From: The Butterfly (salsbury_at_bootstrap.sculptors.com)
Date: 04/29/98
Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 13:07:47 -0700 Message-Id: <199804292007.NAA17591@bootstrap.sculptors.com> From: The Butterfly <salsbury_at_bootstrap.sculptors.com> Subject: Re: floating houses / floating villages
-Date: Tue, 28 Apr 1998 17:03:00 -0400 (EDT)
-From: Brian Sherman <bs_at_TheMatrix.Com>
-
-On Tue, 28 Apr 1998, o g wrote:
-
-> The necessity to go it alone will diminish rapidly, I think. A
-> groundswell of dissatisfied terrestrians will surely want to participate.
-> Wire mesh might not be bad, but how much is a 100' Hoberman sphere? -vs-
-> How much have the various agencies spent on publicity and phone bills
-> over the past 10 years (or even 3) ? Also I'm curious as to whether or
-
-Man, we're talkin' a car battery and some chicken wire here. Why should
-the root of this project (basically a homegrown houseboat to be HQ and
-ground zero) run more than $100? Really.
It probably won't run more than $100. In fact, I'm going to stop
and get some mesh and can probably start something for $10, just to prove
the concept. But there are a few other considerations:
Batteries don't last. Basically, you'd be hooking up a car
battery, in a circuit, to the ocean. How long does it take to drain a car
battery? Not very long. And the ocean is a pretty big energy sink, so it'd
suck the power out quicker than just leaving your headlights on.
So you have to have consistant power. Not a problem if you've got
a dock (which is where I'll be trying this), but in open water, you need a
boat with power, or you need solar. Both cost money.
Most importantly, at least where I am, you just might need
permission to do this, which could be really F-ing hard to get, where I
am, for a large construct. Santa Cruz is part of the Monterey Bay National
Marine Sanctuary, which means you can't catch any wildlife, can't harm any
wildlife, etc.
As a scuba diver, and wildlife buff, I think this is great. But
when I consider myself calling up someone and saying "Umm...Hello? I'd like
to dissolve tons of steel into the ocean and build a huge city just
offshore...would you mind?" I shudder to think of the response, or the EPA
hassles.
For quick, small tests, no problem. The amount of iron will be less
than that rusting off the bottoms of ships and anchor chains and piers. But
to really start on a big city, we're probably going to have to get to
international waters, and that's going to take a bit more planning than
$100 and some chicken wire.
-Is it possible to get to work, and then refine concepts? JFC, I wish
-there was salt water near me instead of 2 dirty crappy rivers.
-
-Brian
Yes, I just got a note back from my friend with the boat slip. He's
jazzed by the concept, and we're going to start work almost
immediately. (I'm planning on picking up mesh at the hardware store today,
actually.)
You *can* do electrodep in fresh water, but it doesn't have as much
dissolved in it, so the results are less. I did it in my kitchen about 2-3
years ago. Just in a plastic dishpan with water I kept changing. But having
it in running water allows you a constant supply of fresh minerals.
Oh, one other thing. Apparently copper is extremely poisonous to
(at least) freshwater fish, so you want to keep it out of streams, etc. It
may also be bad for plants. But looking at Table 6.1 again, I see total
copper in the oceans is more than total iron (1.32x10^8 Cu vs. 7.27x10^7
Fe) I'm not sure what to make of that. Perhaps it's only bad for freshwater
fish, or perhaps it's only poisonous in high concentrations, which we'd be
making if we used it in electrodep.
Pat
___________________Think For Yourself____________________
Patrick G. Salsbury - http://www.sculptors.com/~salsbury/
Check out the Reality Sculptors Project: http://www.sculptors.com/
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