -those that think the system i s evil. Of course there's noreason why you can't think both, and that bias on my part will be evident throughout. But basically, there are those who worry about environment and resources, and those who worry about alienation and exploitation. For convenience, let me create two Procrustean categories to reflect these emphases: Ecological Alternative Technology (EAT) and Radical Alternative Technology (RAT). I'm going to argue that both approaches have failed in theory and practice because they have neglected a large part of our lives and our technology, namely, basic production, which requires not so much alternative technology as alternative organisation, therefore alternative economics, therefore alternative social expectations and institutions, therefore alternative politics, hearts, minds and eventually back round to wherever we started (to be sung to the tune o f 'Dialectics Blues'). Let me go into this a bit more. Our technology can be divided into two parts. To oversimplify, there is the domestic technology of the things we consume directly: fires and boilers for heating, lamps for lighting, stoves for cooking, cars for travelling, televisions for watching Monty Python, and so on; and there is the technology of the means needed to produce all these: steel mills, mines, assembly plants, research laboratories, transmitters and so on. There i s a continuous range of things in between, of course, but crudely speaking, there's the technoloyy.ofconsumption (TC) and the technologyof-production (TP). ' A T ' o f all kinds has focussed very heavily on the former, although we spend at least half our waking lives on the latter. The reasons ton this imbalance are interesting. An obvious one is that part of the purpose o f small-scale self-reliant technology in both EAT and RAT camps has been twcut out the TP as a separate category and blend i t with TC. Another reason is that small-scale types of A 1 do not lend themselves to a separate TP as i t has developed: the very reason for taking TP out of the home and into the factory was to achieve economies of scale by concentrating into big units; Related to this is that modern TP is very complex indeed and most AT freaks wouldn't know how to even begin creating technical alternatives, apart from closing the whole lot down. And another reason is that most AT folk are middle class, a large proportion of them superannuated students (and I speak as one myself) whose only experience is TC as far as they are concerned that i s what lechnology is: they've never experienced the inside o f d factory. Over and over again, Page 36
they forget that the materials for the windmills, the generators, the solar
T Y P E X SOCIETY
even get to the site. (Check this out: make
case) but unless complete self-suf is achieved. the ouestion o f oroducti i s one which must be answered unless you think there's nothing wrong with the 'Adrian' syndrome). All this is certainly true among the eco-freaks, but paradoxically often true also o f the radicals. In Stefan Szczelkun's latest (and mind-blowing) Survival Scrapbook on energy it says: 'Criteria for selecting information: "1 That it should be able to be used and controlled, on all levels, by individuals and small communities. Small scale. Decentralised. 2. Able to be used maintained and constructed by amateurs. Specialist knowhow demystified. 3. Makes use of local or commonly available resources whenever possible. 4. Poetic rather than banally convenient. 5. O f use to those who actively confront the inadequacy o f our present state'. Actually, that's the finest RAT list I've ever seen. Notice there's not a word about ecology. But, except for a hint in No 5, neither is there a word about the reorganisation of production of insulation materials, thermoelectric Jevices, solar fridges, generators, water pipes, gas heaters, air drills, heat pumps, steam engines, all o f which are found in the pages o f the book. Now comes a rather nasty difficulty. it's relatively easy to create consumption-alternatives because we have fairly direct control over the technology o f consumption (although few o f us may exercise it). Creating alternatives in the sphere of production i s not so easy because it's such asocial thing, far beyond the control of most individuals (which is largely what's wrong with i t anyway) and it therefore requires massscale political action to change. Must we then wait till After the Revoluti That is indeed a possible strat and frequently hawked in the Street on Saturday afternoons, personally 1 think it's like waiti Godot, or the apocalypse, or th issue of Undercurrents. (You're ir again!-Ed). 'The trouble is that what's in two parts: part of i t i s the wa world is, and part of it i s the way we are. Not only that, but neither part is the way it i s by accident, nor is i t free to be different on its own. The way we are is fixed by the structure, and the structure is fixed by the way we arc'. . , .known in the trade. I'm told, as the defeating logic o f thc dialectic. The
11
1
I
problem is, how to get our fingers i n th crack. My thesis which I shall expand ir the next article (this is getting ridiculoi is that 'premature' attempts to create alternative social, economic and technii organisation for production can contribute in a significant way t o the achievement o f political conditions tha will finally allow them to be fully implemented. This is by no means the only part of the strategy, but I think i t s a vital one. Next problem. What kind o f alterna live society/economy/technology do we want? I've already argued that at least in the sphere o f technology the 1c of agreement on what we want i s rathe poor, and that we will have to sort ou. least roughly where we're going. And of course the same i s true of economy and society, for much the same reason' I find it helpful to divide the problem up into a theoretical bit (what do we ideally want?) and a practical bit (whx do we do now). This article mainly concentrates on the theoretical stuff because I think it clears the head (well sometimes). Once again for space reasons I defer the living .,trategy to the nexi: issue. To illustrate some of the possibiliti, I shall use the three paradigm societies imagined by the Goodmans in their celebrated Communitas, written in 1947. Each of the three different type is perfectly rational and just. They could be socialist societies in which arbitrary privilege and ccor.umic competition had disappeared
NDERCURRENTSI6
I have corrupted the Goodmans' ree types by casting them in the form o f some diagrams of my own. They ce the whole issue to three quesh o w long do y o u work? how able is work? And how enjoyable -working? I assume that each is equally rational, that is, the o a enjoyment is the same for each. Type I putsa high value on consumption. The 16 hour waking day is divided
in half: 8 hours work, 8 hours
pleasant. Let's say for the argument that the ratio of satisfaction to the leisure Work is rotten but leis
producing necessitieb. brother aspect basic necessitie
There are lots o f questions to ask which I haven't space to go into: is it really possible to organise these patterns? How do they evolve beyond that state? can we o r w i s e things so
y concern about middle class AT freaks that their type II or type Ell ideals are ubsidised by ripping o f f type I'ers: .
+
At least this much can be said for type 111: a quarter of your time, however distributed over your day, week, year, life, would be enough to keep You alive. The rest o f the time you would be free to do type I1 work or even type I work, as long as you didn't annoy every one with your noxious emissions or whatever. This seems t o be an attractive scheme. Question is, what are necessities? How much time should be spent in providing them? How much can be managed locally, region ally, nationally? To illustrate some o f the alternatives, we need to compare some possible 'AT* societies at different scales. Obviously there is going to be a profound difference between neoprimitive alternative technology societies which take all the slogans about self-sulficicncy literally, and more sophisticdted ones that mdy have the same slogans but don't really mean it. *
output would still be very low: not many goodies. I n fact work is justa as enjoyable as leisure, as i f you we doing a hobby all the time, and the distinction i s virtually 10s
t
-
uroducine the bare necessities, could
with attitudes to work and olav?nicely caught in this table by Keith
.-
I
1
E e s s i v e aoolition of work, leading to 'pure' spontaneity, 'pure' creativity. and expressivity, 'pure' relating
from technology. Means plus ends. Unification Scale Totally articulated techno-political system. 'Global Village'. World culture. World democracy.
Representative thinkers McLuhan, Buckminster Fuller, Norman Brown nasty and brutish, but certainly short. The Goodmans worked out that in 1940 only one fifth of total work time in the American economy was involved in
Progressive pervasion o f (reddced) 'work' by play. Expressive/instrumental components i n behaviour difficult t o separate. A question of relative emphasis on play or work side. Affective togetherness rooted in common being. Optimal automation involves consistencv with desired scale of o~erations. conformity with ecological niche, etc. MeanstEnd. Only partial integrations t o preserve systematic redundancy (ie richness of alternatives). Integration through diversity. Many different appropriate scales. Loose world federation. William Morris, Paul Goodman, Murray Bookchin. The trouble about type II i s that not every body fancies it, to say the least, and a single system o f that type wouldn't allow people much choice.
as near as anyone: 'Soft technology is by no means novel; man has used it for thousands of years without realising it, without defining it, because that is all he knew. What has made soft technology significant is the 'hard' technology weighing us down and drowning us in the industrial society'. . . .we should make a distinction between: soft technology used by the 'fringe types', technology which i s not very original technically speaking, but which is 'soft' because o f the way they u w it; and t0f1 technology with in the esldblithed culture wh1i.h !\ill become (technically) very sophisticated but not at all 'soft' because it is meant only to extend current technology'. It i s certainly true that soft technology means giving up some facilities, even comfort to a certain extent'. This is essentially anon-industrial technology. I n his view, any technical alternatives which do exploit recent advances risk 'falling into the trap o f perfectionism, and reinventing (without realising it) the very universe we wish to flee'. I call thisvariety of ATsimple AT (SAT). Ivan Illich's writings often seem to point in this direction although they don't go quite so far. Illich seems to share with Arreteau a sense o f the aesthetic or spiritual advantages o f the simple life-his phrase i s 'a conscious politics of austerityp-an idea with some very beautiful precedents:
Page 37
of various systems, using people heat, and cutting down on windows (which iswhat 'deep buildingsmeans)?I leave it to you to muse on the implications. This of course is iust the beginning. I call it Mega-AT (MAT). So now we have three levels of application o f certain AT principles: SAT; CAT; MAT. and I'm sorry if the sequence is mnemonically confusing. Sweet are the uses of adversity Supposing whole societies were to take Which, like the toad, ugly and venom0 Wears yet a precious jewel, in his hea them seriously and adopt them widely. ~ n this d our life, exempt from publi What would those societies be like? Finds tongues in trees, books in the What things and patterns and institutions Sermons in stones, and good in every thing would you have around you? I'll take I would not change it. two examples, one at a scale somewhere between SAT and CAT; and the other T l i i j may or may not be as you like it, somewhere between CAT and MAT; but beside it the 'orthodox' AT of the I'm trying to show the interaction of gadget cliches (windmills and all that) technical, economical and social factors. seems somewhat vulgar. I'll call this tatter CASE A (between SAT and CAT) could be complicated AT (CAT) because it often forced on us i f we completely tailed to is fairly complex in operation, and find alternative sources of concentrated certainly tends to require some pretty energy once fossil fuels have run out. fancy engineering back in Birmingham, A kind of lucky dip as they come into not to mention mining in the Rhondda my head: building with rammed earth or the Zambian cooper belt. It requires and other vernacu.ar niaterials; >L' f industrial ori>,inisation of production on building in collccti\es; sma. winanus; a comoletelv different scale from shared dwellings; woolly clothes for simple AT. I won't say any more about winter; small quantities o f crucial it as it should be familiar. industrial products such as steel tools, Finally there i s another category ball bearings, chemicals, glass, certain which can hardly be regarded as 'alterplastics etc; vigorous local life-little native' but which is growing i n importlong-distance travelling; bicycles; very ance, and that i s the massive application of some of the basic ideas by the establish- few cars; a certain amount of animalment. Here is the text o f an advertisement powered transport; sailing ships; canals; which has been appearing in British mails and some telephone; an emphasis on preventive medicine, but with various newspapers recently: ~. . -- basic drugs and anaesthetics; more TO MAKE THE BEST US[: paramedicals, fewer full-time doctors; 01 ENERGY ON EARTH 1 certain natural' restrictions on medical Tod'ly, our urgent need i s not simply attention (some diseases could not be to improve physical conditions. U k r treated); 6organic' gardeningand farm. the astronaut in his space ship, we nerd ! ing: on -. strongem,hassi . .. to attain the highest level of internal manures, compost!ne etc; severe environmental control, w i ~ h the re5trictioni on medt-catinc; much smallest possible dermndi on energy more time spent on food production resources. Today, in our bui!ding-i ill I and other primary and secondary work. less on services and administration least. a new desian - c o n ~ e pI'.l helping u s achieve this priorii-v,not only (most of these functions wouldpre foi the short term, hut l u long term ably revert to the community); kid advantage. Its name i s I L U --ii!ort for and old people working more; long Integritled EnvironmenUI Design. work-hours; less rigid specialisation A new concept in building design education mostly in connection wit which not only provides a physically work: less 'culture* in the commodi ' sense; simple solar collectors,such as better working environment, hilt creates these conditions by m a k h passive solar walls; smallish wind dev better use o f energy. water wheels; string-and-sealingwa Comerving Lnvrtsy. .1 hi< means makR & D; no super-technology secto ing the most ofavaibhie building I fairly crude, low-tolerance, genera materials dnd methods. Better insul~. purpose, longlasting machines ma tion to reduce heat lo\s and b o i c t r standard parts; general acceptance of gain (sic). Air conditioning which nut 1 breakdowns and malfunctions; adaptaonly provide-i the accepted benefit, tions of life-patterns to prevailing but acts as the heal or cooling di? environmental conditions, low levels tribulion system. Overtill design of 'comfort' or at least 'convenience', which can harness the heal sven o f f great attention to personal relationships lrom office machinery and the and to the 'inner life': a lot of head people in the building ...ligt~ting. trips; unorthodox low-capital forms of which increases the efficiency of useful knowledge (dowsing, acupuncture the occupants and, by integration astrological birth control etc); regional with daylight, can lower capital economies; frugality as a kind of lifecost by 'deep' building. game; ETC . ~ . . This would be fine for auite a lot of it has a sinister rine about it. but we have t o ask what exactly i s the case people, but it would take some getting used to if you were born in an affluent against better insulation, multiple use Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile, Hath not old custom made thislife moresweet Than that of painted pomp?Are not these words More free from peril than the envious court? Here fee! we but the penalty of Adam, The seasons' difference; as the icy fang And churlish chiding of the winter wind Which, when it bitesand blows, upon my body, Even till I shrink with cold, I smile and say, 'This is no flattery: These are courseless That feelingly persuade me what I am'.
1 1
1
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society, and I doubt i f you could win a general election on i t CASE B , somewhere between CAT and MAT. might be achieved hy a pragm.itic, rcologica.ly conscir,u$ anti imperialist ~ o c i i i l ssociet\ l fi-11) confident in its tcchnologkal ciipacit~ but not ob,eiied w i n .iih.inced technology. Again, as i t comes into my head Large andsmall-scale sun, wind water, geothermal etc, energy usage; ' I, collective digestion o f all organic wastes for methane, total energy s \ itcm-i and Liisirfct heat nx, heat pum" nydro~en~ n methan,) d .is h a w fuels, central electricity ,;cneriition from mzr' dillerent source, witn loi.il ends. fue cells; controlled exploitation of abundant resources; advanced autonomous houses outside the cities, mostly of large size; all the main industrial materials, although not in overwhelmme abundance; wide ranee of special
!
puters, radio, telly etc; much automation in tedious production lobs, lithopresses; 'proper' R & D, knowledge firm Iv based on the traditional sciences; t r t r ~ conioine-i ; etc; m~chine'tlor capital-inten5iw oiganc farm'ng; more e\en distrib~titinof popu.arion; man\ more in p.iit-time foud production, health food, anu mass fooi.1 di-.tribui o n ; some meal; trains; puhlic transpor dirigibles; few pldne-i; 'tome lung-distant r ~ \ e out l less commuting; itrong coptrols on cnvirunmentall\ h ~ r m f usubl stances; very strict emis'sion standards; less mining, with improved work conditions; controlled distribution of raw materials; careful conservation programme; equipment designed for reliability, ease of repair, long life, and re~.\c.ingof components; smaller range ot consumer gonili; wider rdnge of living patterns, and possibility for gre; er variety within a person's life; lifetion-and-work; regional within a national and inte onomy; E T C . . . . . . . comments on these: A e between them i s the omy and collectivity. This i s a ension which we'll have to think about a great deal. It's good to share things, but how far can you go before an important measure of control is losl Some things are better collectivised: even builders o f autonomous houses tend to approve of public transport; collective water-treatment, methane production etc i s obviously sensible for sufficiently large groups of people. We gotta be flexible Both cases have the ' ~ r o b l e mof ' deciding how much effort to put into industrial production, and how to allocate industrial and other types of work, but this i s a much bigger issue fc the second case, since basic industry is far more collective In case A regional as the hoped-for pledsing diversity Case B would be much more secure,
and would allow more of i t s own kind of d.vcrsit\. ti-, nigher prodi~ct i \ i\ would oi'rmii Inihier woru on J M - ~-J .~ C . d much more time to go into voluny manufacture o f consumer goods erhaps with their own type o f money oidcontaminating the basic sity part of the economy) or to work o f the Goodman type 11 ty. People would be essentially free ganise their own economic life patterns, individually or i n groups. J o b rotation (mental-manual, industrialagricultural, urban-rural) would probably be more feasible in case B. Whatever the balance of 'centralised' industrial production to local production (1 0:90, 5 0 3 0 or whatever) i t is important to consider what should be produced and how. Currently nearly everything is made 'centrally' and distributed nationally. I t migh better to produce only the ba er goods centrally, and the means for creating consumer items egions and localities so they c at they decide they want. The uld be centralised production o c inventory of several 1000 sta eneral parts, very cheap, from whic hings can be assembled locally a needed. All kids would play with as they grow up, and they would the mechanical basis of the local munity's technology. Where have we got to? I've tried to show that 'AT' is :concept without a clear meaning: There are lots of people going in different directions but thinking they're marching shoulder to shoulder. The technical realisation of the typical AT' ideals is problematic even in their n terms. And in terms of wider radical als, typical 'AT' activity does not p the struggle for a more humane and Ifilling society. I would like to see the mphasis shifted or at least the centre of ravity, from technique (gadgets) t o rganisation; from ecological considerans t o social(ist) ones; from consumption t o production. I've even thought - of aslogan: FROM THE TECHNOLOGY OF CONSUMPTION TOTHE ORGANISATION OF PRODUCTION I don't want to imply that there's no technical work to be done. There's plenty, and what we've done is not wasted. But it must be integrated into the rest o f the (?) strategy-politics, economics, social organisation, life, love, poetry ., Somebody wrote to me after the last article 'it's not necessary to talk about t it will be like: (it won't be anyway)' mpathise, but I think ranging shots useful i f only as a first check that here we're going is really worth it, and to rouse the juices of the imagination. But o f course all that Utopian theoretical bullshit has used up the space again and I haven't got round t o what I was really supposed to talk about: Utopianism as a dialectic-smashing strategy-the art of behaving as if the revolution has already happened, and getting away with it. Sigh. Maybe next time? Peter Harper b
Geoff Watts looks at tumours and human ecology ALTERNATIVE CANCER RESEARCH nothing to do with wind pumps, water power, solar energy or recycling technology You can't do i t in your kitchen-let alone the back garden-and most o f the people working on it would probably refute the term 'alternative'. They would see it as nothing more than a logical step forward And so it is-hut an especially important one. The poor results o f most early attempts to hack tumours out with the scalpel, or batter them into submission with X-rays, forced clinicians and bioiogists to face up to their total ignorance of cancer. They began to wonder how the process started, and what i f anything cause'd i t As more bits and pieces o f information emerged, interest and enthusiasm grew. The cancer research epic was launched Efforts have been fruitful (superficially, at least) and the l i s t of known carcinogens continues t o grow This list, however, has been viewed largely as a register o f 'things'. things which cause cancer. Now a whole new stream o f thought i s beginning for the first time to be taken seriously. the notion that at least some be influenced by the suf mind, might perhaps even be a direct result of it In other words, cancer as a reflection o f the way we live. There'-, nothing new about the notion of psychosomatic illness. we've been connecting stress and ulcersfor years But such ideas have never been popular with the cancer researchers. Indeed, they're hardly widespread nowbut they are beginning to become respectable. The Faith Courtauld Research Unit at King's College Hospital Medical School i s a case in point The unit i s now in its third year of a study aimed at unravelling the psychobiology o f breast cancer. The staff are trying to construct a complete picture of a series o f women suffering from the disease. not just their physical, but their mental condition as well. In the words of one of the group, 'We want to find out exactly how the patient's biology, especially her hormones and immune responses, interact with psychology i n the origin and development u f her illness. kor example, could stress be playing a part in its origin' is
T h e division between mind and body must be broken', the group iii5ist. '11'5 quite possible that psychosocia! factors contribute to cancer, but up till now Ihdt possibility has been largely ignored'. The various enthusiasts for research in this field have even come together in an organisationwith the rather mouthy name of the European Working Group for Psychsomatic Cancer Research. EUPSYCA for short. This worthy body held i t s second seminar last October (on 'psychobiologic, psychosomatic and sociosomatic aspects of neoplastic disease') in an appropriately obscure region of Slovenia.
meteorological stresses on cancer', 'Schizophrenia and malignancy' or 'Rorschach (ink blot test) investigaiions in ovarian and cervix cancer patients'. Then again there was 'Sponr~neous paintings as an expression of the total personality with specific reference to malignant tumours'and 'The role o f aggression i n neoplastic disease'. You see, it all plays a part-from art to the stale of the weather. The psychobiologists obviousiy appreciate that they may yet be in for a rough ride at the hands of their lcbs open-minded colleagues: witness one 01 the conference sessions pompously ! $ 8 : accurately-entitled 'Profes'Ă&#x201A;ÂĽ.ion.~ and popular resistance againsi the p-A-J.,:! matic cancer concept'. Perhaps the funniest thing iihr,~:t ;!~i, 'new' way of looking at cancer is k e thirties ( ? ) WH Auden wrote a p o c n ~c>!!led Miss Gee. The ballad of Edith Gw tells o f a lonely frustrated woni:!n w:-io discovers she has a tumour-which finally kills her. The story includes the fullowing three perceptive verses: Doctor 'Ihomas sat over his dint7ei; Though his wife was wailing to ring, Roliinq his bread into pellets; Said, 'Cancer's a funny thing. 'Nobody knows what the cuuw is, Though some pretend they do, It's like some hidden assassin Waiting to strike at you 'Childless women get it, A n d men when they retire, It's as if there had to be ,ome ouilci For their foiled creative f i e ' If the researchers read more poetr, they might discover all sort, o f lliirigs'
An AgitKrop Communique A t r n V i c h n o l o g i s t s everywhere, p o s i t i v e l y r e e l i n g f r o the hock, r e i n numbed s i l e n c e t o contemplate t h e ruir-s of t h e i r world a s t h e f u l l implications of P e t e r Harper's bombshell i n t h e l a s t i s s u e of 'Jndercurrents davin upon them. The whole movement 2-s i n d i s a r r a y . S t r i n g and paper dangle f o l l y from t o e l i c p arms of deserted windmills and old bicycle p a r t s l i e discarded, t h r u s t back once more onto t h e s t i n g scrap heap from which they were salvaged with t h e m i of a r o l e in t h e brave new small-scale world of t h e f u t u r e . And #hat o f those budding low technology coiamercial t ; t h a t have emerged r e c e n t l y w ~ t ht h e ? e r f e c t formula f o r p a i n l e s s p r o f i t s o No doubt business confidence w i l l beseverely shaken as a r e s u l t of this a t r o c i o u s p u b l i c i t y . me fashionable f e t i s h o f a l t e r n a t i v e technology i s in t h e process of evaporating, even a s t h e few p r a c t i c a l p r o j e c t s it engendered g e t off t h e ground. The l i t t l e box of technologic a l - t r i c k s w i t h which alone it set o u t t o cure all o u r i l l s has proved t o be y e t one more d i v e r ~ i o n a r yperformance in the &mite
r e p e t a i r e of t h e $pectacular Society
-
a vehicle
of -1uti.onary change w-ith no motive f o r c e o r , as t h e s o f t techno1og-i-st& * o d d undoubtedly p r e f e r 1t, a c a r t without a horse! A Revolutionam Proclamation =he rea at nave of middle-class Ecological Concern submerged i n t h e d u s t cloud of h y s t e r i a thrown-up by h e 1 b e t of \World Capitalism, t h t u r n s with t h e utmost venom upon t h e g a l l a n l i t t l e oand of doom-merchants whom it n o t so long ag r a t e d with benevolert contempt. Mow, a s t h e b e a s t r they are t o be found cowering i n t h e s e c u r i t y of the* denic i v o r y towers. Not a word do they say, except t t h e i r meagre c o n t r i b u t i o n s t o t h e insane and f r a n t i c f o r i n s t a n t panaceas t o problems w i t h r o o t s t h a t l i e de t h e h e a r t of i n d u s t r i a l socaety. outwardly t h e Masters of t h e World d i s p l a y a brave facade calm nonct-'alance. Inwardly t h e y tremble i n t h e i r f e a r 0 uuknom. "From u s t h e y w i l l r e c e i v e no words of comfort. 'Ye PrOC Gentlemen, the foundations of your -tyranny a r e crumbling. we m n o t h e l p you recover your f o o t i ~ g . Gm t h e c o n t r a w . WE aid t o be t h e r e t o d e l i v e r "the death blows when your achinery o f r e p r e s s i o n grinds and clanks "to a s t a n d s t i l l ,
t h e i n d u s t r i a l ~ o l o c ht h a t you have created comes crashing d o 1 -your heads! =he ~enealoevof t b e :"ecatechni.cal i.:onster we s t r u g g l e t o l i b e r a t e t h e whole of n a t u r e from t h e yoke of a n a l - ~ g n a n ttechnocracy; from a cancerous technology conceived i n t h e Incestuous union of t h e i n f a n t Prodigy ~ ~ ~ t aana l ~ it~ s d~o t im a g mother, +he .laiper~alist-monarchist s t a t e ; a technology s u b j e c t t o tumultuous growth in i t s ~ n f a n c y , force-fed by t h e myriad, d e s t m c t i v e , c o n f l i c t i n g f o r c e s of ind-ivid-ial =eed r e l e a s e d by t h e "free-entreprise" system; a technology which has come t o .its gargantuan and v e r more h o m f y - m g ms-tun-ty :m the age of Honopoly C a p i t a l ,
when
The C r i m n a l Erosion of Humanity Said m g e l s , 'wanting t o a b o l i s h a u t h o r i t y in l a r g e i n d u s t r y i s tantamount t o wanting t o a b o l i s h i n d u s t r y i t s e l f . ' To Herr mgels,were he s t i l l around today,we would r e p l y , r i s k i n g h i s i n c r e d u l i t y : Precisely! Large-scale i n d u s t r y has indeed t o be abolished. I n d u s t r i a l technology shapes WOrklng People i n i t s own image-fragmented, mechanical beings, pavlovian s u b j e c t s f o r commodity kings and "proletarian" princes. The production and. o w a p t i o n of i n d u s t r i a l products i s the heroin of t h e masses. h e s s i v e dose of t h e commodity c u l t u r e has t o be g r e a t e r t o achieve t h e sane meagre e f f e c t . Technology i s r e f i n e d an refined u n t i l i t s d e s t r u c t i v e c a p a c i t y i s absolute. a n hope f o r l i t t l e except f o r an e a r l y and. sudden e t h e i r suffering a c a t a s t r o p h i c termination of a l i n g e r
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Page 40
mass suicide. O r w i l l they t h e pushers, and t e a r t h e i r We aim t o t u r n t h i s glimmer revolutionary conflagration *etching ~n ~ t 6sw d e c o
t u r n on t h e i r t ~ m e n t e r s ,cr-ush instrun-ents of t o r t u r e t o p ~ % c e i n t o a spark, and t h e soarit i n r i n a s o c i e t y which i s already ~po~~t~on~
The P o l i t i c a l Economy of Putrescence The1vol-uBiinous flow of f i l t h and poison from t h e i n d u s t r i world i n t o t h e n a t u r a l i s only t o b e matched by t h e flow of l i e s from t h e rancid mouths of p o l i t i c i a n s and businessmen and t h e i r p a i d cronies i n t h e world of science; l i e s which J u s t i f y a technology conceived of by a voracious, powercrazed c l i q u e a s a means whereby i t s domination could be ma absolute. Their r e i g n of t e r r o r h a s been masked by t h e highsound% aims of economic growth and m a t e r i a l p r o s p e r i t y f o p ill. And even when t h f c a p i t a l i s t masters were usurped by t h e i r " p r o l e t a r i ~ ~ icounteroarts, " t h e l a t t e r o f f e r e d even ore outragous promises and ; b u s t l f ~ c a t ~ o n fs o r t h e c o n t i n u ~ n g l a v e r y of t h e people. The machinery of r e p r e s s i o n was not mantled &'id power merely passed i-nto t h e hands of a new
e r a t i o n of t h e human imagination which a r t i s t s have s t r i v e d f o r thousands of years of " c i v i l i z e d n human h i s t o r y c a n b e achieved through t h e simple iency of f r e e i n g nature. Fantasy can s t r e t c h n t h e strange luminous c r e a t u r e s t h a t i n h a b i t t h e most mysterious reaches of t h e ocean. There i s no grea beauty than i s t o be found i n t h e l i t h e forms of t h e g r e a t c a t s whose skins, ripped from f r e s h l y slaughtered carcasses e w e t o mask t h e bulging f l e s h of c a p i t a l i s t s ' and io
e n a t u r a l world we s t r u g g l e
s a s o c i a l being.
t o re
He seeks and d s t h e community of others. Thus we s t r i v e f o c~a m u n ~ s s the only s t a t e of existence i n which can be f r e e l y himsel t t h e world does n o t belong t o communities of men, o r even t h e human species, any more than it belongs t o any one dividual. The b l i n d abuse of n a t u r e i n t h e name of proper s p e l l s d e a t h f o r a l l t h e n a t u r a l communities of t h e biospher and u l t i m a t e l y f o r man himself. It 1s t o t h e s e n a t u r a l corn munities which comprise many d i f f e r e n t species t h a t t h e wo H~~~~ we stwg-lp for a new nmvarsni rnmunisn, nbeiongsm. which m a n may r e a l i z e t h e i r f u l l p o t e n t i a l of development i n mutuallv b e n e f i c i a l r e l a t i o n s h i ~ swith each o t h e r and with a l l o t h e r organisms t h a t inhabi The Locus of Freedom We d e c l a r e t h a t a l l nowe u s t p a s s i n t o t h e hands of t h e peoole, without t h e i n t e r p o s i t i o n of self-elected "representatives" and i n t e m e d ~ a r z e s . We s t a t e c a t e g o r i c a l l y t h a t t h e d i f f u s i o n of one kind of power depends e n t i r e l y on t h e d i f f u s i o n of a l l o t h e r s . There can be no h a l f measures t h e p o l ~ . t i c a lcharade of parliaaent a w democracy with t h e slavery o f c a p i t a l i s m , socialism degenerated i n t o s t a t e c a p i t a l i s m -i-n the service of an omnip o t e n t bureaucracy. Freedom xs a b s o l u t e and t o t a l o r t h e i e xs no freedom. I f a s o c i e t y is nominally f r e e l n c l l r e s p e c t s but i s dependant on concentrated energy sources, t h e l a t t e r f i l l be a v e h i c l e f o r t h e abuse of freedom and ~ t usl t ~ m a t e disruption. Hence t h e new economy t h a t i s assembled from t h e r u i n s of t h e old w i l l use energy t h a t i s everywhere, t h e endl e s s . non-polluti-ng, f r e e l y avai.lg.ble energy of t h s sun, water t h e wind, and p l a n t s . We announce t h a t f i n a l l y and ~ r r e v o c a b l yt h e era of echanical tyranny i s aoout t o give way t o t h e e r a of o ~ g a m c freedom, and we d e c l a r e t h a t we s h a l l do our utmost t o hasten change and s e t aoout c r e a t i n g a t r u l y :pee, c ~ a s s l e s s s o c i e t y ~ t anh e c o l o g i c a l l y secure, b i o t e c h n i c a l founds
-
1
the Art
It i s in the nature of sf that i t comnents either overtly or by implication on our present world, and the course that it may take i n the future. I feel s f is not concern ed mainly with science, i t i s concerned with entertainment, social comment and people. Even the classic 'hard' sf o f writers such as Asimov is not read f i t s scientific content, but for othe reasons: Asimov's famous Founda trilogy i s a rewrite of Spengler on galactic scale. His other books are cellent detective stoires, put togeth with science that is inconsistent an as gadgetry for the characters to exploit. Leaving aside a lot o f sf-far futures, 'space opera' and so on-I want to con sider mainly the near future' how dc authors see the patterns of society altciing m the next few hundred years? What resolutions o f the problems that face us today are envisaged? Population, pollution, resource use, atomic warfare, violence and many other themes are reflected, changed, and distorted in the mirrors of sf, the mirrors of the possible futures. And what role does science play i n all this? To many writers, science i s a tool to allow their characters room to act i n new situations, to extrapolate human behaviour in imagined futures Take Bug jack Barron by Norman Spinrad. Here i s a novel where the protagonist i s made immortal by a process whose nature he does not know, but which is under control of a megalomaniac millionaire. As the nature of the process unfolds and he finds out how he was made immortal (a nasty operation involving lingering death for a child) so the moral conflict becomes apparent, and the new choices and situations available throw the relationship between the characters into high relief. However, this calculated use of small amounts of scientific extrapolation to create a new and valid situation is not the only way science i s used in sf At another extreme o f sf (and there are seveiitl) lies the use of science as a gadget-provider in games of interstellar cops and robbers, or more often, as with Poul Anderson's last few novels, interstellar capitalism and colonialisin with the 'good' guys trading with and ripping off everyone they meet.
Usually in this type of book it is only the supposed benefits o f capitalism that are allowed to appear. Which brings me to another point. who do sf authors portray in their work? The two extremes are 1 ) a small group of people. in powerful positions, in their world, having adventures unrelated to the rest of the world; and 2) people related to, and put in the perspective of. the total society portrayed. The important question is whether or not the author's creation is self-consistent In the socially unrelated category I put much of Hemlein, Anderson and Frank Herbert (eg Dune) and most space-opera man-saves-the-universe stories In the second group are those which do present a total view o f the author's world, where the characters can be seen i n relation to society, rather than in chauvinistic isolation. This is not to say that valid and telling s f cannot be written without relation to the whole of the human society at that time, but that many authors deliberately ignore issues that are central to the working o f the vision they are trying to capture. Many short stories, eg The Cold Equations by Tom Godwin, deal with a type o f situation that could arise anytime, and bring out the human reactions to the situation; other stories and novels such as Robert Heinlein's Starship Troopers present the reader with characters whose world is a fait accompli, and consider the adventures of one group from one class without relating this to the rest of the society portrayed It i s worth discussing Heinlein for a while, as he i s one of the most influential of the old guard o f sf writers, has written a book, Stranger in a Strange Land, that has >old more copies than any other sf novel, and writes from a right-wing if not fascist viewpoint. 'Starship Troopers' won a Hugo award as the best sf novel of 1959 It portrays an earth fighting against an external enemy 'the Bugs' who cannot be communicated with. The worlds under earth's influence, where not under a benevolent martial law, are run on a democratic capitalist system, with voting limited to those who have served in the armed forces for two years. Flogging and hanging are civil punishments and glorious death is rife in the army. This fascist set up i s justified, in the words of
the hero's tutor in Moral Philosophy ' . . because it works'. Now the hero is an upper middle class lad (house, swimming pool, father's firm, shares etc) who joins the army and likes it. He trains, fights, talks, and gives his view o f militarism as not onlv a necessary, . . but also a desirable way o f life. Militarism is justified also by 'the Bugs'-the main reason for there being a huge army. A friend o f mine on readine this book said he could now see what attracted people to fascism. To return to the original point: at no time in this book doesHeinleinrelate to the whole o f society-action revolves around the army, the training camp, and an upper-middle class household and friends. To me this i s a distortion of his possible future. Having set up the situation he loads his characters to give a picture in which the values o f fascism seem natural: no space i s given to any who might have disagreed with the system, the social implications o f capitalism are ignored, and the highest aim of science is given as provision o f better weapons. From the distortions o f Heinlein let me turn to those who have at least attempted to present a total picture of a future society and relate their characters to it. Much of the best in sf results from the author's skill in setting up a possible future world and following its rules to produce relevant human situations, rather than the gadget surprise-ending story. That is, the restrictions of the future society are seen to be operating on the characters. One set of near-future novels are the post-atomic war stories. Here a change so dramatic has happened that the resulting situations have varied enormously. Classics include The Chrysalids by John Wyndham, the film Dr Strangelove and A Canticle for Leibowlz by Walter Miller. This last i s particularly interesting. After the war most knowledge has been lost. science is in disrepute, and a few monks carry on the traditions of knowledge against the general trend; eventually science is brought back into use. This book considers in detail many of the moral issues resulting from the use of scienceand the mystifications surrounding it. , More interesting still are works considering the near future where there has been no cataclysmic disaster. These deserve a fuller discussion, but to mention some briefly: Make Room! Make Room! by Harry Harrison. Here science i s seen as impotent against the massive rise in population; all life has become narrow, enclosed and basic. Now filmed as Soylent Green. Page 41
UNDERCURRENT! Stand on Zanzibar by John Brunner. The title comes from the estimate that in the year 201 0, to give each person in the world 1 sq ft of space, an area the size o f the island of Zanzibar would be needed. The book features the computer Shalmaneser, the nearest man has got to artificial consciousness, and gives a horrifying view o f a future military brainwashing technique used to make a man an efficient killer. The treatment of these and other themes in this very long book (% million words) brings out perhaps the most total picture yet attempted o f a near future: the effects of pollution, mystification o f science, specialisation, military abuse of science, capitalism, and especially overpopulation are related to characters at many levels of this vision of 40 years ahead. Camp Concentration by Tom Disch. A variant of syphilis is discovered which increases human intelligence at an increasing rate after infection, but causes gradual breakdown and death of the very intelligent subject after some nine months. I n a military confrontation situation the army trol and infects some conscien objectors and military criminals. debates on the nature o f science and the way science drastically affects this future society make the book well worth reading. I n short, some of the best science fiction not only considers in a tangential but radical way^the moral issues raised by science inour present society, but also by extrapolation probes many situations that have not yet occurred but which do have some bearing on the way we think of science.
SCIENCE FICTION COMPETITION Undercurrents wants you to write a science fiction story of less than 2000 words, Don't feel limited by the 'science fiction' label. Contrdct it to ' s f and then expand to science fantasy, speculative fiction, science fiction, or whatever label suits best what you are writing. Give us an sf story that Undercurrents readers might like, and that you want to produce. The short stories will be judged by Michael Moorcock, and a Ă&#x201A;ÂŁ1 prize (it's all we can afford at the moment!) will be given t o he duthor of the best story, which w?!! he published in the ncx t Undercurrents. Please limit the stories to 2,000 words for magazine space reasons: iintrics to Undercurrents at 275 Fin~hIcyRoad, London, NW3 by April 6lh, 1974.
Page 42
WINDMILLS -continued from page 22 To make things easier, cut out a template from strong cardboard That way you are more likely to obtain 3 very similar blades. (the best tool to use for carving the blades i s a spoke shave I t should only take you a couple of days to come up with a fine set of blades). For the haft piece, the ends of the boards will be doubled on either side by glueing on a layer o f wood, and then carving and filing, and smoothing down to get a dia o f 54 to 60mm according to the dia of the blade support tubes M, brazed onto the cylinder of the wheel hub as mentioned previously (see fig 5). With the three blades now well smoothed and even, you must now give
boiling water, removing and tightening the blade in avice, then making a small press with two slats or brackets, upon which i s placed sufficient weight for the warping to be measured with a protractor Adlust the position o f the wood so as to not make a larger angle, and let the bldde dry in this position (see fig 5). Next release the blade carefully, and aoolv 3 coats of cellulose or oil based varnish. The cylindrically shaped base o f each blade is then set and tightened into the tubes M with small bolls, i t nlav also be advisable to make a few holes for screw fixing to prevent the blades from slipping. The blades arc wedged at an angle of 220 with the flat surface of the cylinder as in fig 4. This angle can be altered; the smaller it is the faster the propellor rotation speed but i t is also more difficult for i t to turn. A larger angle gives the opposite results. But 22O is a good average. The dvnamo to be used is a 6 or 12 volt car dynamo (can you still get 6v dynamos? I t may be necessary ro rewind the dynamo to reduce rotational resist~
~
ance and also to provide 6 volts necessary; a modern car alternator ate successfully in this set up, you cot also try running an electric motor in reverse) with circuit breaker, but chec that they are in working order. I t will be turned by a friction rolle (fig 1 & 4) fitted to its axle and supp* i d by the interior of the brake cylind of the wheel hub. The friction roller i made o f a series o f leather discs, tiqhl ed by bolts that span the length of th roller, between two steel washers. The dynamo is fixed by a flat iron tightening ring S (see fig 4) on a nut. i lock nut, on the end of t h ~ bolt and . tube P designed for this (fig 1 ). The ring S is placed i n such a way that the friction roller constantly anc tightly presses against the brake cylir keeping the dynamo activated by the rotation o f the propeller. The windmill i s now ready and se to operate, so now try i t out I f ever* thing works satisfactorily, start on tt protective cowling. It i s designed to protect the mechanical and electrical parts f r ~ m the elements I t is made f two headlamp cowlings from a mote cycle or an earlier model car which L to have exposed headlamps (you wil probably have to design and form yc own from fibre glass or ply etc) welt to sheet iron. One o f the headlamp c w..l p r o l c n lhe h o n l u f me prope.1~ and n c cw nui-r. (inu w . hdve l o oe ed to thelatter, whereas the rest wil fixed to the top of the dynamoand pivot tube P. The shape of this proti live cowling can vary, but i t should adjusted to the smallest dimensions possible and be of an aerodynamics The electric installation is as sho* in fig 7. To maintain permanent sup o f power, a storage battery and con panel are used. This consists of a 6 c volt battery o f high capacity (100-1 amplh), or a bank of several batten in parallel, and placed in the house workshop to be supplied. The control board should be plan near the batteries, and should have and ammeter, and also a connectiot start the windmill in weak winds b) sending current to the dynamo whi will turn it asii motor. When the pr ler has reached a suitable speed in t wind, i t will continue to turn, and i rotation will accelerate until the cir closer and breaker are operated. Th must also be set on the control pan as in fig 7, and not on the d namo. (This windmill could als for pumping with the dy by a simple mechanical d
TOWARDS THE END of his immense book Total Man (Allen Lane), St Gooch has an interesting confess throws new light on the whole thin 'When Imyself experienced the mediumistic trance for the first time subjective concomitants were, in this order, a wind rushing through the he0 a sense of being engulfed by somethin with awareness dwindling rapidly to a pinpoint, followed by unconsciousness. The onset of the condition was very sudden, giving the impression ofsome (damming) barrier having been broken through '. Apart from this tantalising fragment, / e learn nothing more of Stan Gooch's ni'r'innal exnerience of 'tne dark side of r..-...-...7~~the mind'. But it it enough to account for his obsessional interest in the subconscious. I t must be a weird experience to have yourself 'taken over' by something alien. And that is the starting point of Total Man-Dracula, Faust, D jekyll and Mr Hyde, all the legends demonic possession that run throug world mythology. It's amazing that managed to miss Sheridan Le Fanu' Green Tea, i n which the hero is ~~
~
assessed by a demon i n the form of nkey which inhabits,his brain. ause this is basically his thesis: t home o f the demons and vampi a part of the brain-man's 'old bra1 cerebellum. In the course of evolution, man has developed the ' brain', the cerebrum-what you mi call 'the daylight brain'. He identif himself with this daylight brain; in as far as he is concerned, it is 'hi'mself Stan Gooch flatly denies the 'ego'. The true self i s s darker and deeper, a part o brain. Before I go any further, I clearly that l u i a l Man I->not a study in demonic oi-iĂ&#x192;§;esiiio or the occult. It is intended i s a serious cont
man as a 'good fuck', there must have n a certain intermingling o f the races. aders who are twitching irritably at use o f 'probably' and 'must' should that I amimporting them from Gooch's argument, which i s often y speculative). The skull of man indicates that his !-the 'thinking' brain or as far less developed than that o f Cro-Magnon man. I n the descennts o f Cro-Magnon man (with his rt-Neanderthal brain), the 'lower ain', the instinctive 'cerebellum* was gradually suppressed. Modern n conquered his World by being obiective, hy observing nature, so he had to suppress that part of his k i n a that operated in an entirely different athising with nature, mingling
correct academic apparatus o es, diagrams and pages of bib1
to'be morepreoccupied wartdouqide him than with se, it inhabits the same world agner's Ring cycle: You f
.
. Page 43
to have yourself 'taken over' by something alien the new are significant. The new brain is abqve, and this is why we speak of 'higher things', o f gods dwelling in heaven or Olympus; the old brain is below, hence devils i n hell (the underworld), dwarfs who live in underground caves, and so on. In what he admits to be a wild piece of speculation, he even suggests that the old brain may have been able to somehow see the new brain stretched out above it, and so derived the idea of heaven as a starry firmament. A very large part of the book-about 90%-is given to setting out the different realms of the old brain and the new, and assigning all kinds o f phenomena to one realm or the other. For example, he sees communism as essentially a product of the cerebellum (old brain), with i t s emphasis on human sympathy, on forces from 'below', while fascism
* .."
conflict i n life as the attempt o f the 'real I' to stop the robot muscling i n on its territory. And that i s why I read poetry, listen to music, make loveeven read Mr Gooch's book. It is why I enjoy a good horror film, or descending into the green twilight o f Wagner's Rheingold: they wake up the 'real me' and help it suppress the robot. Now I don't expect Stan Gooch to have come across my robot theoryalthough I first propounded i t ten years ago; but there is nothing about our 'automatic' functioning in his book; and even when he discusses the way that baby ducks can have habits 'imprinted' into them, he s t i l l doesn't see its significance-the way that many o f tiie 'irrational' phenomena he discusses can be
and the new That i s not to say th
t d
at there are tw idictory knowledge syiicma-llic ,~,,,,r' and the 'solar'; he itnsists that 'lunar' knowledge is nof some
-
I actually read through most of Stan Gooch's book in a single day, continua ly amazed and delighted by his skill i n the handling of ideas. He brings in so many weird and unexpected illustrations that you can almost enjoy it purely as imaginative literature. Just as a piece o f intellectual trapeze-work, i t is quite stunning. But how far does it hold water7 I have now read it twice (I reviewed it for another magazine when it first came out), and I'm s t i l l by no means sure. I'd better disclose personal bias here. I am also inclined to divide man into two parts; but not the 'Self and 'Ego'. I'd suggest that the main problem of most living creatures-especially manis that they are too 'automated'. I am able to type this review without even thinking about my fingers because the typing is done by a kind of robot inside me. T, the active, willing 'me', has only to worry about Stan Gooch'b book, and how to outline i t s arguments to my readers; my robot does the typingfor me. The trouble is that this robot takes over many of the things I don't want him to do for me. I can eat, drink, take exercise, even make love, 'automatically', but I don't get as much fun out o f these functions as I do when 'the real me' performs them. But whether I like i t o r not, the robot does a great deal o f my living for me. I am inclined to see the basic psychological
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Page 44
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based on myth and symbol, and on powers of the mind that are unrecognise by ordinary consciousness. 1 accepte Graves' view and developed i t at so length in a book called The Occult. Gooch's book is also based on this I although he speaks o f 'Knowledge I a 'Knowledge II' instead of solar and lunar knowledge. The antinomy is erected into a vast theoretical structure that is full o f originality, and the fact that Stan Gooch argues from psychology and biology as much as from mythology and poetry gives his book a scientific dimension that Graves lacks. Like Graves-and Jung-he suggests that the I Ching i s a good example of a lunar knowledge system. And at this point, the reader waits for the argument to take o f f into realms o f parapsychology and occultism -where it is obviously headed sooner or later (perhaps in volume two). But it changes its mind and turns back, just at the point where you feel the revelations are about to occur. There's a feeling of
an interrupted orgasm. Still, apart from that, it's a remar achievement, probably the most interes ing work of non-fiction published in 19' I was naturally curious about its author; so when I was asked to writ about the book, I was glad to take opportunity to meet Stan Gooch. I quite sure what to expect. The nam conjures up a large, clumsy individu with horn-rimmed glasses, a Yorksh accent and gaps between his teeth. T reality was less jarring, i f less unusual; a smallish man with a dark beard, dress in casual jeans and sweater, with a with drawn manner. The accent was Londor insofar as i t was anything-he was b in Bermondsey, which also produce Tommy Steele, Henry Cooper, M Bygraves and Michael Caine; like t Stan Gooch is working class. He told his childhood had been shy and 'extrer ly neurotic'; he read obsessively-'I'd read every book in the local library by the age of 11 '-and later developed a duodenal ulcer and migraine. He endec school with a surge of brfUiance, collec ing just about every prize, then spent several years drifting from job t o jobincluding schoolteaching in Birminghai and a year as a scrap iron merchant. Something was trying to get out, but h wasn't sure what. Not surprisingly, he had a nervous breakdown, and, at anol point, became a spiritualist medium, 11 was while he was reading for a teachin diploma that he came across the work of Karen Horney, and suddenly made the dizzying discovery of depth psychogy. He became a senior research psychologist, explored half a dozen more dead-ends-including an unsucce ful marriage-and finally started to write novels and poetry. A chance meing with a director of Penguin Books t to the commission for Total Man; I suspect Penguins must have been dismayed when the huge wodge of typescript landed on the desk. The book c out i n England i n 1972, and didn't se" the Thames on fire; but even since the i t has quietly acquired readers, and i s actually selling better now than imme iately after publication. It came out recently in America, and the signs are that it will find an altogether more re audience there. The book's hostile critics will sayand have already said-that i t is basic; a development of Freud's antinomy between Conscious and Subconscious with jungian archetypes thrown in. There is some truth in this-the book is profoundly Jungian in spirit-but ii many vital respects i t goes beyond Ft
UNDE
' . . .it's your R e a d e r s '
the neuro-physiological approach gives it a down-to-earth feeling which I find lacking i n lung. The dozens o f references to animal behaviour relate it to the work o f Lorenz, Desmond Morris and Robert Ardrey. Germaine Greer, Shulamith Firestone and co should be delighted with all he has to say about woman: that she is basically a different kind o f creature from man-almost a different species-and ought to firmly reject the temptation to imitate man in his own fields. The political implications should please the left wing which, like Woman, has i t s roots in the 'old brain' and the old knowledge. At the same time, Mr Gooch is far too much the outsider to be bound by any ideological loyalties. I n the final chapter, he makes it clear that he i s not interested in the conflict o f old brain versus new brain, Knowledge I versus Knowledge I, but in transcending both of them. His basic argument is that if man can take the Self fully into partnership, most of his present binds and blockages will disappear-along with the psychotic civilisation-and h will develop a range of powers beyon anything he can at present imagine. I is this evolutionary flavour that give book i t s urgency, so that even wh the argument seems weakest, ther still an underlying sense of overal vision. If Stan Gooch is right, the book is very important indeed; an even if he is half-wrong, he is still of the most exciting and original thinkers to appear in many years. Total Man by Stan Gooch, Allen Lane, London (1 972) £4.50 The British paperback o f Total Man probably won't appear until the end o f this year. £ 50 i s rather out o f the reach of Undercurrents readers, but the American paperback version can be obtained from Compendium Books, 240 Camden Hieh . Street. London W1 8 0 s . Stan Gooch's second book Personality and Evolution (Wildwood House) has now appeared. Within a few weeks of publication it was chosen as one of the Sunday Times books of the year by Jacquetta Hawkes Although savagely attacked by the psychology Estabhshment, the book has generated enough interest to merit a full-length interview from the magazine WorldMedicine and an invitation to the author TO speak at the world conference o f the Health For The New Age Trust (see p8 this issue).
Can plants read thoughts? Can they transmute the elements? A book published i n the USA late in 1973, The Secret Life ofpiants, claims they can. Jamie McCullough is himself engaged i n research on the stranger capabilities o f plants, and he talked about the book to Tony Durham. What k i n d o f people are they who wrote this' He's a reporter, a journalist, a sensationalist. They 're not scientists? Absolutely not. There's no sort o f critical faculty at all I mean the thing's full o f illustrations. They could afford to illustrate it But there's not one drawing o f one plant. What are these illustrations? They're just, you know, a sort o f art nouveau chapter headings. It's quite a beautifully produced book really. It is, yeah. It's nice art nouveau, sort o f dreamy illustrations, to go with the chapter headings. They could afford to illustrate it, they obviously didn't have any problem about that, but there's m e THC
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not one diagram o f anybody's apparatus Not one drawing of a particular plant. The whole thing goes on about/plants can do such-and-such' but there's probably only about ten different plants mentioned by name in the entire book. Isn't there an audience which would actually like a book like that and would hate the scientific details? I think it's h i t the best-seller lists in the States, so obviously there is. It's your Life magazine, do-you-believe it-ordon't-you sort o f Reader's Digest how-1found-God-through-the-plants sort of thing. What strikes me Is that books of this kind-I felt rather the same about 'Psychic Research behind the iron Curtain3-i felt that it's a b i t like a tit magazine, inasmuch as it indicates without revealing. Exactly the same psychology, right. And 1 suppose in that way it's splendid.. more t i t s per square yard than . , you know! Club International o f the psychic world.. But what about the serious audience? The audience who would love the scicntific details reads the technical journals, and this wouldn't be allowed to come out there. It's one o f the heresies. So the only way thiscan get around i s in this rather garbled way. The fact that they've put it out will bring it to maybe 50 people who'll start experimenting. It's definite plus and it's good that they , -ate it at all. Is that a bibliography at the end there? It could be the most useful thing in the book.
..
Page 45
how-1-lound-God-through-the-plants sort of thing.,
But for instance I came a
.
a bit m6re abouthim. It sort o f
..
good question, but still anyway there are all these rathe
Museum technical library and gave up. He's put in all the references from Bos the contradiction or proposes the pos
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, as a reader of this report, for* any overall impression about how it all mean did i t spur y o u to form ageneral theory o f what influences
a good man, you know! What did he do? He started measuring gro porcupine .quills. Using these quills as a&rt like a barofrmh, o r something. As levers, right. He wasgetting
here are enormous amounts o f inform o wired a plant up to direct omebody who gave i t negative
without any problem at all. When was that, was that before e ics and everything? Oh, sure, it was 1913 he started India. Really amazing man, you he wrote twelve books and every sing book i s an experiment per page. The
'tit? I t lays on the ail, y o u know. who was eating, or sausag eah, right. There's ple
transmute the elements which r n't know what to think o f at all
mineral input and then weighed the mineral output and found that there lots more phosphorus, for instance, the there was when he started. but as a chemist Iknow how
omeone's blood was a nice simple ical problem but it isn't: y o u get rrors on i t or more. So maybe he
Flanagan on the Art ofAstrol Looks as though this isn't jus
Price will be 50p forsingle copie £2.0 a year's subscription (4issues From Phenomenon Publications 52 Ifield Road, London SW10, telephone 01-3529030. They also have a few copies left of the Phenomenon Calendar 1974.1975 a timefreak's feast in 28 pages, presenting Gregorian, Chinese, Hindu, Maya, Aztec a Muslim calendars, moon phase planetary motions, astrological big, beautiful andcosts £2.0 various time systems aren't explained but I gather they the first issue o f the magazin Page 46
unt that chapter as being rubbish. y o u believe personally that any o f
chapter on music. This chapter contradiets itself, it presents a great number of contradictory results all in one chapter. The guy who wrote it doesn't seem to have noticed there's any contradiction. Some people say pink noise does st, some people say low frequencies d about a hundred cycles a second, some people say high frequencies, some people say Indian music some people say Bach, and there's a sort of happy little thing about how when she was aying Indian music they grew lovingly
le will it alter the way we grow our crops, andgarden and things? Well. My personal thing is that this is going to affect a great deal more than that. I think trees have-just from Wh; I've seen so far, their sensorythings ai amazingly more subtle than ours are, in certain respects. Now if fifty inquir ing minds start to check out the boo a hell of a l o t ought to come out. The Secret Life o f Plants, by Pet Tompkins and Christopher Bird. Harper and Row 7973, pp xiv + 4
p.95.
UNDERCURRENTS e s a bashing: e v e n t h o c r e d i t f o r i n v e n t i n g g e o d e s i c d o m e s is s t r i p p e d away..
.I'
pleasure dome was in fact a huge marquee made of skins and lined with priceless furs. Later on, in one of the book's more philosopnical passages, I found this statement. T h e Earth i s only a temporary shelter for living creatures'. Shelter practices the 'access to tools' crincicle. at least, i t does i f
.
'We were inspired, we had a vision and we were in a hurry-we had people waiting for a roof over their heads. We tried everv material we could net cheat) enough, wood, plywood, cardboard, ' sheet metal, aluminium; fibreglass/ Vectra cloth/polypropylene/all manner o f horrid chemical caulks/vinyl/polythene/plex~glas/Lexan/ABSplastic/ steel and on and on . . . ' I f you've read the earlier writings of Lloyd Kahn, Steve Baer and fello dome freaks you'll know about t vision. Perhaps one day you even w to work yourself, a tube o f waterpr ing silicone in one hand and a copy Bucky Fuller in the other I guess i t was something that had to be explored, an exciting new wav into the verv old busine'is of pulling ,oniriti ng bt'tueen vourielf and the ^\' By the time D O ~ ~ OTWOO Came ~ out in 1971. cxoerience hdd tduaht the domebuilders to be careful w i t h plastics, even if you could get them cheap or free. Same year, Lloyd Kahn promised us a next instalment (see Last Whole Earth Catalog, page 93) It has now been published in the United States and a few conies have reached -~~ ~~~. England. It's c a lea hi-ltt'r, ana r s a hie. wise and heaut f- oook. W i n man [he edrlier Domeh~uks,dna wider ranging too, because geodeiic dome> aren't even dealt with until pail pdgc 100, and then on ) as one 111 me man), miinv tecnnoliieies man h.zs ebol!cd for u shelter in varying environments Respect for other cultures and traditional craftsmanship runs through this book i t reoresents a revolt against Buckminster Fuller and Le Corb&ierls idea of houses as machin Lloyd 'I've foun i i f J ni:iti;ii3 has Lnuci>;oni.', me hi-tter t fcr < 10 rv dro~nd.\\ooa i o ~ k.iunbe , a, cornp.ircd vt '111 polvurc~ri~ne lii.in1 mu PC)\\LJI O L J ~ J I C resin w inJo& 3 ' . 1 hilt', from 1.1d J', ovtn 130 31 :ne start of the sectioncalled Dornebook Three He now reckons that clastic is 0
urethane foam burns like gasoline once it's " eat " some Vinvl sweats out its plasticizer which may well be poison ous. Glass fibre makes your hands itch Above all, plastics exposed to sun and air usuallv simolv ROT. As fordomes;. . build them by all means and this book will give you some hints. But don't fall for such hoary dome myths as: our heads are spherical, therefore our houses should be hemispheres. Lloyd is sceptical about the old Buck Fuller argument th spheres make the most economic of materials. Given today's tools a materials, says Lloyd, it may be that after all. the cube i s the most efficient shape Bucky reallv takes a bashing: even the credit for invenlina yeodcsn. dome, istripped ~ * a y from him. Apparent v the first one wdi built a planetarium on the roof of the Zeiss works in Jena, Germany, in 1922, to the design of Dr Walter Bauersfeld. That's 25 years before Fuller even thought of domes. Shelter i s built, like a good drystone wall,of chunks of copyright material from other books, feedback from Domebook Two readers, and a few comp a d blocks of writing lrom the ed.lor, who hain't feil i t nt'cc>sarv 10 mortdr the whole thing together with a running commentary, I t has the big format of the Whole Earth Catalog, b A the layout i s more disciplined, more architectural if you like. Symmetry without uniformity Anecdotes, Interviews, even a few poems. And lots o f pictures. Some pages consist entirely of photo"eraohs , , and there are two four-oaee coour sections Information about vhilosophies and techniques of building has been gathered from all over the world. There are lessons to be learned from the tents of the Bedouin and Tuareg, the yurts of central Asia. Personally, I'm fascinated by the idea of a home as something mobile or temporary, perhaps 1,ccause my own cily house i s so much the opposite. Reading this bit, I recalled that, according to the old Chinese texts, Kuhlai Khan's
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with permission from certain key books such as Meaning i n Architecture (ed Charles Jencks and George Baird).The latter contains Aldo van Eyck's fascinating article on the Dogon of Mali, the famous tribe whose houses and villages are embodiments of their cosmology. That really seems to be where Shelter is at: the philosophy, ideology and psychology of building. So I wonder if the attempt to give nitty-gritty practical instructions really works. There are several plans given, for basic sheds and huts such as used t o be advertised along with the corsets on the back o f Radio Times. Perhaps they would give courage to people who aren't used to improvising with wood. Perhaps there are better designs in straight books in your local library, i don't know; I haven't checked out my local library's woodwork section lately. Ih u e d i e two paga on mdking dour, dnd window, dgJir! puol.c ibrar) stufl, surcl) and J pug? un 'Too "inu 1 ip,'. Example 'D.?or hiindlc . . rind J branch . . also good for drawer pulls, coat hooks. You don't have to go to the hardware store for hardware'. I have a love-hate relationship with books which offer 'tips' Real crafsmanship can't be achieved throwh 'tips' and Xandy hints'; on the o*er hand 1 don't really see why when we have bright ideas we shouldn t share them drobnd. Anyway, She/tc'r\ ' 1 nii-i; ln,ok dnd 1 thiink L.oya Kdhn ~ n his d rrcnci'i for taking me, for an afternoon, to a place where I could smell the resin in my nostrils, feel the sawdust on my leans and the axe-blisters on my palms.. until I looked up again to see the sk\ was dark, the streetlamps were on, and I realised there probablv wasn't a sinrle J
Tony Durham
Shelter. Ed Lloyd Kahn. Shelter publications. PO Box 279, Bolinas, California 94924, USA. Available by mail from: Mounliiin Books, PO Box 481 I, Santd Barhiir.1, California 93103. 36 + 606 poit.tg(' and handlingwithin USA. Prcsumiibly co5ts more outside USA.
' C r u e l t y a C r i t i c a l C o n c e p t u a l Contusion.
. ." 7 ? ?
6
Pack
The reason that the techniques describe in here are simple is not because Ibelies that such simplicity will ultimately give us the best technology for living, but because the best andsometimes only teacher is experience and i t is only by becoming involved in the practical nature of these technologies in one way or another that their advantages will become evident. Thi.i involvemeri! ;s ant\ l i l ~ c i~f l the ~ uadaets ffe'.cribed are < as near possible immediately available ti everybody. The development towards an enlightened society cannot be made by specialist groups (who will gain their own vested interests and esoteric knowledge, and who will perpetuate SEPA RA TION) but only with reference to and by the complete involvement of people as a whole can we build a matun society whose members can live togethe fully and peacefully.
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Nant-Gwilw, Llanfynydd, Carmarthen, Wales).
9;
SURVIVAL SCRAPBOOK 5 sets out to centralised and non-destructive generation and uses o f Energy. It's very pleasing to see all or most of the threads of Alternative Energy Technology drawn together in a single work, and the book i s an effort of considerable merit and scope. But it is marred by two faults: poorexploitution of the format, and frequent superficiality. To deal with the less serious fault first; the book's format seems to have emerged from very confused thinking. Enormous amounts o f paper, perhaps half the volume's total, are simply wasted not, for instance, accept any plea 'poetic' justification for the inclusion of a small picture of a man standing on what looks like an oval carpet in the middle of a blank page, followed by two more pages completely blank. In all, ten of the book's 126 A4 size pages are completely blank. The rationale for this is that the space can be used for 'quick additions' (notes) by the reader, an idea which is largely rendered redundant by the fact that the whole volume is also punched for filing in a ring-binder, with a non-numerical indexing system to facilitate additions and extensions. Throughout the book, the actual information density i s strikingly low. Most of the text is hand-lettered, though several different typewriter faces are also used occasionally and there are Page 48
from Raoul Vaneigen I like a great deal, but I question the need to set them out on their own on two A4 pages with about 200 words on each. All these idiosyncracies for me add up to a major access problem-a subtle alienating effect which encourages skimming from one pretty picture to the next. Neither i s it exclusively format shortcomings which evoke this response. One of the criteria for the selection o f information, stated on the opening page, i s that i t should be 'poetic rather than banally convenient'. This unfortunate phrase provides considerable insight into the philosophy of the book. Most, though not all, sections lack the depth and precision that technical readers tend to expect. Of course this can be countered by saying that the 'Survival' series is not intended for technical readers, but i t is surely intended forpractical readers, and few of the articles contain enough 'meat' to get a project o f f the ground without iirther reading. Those who are content merely to daydream about AT may find a great deal in the 'Scrapbook' to whet their appetites, but i n most cases practica1 action would require recourse to some o f the books listed in the excellent bibliography. Ă&#x201A;ÂŁ1.5 however seems a high price to pay even for a first-rate book list. I f this criticism seems harsh,
consider the ins parabolic sunlight-reflector below: 'Plywood knife edges of parabolic curvature are use (sic) to shape wet sand in a box by rotating them aboui a central pivot. Wet plaster is then carefully poured into the sand moulc A hollow plaster mould is made In this way. Removed from the sand i t smoothed until perfect. This mould is then used to make a glassfibre (grp dish into which may be stuck small mirrors or 'orange peel sections o f metalised plastic '. This i s accompanied by a diagram w h i d (at least to me) i s totally baffling. However the prize for obscurity must go to a single rhetorical (?) question accompa ing a picture o f a working elephant in the 'Animal Power' section: 'Cruelty a critical conceptual confusi In short, the 'Energy' scrapbook trie! to cover too much territory in too few words and the author underestimates th sheer difficulty of writing a clear exposition that anyone can understand. Balanced against this, of course, is the terrific range o f topics that are touched on and the size o f the mass audience thr it is going to reach. The annoying thing is that with so much space available many of the worst difficulties could ha^ been overcome and we might have had a standard 'soft energy' textbook of lasting value and importance. David Gardiner
Abacus, A-bomb... Part-works have, in the last ten years, become very much part of British blishing, and Marshall Cavendish i s e o t their most experienced producers. nd Alive was probably the most ccessful such publication so far, and successor How I t Works has a very ofessional feel. The work takes the paedia of 'invention, chnology', proceeding alphabetically that parts one and two (the traditiondoublesize first issue rip off) get as as Alkaline Earth Metals. Science, course, cannot be treated i n this way ithout plentiful lack o f cohesion, and a way of learning science How It i s pretty much a non-starter. e real interest in How I t Works for mmon freaks must be as a guide to ual things to make or do, and the l i s t contents shows plenty o f useful devicfrom the abacus on out. But here ain the magazine meets identity oblems, this time concerning the tual amount of detail given A fine ample of this is the very second item the book, A-bomb. (And let's in passing, hope that entries by alphabetical order o f abbreviation will be discontinued). This consists of an 0-level Physics coverage of nuclear fission, a lot of history of the bomb and a magnificent photograph of the remains of Nagasaki, but only a few hundred words, less than a third o f the total, on the actual working of the device, 5 0 that yone really wanting to understand, t alone make a bomb would hardly be nearer after reading the feature than re. Even i f the entire bomb feature merely astunt for the press, as i t s r ificial placing in the first issue would gest, it all bodes badly for How It rk's chances as a 'make it' guide. Later in the first two issues things improved, wever, with very informative features n aircraft engines, radio antennae and en accumulators.
It remains t o be seen, then, how useful How It Works will be asa guide to making things, But what competition does it have for the amateur wanting to put a few useful devices together? Surprisingly little, would seem t o be the answer. The main opposition is the Universal Encyclopaedia of Machines, at about one-twentieth the price, from Paladin. Of course, it's a good deal smaller but wins hands down for directness ani general usefulness. It lacks the quite splendid photographs of How I t Works, but this is probably more than compensated for by the lack of the latter's quite ghastly taste in twee pastel shades for the line diagrams; one colour would have been much preferable. The content of How It Works is difficult to assess, stuck very badly between detail and background coverage, and between technology and the need to compete with i t s rival A l l About Science, which has now been running nearly a year. Although a book on general science, or on technology, or an early inventions would tell you more about any specific item, it may well be that the finished product will be far more interesting than any or all of these. The best idea, i n fact, is probably to wait until the last part has appeared, when a series o f books o f bits may well appear, culled from the encyclopaedia. This could be by far the cheapest and most useful way of getting what you want o f the book unpolluted by biographies of Tycho Brahe or flight control plans of Heathrow. Martin Ince
r r r r r r r ? r r r r
I
How I t Works Marshall Cavendish; 98 weekly parts from January 1974, 30p each (total
Page 49
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ally-decompressed. In another experiment a ton of the explosive ice, in granulated form, was dropped into a thundercloud from an aircraft. The aircraft then turned round, and fired an air-to-air missile into the slowly
through the mass of ice, and is am fied by the explosion of each tiny bub it touches. Changes of bubble size : density alter the shock wave velocity these parameters are made to vary i smooth manner through a specimen i possible to obtain curved wavefronts: focussing effects. A cylinder of ice % an 'extra-fizzy' core acts as a hoU, charge, and easily penetrates W arm( plate. If damping is introduced, for ex pie by adding sawdust to the gas/w: mixture before freezing it under press' the shock wave is no longer able propagate, and the explosive scan the well-behaved slow 'burning' cha teristics of the 'propellent' type of plosive. A small ice-fuelled rocket re: ed a height of five miles above Dread. test site in the Outer Hebrides. Daed; is fascinated by the negative feedb which governs the rate of dissolutioi ice-and-sawdust mixture. If excessive^ sure builds up in the rocket's 'corn! tion' chamber, the force of each bubble explosion is diminished and correspondingly less effective in pro'
falling cloud of granules in order to detonate them. The simultaneous release of a large volume of extremely cold air, and an abundance of tiny ice nuclei into the cloud led to a brief cloudburst after which the storm rapidly cleared. The amount of energy that can be crammed into a given volume of ice before it explodes spontaneously is limited by the small tensile strength of pure ice. Dreadco scientists have found that they can make safer-or alternatively more powerful-forms of ice explosive by incorporating short-staple carbon fibres as reinforcement. Studies of the physics of the explosive process revealed that a shock wave travels
ing further bubbles t o burst. Daedalus has discontinued researd the explosive forms of ice-gas mix since he is worried about its mili implications, but he is pushing into c mercial production with 'low-press forms which don't explode. One suc a shaving tablet, consisting of fro foamed soap solution. A month's sh take up no more space in the d freeze than a tin of trozen orange ji The tablet is wiped lightly over beard, whereupon it deposits a tk even coat of lather, and at the s time chills the skin so that each bi stands up perpendicularly to meet razor.
IMy cryoballistic friend Daedalus notes with interest the report (Novosti Information Service, 13.3.73) that Russian scientists in the Antarctic have discovered an explosive form of ice which is saturated with bubbles of compressed air. A similar material was prepared some time ago at Dreadco's laboratories, and tested in several applications where conventional explosives were unsuitable in view of the heat and poisonous gases they generate. Small charges inserted into the roots of rotten teeth were used for instant and almost painless extractions, The Dreadco explosive can also be used for extinguishing oil gushers, with far more reliable effect than dynamite. Daedalus points out that the cooling effect of the ice is relatively unimportant cornpared with the Joule-Thomson cooling which occurs when the micro-bubbles of air are explosively-and hence adiabatic-
journalism" tean at work on a reci Scientist. 'Produi ion of OS has bee
d o not appear to
is p u b l i s h e d e v e r y t w o m o n t h s by VNDERCL'RREN FS L i m i t e d , 275 F i n c h l e y R o a d , London NW3, E n g l a n d , a d e m o c r a t i c n o n - p r o f i t c o m p a n y , l i m i t e d b y G u a r a n t e e and not h a \ ing s h a r e c a p i t a l . P r i n t e d a t SW L i t h o , C o r b r i d g c C r c s c o n i London EL.