From: Patrick Salsbury (salsbury_at_sculptors.com)
Date: 10/08/98
Message-Id: <3.0.3.32.19981008142244.006f7408@mailhost.sculptors.com> Date: Thu, 08 Oct 1998 14:22:44 -0700 From: Patrick Salsbury <salsbury_at_sculptors.com> Subject: Re: Construction of first sphere
This one went directly to Bill only. I'm re-posting to the whole list.
Pat
>Date: Thu, 08 Oct 1998 14:11:00 -0700
>To: Bill Marsh <bmarsh_at_v-wave.com>
>From: Patrick Salsbury <salsbury_at_sculptors.com>
>Subject: Re: Construction of first sphere
>In-Reply-To: <3619DCB4.579351F6_at_v-wave.com>
>
>At 02:10 AM 10/6/98 -0700, you wrote:
>>Well, I finally decided to contribute. I'm curious about a couple
>>things about regulating the Fe+3 concentrations. I know that the
>>tolerance of the average human is 0.3 ppm of Fe+3 in drinking water, I'm
>>curious if anyone knows the LD50, etc for fish. My only concern is that
>>the reaction process may go too quickly and cause a local saturation of
>>Fe+3 which may go beyond the tolerance of fish that may wander too close
>>to the experiment. But I guess this solely depends on the amount of
>>scrap that is placed near/in the spheres.
>>
> That I'm not sure of. I wanted to run some tests in on-ground tanks where we could pump in fresh seawater (ie - fresh minerals) and see how well the algae can keep up with things. I've got a snippet where some researchers dumped iron into the water and noticed a huge algae bloom. I'm not sure if the timescale was hours, days, or weeks, though. It could be that it's quite quick, providing a rich source of foodstuff for fish. We'll need to test that, though.
>
> I'll post the other snippet in a separate note...
>
>
>> My other concern is that Fe2O3 will be produced and deposit on the
>>scrap metals reducing current flow. Some sort of process will have to
>>be made to monitor the scrap metal and watch for this so the 'rust' may
>>be removed to maximize the use of the scrap.
> Actually, this won't happen. In my small-scale tests a few years ago, I discovered that the electric current actively drives the rust off the metal, and it stays shiny while continuing to emit Fe ions into the water. It was only when I pulled the metal out of the water and let it sit in air for a few days that it started to rust...
>
>> I really like the ideas that I see coming out of here. I'm not all
>>that experienced in the actual functioning on the project of yet, but
>>I'm catching on. But I'll put in my two bits here and there...
>>Something I can actually apply my recently obtained Chemistry degree to
>>I guess... heheheh
>>
> Sounds good! And there's a lot of other things in the Reality Sculptors Project that will require chem knowledge. I don't have a degree in it, but I'm fascinated, and do read some chem books on my own just to understand what's going on, and what's possible. Have been considering pursuing a chem degree. Still not sure I have the bandwidth for it, though...
>
>