Undercurrents 05 Winter 1973

Undercurrents 05 Winter 1973 Page 1
UC05: page 1
UNDERCURRENTS, the magazine of radical science and alternative technology [ISSN

0306 2392], was published from London, England, from 1972 to 1984 [No. 60]. This text
version has been created in 2006-8 by me, Chris [Hutton-]Squire [a member of the now-
dissolved Undercurrents Collective], by OCRing scanned images of a print copy; the text
has been spell-checked but it has NOT been checked against the original.
Health & Safety Warning: The practical, technical and scientific information herein
[though believed to be accurate at the time of publication] may now be out of date.
CAVEAT LECTOR!
The many stories that Undercurrents told will interest students of a period that is both too
distant and too recent to be adequately documented on the Web. The moral, philosophical,
social, economic and political opinions herein remain, in my opinion, pertinent to the
much more severe problems we now face.
Readers who wish correspond on any matters arising are invited to contact me via:
chris[at]cjsquire.plus.com
This pdf version is formatted in 15 pt Optima throughout, so as to be easily readable on
screen; it runs to 97 pages [the print versions were 48 - 56 pp.]: readers wishing to print it
out to read are recommended to get the text from the .doc or text versions and to reformat
it. The many pictures that embellished the print version are sadly not included here. There
are no restrictions on the use of this material but please credit individual authors where
credit is due: they are mostly still with us.
Page numbers below are for this pdf version. The beginning of each section or article is
indicated thus:
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
From Class War Comix #1.

Scroll down to Contents Page . .
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Undercurrents Winter 1973 CONTENTS

Peter Harper: Transfiguration among the Windmills ............. 7
Pat Coyne: The Sunship: Towards a Peoples· Airship ....… 17
George Woolston: Big Dams Cast Dark Shadows .................. 25
Peter Harper: Class War Comix ....… 18
Jerome Black: Velikovsky: State of the Debate ....… 38
Letters ................... 51
New Alchemy Institute: Three Ways to Work up Wind Watts ....… 57
John Wood: Technology for Decentralisation [not included]
Steve Cook: Lyle·s Golden Gasmask ....… 60
Paolo Soleri: lnterview [not included]
Steve Baer Canned Heat: A Solar House ....… [not included]
Sion Corn: Hic...Cups ............. 65
Martin Lockett: The Plastics Not for Burning ....… 67
Tony Durham: Why The Pentagon Loves Pure Research ....… 75
Methane· Fuel of the Future ................... 77
Tony Durham: Inner Space Scientific Expedition 1973 ....… 80
David Gardiner: Car Batteries and Enthusiasm ....… 82
Godfrey Boyle: . . And Sex and . . ....… 85
David Gardiner: Can You Repeat Your Message, Please? ....… 87
Patrick Rivers: Self·Sufficiency .......... 90
Tony Durham: Snap Judgments ......…. 92
Mike Grey: Double Vision? Second View ....… 93
Subscriptions ......…. 95
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Our Phase 3 Policy for Undercurrents
WHEN Undercurrents first started, back in January 1972, our aim was to
produce a quarterly magazine consisting of articles on radical scientific
and technological subjects,printed, where possible, by the people writing
them and collated into the "common carrier" of a plastic bag. In May
1972, we experimented with a cellophane bag, but found it wasn·t strong
enough and anyway was non·reusable, so we went back to
much·maligned polythene.
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Meanwhile, in the Autumn of 1972, we decided to print our news

section, EDDIES, separately, and mail a copy each month to our
subscribers. It seemed like a good idea at the time· as indeed it was. But,
perhaps predictably, we found that EDDIES was taking up a
disproportionate amount of our very limited time, with the result that
both EDDIES and Undercurrents have suffered from chronic production
delays. And when you consider that EDDIES still has to be collated,
folded, stuffed into envelopes and addressed entirely by hand, for reasons
of economy, it isn·t too surprising that our all·volunteer workers haven·t
always been able to deliver the goods.
As for the polythene bag, well, people seem to have loved it or hated it in
almost exactly equal numbers. And although we still think it·s a good
idea, we feel that Undercurrents would have to turn itself into an entirely
different kind of glossy, expensive magazine to be able to pay
contributors the cost of producing inserts. What we·ve found up to now is
that while many people are keen to send us "paste·ups" of their articles
for us to print in the magazine, almost no·one has come along and
spontaneously offered ready·printed material for inclusion. Those inserts
that we have carried in the past have all, without exception, been
requested by us. The reason for peoples· lack of enthusiasm for the insert
idea is fairly obvious: inserts cost money to print, and contributors,
understandably, would rather we did the paying.
So, to cut a long story short, we·ve recently been going through what·s
commonly known as an "agonising re·appraisal". We sincerely apologise
to our long·suffering readers and subscribers who must have thought
we·d decided to fold without telling them. First of all, we·ve decided to
abandon the polythene bag format · thought we·re still toying with the
idea of occasional, special publications in ·bag· form. Secondly, we·ve
resolved to cut the number of mailings down from a (theoretical) 16 a
year to six, re·incorporate EDDIES into Undercurrents, and produce the
thing as a conventional magazine. Incidentally, this should mean that a
lot of bookshops will start stocking the magazine: quite a few · Collett·s
of London, for example ·have refused to take it in its polythene bag
incarnation. It·ll take us a while to get geared up to bimonthly
publication, so the first issue of Undercurrents·Phase 3 [= UC06] won·t
be out until the end of February, 1974.
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About That Cover Price Increase: Let·s talk about the financial state of
the magazine first. As of the end of October, the magazine as a whole
had run up a deficit of around £70. We owe the bank about £80, and
£50 or so in bills. The cost of "servicing" our 400 subscriptions is
roughly £360. Our "assets" are in the rather dubious form of money
owed to us by bookshops, and from copies still to be sold, which
should come to around £420. eventually.
The major reason for the deficit is that we·ve had to pay more for printing
EDDIES than we originally estimated for, and we·ve also had to pay more
to airmail it abroad, because the weight exceeds the first half·ounce,
airmail step. Trivial errors, you might think, but cumulative, and fatal if
allowed to continue unchecked. Another important cause of decreased
income has been the bigger·than·budgeted cost of sending copies out to
bookshops Many people don·t realise that we have to give bookshops a
33!% discount on every copy, and that it costs at least 3p per copy to
send copies, in bulk, to many bookshops. Which leaves us a mere 133P
income from each book shop·sold copy ·· if we ever get ;t, At a cover
price of 35p, however, we should have an income of around 20p per
copy, and we may, in addition, be able to get
a distributor to handle the magazine eventually. Distribution companies
take at least 50% of the cover price of a magazine, which would leave us
with 17·p · not much, but enough. Subscription prices, you·ll observe, are
only rising slightly in the UK, and staying the same for overseas
subscribers. That·s because postage, envelopes, invoicing and so on costs
us much less, proportionately, than the discounts that booksellers and
distributors require.
If you feel that 6 UNDERCURRENTS a year isn·t what you bargained for,
let us know and we·ll refund your subscription, less the cost of copies
already sent. But stick with us and we·re sure you·ll agree that you·re
getting your money·s worth, especially bearing in mind that we have no
subsidy from advertising or anywhere else. If you think about it, 35p
every two months is only 4p a week!
Small Ads: It is Undercurrents policy not to carry display advertising, but
we do include small ads as a service to readers. Small Ads cost Ip per
word, up to a maximum of 150 words (bigger ads by arrangement), and
must be pre·paid. Small Ad Copy Date for the next issue is January 26,
1974. Copy date for feature material for the next issue is Saturday,
January 19th. For news in the EDDIES section, the deadline is Saturday,
February 2nd.
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THIS UNDERCURRENTS was designed and edited by Sally and Godfrey

Boyle. The reviews editor was Tony Durham. Joy Watt and Moggs set the
type, helped out by Ann Miller and by Dorothy at Metro, where they
looked after the mail.
John Daniels and George Bowden and all at the Russell Press can take
the credit for the printing, and for waiting so long for their money.
Every Wednesday, a dedicated band of workers came round to help with
tasks great and small. Their names include David Gardiner, Peter Harper,
Chris Ryan, Martin Lockett, Charlie Clutterbuck, Alan Dalton, Hugh
Saddler, Sooty, John Prudhoe, and many others, all of whom should have
statues erected to them in Westminster Abbey. Equally invaluable, in their
own peculiar ways, were Pat Coyne (crookedest paster ·upper in the
West) the ever·resourceful Ant Schtoll, Lyn Gambles (thanks for the VW,
luv), and Peter Young who tried gallantly.to bend the Companies Act to
suit the needs of a crazy magazine.
Figures in the background whose help and encouragement are
appreciated include John Cima, Alan Campbell, Geoff Watts, Nigel
Thomas, Phil Reardon, Stan Gooch, Trux and May at the Catalog and
Peter Paladin Sommer. There must be many others whose names should
also be mentioned. Please forgive us for forgetting you in the rush.
All contributions gratefully received

UNDERCURRENTS welcomes contributions from its readers, either in the
normal typewritten form, or in the form of "pasted-up" artwork. If you do
send us pasteups, though, please make sure that the proportions of your
artwork are such that it can be reduced to A4 size.
Line drawings, tables, and so on must be in black ink on a white
background. If they aren·t, our printers have hysterics, and we usually
have to re·draw them. Typescripts should be double-spaced, and on one
side of the paper only ·otherwise,they are very difficult to edit, and even
harder to typeset. If you must send handwritten copy, please write as
legibly as you can, and leave reasonable spacing between lines. Please
remember also that photographs may have to be cut before they can be
reduced to fill the space on a page allocated to them. So if your
photograph is valuable and you don·t want it messed about, please write
a note prominently on the back to that effect. These points may seem
niggling, but you·d be amazed at how much time and effort woUld be
saved if everyone observed them. OK? UNDERCURRENTS can also
accept inserts" for insertion into the envelopes in which subscription
copies are mailed. Obviously, there are limitations on the amount of
weight we can add to each mailing, so please contact us before sending
any inserts. We·ll try to include as much as we can, though.
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• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
3·4 Harper Transfiguration among the Windmills
WHEN MUGGERIDGE went over to the side of God and the Angels. there was great
rejoicing, no doubt, among the Lord Longfords and the Mary Whitehouses that this
inveterate cynic had rejected his evil ways and begun to believe in all the things he·d been
so successfully knocking for all those years. Likewise, when Peter Harper starts claiming that
"Alternative Technology is Dead", there are likely to be knowing smiles in Establishment
circles. But before they start offering him Shell directorships, maybe they·d better read this
article. For it·s not so much that AT is dead: it·s more a question of tactical withdrawal and
re·grouping in preparation for an even more powerful attack on the technocracy. Watch this
space for
further details
…
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I CAN HARDLY bring myself to say it. It feels like kicking my

grandmother. But pass the word friends . .I think . . AT IS DEAD. It was a
wonderful dream, and we, the children of Hamlin. followed it dancing
through the streets. I·m glad we did. On the walls of Parts in 68 they
wrote "The revolution which is beginning will call into question not only
capitalist society but industrial society . We are inventing a new and
original world. Imagination is seizing power." Imagination is seizing
power. I always find such romantic bullshit irresistible. as do many of us.
Combine that weakness with our faith in what. for all our protestations,
we all believe to be the real god of the Universe ·science ·and you have
an idea whose appeal is irresistible. Well, it·s led me a merry dance for
three years. and now it·s time to move on. Just to get it out of my system,
I am going to recount my own experience of the idea as it developed up
to the conference of Alternative Technology at Laurieston Hall in
Scotland, October 1973. I was then going to outline what we should do,
and to show that in realty AT is not dead but transformed into something
else. But Undercurrents is only so big, and that will have to wait for
another time.
Remember the beginnings of the ecology movement? In the 60·s it
became fashionable to worry loudly about population growth. pollution
and depletion of natural resources. By the 70·s this had grown to quite a
substantial middle·class movement in which apocalyptic rhetoric seemed
quite appropriate. I for ODe was convinced that Armageddon was not far
away; advanced industrial society was leading the world to ruin. whether
bang·type or ",whimper·type I wasn·t quite sure. but anyhow it looked
pretty nasty. In 1970 there was a conference at Imperial College called
"Threats and Promises of Science". which somehow Never got round to
the promises. That doughty old Stalinist Eric Burhop valiantly defended
the gods of science, but it all fell on deaf ears.
Ted Roszak was the hero of the hour, and we sat there chilled and
enthralled as he quietly anathematised the whole technical culture. We
were all set for a pathetically JoYous return to the Stone Age. Later that
year a band of Luddite desperadoes. including Robin Clarke. Jerry Ravetz.
Kit Pedler, Gustav Metzger. David Dickson and Piers Corbyn met to
discuss the matter. Robin Clarke wrote a little paper called "The Third
Alternative". Yes, be said, the future of industrial society
was . . .catastrophic, but negotiating a transition to the stone age
seemed. a bit tricky. What was needed. was indeed a Third Alternative"
that would give us the best of both worlds. And Science and Technology?
Well, yes, but a new science and a new technology; a new worldview
which ·d integrate objective knowledge with subjective experience,
reflect our real dependency on the natural world and incorporate the
canons of the new eco·socialist morality; and a new array of tools and
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techniques that would:

operate on low amounts of energy; not irreversibly disperse
nonrenewable resources; use local and easily accessible materials:recycle
materials locally: not produce waste products at a greater rate than they
could be absorbed by the natural cycling processes; not liberate novel
chemical compounds in more than trace amounts; fit in with existing
culture patterns: satisfy those who operate it; lend itself to control by
those who operate it; have safeguards against misuse.
Far out· At this point we had also coined the term "soft technology".
copied with ironic intent from the then current wave of detergent adverts
for "New· Soft· DAZ" etc. Evidently a lot of other people had a similar
idea because the name is now very \\;widely used and I can hardly
believe it diffused from that group.
Then I went to the States and met various groups like the New Alchemists
who were into the same sort of thing. but in a more practical way. That
looked real enough. The rumour machine was working overtime.
Anecdotes and snappy statistics about the collapse of American society
and the world ecosystem circulated endlessly. along with heady stories
about the massive yields on this or that organic farmstead or the willing
megawatts that could be magicked from backyard windmills at the flick
of a screwdriver. It all seemed so right.
When I got back I managed to wring some money out of UNESCO to do
a report on Soft Technology in which I tried to systematise the case for AT
research. I argued that the potential problems of industrial societies
(resources. environment, "alienation" etc.) were insoluble with big·scale
technology and needed small·scale stuff. At the same time I argued. that
development in the Third World could not succeed with the current type
of capital·intensive technology and also needed small·scale stuff ·
intermediate technology a la Schumacher, in fact. What a beautiful
picture· a universally valid kind of technology applicable to all regions of
the world which solved physical (resources, environment) and social
(alienation in all its forms. capital accumulation etc.) problems with
equal ease. The philosophers· stone had nothing on this.
There was, of course. a problem in distinguishing "soft" from other
technology. Is there a clear test for softness? Compare it with intermediate
technology. You can look at an equipped workplace. ask "is it
intermediate?" and answer yourself by determining the capital cost. If it·s
less than say £300. then you could say clearly. according to that criterion.
it was. With soft technology
it was all done by an intuitive sense of appropriateness, roughly gauged
by the standard benchmarks of wind, sun. methane. rammed earth,
waterwheels. compost heaps, free· range hens and a partridge in a pear
tree. As soon as I say this you note the ecological influence.
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Environmental impact was one area in which you could )X>possibly

measure "softness". and I was considerably influenced by Nick
Holliman·s unpublished paper "Towards an .Ecologically· Based
Technology", in
which he argued that once the criteria of ecological stability were
satisfied then everything else followed (including "liberation from
drudgery", "independence from large production units", "political
self·sufficiency", "freedom from manipulation by elites" etc.) Even I
couldn·t go that far. and felt you had to wire in all the desirable political
aspects separately. but I couldn·t help being attracted by the tangibility of
ecological criteria. This ecological bias was reinforced by meeting Andy
MacKillop, who used the term "biotechnics" to describe the kind of
groovy all·purpose technology he wanted.
Andy and I organised a meeting in February 1972 at University College
called "Alternative Technologies". I think that was the first time the term
had been used publicly. I can·t remember why we chose it, but probably
it was something to do with the associations that the word "alternative"
had picked up during the 60·s (is that right Andy?) The meeting was a
shambles, but a lot of eager people were there and some prophetic things
happened in the general discussion. I particularly remember the plaintive
cry, "what·s all this about revolution? I came here to talk about
windmills."
No comment. The papers later printed up In the "proceedings" gave a
nice overview of where alternative technologies were at in the fields of
economic development. food, medicine. bits of politics. and in theory.
Robin Clarke·s paper "The Soft Technology Research Community" (later
reprinted in Undercurrents 2) was particularly significant and influential.
It put forward a plan for AT research based in a community specially set
up for the purpose. guided by the principle "Technology valid for all men
for all time" (Parenthetical note from Lyn Gambles. proofreader: "and
women?"). Perhaps the most valuable part of the paper was a table
contrasting features of "hard technology society" with ideal features of
"soft technology society".
It was outrageously partial. but unrivalled as a kicking·off for discussion.
Undercurrents. too. started that month, and I think Street Farmer around
that time as well. In the States. Alternative Sources Of Energy was getting
off the ground. and Whole Earth Catalog, Mother Earth News and New
Alchemy Institute Bulletin had been around for some time. Many of us
had read Bookchin·s famous "Towards a Liberatory Technology". but
judged it not sufficiently neo·primitive. Later that year. there was a
meeting at the Poly of Central London but nothing came of it; then there
was the UN conference in Stockholm and an exhibition of "People·s
Technology" and nothing came of that either, except to learn what
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incredible effort is required to get such things together.

One spinoff from that was an attempt to further define the scope of AT
which became the Undercurrents "Guide to Sources and Contacts in
Alternative Technology", published in No. 3:"not only the relations of
production, but the means themselves must be changed". Alph Moorcraft
did his special issue of Architectural Design on "Designing for Survival"
and the RIBA had its conference on the same topic. The first Survival
Scrapbook was published. The Street Farmers at last found a patch of turf
and started to build Street Farm House (nee Eco House). and a group in
Sheffield started Rad·Tech·inPact (nee Communal Factories). There was an
inconsequential meeting in Leatherhead, and another in Richmond.
It was good. to see the brethren together, and to hear about all the plans
and projects. but it was difficult to do anything collectively. There was no
organisation except when anyone felt like inviting everyone else to be
somewhere at some time. Terminology was important: there was no
"group"; there were no "meetings"; simply "gatherings of enthusiasts".
Suddenly paranoia gripped the air. Things got so bad that whoever
convened a meeting would feel obliged to stay away. lest they be
suspected of power·tripping. be suspected of power·tripping. A final
meeting at the half·finished Eco·House in pouring rain during a tube
strike finally depressed the enthusiasts enough to close things down for
the winter.
Shortly after that, I was invited as a token hairy·freak· and· angry· young·
man to a rather poncey conference in Paris on "Appropriate Technology
for Development". Trying to explain to very straight development
economists and international civil servants just why we should be doing it
here and not out there in the Third World· which· doesn't· know· any·
better was not easy, because they didn't share any of my assumptions. It
became perfectly clear that I didn't know what my assumptions were
either: I just took them for granted. So I wrote a paper in which I tried to
set down the assumptions of the AT movement". A very cathartic process.
If you look at a list of typical goats of AT as set out in the "Guide" (UC 3),
you can see that there's no particular reason why favouring one goal
should oblige favouring another. Neither is there any reason to think that
a technology compatible with one goal would also help achieve another.
At least I found I couldn't think of any reasons except that I liked them
all.
Actually, they tend to conflict, e.g. for a given output an ecologically
"clean" technology win often require · resources, be more complex, and
more expensive. More anon about this. That means we are either split
into many groups having conflicting aims, or else we attempt to devise a
set of priority rules which will resolve conflicts among the various goals. I
ask you, are we ever likely to agree on such a set of rules? Furthermore,
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we are also divided along many other lines, such as political assumptions
("I didn't come here to talk about revolution"), various moral standpoints
(e.g. small communities set up for their own sakes, or those with wider
social intentions), cultural styles (straights and freaks) and so on. The ideal
of a unified movement seemed hopeless. The impression had anyway
only been created by the belief that all the goals were compatible, and
technical systems could be found to serve them all. I tried to salvage
some of the idea by defining "soft technology" as the common area of a
number of different "alternative technologies", but I had no grounds for
believing that this common area really existed.
I ended up thinking it was still worth having a go. Good things were
happening in China, I was reading lots of nice anarchist stuff, and
Crouch, Church and Vale produced their massive 2·volume thesis on "The
Autonomous Servicing of Dwellings". Spring came. BSSRS ran a
conference on "Community Science" (see Science For People No. 20), but
some stray Leninists got the boot in first and everyone went away thinking
Nothing Could Be Done. Andy MacKillop started Low Impact Technology
Ltd.; BRAD folk moved onto their site in Wales. An encouraging meeting
on "Science Collectives" was held in Sheffield (see EDDIES No.7), and
some real progress was made in discussing problems of self·managed
enterprises. At that time also the Sheffield group started In The Making,
which is probably the most constructive act since the whole thing began.
Shortly after, Andrew Singer convened a meeting in Cambridge (see
EDDIES No.8), and the enthusiasts were subjected to an icy douche from
some members of the Technical Research Division of the Cambridge
Department of Architecture. They were certainly sympathisers, but their
research had turned up some unwelcome data: AT, or at least its
biotechnic branch, is · expensive, at least in its present state of
development. Some details of costs are given in the important paper
"Economics of Solar Collectors, Heat Pumps and Wind Generators" by
Gerry Smith (April 1973). You can't get out of it by saying "I'll do all the
work myselr', because these things take a lot of time and while you're
making windmills or milking the cow, you're neglecting the carrots or
unable to teach the kids how to mend heat·pumps. Time must be counted
if we are to generalise these costs. And another holy cow to the slaughter:
costs of most services tend to increase with decreasing scale, reaching
thei r highest point at the village scale, beloved of many AT freaks, and
dropping slightly for the single dwelling where '10 distribution system is
required. "Autonomous houses" remain expensive. Not much help for the
citizens of Dagenham here.
Meanwhile, AT articles were appearing everywhere. Alternative Sources
Of Energy got better and better and fatter and fatter. EDDIES became a
monthly (well, er .. ) gossip sheet and Went Litho. If you're reading this,
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Undercurrents reached its 5th number. General Books came out (SMALL
IS BEAUTIFUL. SELF·SUFFICIENCY) Special Books came out: Steve
Boulter's Methane Book, published by Andrew Singer. Street Fannhouse
was finished, and was so efficient that the cabbage got heat·stroke (but
you shoutd have seen the tobacco crop·). BRAD was well on its way to
finishing its Jacob to Street Farm's Esau. The Ecologist crowd were well
established as gentlemen organic farmers in Cornwall. Rad·Tech·in· Pact
got £500 from the BIT ideas pool, and the Manchester food coop got
£300. £800 for AT out of £1, 250? Fame at last. Plans for projects
proliferated . Everyone was talking about AT. Some people were actually
making a living out of it (writing about it, that is; surely you didn’t think
… ?)
Then came the A T meeting at Laurieston Hall. Like all AT meetings it was
pretty shambolic. but there were some good discussions in which some
of the disillusioned came in with their hatchets swinging. Mike Reid, one
of the menagerie at Laurieston, proposed a discussion on "the politics of
AT", but when discussion time came he had, significantly, changed it to
"The Technology of Alternative Politics". Some innocent questions: What
are the political implications of the 1001 strands of AT? How could,
would, should technology be organised after the revolution? What role
does it play in bringing about social change? NONE, says Mike ·· or at
least none that we would approve. Capitalism can absorb any A T
hardware and turn it into a profitable commodity. GM can make
windmills at popular prices. Playboy can advertise jock straps made from
soya beans. Chairs of Biotechnics will be endowed in all the best
universities. Knighthoods will be awarded to designers of ecooffice
blocks.
Without politics, AT becomes nothing more than a set of trendy technical
fixes. It's expensive, difficult for ordinary people, inefficient, unreliable;
and monopoly capitalism goes rolling on. Against this, the'biotechnicians
I argued that the environmental situation was so bad that
'biotechnics' (defined as living within your physical and biological
means) was an absolute necessity. The sceptics didn't {eel environmental
problems were ·at all desperate. Neither did they find the idea of simple,
folksy technology particularly appealing in itself. Why not have
computers, power stations, TV, hi·fi sets, and laboursaving devices? What
exactly is the case against them? Why not distribute electricity through a
gridá? When were you last oppressed by the local electricity board? How
much of what you need can you get in a community of 10 ? 100 ? 1000 ?
10, OOO? Make a list of all the things you have in your home. How
many could you do without? How many could you make yourself? How
many are made on a massive scale and would cost five times more made
In any other way?
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To defend AT. all these questions and many others have to be answered
very carefully, and if we are honest I don It think many of us could fully
live out the answers. I think we have to recognise that the old, "unified"
conception of AT is dead. What is biotechnic is not necessarily
non·exploitative or cheap; what conserves resources is not necessarily
fulfilling or interesting to work with; cooperative production is not
necessarily efficient enough to avoid hassles over distribution; what is
simple to manufacture may require great expertise to maintain and be
deadly to use, or vice versa. Our dreams of a magic technology · the
distillation of all our hopes, without any compromises · must be over. We
rejoin the human race, and with it the unavoidable conflicts and tradeoffs
of economics and technology. We have to decide what we want, then
decide what we are prepared to sacrifice for it in terms of things we want
less.
It·s my guess that, faced with the real choices and the real costs, nearly
everybody would opt to stay in the straight society as things are at the
moment. Apparent successes of cheap AT have on the whole been
achieved through hidden subsidies of time or resources which could not
be generalised throughout society. At the moment, only those with very
unusual tastes (such as for Spartan living), or those who place an
extremely high value on environmental purity, or those who think that the
relative positions of "straight and "alternative economics will change
markedly, would find it rational to pay the full cost of ATs.
This last point indicates why ·biotechnics· (or low impact technology) has
been the strongest branch of AT: because there has been a widespread
theory about the long·term incompatibility of industrial
hyper·development and physical and biological constraints. Research
now can be justified in preparation for something expected later. But it·s
not as easy as that, even within biotechnics. Replace a 20 Megawatt
coal·burning power station with 1,OOO x 20 Kilowatt windmills, or
20,000 x 1 kW mills. Is it any environmental improvement? They would
look like pylons with knobs on , need transmission lines anyway to carry
the electricity generated. and would make a fearful noise. (I am reminded
that in Israel, rooftop solar water heaters are considered an eyesore). As
far as resources are concerned, a large number of small windmills will
need far more copper for windings and wiring ( and more lead for
batteries perhaps). The cost would be higher. Safety even might not be
greater: there would be less air pollution. but there would be dangers
from breakdowns of big wind generators. Perhaps it would be better to
spend the extra money on chimney·scrubbers?
As time goes on, fuel prices will certainly go up; windmill designs may
be improved; people may become willing to put up with these creatures
(monsters?) in the countryside, or even to pay for the construction of
UC05: page 14
beautiful old slow·speed mills of farcical efficiency. But to afford that

kind" of inefficiency we would have to be far more than usually efficient
elsewhere. Which means: no AT.
I expect biotechnic research to continue, if only because there·s bound to
be at least a Sunday Colour·supp market for it in the coming decades. I
expect "autonomous housing" research to continue, partly for the same
reasons, partly to meet genuine needs in remote areas, and partly as a
hedge against rising fossil fuel costs. Many people will attempt to build
"eco·houses" to demonstrate a principle of independence or to avoid
exploiting anyone else, but I doubt if these aims will be realised without
hidden subsidies. I pray that someone can prove me wrong. I expect
"appropriate technology" to spread as a concept because it can mean
anything; and I expect Intermediate Technology to gain in credibility as a
continuous spectrum of technologies which are often appropriate to
situations In both developed and undeveloped countries.
As to "Soft Technology" and "Alternative Technology", which are the terms
I have tended to use myself, I think their meanings have got hopelessly
out of control and should be abandoned. Undercurrents Winter 1973
Maybe lOST" should be used as a synonym for biotechnics (Robin
Clarke·s article in Undercurrents 2 was later reprinted in Futures as "The
Biotechnic Research Community") "Alternative Technology" is an
annoying term because it is 50 vague. Anything not orthodox could be AT
· Glaser·s orbiting solar microwave collector. for example. "No, no, we
meant, well. little things. decentralised ... " Then why not call it
small·scale technology, or decentralised technology, if that's what you
mean?
The Stone Age? "Well. no· more sophisticated than that, taking advantage
of modern knowledge". Then do you mean Intermediate Technology. or
perhaps Liberatory Technology a la Bookchin? Now ask: where are the
components made? What training and equipment is needed? What are
the working conditions? Do you have any control over them? The point of
the slogan:"The Technology of Alternative Politics" is: first talk about your
politics, your social goals, your priorities. Then see how they may be
achieved by selecting from the many alternative possibilities the most
appropriate ones for your purposes.
Much of this selection will be "soft in that it will involve organisation
rather than hardware. again involving politics and relationships and
conflicts. Maybe we should call it "AE", Alternative Economics. (Uncle
Karl, don·t laugh). Another name I have been toying with is "freconomics"
(the art of putting poetry into work and still having enough time to go
fishing?). A lot of this has already been said in H D Coster's article After
Soft Technology: an Attempt to Approach a Soft Economy·" in De Kleine
Aarde No 3 ( in Dutch). Nearly finished. Does all this mean its been a
UC05: page 15
waste of time? A lot of people would say so. but I think it has been an
extremely valuable exploration. Our thoughts on AT have oriented us
properly for an effective approach to a different (but related) set of
problems, which I intend to pass on to. but there·s no more space in this
Undercurrents so I·ll have to leave them for the next issue.
The main point in writing all this has been to provoke some stinging
replies; to call forth irrefutable proof that AT is everything we ever
dreamed it was; and that if we would only have faith in the ultimate
defeat of the Big by the Small. aided by the holy trinity of Sun, Wind and
Shit. the first rays of the millennium would burst over the horizon before
you could say "self sufficiency". AMEN
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• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
5·8 Coyne THE SUNSHIP: towards a peoples·
airship
AIRSHIPS as a form of transport always seem to be on the brink of revival.
If it·s
not Werner von Braun threatening to carry Saturn rockets in them it·s
Max Rhynish promising to make every other form of transport obsolete.
On the other hand there seems to be a large groundswell of what we
might call · for want of a better word · the common sense opinion which
suggests that tis not only the airships themselves but also their proponents
who are lighter than air.
This ambivalence in the public mind is a consequence of the myth that
the airship is a dangerous and unreliable machine· liable to explode in
flames any minute. The
archetype is the Hindenburg on May 6th 1937 crashing in flames at
Lakehurst. New Jersey while corning in to land. Yet considered in light of
then existing technology the airship was no more dangerous than
anything else.
Of the 17 large, rigid, machines which flew between the wars 7 crashed.
This compares, if anything favourably, with the 74 aeroplanes of Imperial
Airways which operated over approximately the same period · 34 of them
were wrecked. The record of the Empire class flying boat so beloved by
aviation romantics was disastrous. All of them came to grief in some way.
Even with the Hindenburg, whose wrecking put an end to large airship
development, there remains a large question mark. The usual
explanation, that the fire was started by static electricity, is almost
certainly wrong. It could never have generated the 600 C temperature
necessary to ignite hydrogen. The most likely explanation is sabotage,
probably by a member of the crew who died in the crash. This was
suspected at the time but hushed up because the Nazis did not want the
idea
to get around that anybody disliked them.
Airships have a number of inherent advantages over the airplane, notably
in the environmental field. Airplanes are now a relatively safe method of
transport and, given the comparison with the thirties. there seems no
reason why airships should not be as safe. Over the next few years
we shall hear more from the lighter than air brigade.
The capitalist case
There have been, since the Hindenburg, periodic attempts to revive the
airship as a commercial
UC05: page 17
proposition. More recently the

idea has become more than just a twinkle in some eccentric·s eye.
Serious feasibility studies have been carried out by groups In several
countries into the commercial possibilities of the freight
airship. While differing In their
commercial emphasis and the use envisaged for the airship the studies
have all tended towards one conclusion; that even given the existing level
of technology and the fact that airship engineer_ ing is something of an
unknown quantity, and the further undeniable fact that the fixed wing
aeroplane is a very successful machine with large vested interests behind
it, the airship could be economic.
The basic appeal of airships to the visionary accountant is the prospect of
low direct fuel costs. This
can be illustrated by considering the weight of fuel used per unit payload
distance (w)
W·{D) {WI C (W) (Wpay)
where 0 = drag
W = total weight of airship
W = weight of payload
pay
C = specific fuel consumption of power plant
The estimated J2... for an airship with
W
a length :diameter ratio of 5 are
shown In the graph. Now the
values of W/W for a large jet
pay
are very similar to the airship values while the ratio, O/W is about 0.55.
Consequently the direct operating costs of an airship can be less than a
third of those
of an aircraft. (These figures ignore the fuel cost of trimming
the airship which can alter the picture somewhat.)
Another common factor in the projections of our aeronautical
entrepreneurs Is the scale of their thinking. Ills
big · in fact huge, ranging In size
from 1200 to 2000ft long _ quite the biggest vehicles that have ever been
built.
The reasons for the gigantic ambitions of these gentlemen are twofold.
UC05: page 18
Firstly, as can be seen from the graph, the ratio D/w, and therefore the
fuel costs per unit payload,
fall as the size of the airship Increases. In other words, as always for a
good capitalist, big things are more economical than
Iittle things. The second factor
going for the biggies is revenue potential. An airship carrying 300 tons
and flying at 100mph may carry five times as much as a Boeing 747 but It
goes six times as slow. Therefore In a given time they have about the
same capacity in ton miles and hence In
earning capacity. To keep the
dollars flowing In the airship has to be big.
Commercial proposals are typically for airships in the 1000 ton gross
displacement, 300 ton payload class. The hull designs usually call for the
use of monocoque metal·epoxy sandwich materials. If Helium
Is to be the lifting medium then cryogenic (Helium liquefaction)
buoyancy control is used while If Hydrogen, then burning the excess
is the favoured method. Power plant proposals range from diesel through
jet·prop nuclear power, nearly all employing propellers.
This monster Is the baby of Cargo Airships Ltd. who have developed the
idea of MACS, the merchant Airship Cargo Satellite system. The airship
have a payload of 500 tons, carried in 50 ten ton containers, along routes
between the main European manufacturing centre.s. The routes are all
worked out · you can look them up and see if you·re on one. The
containers are ferried to and from the ship by helicopter. This seemingly
expensive process is necessary because of the flexibility it offers and
because the stresses involved If an airship is connected directly to the
ground, as well as the loss of payload if winches
were carried. Cargo Airships claim" that The tv\ACS system has the
potential to deliver a load virtually any where in Europe within 24 hour
and to be flexible enough to pickup small or even part·container loads en
route. PubIic response to tv\ACS has however hardly been overwhelming
and the whole idea i.s currently undergoing revision.
The American Aereon Corporation have been working on design studies
for the Lifting Body Airship which combines features of both heavier arid
lighter than air machines.
Some say it combines the disadvantages of both. The delta shaped
airship, powered by four turboprop engines,uses Helium to lighten
the airframe. Aerodynamic
lifting forces need then only to be sufficient to support the weight of
payload and fuel. The LBA is claimed to be capable of flying on half
UC05: page 19
power during normal operation:5 and its light wing loading would enable
it to land and take off from small fields, needing a runway length of
5000ft even under full load. Aereon estimate that an
LBA 340ft long could carry 150 ton:5 for 2000 miles cruising at 150
mph, at a direct operating cost of B cent:5 DPr tnn_mi Ip.
The only company now making airships commercially Is the American
Goodyear Corporation. These are blimps. non rigid craft using neoprene
coated Dacron envelopes kept in shape by the internal pressure of the
lifting!: gas. Helium. Since 1917 Goodyear have built 299 airships, most
of them reconnoissance craft for the US Navy. So far they have carried 1
million passengers without a single accident.
Low specific fuel consumption ·e·,therefore low cost, less pollution
The ability to operate from unprepared fields and to hover or travel
Lower capital cost per ton of lift ·
:·th·· .·II.:·_ ·:·I:·_S to some extent
Accepting the need to transport goods and people over relatively long
distances then airships compare well with the possible competition. Over
land these would be road rail and aircraft. Unless speed is to be critical
then aircraft can be ruled out. Road and rail have enormous capital and
environmental costs wrapped up in the infrastructure _ the road surface
and the Iron rails. For a densely populated country
like Britain these may on balance bE justified. If distances are short and
the number of journeys large then the alternative prospect of large
numbers of flying phalluses clogging the sky Is, if anything, less appeal.
ing than Piccadilly Circus in the
_H_L L_
However for relatively unpopulated countries, especially those where a
premium can be put on low energy consumption the picture changes.
Here an airship, economic In operation and needing no prepared ground
facilities, could be the ideal method
of transport. A country like Canada, Australia, the USSR or Brazil might
contain In the future, small, decentrallsed communities unconnected to
each other by ground links, all
____ _1 __ .1 __ L .. _._
Airships also have the better of what might be called the soclo_ aesthetic
aspect of the affair. Airplanes have become. Identified.
In the public mind with a much slower more relaxed era. True there are
certain aristocratic overtones which need be purged before the peoples
airship can take Its place In the sun but rethinking the Image should not
it flies through the air . .
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Accepting the need for all·" transport and the fact that there are a
number of advantages In using airships rather than aircraft two
questions then remain. What
to make it with and what to power It with·>
The question of construction materials depends on the size and function
of the craft. If there were a need
for very large airships then the sandwich type monocoque construction
favoured for the commercial proposals
would be the best bet. At that
sort of size structural and safety considerations virtually dictate the".
rhnirp nf m;llr.,.,..I::.!c:.
For small airships however the question is a great deal more open. The
first thing to decide Is the type of construction, whether rigid or non·rigid.
Perhaps arbitrarily.
I would suggest that the size of airship likely to be used for the transport
of the future is of the order of 100 to 250 feet In length with a 11ft
capacity of from half a
ton to about 5 tons. In this
region the non·rigid, blimp type of craft probably has the edge.
it Is almost certainly lighter, giving more useful 11ft for a given volume of
gas, and It will be cheaper and easier to build. The skin material could be
one of the numerous plastics or, less likely,
.hl ....... .,.."·1 f ...... l1 Tn .... rhniriP nf
lifting medium, between Hydrogen and Helium, Is difficult and would
need to be answered in the actual circumstances of the ship·s
construction. ObvIously Helium
offers better safety prospects
but Its price and the difficulties of providing a practicable. i. e. non
Helium·wastlng, venting arrangement, may make Hydrogen
the only choice. A possible
compromise arrangement would be
a double skinned affair with Helium between the Inner and outer layers
and Hydrogen In the Inner envelope. Any leakage to the outside air
would then be the non hazardous helium.
Having considered the airship so
far from the environmental point
of view one might as well r ponder the question of power plant by asking
a seemingly absurd question. Is powered, directed flight with zero
UC05: page 21
environmental Impact possible?

The answer is yes _ at least in principle.
The source of this apparent breakdown In the law of conserVation
of energy Is that panacea of all
true eco·freaks: the sun. Taking
as an example a blimp of the Goodyear type with approximate
dimensions of 50 metres In length and 10 metres diameter this gives a
maximum solar catchment area. with the ship·=:
long axis at right angles to the sun·s direction, of about 450m2 laking
a value for the mean solar Incident energy of 1.2kW/M this gives a total,
thermal, power reception
of about 540kW.or about 720 horse
power. Compare this with the
shirts engines which are rated at a total of 420 hp. In fact the comparison
is not dependent on
the dimensions of the airshIp since both solar catchment area and power
requirements go up as
the square of the linear dimensions and the proportions always remain
the same.
Of course the figures given above refer to the thermal power intake of
the airship, This does not mean
that 720 shaft horse power or any_
thing like It are available. Conver·sion efficiencies are limited by that old
enemy of the engineer, the second law of thermodynamics, and heat
engines involving something as Inherently delicate as an airship envelope
present peculiar problems. The suggestion given below are only tentative
and most of them are an insult to the second law just ment·ioned,
Furthermore complete
reliance on solar power for propulsion would mean that the airship could
not fly at night and would be decidedly sluggish on cloudy days. But if
one cannot suggest a totally impracticable Idea In Undercurrents where
cary _ one suggest it?
ecodoodlebug
Suggest ion number one I s a sort of slow·motion doodlebug, a rather
large scale pulse·jet engine of the sort made famous by the late lamented
Adolf. It involves a double skin
airship. The Inner skin is the
normal envelope, blackened, while the outer is a transparent, stretchable
light covering. At the front of the ship are vents which can be opened and
UC05: page 22
closed to allow air Into the space between the two layers
and towards the back are more flaps to allow this air to flow into a
venturi at the rear of the ship. The principle of operation is simplicity
itself. Initially all fIaps are closed and the Incident solar energy Is
absorbed on the blackened Inner skin and trapped between the two
layers by the greenhouse effect. This heats up the air between the two
layers causing an Increase In pressure and the outer skin expands to
accommodate
It. At the rlght moment the rear flaps are opened and the air rushes out
through the venturi,transformlng all that lovely pressure energy into
propulsive effort, Exactly the same sort of thing happens when you let go
a balloon without tying the end. When the air has been expelled the rear
flaps are closed and the front opened allowing more air in ,and the cycle
is repeated.
how it works
A: all flaps closed. Solar heat trapped between the layers causes a
pressure increase and the outer envelope expands.
B: rear flaps open .. air rushes out venturi causing airship to be propelled
forward.
steamer
Another possible use of the double skin Idea is to have the all" passing
continuously between the layers and so Increasing In temperature as it
reached the rear of the airship. Here it would pass through a heat
exchanger giving up Its heat to a volatile liquid, water or preferably a
high molecular weight organic liquid. The vapour produced could
then be used to drive a turbine, or perhaps a Stirling engine. The whole
process would be In a closed cycle
to conserve liquid. The main difficulties here are the weight of the
heal exchanger and auxiIiary equipment and the sort of temperatures
necessary to obtain any useful amount of work out of the system. To
transform even 20 % of the solar
energy a final all"" temperature at least 200C is needed, even with a very
efficient heat exchanger and engine. The problem is probably insuperable
for a small blimp but might not be for a much larger
craft where a metal skin would allow much higher temperatures and the
extra weight would not so seriously affect the payload.
reflector
A method which could use very high working temperatures, and
therefore efficiency, If the practical difficulties can be overcome, Is to
build the bottom and top segments of the airship from different materials,
the top half being transparent and the bottom silvered. Rays from the sun
UC05: page 23
would enter the airship and be reflected from the bottom to a line focus
along which runs a metal pipe containing liquid. The boiling of this liquid
provides power as before to run an engine. Strictly speaking the bottom
section should be parabolic to give an accurate focus. This could
probably be obtained by suitable internal guy ropes but if this is
impracticable a secondary reflecting surface could be provided over the
pipe to focus the rays accurately. Theoretically temperatures well in
excess of 1000C can be obtained although no steam generating
equip·ment could handle that sort of temperature. This method is only
really applicable to non rigid airships because of the need for a
transparent skin.
In case anybody is thinking of the nasty nigh technology way of doing
It · sticking a load of solar cells on and using them to run an electric
motor · forget It. It would weigh a ton and cost literally millions.
PAT COYNE
UC05: page 24
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
9·13 Woolston BIG DAMS CAST DARK SHADOWS
WATER · the most abundant compound on Earth, is widely said to be in
shortage. For Britain the "solution" to this problem apparently includes
damming two large sea inlets · the Wash and the Solway Firth. The Lake
District, where Wordsworth walked. will also have to be sacrificed. all
the lakes being dammed and filled to the maximum and emptied every
summer to provide water for the industrial North of England (according to
the British Water Resources Board). This splendid project will provide just
enough water for the projected "demands" of the year 2000. At the same
time the over·populated South·East of England will require damming of
the Severn River and pipelines over the Cotswold bills to replenish the by
then completely;drained Thames.
"Progress". said Dr. (father of the H·bomb) Teller. "cannot and will not be
stopped". The particular form of progress he was referring to is of course
that designed for use by industrial technocracy. which knows of nothing
more sacred than its own carefully nurtured "demands".
In the context of such a definition of progress it is hardly surprising that
the support of human·beings is considered the highest possible use for
Britain·s
wild places. Not even tourism·s demands for scenic landscape can
compete with
the increases in short·term profitability
and political control which have been the sale reason for the
development of the technology of large dam building and large scale
water diversion proJects. Considerations of
health and conservation of the environment are irrelevant to profit and
power motives: however rational and essential, they will always be
rejected as diversions from
the realisation of quick profit.
Water is nowadays nowhere as clean nor as free as it seems. For example,
when combined with money it becomes highly volatile stuff which does
odd things · like now straight through the hands of the people and into
the poCkets of the few. Although waterpower from large dams is
unvaryingly claimed to he about the cheapest source of electric energy in
many parts of the World, it is cheap
only because of the intentional failure of Governments and industry to
fully reckon the social and ecological costs. The large dams are
conceived in a spirit of naive technological utopianism (dangling an
unrealisable utopia in front of the people is a good way to keep them in
bondage and it even works to some extent with
UC05: page 25
the younger engineers). The likely

effects upon local populations are disregarded, particularly · as in the
underdeveloped countries · where they
are unable to exert any political influence. (Many communities
understandably find it hard to agree with the naive hydroengineers that
300 metre high dams are "exciting". )
On a global scale the full cost of such policies may easily be already
exceeding the rather mixed benefits of electricity, the even more dubious
advantages of
good grown in the vast irrigation and flood control schemes by
monoculture methods, and the gratuitous recreation and sporting value of
large artificial reservoirs. The concealed costs take
the form of environmental alteration, destruction, or obliteration (mostly
irreversible). They involve changes in air, water, and land, which affect
water·life, land·life, and finally, but unavoidably, people. (See chart).
Planning
and construction of larger and larger dams in the World has accelerated
during the past twenty years, and goes
on ignoring known concepts of total ecosystems.
Whether you think that this is all the result of bungling short·sightedness
or something more ominous, what the hydrO·industrialists (both
capitalistic
<and state·monopolistic) have been doing
in the short period of their industrial revolution (since the first World war)
is at the very least an over·simple solution to water shortage which
cannot
in the long term replace the intrinsically complicated natural systems.
Disease and. suffering are the undeviating outcome.
underdeveloped COUNTRIES
Increasingly large hydro·projects in the low latitudes have altered
environments in such a way that lower·level, more fertile land is lost in
attempts to cultivate higher, thinner·soiled land at high intensity · so
leading to erosion. The fertile silt which used to flood a delta now settles
in the reservoirs, incidentally causing trouble to the engineer. But clear
and sterile water is led onto the land below the dam, and fertility is
temporarily and dangerously maintained by the use of manufactured
Page 10
fertilizers. Both irrigation schemes and artificial fertilizers are responsible
for the failure of the new Green Revolution high·yield wheat in India.
Large dam projects, by simplifying surface run·off, aid the vectors of
UC05: page 26
disease · notably schistosomiatic blindness, kidney perforation and death.

The artificial lakes become eutrophied (over·enriched with nutrients from
the silt) which means that large fish catches for a year or two are followed
by a collapse of the whole lacustrine ecology with spectacular algal and
plant blooms.
Earthquakes can also be a consequence
of building an artificial lake, and these earthquakes can occur in areas
previously free of all tremors. There have been cases in Koyoa (India). as
well as at Boulder Dam (Colorado,
USA), Monteynard (France), Calatogne (Spain), Kremasts and l\marathon
(Greece)
and at the Kariba Dam (Rhodesia·Zambia). At Koyna, with no previous
history of seismic activity, there was extensive damage to buildings
throughout India,
and the earthquake caused at least 200 deaths in the to\l."II of
Koynanagar about
150 Ion SE of Bombay. A paper presented by an expert at a Congress on
Large Dams in 1967 stated that early tremors were due to "crustal
readjustments" and that "it is gathered that such tremors gradually
decrease over a period of some years
and stop completely. It is hoped that
it will be so here also. II
This hope was unfulfilled. The weight
of the water was the cause of an earthquake of magnitude 6.4, great
enough to register throughout the World, and comparable
with the most severe tremors at Kariba.
The thing to notice about all of these
effects is that they are, with the possible exception of earthquakes, not
unexpected, and that the human consequences are all upon people
whose political power and representation are usually non·existent. The
monotonously re·iterated "justification" for the projects is that these risks
have to be taken in the cause of development or "progress". Another
common defence is that a few people must be prepared to make
sacrifices for the
good of the majority, which is simply another way of saying that a great
evil done to some relative few is a fair exchange for a tiny improvement
to a much larger number · homes and livelihoods in exchange for electric
gadgetry perhaps?
A classic case of water·exploitation is the Kariba Dam. The fields of
"unproductive" small·farmers were first flooded. The flow of water from
UC05: page 27
the dam was then regulated by the engineers without regard to the
attempts of the refugees to support themselves. For the first three years,
while the artificial lake was still filling, no water at all was released, and
people began to cultivate the low·level soils. Then their gardens were
flooded three metres deep in a single day. A local famine followed. Next
year the same thing happened. In the dry season,
when water would have been welcome,
the river was made to fall. (This is
what must be done by the engineers to maintain sufficient head of water
in
the reservoir at any dam greedy for
all the power it can get).
THE WESTERN WORLD
In the overdeveloped countries the situation is similarly distorted in its
priorities, though slightly modified by token attempts at softening the
corners of "pollution problems".
The water·supply dams are made for the divine privilege of the
ever·enlarging cities. Whether the water travels from Northern California
to
Los Angeles or from Northern Wales
to the English cities, the flow is
always in the same direction · to
make more cities. The dams, built primarily for flood·control and
irrigation, are paid for by the taxpayer, but the benefits are reaped mainly
by big landowners (as in the California Water Plan). Even President
Nixon·s National Water Commission has come out against the Army
Corps of Engineers, the Bureau of Reclamation, the Soil Conservation
Service, and the Tennessee Valley Authority, calling
for drastic cuts in their financing.
Until recently flood damage to buildings and crops in a river·s natural
flood plain could always be used to justify
a series of dams. Soil erosion caused primarily by monoculture methods
could always be cited in support of confining a river behind a neat
concrete barrier. Political support for "taming" a river which was
"inconvenient" could be stimulated by clever manipulation of maps and
figures showing that flood·lands could now be made suitable [or
building. Then the flood·lands and meadows were drained and
concreted. the prcperty operators made huge profits out of state financed
schemes, and
there were more low·lying homes liable to flooding. Rising flood damage
UC05: page 28
claims could then justify new "reclamation" schemes, to the benefit of the
GNP but not the environment.
It is possible that in the USA. as in
USSR, it is slowly dawning that huge water diversion projects are strictly
[or the wogs (e.g the military aim of the near·abandoned Mekong river
project, according to a Laotian spokesman. is to make Laos a neo·colony
o[ the USA).
THE USSR AND THE ASWAN HIGH DAM
After the "experiment" at Aswan the Russian leaders are said to have
quickly changed their ideas about the advisability of certain large water
projects at home. However, with the help of Russian aid, a political
leader was able to have his country build a "Lake Nasser", and clothe
himself and his regime with the conspicuous symbols of progress and
modernity.
Apart from virtually eliminating the sardine catch in the whole of the
Mediterranean, the Aswan High Dam is leading to another epidemic of
schistosomiasis, in an area where the incidence of this often fatal disease
had been previously comparatively low. The epidemic, as in Ghana·s
Lake Akosombo (see picture·story) was completely predictable, because
year·round
irrigation provides the canals and ditches preferred by the schistosomes
snail host. There doesn·t seem to be too much you
can do about the disease either, once it
is established. It is easy, in cases like this · ..... here all the preconditions
for an outbreak of a fatal disease amongst a "primitive" peoples were
known·to
wonder how a so·called socialist state
can be involved. One is also reminded
of the deliberate introduction of fatal diseases to unsuspecting but
"unnecessary" American Indian tribes, also in the guise of scientific
research and "experiments", or of the introduction of small·pox to the
Easter Islanders by early· colonialists.
The official Egyptian complaints about
the dam are naturally rather more restrained. confining themselves only
to the massive 40% ·evaporation losses. The Egyptians are of course now
obliged
to fertilize the famous fertile Nile delta with a good sprinkling of fertilizer
factories.
RUSSIAN PLANETARY ENGINEERING
The Russians have for some time been considering a number of plans for
UC05: page 29
irrigating Central Asia and making hydroelectric power at the same time.
The USSR IS Ministry of Electric Power has approved a plan for a dam 78
metres
high and at least 60 kIn long to be built
at the confluence of two great rivers which flow into the Arctic (Irtysh and
Ob). The dam would cause the water
to back up the Irtysh, until, with a
little help from a canal 925 Ian long
it overflows the watershed and flows
down towards the Aral Sea. But then
the Aral sea rises. opening up an old river bed, and feeds the Caspian
Sea. There will be an inland sea as large
as Britain . Unfortunately this scheme will take all the water away from
the lower 1000 km of the Db so, to save
the shipping on the Ob, another big dam
on another river to make a reservoir to feed a canal into the headwaters
of the Db!
The main reason for the USSR·s keen interest in this scheme is the fact
that the Caspian Sea is vanishing · a piece of quite spectacular global
engineering. since the Caspian is the largest lake in the World. The reason
for the falling waters is the industrialisation of the lower Volga. and the
construction of innumerable hydro·electric schemes.
Effects of the project. as predicted by Soviet engineers. include the
moderation of the climate of Western Siberia. permitting agriculture to
spread North. There could be undesirable climatic effects to the South
though. Also there might well be earthquakes to contend with.
Decreasing salinity in the Aral and Caspian would change the water·life,
including fish. The project, originating in Czarist times, is master·minded
by Soviet engineer M. M. Davidov.
MELTinG THE ICE CAP
One of the most ambitious of all miracle schemes to come from the USSR
proposes to put a dam across the Bering Straights (which separate Russia
from Alaska) and thus to alter the climate of the Arctic and thereby of the
whole of the Northern hemisphere. It is not difficult. Huge areas of
permafrost in Northern Canada and Northern Russia will become
capable of carrying grass. The basins of the
Volga and the Don will become subtropical, Britain gets warmer and
damper, the US will boil, and grass will at last grow in the Sahara desert.
·We cannot precisely predict where and how the proposed human
intervention will affect natural conditions" says Moscow meteorologist P.
UC05: page 30
M. Borisov (after all we could touch it all up a bit if anything did go

wrong in our calculations so, let·s try it and see what happens!)
It is perhaps time to remark that the World·s> water belongs to the
communities of the biosphere, and not to a few privileged and obviously
rather disturbed individuals of
the human race.
CHINA
In the 1950·s in China, as in the early Kubbutzim in Israel, there were
many ingenious non·polluting technical solutions to local problems. The
Kubbutzim, for example, used solar energy direct for heating, and
employed solar stills to purify the water collected from the rooves of their
own buildings. Early Chinese industry too was proud of "converting
hazards into benefits". As the Maoist propaganda relates. while
controlling floods they "turned the harmful into the beneficial" by
diverting the Yellow River water to irrigate farmland and develop
hydro·electric power. Early Chinese industry was compelled to re·use
byproducts (i. e. to re·cycle)in a scarcity economy. Modern Chinese
industry however obstinately regards re·cycIing
as a pre·industrial throw·back. (By a similar perverted logic several
African leaders have recently declared themselves proud of their
countries· new pollution problems · as proof of their advanced industrial
development).
Since the Cultural Revolution the "revisionist line" of Liu Shao·chi was
repudiated as an idea "contrary to Chairman Mao·s principle of writing to
control water". Uu Shao·hi advocated that counties, townships, and
villages harness their own waters. ·Each piece of land to each piece of
sky· .... was the way he put it
each province, county · even commune and production brigade · should
erect its own dykes arOund Its low·lying land and build dams on its own
section of the riVers." Communities were to work individually
and collectively and according to local needs. "everyone using his
neighbour·s fields as an outlet for his overflow".
The leaders of China·s new water policy rejected these practices, even
destroying working projects, and pedantically point
to the problem of Riparian rights (in a socialist country?). That the new
Chinese technological vision is as stubbornly ravaging as any elsewhere
in the World
can be seen clearly in the concluding paragraph of a recent propaganda
booklet ·China Tames Her Rivers·
(1972) : "One can imagine how the finished (Yangtse and Han river)
project would look · electrical irrigation and drainage stations,
UC05: page 31
waterlocks, drainage gates, bridges, reservoirs, ponds, embankments,

checkerboards of canals with produce·laden boats, cars speeding on dyke
roads, and 13000 hectares of drained lake shores turned into rich
farmland." To achieve all this labourers and experts are sent from all over
the country on a conscript basis.
·WATER SHORTAGE" AND THE HYDROLOGICAL CYCLE
Ever larger·scale engineering is not going to solve water shortage without
massive energy inputs and unavoidable increasing air and water pollution
in the production of heavy machinery, heavy industry, oil, concrete, etc.
There is no escape from the conclusion that the volume of water that is
used and the rate at which it is polluted must be reduced. The water
shortage is a fact only if industrial technocracy is allowed to continue its
prodigal ways, and it surely has every intention of doing so.
There is only one pond available to us
for washing, growing things, drinking, power uses, swimming and fishing.
Each use of water has an input and an output, since all waste water is
sooner or later re·cycled. There is no more nor less water in the World
system than there has ever been. At the moment it is assumed that for all
purposes the same high standard of purity of water is required for all
inputs. But at the same time factories output poison into water.
It is not necessary to use purified drinking water for the transport of
sewage (if it
is necessary to use water for this purpose at all). Neither is it necessary for
industry to continue to try to buy time
by tricking nature.
The question, for those who have got beyond the "pollution problems" (1.
e. worrying about how to help conventional industrial technology out of
a tight spot) is clear to a child :
"I live near the Lea Valley, by Lesney Matchbox Toys Factory. I sometimes
go there in the evening about 5 p. m.
It is said that the Lea is clean. It is not. Fishes are dying in hundreds and
hundreds. I caught a fish; it had no eyeballs, no tail. That is
only one. All that is done by us. Mostly by the factories that dump
oil in the Lea from the trees. "
(No doubt the river Lea·s pollution is said to be at "safe levels").
·We couldn't swim in the Lea, the way it is dirty. The dirt in the Lea pulls
you under then the river weeds keep you under. Why? Humans trying to
be modern, catching up with new cars. Which is called development of
the modern World."
(Vivian Usherwood, 12 years; Hackney, London, quoted in Eddies No.3)
UC05: page 32
The water shortage is a product of concentration in cities and of

over·production as well as a consequence of needless purifying and a
ruthless technology. The usual solution offered is an overall water control
system". Meanwhile the
factories can remain much as before and the planners can continue to fill
marshes and build on flood·plains, polluting groundwater and increasing
the speed 0 surface run·off with vast areas of new
The hydrological cycle is an intricate inter play of temperature
differences. humidity, and barometric pressure. h is sufficiently delicate to
be quickly disturbed by the introduction of large new expanses of
water or of modern cities. When any large·scale water·power scheme is
inserted into the cycle there is a ·tapping·into ! the hydrological cycle in
combination with the Earth fS gravitation. The decisions on the
construction of water·power schemes, however. are
made with the naive fascination of a
child damming water on a sandy beach.
as though running water were a "free
fuel". calculations of "cost·benefit"
are made on the cost per unit of
electricity, perhaps compared with that
· 1..·. · 1.·,. nA hv I"ttJu ,.,., .. anA
Water Is an abundant renewable energy resource, so under a reasonable
association of producers one would
....... ..·.. , n h ... nanA In ..... nut...... a"· ttl
use and recycling for all purposes carried out "each piece of land to each
piece of sky", allowing patterns of human and animal and plant
co·existence +n a .. ttl .. al·l. many problems as pOssible.
11: is possible, by allowing people to tl .. vplnn their own small scale
water]
power using the smaller rivers and streams not calculated for In official
resource estimates, to produce at least three times as much
hydro·electriclty as is at present generated in Britain. Where there are
large rivers to be dammed there are generally also smaller ones.
Environmental impact would be reduced. there would be no need for
large and ugly electric pow·er grids, and if properly managed such
schemes would often be suitable for food production and play.
Many people regard such proposals as "quaint", "primitive", or comical.
This is because nearly all the "soft technologies we know of are from wild
and distant tim es and places. Such ancient or exotic technologies do not
necessarily lead to a dead end, just because historically they were
UC05: page 33
suppressed. They were suppressed mostly because they are by their

nature not amenable to centralisation !·Inti rnntrnl ·
Most people. however. remain unimpressed by a large new power station
or water scheme. They know it looks anti·human, certainly unnatural. and
rather sexless. They regard it as "necessary" only because they are told
there is no aIternative.
GEORGE WOOLSTON
Thanks to: Colin Moorcraft. Andrew McKillop, The Power House (Imatran
Young) Helsinki. Eddies, Peter Harper and my buddies in the Agit·Prop
Collective, Helsinki: Tony Lloyd·Jones and Keith Maloney
UC05: page 34
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
14·15 Harper Class War Comix No. 1: NEW TIMES
THIS is the first of six comix that deal with two basic problems that
have always faced our society: how to change it and what to change it
to.
The first three comix describe a Utopian society of about 2000 people
living in a rural situation.
The social organisation is Anarchic. Decisions are flexible and arrived at
by everyone considering the needs of everyone. Social relationships are
not rigidified by artificial conventions such as male and female husband
and wife, teacher and taught, producer and consumer. They are each
responsible for the welfare of them selves and each other.
The community is totally self·sufficient in terms of food production. Their
system of agriculture combines both traditional agricultural methods such
as planting and sowing by hand, with advanced machinery such as
tractors and combine harvesters. Working with a humble respect for the
earth and its mysteries, the Communards are concerned that their efforts
do not destroy natural systems. Consequently, they do not use artificial
fertilizers and pesticides but enrich and protect the soil with organic
farming.
Sun, wind, rain and decomposed matter·natural, free energy sources·are
being harnessed to produce their power. Windmills are being used to
generate electricity. rain water is collected and purified, solar energy is
collected and human and animal shit is decomposed to produce methane
gas. Such methods are resource conserving, nonpolluting and in harmony
with natural cycles.
The Communards· other needs·shelter, clothes and artifacts·are mostly
produced by themselves in small workshops.
The commune represents a dream of the future. It attempts to portray a
possible,
not a fixed, direction in which an alternative society might develop.
Which brings us to the second three comix which deal with the more
immediate and pressing problem of the processes involved in realising
radical change and specifically with the conditions of urban life in this
post·revolutionary society,
Historically the situation in the comik is parallel to the situation in Russia
in the years 1917 to 1921. A political revolution has occurred in which
our present ruling class has been forced to relinquish all power to a
socialist government. A socialist bureaucracy has arisen almost as
repressive as the system it has replaced. The workers continue to struggle
for their freedom.
UC05: page 35
We focus on an urban industrial community, say the size of Belfast or

Liverpool, where
the people are trying to take control of
their everyday lives. Finding themselves still in opposition even to the
new government, Councils and Co·operatives have spontaneously been
organised.
In the factories general assemblies of all the workers meet regularly to
discuss all areas of their work from production to factory work
conditions. Factory councils ·constituted of one particular industry·also
meet to maintain relations with the world outside the factory.
In the streets and on the housing estates tenants and street councils take
aver the role fulfilled by bureaucratic local governments determining
such things as housing developments, garbage collection, street cleaning,
play areas and education.
Local food co·operatives have been organised to distribute agricultural
produce on a nonprofit making basis. Some
skilled workers are attempting an alternative system of production by
creating small workshops open for the local communities to learn the
skills and produce what they need.
The decisions of the councils meet with the continual opposition of the
government which is trying to suppress them using an armed police force
and a militia. The problem for these popular organisations becomes
more and more how can they confront and defeat the State, while
remaining truly democratic and of the people.
The people arm themselves.
Dear Friends,
Cliff Harper has now finished Part I of his
post.revolutionary·utopian·comic.strip epic, and we·re writing to ask for
financial help (not much, don·t panic!) in publishing it. We think its very
important, perhaps a new kind of radical communication medium: the
visual representation of alternative lifestyle and political life.
The problem is that Cliff wants it to come out as a series of six low·cost
32·page comics, and under these conditions no straight publisher will
handle it. We would like to publish and distribute it outside the u .I81
commercial channels, u Keith Paton did for example (successfully) with
The Great Brain Robbery. This needs
a certain amount of cash in hand and WI: are trying to raise this in small
amounts from l!)"sympathetic friends. Can you lend us just one fiver fm
an indefinite period! We·re putting ourselves up as guarantors, God help
us, and we,1 pay you back as soon as we can.
To give you some idea of what it·s all about, we·re enclosing some frames
UC05: page 36
and part of the introductory text. II might look a bit cerebral for a comic,
but that·s
exactly what it is, cerebral comic. The story in this part revolves round
the life
of a rural community in a decentralised:d post·revolutionary economy.
Within thai framework art: the inevitable hassles of participatory
decision.making, the constant sense of "the real action being in the city",
the often acrimonious debates between anarchists and vanguard
party·liners, bizarre: juxtapositions of the advanced and the traditional,
and meticulous technical detail (wot about the footnotes, Cliff?).
How about it!
Fraternally,
Bernard Seal Peter Harper
P.5. Cheque., Postal) Orders dc should be made out to Bernard D. Seal
and sent to this address:·
Peter Harper
40 Lexham Gardens London we
Telephone 01á373 1385
UC05: page 37
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
16·20 Burne VELIKOVSKY · state of the debate
BY NOW, most Undercurrents readers will be familiar with the basic
outlines of Immanuel Velikovsky·s theories of catastrophe. (If)you·re not,
see Undercurrents, Autumn/Winter< 1972, or New Scientist of the same
period, or get a transcript of the BBC·s Horizon programme of the second
week in January this year) But since that flurry of interest around the
beginning of the year. little more has been heard of Velikovsky in this
country. As far as the media and most of the scientific community :·\re
concerned, his theories are still very firmly on the lunatic fringe.
I persuaded one of the Sunday Supplements to pay for some research for
a basic article on him earlier this year hut when it was completed they
decided that it was no good without an interview with the man himself,
and weren·t prepared to do anything about getting one. But in the course
of my limited researches, the department of Egyptology at the British
Museum refused to discuss the matter ·although a serious theory that
revises its chronology by 500 years would seem to be worth talking
about.
Even the maker·of the quite favourable BBC Horizon prog:ram declared
that he thought Velikovsky in fact was 99% wrong and that most of the
people who supported him were either third rate
minds or cranks who banged on the table and thought there was
something wrong with Society.
In the ·States, however, the Coming Scientific Revolution That Will Make
Those of Galileo, Newton and Einstein Look Like Tory Party Conferences
etc ... is proceeding apace.
There have been two new issues of Pensee. the magazine which revived
the whole affair and from which some
of the previous Undercurrents article was taken. Pen see plans to devote
a total of nine issues to Velikovsky·s work.
This article is largely an uncritical summary of those two issues, with
some of my own researches thrown
in . Those interested in all the
footnoted details should obtain the magazines themselves·. (pensee, PO
Box 414, Portland, Oregon 97207. Copies cost $2 each, or $10 (plus $4
for airmail) for the full nine Velikovsky issues)
ThE MAIN problem in writing about Velikovsky is the sheer scope of his
work. A theory that ranges from the composition of the martian
atmosphere, through a reworking of Celestial mechanics, to a re·ordering
of prehellenistic chronology by way of questioning the mechanism of
UC05: page 38
evolution
is obviously going to be difficult to summarise. When there is added the
fact that individual scientists are already doing specific research in each
of the fields with relationship to Velikovsky·s ideas, then the whole
problem obviously becomes incredibly unwieldy. Although one of the
major implications of his work is the need for synthesis and inter
disciplinary studies, for the sake of simplicity I have divided up the
current development of his ideas under a number of headings.
1) AN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE (Information drawn from The
Velikovsky Affair, Alfred de Grazia, Sidgwick & Jackson, 1966).
A COMMON reaction to Velikovsky·s theory is: "If all these disasters took
place in historical times, why haven ·t
we heard about them 1" In fact what Velikovsky has done is to resurrect a
controversy that goes back at least as far as Aristotle. This is the question
of whether the solar system is regular, precise and unchanging, or
whether it is as volatile and variable as everything else.
Cicero, for example, took the
"stable" view in his De Natura Rerum (11.45,115): "In the firmament,
therefore, there is no chance, no aimless wandering ... all things display
perfect order, wherefore the man who holds (that) the astounding
orderliness ... of the celestial bodies upon which the support and safety of
all things are wholly dependent, (is) not directed by reason must himself
be utterly devoid of the rational faculty". A sentiment which Professor
Harlow Shapley would have agreed with when he remarked:
"IT he (Velikovsky) is right, then the rest of us are crazy" .
But the way Cicero phrased his views shows that his opinions on
the heavens were not held unanimously, as a look at Herodotus or Ovid,
for example, would show.
With the gradual acceptance of Galileo·s theories the "stable" heavens
view to")k
a severe blow. "It is my opinion that the
earth is very noble and admirable by reason of the many and different
alternations, mutations, generations, etc. which incessantly occur on it ...
I say the same concerning the moon, Jupiter and all the other globes of
the universe. Those men who so extol incompliability, inalterability, etc.
speak thus, I believe, out
of the great desire they have to live long and fear death." (From Galileo·s
Dialogue on the Great World Systems. Throughout the Renaissance and
up until about 1700 theories about cataclysms and great disasters as the
result of comets were common. Both Nichola of Cusa and Giordano
Bruno developed philosophies that accepted a changeable solar S)B tern;
UC05: page 39
John Norden refers to ancient tales of catastrophes in his poems and

Moliere makes jokes about passing comets in one of his plays.
But the lid was firmly placed on all these
speculations by Sir Isaac Newton
the greatest stable" heavens theorist of them all. So complete was his
success in mathematically describing the heavens as something like a
great clock that his work became the model for all later scientific activity
and the fact that there were other ideas about the working of the solar
system was! virtually forgotten. William Whiston was a contemporary of
New·ton who had put forward an explanation for the Flood, suggesting
that it was the result of a comet passing near the earth. He also discussed
the possibility of comets becoming planets, drawing heavily on some of
the same antiquarian sources that Velikovsky has based his
far more detailed theory on. Newton spent much of the later part of his
life attempting to discredit those sources and
hence Whiston·s theory. Newton saw his life·s work as primarily
religious, (scientific writings only account for about 1/1Oth of his total
Output, the bulk of which has never been published), his aim
being to show the perfect design of the heavens, which he felt to be the
strongest argument for the existence of a God,
and as a support for morality.
The rapid acceptance of Newton·s Undercurrents Winter 1973
cosmology left the catastrophists out in the cold, so much so that
Laplace, for example, is chiefly quoted as having provided the
mathematical proof for the stability of the solar system. In fact he also
speculated at some length about the possibility of a collision or near miss
by a large comet and suggested that it would explain a number of
puzzling geological features, but this is usually ignored.
It is this successful marriage of faith and reason engineered by Newton,
the proposition of a theoretical underpinning for morality and the status
quo, that Velikovsky is really challenging.
2)THE NATURE OF THE THEORY
(from Euan Mackie·s article in Pensee In. Dr. Mackie of Glasgow
University is
about the only British Scientist seriously involved in studying Velikovsky).
With such a wide range of data, proofs
and reputations it becomes very important to be clear as to what exactly
the theories are that Velikovsky is putting forward and to which of them a
particular piece of evidence refers. There are two general theories and a
number of specific ones. The first general theory is that global
catastrophes have affected earth in the past. The second is that planets in
UC05: page 40
the Solar System have come into contact in

the past, and when they have, Cataclysms have occurred. Except for the
ancient records which have accounts of events
of both types, these two theories are
to some extent independent. But
both are an attack on the scientific uniformitarian doctrine that the same
processes are at work now as have been for millions of years: a doctrine
that is particularly central to both astronomy
and geology.
Arising from these general theories are a number of specific theories, for
example:·
(a) that the dates of recent upheavals
were in the 24th and 23rd centuries BC; in the 15th century BC; and in
the 8th and 7th centuries B. C. b) That the agent of these upheavals was
the proto·planet Venus. c) That specific features on
earth relate to specific catastrophes. Once this distinction is made it
becomes much easier to see where a lot of the evidence fits in
On the first general theory (that catastrophes have affected the
earth in the past) there does seem to
be a growing body of support. William Francis, author of the standard
text
book on coal (Coal: its Formation and Composition. London, Edward
Arnold. 1961) has considerably revised his second edition to include the
idea that many of the coal deposits were laid down suddenly as the result
of a violent upheaval rather than forming "in situ"
over millions of years. (Pensee n p. 19). He points to data that has always
been a problem to the "in situ" theorist: Coal in the Antarctic; the mixture
of tropical and temperate fauna found in young coals;and the appearance
of marine sediment in
many coals. lie also considers the "muck" in Alaska: huge mounds of
broken trees, vegetation and animal remains found in Siberia and other
places. He concludes that the evidence points to the fact that there have
been periods of extensive flowing, volcanic activity and submersion of
land over huge areas, when massive amounts of vegetation were piled
together to be formed into coal.
Also relating to general theory is the
vexed question or stalactites. Isaac Asimov claimed that the existence of
one stalactite, which takes tens of thousands
of years to form, was a mute and complete refutation of Velikovsky .
UC05: page 41
This has sparked off consider·able correspondence in the pages of Pen

see with ardent speleologists pointing out that not only do stalactites
grow at widely varying rates (not just
the 0.010 inches every ten years claimed by the conventional school)
·>but that the}· have considerable resistance to shock: witness the fact
that the majority of limestone caves in America He within earthquake
zones.
A final, and rather ironic, piece of support comes from Dr. Harold Urey
of all people ( one of Velikovsky·s most ardent defamers in the ·50·s) now
working at San Diego University. A Times·Nature news service report in
March carried an account of a theory of his as to how a possible
explanation for the
extinction of the dinosaurs was the crashing of a huge comet into the
seas. The resulting rapid rise of humidity would cause the air in giant
reptiles lungs to condense thus drowning them all overnight. A touching
conversion, although needless to say without any reference to Velikovsky.
Much of the original interest in Velikovsky was generated by the findings
of the
moon shots and space probes. The data from these is clearly relevant to
general theory II (that planets in the solar system have come in contact in
the past). Pen see I contained a volume of information relating to high
magnetism readings on
the moon, the reverse polarity of the rocks there, and the finding that
some of them had rusted, not to mention all the pro·Velikovsky data on
Venus, and the finding that the invisible side of Mars was the scene of
violent volcanic activity quite out of keeping with a supposedly dying
planet. Judging by the columns of Pensee, controversy in this area
appears rather
to have dropped off, and the matter still stands much as it did over a year
ago. Certainly it has not made much impression on the conventional
scientists in this country. While researching for my
article I spoke to Dr. Collinson who has been working on moon rock
samples at Newcastle University.
While agreeing that "the data he has·
dug up on ancient accounts of movements in the solar system is
interesting", Dr. Collinson commented: "Yes, he (Velikovsky) did make
some successful predictions but they were for the wrong reasons. There·s
no way that the moon can have been molten 3,000 years ago.
All the data we have show that the rocks were formed over three
thousand
million years ago. So I·m afraid his predictions were just lucky guesses."
UC05: page 42
Professor Howie of Kings College London also pointed out that even if
argon had. been included in the rocks. it would be of a different isotope
and so not affect the dating.
Dr. Euan Mackie has suggested a program which would, he claims, prove
general
theory one way or the other. using
radio·carbon dating. This technique has obviously come to play an
important part in the controversies surrounding Velikovsky. It is far from
being completely reliable: discrepancies begin to creep in before 500 B.
C. and by the 4th and 5th centuries the margin of error in some cases has
grown to about 800 years. (Although recent reports of testing it by
counting the rings on bristlecone pines · trees that go back at least 4,000
years · claim that its accuracy can
be improved considerably.)
But even given these inaccuracies, and
toe danger of contamination of samples,
it can be used to provide relative dating. Mackie suggests that what needs
to be done is to date certain massive geological changes · in, for
example, the extent of ice sheets, or changes in sea levels, or in volcanic
activities · and to compare them with human upheavals, such·
as cities destroyed, migrations, and so on.
If there have been sudden catastrophes causing widespread upheavals,
then the datings of these features should all cluster around certain
periods. If there is no peaking of destruction dates then Velikovsky will be
hard put to explain it, and if they do peak it will present severe problems
for the uniformitarianists.
3. ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND
CHRONOLOGICAL DATA
The basis of Velikovsky·s theories is historical. and one of the
revolutionary aspects of his work is that the ·soft· discipline of history
should have an influence on the ·hard· science like physics and
astronomy. Another revolutionary aspect, part of specific theory (a)
above (that the recent upheavals occurred on definite dates), is that
Egyptian and consequently all of pre·hellenistic chronology needs to be
revised by about 500 years.
Taking his cue from Velikovsky. Lewis M. Greenburg in The Lion Gate at
Mycenae (pensee UI) suggests that this famous monument,usually dated
in about the mid·thirteenth century. should in fact be placed in the}e 8th
century B. C. In a heavily annoted article he shows how for aesthetic,
stylistic and other reasons it makes far more sense for it to be dated in
UC05: page 43
accordance Page 18
with Velikovsky·s chronology, which incidentally removes the
troublesome Greek Dark Ages at a stroke.
One of the key bits of evidence in Velikovsky·s original observation · that
the ancients had accounts of the planets behaving in a way different from
what we can see now. is the Venus tablets of Ammizaduga. They were
stone tablets usually dated at about 1950·1910 B.C. which gave an
account of observations of the conjunctions of Venus that are widely at
odds with ours today. although from other sources it is clear that the
Babylonians were meticulous observers. Lynn
E Rose in Babylonian Observations of Venus (pensee In pIS) traces the
"publishing history" of the tablets since their discovery in 1850, and
shows how
it was constantly affected by the ·astronomers· dogma" · that the planetary
movements have been unchanged for millions of year so if accounts of
early sightings do not agree with what they should be according to
retro·calculations from today then those accounts must be in error. She
also throws considerable doubt on the basis for the generally·accepted
dating of the tablets as determined by Keugler in 1912.
Instead ,she plumps for an alternative
date of the 8th century agreeing with another cuneiform expert
Schaparelli
and, of course, VeIikovsky. She and her co·worker, Raymond Vaughan,
are also attempting to determine the ratio·s of the period of earth to the
period o( Venus, as based on the tablets information. This they have
tentatively determined as 1.63, which is a little higher than the present
ratio of 1. 65.
Further support for Velikovsky·s revised chronology comes
unacknowledged from Van Seeters in the Journal of Egyptian Archeology
1964 and
·65. The data which originally set Velikovsky off on the track of his
theories was an account by the Eygptian sage Ipuwer of a catastrophe
very similar to that recorded in Exodus which described the plagues of
Eygpt. Although the Ipuwer document was conventionally
dated 500 years before Exodus, Velikovsky determined on linguistic and
other evidence that it did in fact record those plagues, thus beginning his
reconstruction of Egyptian chronology. Van Seeter·s
revised dating for the Ipuwer
document agrees Cully with Velikovsky.
4) SPINOFFS AND QUANTIFICATION
One of the biggest objections by astronomers to Velikovsky·s accounts of
UC05: page 44
planetary movements is that they are totally impossible in terms of

celestial mechanics.
Dr. Roy is the senior Professor of Astronomy at the University of Glasgow
and one of the few scientists in this
country who have actually read
Velikovsky·s books. He thinks that Velikovsky falls down badly on his
celestial mechanics. "Velikovsky·s supporters claim that if two heavenly
bodies came into fairly close proximity}
then enormous electro·magnetic force
fields are evoked which could change
orbits drastically. Now even if they are correct, which I deny, the force
fields
could only have a powerfuL enough effect
to change orbits when the bodies are reasonably close together. But they
could not be changed back into the nice circular orbits that we have
today.
without equally large forces operating to
pull them back. But the electro·magnetic forces are only generated in
close proximity and the courses that Mars, Venus and Earth are on today
are far
from being in close proximity." I asked
him whether astronomers could have under·estimated the role played by
electromagnetism in planetary movements? After all, Einstein bad been
working on this question at the time of his death. liThe thing is that the
body of celestial mechanics theory is sufficiently precise to describe the
behaviour of the planets. To that extent I think one can say that there are
no major factors that have not been taken into account ... we simply
don·t need electro·magnetic forces to explain most of the movements",
But Dr. Mackie, an archaeologist, also
of Glasgow University. took a rather different stand on the question of the
role of electro·magnetism. "This seems to me to be a classic case of how
one applies the scientific principle to new theories. What the astronomers
are in fact saying
is that the system they have built up
from observation and which is obviously extremely accurate, is so precise
that it can be extended back indefinitely into the past and forward into
the future, and that any evidence that appears to contradict this is
therefore invalid. This seems to me to be non·scientific. It is at least
possible that the great astronomical theory could possibly be modified if
UC05: page 45
it were shown that people in the past had seen quite different things. I
don·t see why, in theory, astronomical models should not be modified by
historical evidence ...
One of the most original pieces of speculation to have been inspired by
Velikovsky is to be found In Ralph Juergens I Reconciling Celestial
Mechanics and Velikovskian Catastrophism (pensee
n p. 6 and further debate in Pensee ITI p. 51 onwards). This, very briefly,
suggests that each of the planets carries a strong electric charge which is
prevented from affecting any other planet by the interplanetary medium
of ionised gas, except when the planets come into close contact. This
plasma maintains the charge around the planet by means of a mechanism
named the Space Charge Sheath.
One of Velikovsky·s almost whimsical ideas was that the manna which
fell during the catastrophes (see accounts
in Exodus for one example) was produced by the hydrocarbons in the
Venusian atmosphere being transformed by contact with Earth·s
atmosphere into carbohydrates. Isaac Asimov (the imaginative sci·fi writer
again) dismissed this as impossible, but Wong Kee Kuong in The Synthesis
of Mana (Pensee m p. 45) has given a detailed account of just how this
might occur. Above about 55 miles the atmosphere thins out into layers
(in ascending order) of nitrogen, oxygen, helium and hydrogen.
There,cosmic rays can energise reactions, a wide variety of metal
particles can act as catalysts, and thermal agitation,tidal action and
gravitation can produce a
mixing action. When hydrocarbons are introduced to this space
laboratory, there are a large number (Kuong lists 6) of possible reactions
that will produce carbohydrates or formaldehyde which can then be
transformed into sugars.
A major criticism of Velikovsky from the celestial mechanics department
is that Venus could not have possibly have behaved in the way that·his
theories claims it did. Ransom and Hoffee (Orbits of Venus. Pensee p. 22)
have calculated the orbital parameters for four possible configurations
that Venus must have
passed through from its first ejection
from Jupiter to its current orbit. Running a computer program on the first
configuration, where Venus had a 7 year period, they claim to show that
it has a fair theoretical possibility and does not contravene any physical
laws.
If a test of the value of a scientific theory is the number of areas for
research that it opens up, then Velikovsky·s must rank among the most
valuable. In addition to all the areas mentioned already. the two issues of
Pensee arc Uttered with lines of possible research. There are those
UC05: page 46
suggested by Velikovsky himself. ranging from relativity theory, the

magnetic fields of the moon, and the composition of the Saturnian
atmosphere, down to the direction of spiral in fossil shells, to mention a
small fraction. A physicist writes in to say he is working on orbital
mechanics and electromagnetic forces, another is studying the possibility
of acoustical shockwaves producing mutations. The list could be
extended indefinitely ...
5. THE WIDER IMPLICATIONS
A large part of the controversy over
Velikovsky centers around the concepts
of "&scientific /unscientific" and "objectivity". Most of his critics accuse
him of being unscientific and the pages of Pen see are full of analyses of
Velikovsky's critics showing them to misrepresent, distort, misquote and
resort to invective without evidence. There are constant pleas for an
"objective examination of
his work", for an "unbiased critical appraisal", great pains are taken to
show that Velikovsky adheres strictly to
all the criteria for "good science".
When I asked Dr Roy for his reaction to the behaviour of the scientific
community when Velikovsky·s books first appeared.
"I think the reaction was a very human one. A lot of scientists feel that we
are just climbing out of the age of superstition and magic and they
instinctively react against anyone who seems to be bringing back that
age, especially under the guise of science". To an ardent Pensee reader
that seems ludicrous.
All the evidence points to the fact that it is his critics who react
irrationally and with superstition. But if Sidney Willhelm in his
"Velikovsky·s Challenge to the Scientific Establishment", (Pen see m
p. 32) is right. then Dr. Roy is probably more accurate, in terms of his
own standards, than many Velikovsky supporters would care to admit.
The essence of scientific thought is objectivity: a righteous exclusion of
the individual from the data he Is studying. But this canon of objectivity
acts as a means of avoiding accountability. The scientist cannot be held
responsible for any of the effects of his work since he is merely per suing
knowledge for its :own sake. It also provides a basis for elitism
since there can be. so the theory goes, no possible basis for a personal
interest. The major thrust of objectivity is always away from actual data
and phenomena
and their anomalies towards theory. Enquiries are always couched in
terms of existing theory, and the tendency is to dwell on the hypotheses
UC05: page 47
drawn from that theory.

The originality of Velikovsky is that he was struck by historical accounts
and by certain glaring anomalies. For the establishment scientists, he
started
at the wrong end. The myth of objectivity demands a passivity, and also
places the scientist in a position
of dependence on a methodology that comes increasingly to define his
areas of permiSSible investigation. TIWSf· theoretical demands of
objectivity and its methodology begin to dictate the very nature of the
phenomena being studied. Thus reality is restructured to fit the demands
of science.
The accuracy of this analysis can be seen in the present state of
astronomy and
high energy physics, which have become totally divorced from any
reality. One Professor of Physics at Toronto has described the whole of
sub·nuclear physics as "a castle of cards". In the human sciences the
results of the objectivity myth are even clear..::r. The exclusion of values
and morals from psychiatry and psychology in the name of objectivity
has totally divorced them from the reality of the
area they are studying. Again the methodological purity sought in
political science has rendered it completely irrelevant to politics.
Inevitably, in addition, behind a facade of neutrality
lies an unacknowledged support of the status quo. Similarly in linguistic
philosophy,heavily influenced by the scientific ideal, anyone seeking
enlightenment on topics traditionally considered Philosophical will
receive little help. By excluding value in the name of objectivity science
is refusing to deal with the very thing that has most meaning in human
culture as a whole.
Willhelm goes on to ask whether the fact that the grudging beginning of
acceptance of Velikovsky by the establishment is not a proof of the value
of objectivity that truth will out? But just as the uniformitarian view arose
out of a particular set of social conditions · the need for harmony and
stability in a Europe torn by the French Revolution and Napoleon · so the
acceptance of Velikovsky comes in response to social conditions. It is no
accident that it was evidence from the space program that re·started an
interest in him. A space program that beneath all the scientific public
relations was basically a military operation. h is the frightening
momentum towards militaristic destruction characterising our society that
induces a greater receptivity to Velikovsky.
The real danger of the objectivity myth
is that the military will step into the vacuum left by the scientists·
UC05: page 48
abdication of responSibility and ignoring. of "value". In his critique of

objectivity and the tyranny of methodology. Willhelm is On common
ground with Roszak·s Where the Wasteland Ends . In Wasteland. Roszak
traces the development of what he terms "single vision". and shows how
scientism and reductionism, now the dominant ideologies in Western
society, have led to a fatal desecration and loss of meaning in our culture.
(See also Colin Wilson, who continually pushes this theme,· for example
in New Pathways in Psychology and The Occult.)
Whether or not one agrees with Wilhelm·s analysis as far as the
militaristic basis for Velikovsky·s resurgence is concerned · another
approach might be to point to the comparatively long period of peace
enjoyed by the West since 1945, and to the huge rise of questioning in
every aspect of our culture, as being just
as powerful a force pressing for his re·evaluation ·· it is hard to know
what form a de·objectivised science might begin to take(·.
Certainly Roszak offers only a very few wooly clues.
One possible direction is offered by William Mullen in A Reading of the
Pyramid Texts (pensee m, page 10).
The psychoanalytical aspect of Velikovsky·s work is that just as for
the individual a trauma produces both guilt and identification with the
aggressor, the Same is true for the human race as
·_. __ __ .... · & ... nun", .... "· ....
a whole.
Thus sacrifice and war arise as the individual and collective responses to
the trauma of the catastrophes. The aim of Velikovsky·s work is to liberate
man from this trauma by enabling him to
see the catastrophes as purely mechanical events. This depends on the
materialistic viewpoint · the view that all we need to do Is to understand
matter and manipulate it. The problem is that the more closely matter is
examined the more
random elements slip in, and the vision
of control recedes further and further, leading to the other side of the coin
transcendence or God, which can provide no model for action. It is in an
attempt to bridge this split that myths are evolved to hold a common
ground between materialism and mysticism. Rather
than being degraded and ·explained· myths should be approached with
humility. The} perform a scientific, a metaphysical and an ethical function
all in one.
Mullen then traces the way that in Egypt precise astronomical observation
of heavenly bodies was linked with explanations of divine motivation and
by implication with history, In Egyptian mythology changes of name,
UC05: page 49
battles and so on are all linked with actual celestial events. It is this unity
of thought found
in myths that is lacking in our "advanced" science of today.
The ultimate significance of Velikovsky may be that by forcing a
reconsideration of ancient myths. he has paved the way for re·integration
of science with the other equally valuable and neglected
aspects of human culture. Such a science would probably smack strongly
of "magic and superstition" to scientists of Dr. Roy·s cast of mind.
JEROME BURNE
TAILPECE
Laplace. in his Exposition du Systeme du Monde, visualised the results of
a possible collision between the Earth and a comet in these catatstrophic
terms:
"the axis and rotational movement (of the Earth) changed, the seas
forsaking their age·old positions and rushing towards the new equator;
most of the human race and the beasts of the field were drowned in this
universal deluge, or destroyed by the violent shock imparted to the
terrestrial globe, entire species annihilated, every monument to human
endeavour overthrown ... " But when the Earth had a recent near·miss
with the tail of Halley·s comet in 1910, the effects were almost
imperceptible. Most astronomers beIieve that when the new comet
Kohoutek swings past the Sun around Christmas, the effects on Earth will
be equally imperceptible. Or will they? .....
UC05: page 50
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
21·22 Letters
Velikovsky ·irrational diversion?
Dear Undercurrents,
Sorry to see you wasting your space on Velikovsky. Velikovsky is a good
test for literacy In science. It takes rather better than 6th form science to
see thru· Velikovsky. Which Is why reaction 18 able to use him as a
vehicle for yet another irrationalism to confuse and divert the public.
Frank Quelon
190 York Road, Stevenage, Harts SGI 4
· innocent abroad?
Dear Undercurrents
I didn·t exactly regard myself 8S swept away by your reply to my points
of disagreement with Velikovsky·s theories.
The records we hold of Be astronomical happenings are rather numerous
and come from Europe, the Middle East, the Far East and Central America
amongst other areas. All of these are and have been studied from a
conventional background\d since the middle of the last century, In direct
contrast to the Impression created In Worlds In Collision. And in direct
contrast to Velikovsky approach, the "straight" Investigators have never
crassly selected their evidence with great care to suggest an unusual
event In the past, or seen any need to postulate one. The triumphs of
palaeography in astronomIcal thought are too familiar to need
elucidation, but Include the identification
of the Crab nebula with the 1054 Supernova and two minor nova/nebula
identifications also from Chinese records. A recent paper in the Quarterly
Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society by F R Stephenson discusses
the possibilities of this field, So the point that other scientists, some of
them of the reputation of Lockyer, have paid attention to the value of
these records, is not a rebuttal of VeIikovsky but must stand against him to
some degree. The value of these Investigations in the study, in particular,
of the orbit decay of Comet P/Halley, for which every opposition back to
several hundred years BC ill recorded, is unquestionably Immense.
But Velikovsky's writings, which have the atmosphere of the innocent
abroad in practically every field he touches, cannot be so well received.
The terms used (to speak of an area I know a little about) in the Oriental
records are rather precise, "Lances" and a few other terms describe
meteors, ·brooms· and a few others comets, "guest stars" almost
exclusively Covers novae and supernovae, and so forth, with the terms
"fixed" and "wandering" stars covering precisely what we mean by stars
UC05: page 51
and planets.
The upshot of this as I see It Is that If
the object Velikovsky proposes had appeared In the sky 3500 years ago a
precise term for it would have been found, and ·comet· would not have
been It,
Another more serious point is that the term comet in the context of this
object
Is of necessity, not the ancient astronomers term but Velikovsky's. While
this might
be a foolish error on the part of an ancient astronomer who knew nothing
about the disposition of the material of the Solar System or of masses of
celestial objects,
It is ridiculous on that of a person of the twentieth century AD who
should. This cannot really be regarded as anything but
a piece of obscurantism on Velikovsky·s part, since apart from a lot of gas
and
an amount of rock It has nothing In common with what we call a comet.
A particularly sad misunderstanding Is the one In your item on
geohydrocarbons, an expression, by the way, that I made up.
It Is the first rule of Geology that whatever we can see happening now
can be found in trace form In geological structures. Thus we can see fossil
meteorite craters, current bedding, delta deposits, glacial deposits,
marine deposits, fluviatile and lacustrine deposits, lava flows, etc. etc.
The point of this should be obvious; hydrocarbons are formed under quite
well known geochemical conditions where·ever plant or sometimes
animal material Is rotted under wet rather reducing conditions, and such
items as pH, temperature and the like, collectively the facies, tell us the
deposit, whether lignite or North Sea Gas, formed. I am sure that P V
Smith would agree that hydrocarbons at present being deposited in the
Gulf of Mexico are being formed in the same way as those we are at the
moment so profligately ripping through and which are sealed in rocks of
far greater age.
Oil bears quite large ·amounts of dextral optically active compounds of
undoubted biological origin, as well as organic pigments typical of
plants, while even coal is too full of plant fossils for a supraterrestlal
origin to be proposed.
The few oils which lack such Ingredients are known. and I mean known
to be of algal origin and are. as·, too well sealed In to have been affected
even by such an object as Velikovsky proposes. The next poi· is the horns
of Venus.
The planet Venus, to cut a long story short, is easily seen to anyone with
UC05: page 52
moderate eyesight to be horned while gibbous In phase, so that there Is

no need for a horned comet to be Invoked to account for the planet·s
portrayal as horned by (e.g.) Egyptian artists. Later
on this year this appearance will be plain to anyone with a little patience
and clear skies and should be able to be tested by seeing which way the
cusps point and checking with binoculars.
To return to Geology Lesson One, there are two sorts of animals; extinct
and still living. Lingula, a brachiopod, has been going from 600 million
years ago and shows no sign of becoming extinct.
In African fossil hominid sites various types of · and Australopithecus
commonly coexist with present species such as monkeys and extinct
ones such as Oryx splndex sp., a big·horned oryx:<. The case of the
Siberian mammoths, too, needs little amplification. And In modern times
animal extinction both man·made and natural are familiar. I see no
reason for man and now extinct animals coexisting
in Florida a few thousand years ago to be evidence of anything in
particular, except possibly that the site Is older than once thought.
There Is however, something In the current (September) issue of ·
Telescope which I think should be in any good Velikovsky file.
This Issue contains a letter from
S S Vsekhsvyatsky of the Astronomical Observatory, 252053 Kiev·53
USSR.
lie talks about proceedings at the 1970 International Astronomical Union
Symposium on Comets, held in Leningrad. h is of course the accepted
wisdom that comets, mostly long·period ones like Halley, disintegrate to
give meteoroids: and general dust. Earth·based observations of meteor
showers give elements of their orbits which compare closely with
cometary ones and all the best meteor showers have a fairly likely parent
comet. And in recent years it has become obvious that fainter comets can
be captured by Jupiter and end up with asteroidal type orbits. At the sort
of distance this Involves they display very little tail, If any, and if the few
definite cases of this effect had not been noticed until a little later they
would certainly have been accepted as standard rocky asteroids.
But Vsekhsvyatsky also says that he and
a few colleagues have shown that "mighty" processes of eruptive
evolution" are taking place in the Solar System, mainly ,of
non·gravitatlonal origin, and that the orbital peculiarities of short period
comets "convincingly demonstrate" that they have formed from "ejections
from
the giant planets." and that this eruption theory (due to Lagrange and not,
as he claims, Velikovsky) Is "not Simply a working hypothesis but a result
UC05: page 53
of a well·rounded Interpretation of many data about the Solar System and

It·s past." Although Comrade V would almost certainly have an apoplexy
at the very idea, this Is certainly the best pro Velikovsky piece I have ever
seen In
print. But the Idea that comets come
from these planets Is however, a far cry from saying that they can perform
the tricks that V(Velikovsky requires of them in proximity of the Earth · the
more so since the conclusions have been reached
by rigorous celestial mechanics and not
Its precise opposite, as by Velikovsky. Maybe Its good that Velikovsky
should have
a hearing, although I can·t understand why it should be so enthusiastic
and unanimous after so long, Certainly it compares unfavourably with
that given to UFO people who, if one sorts out the lunatics, are a far
more worthwhile class of Investigators altogether, and whose case can
scarcely be doubted.
47 The Wiend,
Rock Ferry, Blrkenhead. IA26RY
(We hope to get round to UFO·s soon!.:· Ed)
Methane! for the love of Allah!
Dear Undercurrents,
We are a newly formed company Involved in express collection and
delivery and courier services, using at present 1 ton petrol driven vans,
Our aim is to provide a high quality, honest but competitively priced
service dedicated In and to the worship of Almighty Allah.
In this respect our name for the company has been received and given to
us, in Sanskrit, to embody the word·essence of ·perfect· with further
connotations::ions of ·completeness·, ·fulfillment· and ·fulness·.
We are telling you this, not as an egolc statement, but only for an
understanding for alternative workings within the present system.
Our financial status is precarious, as we are so newly formed, and for this
reason and more obvious environmental considerations we are looking at
methane as a means and source of power. We would be very pleased 11
you could send any available literature or information
011 alternative fuels, and suggestions that you have of your own.
We would also like to say that, God willing, if and when· we are able to
make a profit (nett), up to 25% of this will be donated to charities of the
Subud Spiritual Brotherhood.
Yours in faith,
Charles M. Thom Raphael A. J. Wise
UC05: page 54
Sempurna Transport, 94, High Street, Shepperton.

Middx. ·IW17 9BL
A bit of appreciation
Dear Undercurrents,
Just a note of appreciation. for your magazine (?), which we have found
extremely useful · as well as fun to read! We have come to worry over
long silences, fear that Undercurrents will burn Itself out In the pattern of
alternative mags don·t let it happen!
Attaching a copy of a ·profile· we sent to the Sheffield people (Dave,
Robin, Mavis). If you list more people interested in the technology/
economics of alternative
group living, could you include us? We would like to hear from those
with familiar concerns or practical experience, and will share any
information we have (although your alternative technology guide w ..
11I0 comprehensive that It ....would be the first thing we·d refer people
to:).
Communally.
David and Elena French.
Profile:
David and Elena French (BOll A·46. J· State College. Johnson. Vermont
05656. U.S.A.)
Age: 33 and 31. Daughter. Tana born May 1973. David II American.
Elena Is Italo·Russian.. raised 1D Ethiopia. Trained .. economl.t (David)
and iDtrrpreter·trUUllatar f6 bnguages) and Afr1ca.ol.st (Elena). ·ial
experience: work on ( .. abUlty studie8 of lndustrial projects. done whUe
advl8er to Nigerian government (David). Currently writing a book
together on C<mlmlm.l..l work. covering gr· action tn U.S . China.
YU(Coalaria. Israel. and Europe: lDtermediate teclmologi ea 8uitable to
lmall gr·: nlue trl.D.lformatiQllS necessary for lIIuceessfui oommuaall8m;
economic cooperation among communa.l groups: etc. Hope to (Iad/
create an economlcaUY1)roouct1ve. spirltually·questiJag. "nteQ(led
(amUy" group to live trith. preferably to rural area. DOt necessarily La
U.S. [This shows the problem of OCRing a page of 8-pt typed Times Roman. ed.]
Inertia selling?
A month or so ago. we sent out the letter reproduced below to some 175
people who had previously expressed an interest in Undercurrents
·people who·d asked for sample copies. or who·d written to us (or me
re&8OQ or another. (II" had expressed .aD Interest In alternative
technologies and related fields. Our hope was simply to remind them that
Undercurrents was still In existence. and to suggest that they might like to
subscribe. A fairly innocuous bit o( sales promotion. you might think But
UC05: page 55
one recipient at at least seemed mortally offended at what be regarded as

an example of "inertia selling"!
UC05: page 56
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
23·24 Three Ways to Work up Wind Watts
ON CAPE COD, at the New Alchemy Institute East·s centre in Woods
Hole. Massachusetts. they·ve been testing several experimental windmills
aimed at taking advantage of one of the Cape·s major energy sources · its
winds.
One Is a large wind generator to produce electricity for tools and pumps,
another a small wind charger to supply lesser amounts of electricity for
radios or for a single storage battery. and the third is a Savonius rotor to
produce mechanical energy for water pumping. All are desIgned to be
low·cost and simple to repair.
WIND TURBINE GENERATOR
Tower. The tower is a 42 (t telephone pole. guyed by five cables to buried
phone pole segments.
Mounting. The windmill·s main pivot is the bearing and segment from the
front wheel of a car welded to a section of lOin diameter pipe which fits
over the top of the pole.
Power transmission. The rear differential and drive shaft unit from a
Rambler car is the body of the windmill. It is U·bolted to a steel plate,
which is in
turn bolted to the pivot bearing. (The drive shaft hub should not point
downwards,
or it will leak oil.)
Blades. The hub with attached blades is bolted to one end of the
differential on the five original wheel·mounting bolts.
Our first set of blades was designed and built by Bill Smith of Hull Cove.
Rhode Island. They were lOft in diameter, two·bladed, fiberglass
high·speed aerofoils, designed for 12 mph winds. Their starting torque
was rather low for our nine mph average winds, but they worked well
and gave very high rpms. We also tried a three·bladed medium·speed.
canvas sail prop which worked quite well until an ice·storm got it.
Electrical System. We put a belt·pulley on the drive·shaft stub of the
differential and V·belted a 12 volt auto alternator to it. The differential is.
geared 4:1 and the pulleys were 3:1. giving us a 12:1 step up in rpm from
the blades to the alternator. With the turbine blade, this was enough.
With the sail blades, more gearing is necessary.
A 12 volt battery and a regulator is mounted on the differential to charge
the field coils: electricity is then transferred. to
the ground via a cable.
Tail. A plywood tail Is bolted on the differential opposite the blade end
UC05: page 57
from which the axle has been removed. Changes. We are switching from
highspeed. fiberglass aerofoils to medium speed. sail wing blades.
adapted from the Princeton sailwing studies
\\·we·ll have three blades instead of two, using aluminium shafts as the
leading edge. taut cable as the trailing edge, and dacron wing surfaces.
They will trail downwind of the tower. probably at a slight dihedral angle
for added stabillty. Higher gearing will be necessary ( about 20:1) but we
feel that the larger blade diameter (15 et), simple construction, and fewer
centrifugal stresses will make the system worthwhile.
We are not yet ready to report on the electronics until the mechanics are
completely worked out. From most reports in Alternative Sources of
Energy a simple cord running down
the generator is an acceptable alternative to slip·rings, needing only to be
unwound periodically. We are still debating between a 12 volt or a 110
volt generator; in either case, golf cart batteries will be used for storage
because of their ability to take complete charge·discharge cycles, and
their relatively long life.
If you plan to use an auto differential, leave a brake drum on the hub end
with which to stop the blade for inspection and maintenance. It is even
possible to let the emergency brake cable hang down within reach.
SMALL BICYCLE·WHEEL GENERATOR This windmill is useful where
small amounts of electricity are needed, as in running radios, cartridge
players, or
in charging storage batteries.
It is made from a Sturmey Archer Dyno Hub bicycle wheel (minus the
tube and tyre) which has a small generator built directly into the hub.
Eight blades
are formed on the spokes by attaching sheet metal strips between
adjacent spokes from the rim to the hub.
The proper spokes are those which form slightly twisting blades nearly
parallel to the wheel at the rim and gradually twisting to about 450 to the
wheel at the hub. This shape is favourable aerodynamically to produce
the high rpms for which the generator was designed.
The wheel is mounted by one of the original hub bolts to a simple metal
body made up of water pipe with
a sheet metal tail at the other end. This assembled and welded to a cut·off
bicycle fork and steering bearing, and attached to a fence post. The
output of the generator is 6 volts ACt and is changed to 6 volts DC by
a diode and a resistor. (A detailed circuit diagram and variations of bike
generator windmill design are given in the Proceedings of the UN
Conference on ·w Sources of Energy, volume 7. )
UC05: page 58
SAVONIUS ROTOR
The Savonius Rotor, although only about half as efficient as a
multi·bladed windmill of the same wind sweep area, has several
advantages that make appropriate
for home construction and use. It spins on a stationary, vertical axis
regardless
of the wind direction, and it is therefore a sImple matter to take power
directly from the rotor shaft. It is also very simple and cheap to construct.
Adjusting the diameter of the rotor wings varies the rate of spin for
constant wing areas and sail speeds.
Our present Savonius rotor as a variation of the Brace Research Institute·s
design
using 55 gallon steel drums cut lengthwise and welded into two off·set
cup shaped blades. Bearings at top and bottom in a guyed wooden frame
complete the rotor.
A few hints. Use 4x4 in timber for the frame; balance the rotor carefully;
and wire the turnbuckles tight as they can vibrate loose.
We coupled this system to a reciprocating wire power transmission
system, of a type from page 24
originally used by the Pennsylvania Amish to transfer power from a water
wheel_ to pump water from our hand·dug well.
A reciprocating wire transmits the
energy from a crank below the wind·
mill to a lever above the well. Each horizontal wire stroke is converted
into a vertical pump stroke. Using the Brace plans, an optimum pump
stroke can be calculated from the average windspeed , the pump
diameter. and the height of
lift. By choosing various ratios of the lever, we can set the windmill for
different windspeeds.
Experience has shown\\o·O that a large crank with a long wire stroke
will produce serious wire vibration problems, as will a fast reciprocating
frequency.
We geared the windmill to the crank at a 2:1 ratio, and settled on a six
inch wire stroke. The wire·supporting poles are 15ft apart.
We have our pumping system set to start in an eight mph wind and pump
in windspeeds between 6 and 30 mph.
It pumps water into a storage pond at a head of 17ft.
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• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
33·35 Cook Introducing The Golden Gasmask
THE OBJECT of this article is not to equip anybody to indulge in
chemical warfare. for chemical warfare in my view is completely
unethical. My aim is rather to examine the possibilities that CW may be
used in urban warfare, and to offer practical advice upon defence.
By international law, the use of chemical warfare is banned if it involves
the direct killing of persons. But various countries have twisted the
meaning of the Geneva Gas Protocol and the Hague Convention, by
using defoliants (their terminology) to kill people. Thus Napalm. a
composite of palmitic acid, and napthalinic acid with a petroleum base,
whilst designed originally to "Improve" the Molotov cocktail principle, is
today excused by stating that it Is used as a "defoliant" in Vietnam. This is
despite the fact that it is also, and more frequently, used against
personnel. Throughout the years since 1918, news has filtered out from
various countries that chemical warfare agents were being developed l
The use of mustard gas during the Abyssinian campaign and reports
(unconfirmed) of the use of gas warfare by the Japanese, are examples.
These reports stimulated a rapid increase in research by the Allies
immediately prior to the war and the publication of some 500 or more
books on the subject.
Of course the major development that triggered this interest was the
nerve gas ·Tabun I, produced by German scientists before the 1939·45
war. Research was conducted at numerous centres · for examples the
Chemical Defence· Experimental Establishment, Porton, Wiltshire; the
Canadian Chemical and Biological Research Centre at Suffield; and
Camp Detrich in the United States. What was learned from this research
has never all been pUbliShed, much of it is still highly classified, but we
can gain certain deductions from examining those details that have found
their way into the press.
Tabun and its sister agent Sarin, were both extremely toxic (less than 0.1
gm of Sarin being enough to kill a healthy child, and 0,75 mgm being the
lethal dose for an adult) but modern agents are about a thousand times
more potent.
Nerve gases have never been used in warfare, but their potential is
obvious.
A simple aerosol spray of the type used
in a crop·spraying aircraft could disseminate enough of these agents in
less than an hour to wipe out London. Experimental work by CDEE,
Porton and MRE (Microbiological Research Establishment) in 1957
frightened even the researchers when they realised the simplicity with
which an alien power could disseminate BW and CW agents on a wide
UC05: page 60
scale.
Their experiment was simple but sophisticated in that they took a crop
spraying aircraft loaded with a fluorescent dye. and flew it a short
distance out·
side British territorial waters, along
the channel and a short distance up the East coast. By ultra·violet tracer
techniques they were able to show that the dyes reached some 75% of
the British Isles within 48 hours under normal weather conditions. The
amount and level of concentration of the agents that might be
disseminated by this method was too small for chemical warfare purposes
if the aim had been to produce 100% mortality, but with biological
warfare agents this is usually not the case. Since 1957, defensive research
has been redoubled to
a previously unknown level for peacetime, and Her Majesty·s
Government has reassured us on several occasions that
this country is well equipped to deal with gas attack,
The position as far as Biological warfare agents are concerned is not so
clear, and the degree of protection available at present is probably not as
great as we might be led to believe. At the present time, I believe that we
can only rely on hope that the spirit of the recent agreements to limit
biological and chemical warfare agent production and stockpiling will be
fully adhered into.
The menace of CW and BW lies not in the fact that it is particularly
difficult to produce adequate defences, but in the ease of production of
these agents, the low cost of the agents and equipment, and the nature of
the agents themselves.
Let us first of all consider the CW agents. These have been with us for
many years in fact since 1915, although proposals for their use had been
made before then, notably by the British and the Americans. The first
such agent was chlorine · a true gas, unlike many CW agents. It was a
lethal gas, as well as being a lung irritant. Being a gas it was easily
dispersed, and had little tendency to remain in one place, so it was
classed as being NON·PERSISTENT
The second agent also used initially by the Germans, was mustard gas.
actually a volatile liquid which caused blistering and reddening of the
skin (a VESICANT). Mustard gas remained in droplet from where it lay,
vapourising slowly, therefore being classed as a PERSISTENT gas. The
remaining classifications of
gas are: LAChrYMATORS or tear gases; NERVE GASES, which interfere
with nerve action; and SMOKES.
We can classify all the chemical warfare agents of the gas type into these
UC05: page 61
groups. although many gases share properties of other groups. In table

one, I have tabulated the properties of a number of CW agents that might
conceivably be used by a small nation, or be prepared by anyone
involved in urban warfare.
The tear smokes,CS and the more recent CR, are too well known in their
effects to need further elaboration
here: they are also very difficult to prepare.
The preparation of one of the agents, bromoacetone (non·lethal), is
described. in order to enable defensive measures Such as gas masks to be
tested adequately. Bromoacetone and many other CW agents are so easy
to prepare that it is quite clear that CW tactics are capable of
being used by even small groups of persons. On a small
scale some of these agents have been used with great efficacy in various
parts of the world. The table is by no means complete, but It Is fairly
indicative of the range of agents easily available with a minimum of
technology.
IT IS of course Important that with the increasing risk to the populace, we
be equipped with adequate protective equipment. Essentially for all gases
this means a respirator, and for the vesicants, gas clothing to prevent skin
contact. The commercial industrial respirator is useless against war gases.
as it is designed for short duration use only, and the ex·WD masks that
may be obtained fairly cheaply today are of no use as they stand.
Let us first consider what is required of
the respirator. First of all It must mechanically stop particulate matter
from smokes of the CS and CR types. This requirement Is simply met: we
merely need a fairly dense filter In the mask. Cotton wool densely packed
Is adequate. We next need an absorber for the complex organic
substances, and for agents of the bromoacetone type. Luckily this is
readily available in the form of activated charcoal. We thus compose
our filter of alternate layers of cotton wool and activated charcoal.
Let us first of all consider the renovation of ex·WD masks. Those available
are of three basic types, the civilian, which is generally in poor condition,
the civilian duty respirator, and the service respirator. These may be
readily separated on the basis of their external appearance. The civilian
respirator bas a cylindrical can (black), no air escape valve, and a simple
sheet of plastic material for an eyepiece. (All other respirators have
expiration valves.)
The next type Is the civilian duty respirator. which again has a can at the
front, which may or may not be twisted at ninety degrees from the
"straight forward" position. The eyepieces are separate, and the facepiece
itself may be covered with stockinette, although they are all moulded.
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The last mask commonIy available Is the service respirator,

and Is generally the only type that will have survived in good condition.
This latter mask, has a separate can and facepiece, connected with a
corrugated
rubber hose. J[ the can has Its top sealed with tape, It Is an easy matter to
replace the components. ThIs latter type of can
Is the type D, and has Inlet valves at the top, which may need
replacement, the
can Is painted black with a distinguishing grey band over the tape seal.
The material needed to replace the filters and absorbent are cotton wool,
lint. muslin and activated charcoal, and similar amounts of these must be
used.
The UWC Mask
The Urban Warfare Chemical Mask Is based upon the civilian respirator
of the last war. and should the face·pieces of these be available in good
condition these may be used instead of the alternative to be described
below. The can is of the form shown, and is made from s lib Lyle·s
Golden Syrup
tin, with the bottom removed. its construction 1s clearly visible from
diagram I.
TESTING OF MASKS
Masks should be tested using zinc oxide smoke (preparation as below),
and with bromoacetone (preparation as below). ThIs will demonstrate
proof against both types of CW agent (smokes and gases). Small amounts
of the agents are prepared Ie a confined, enclosed space by, (I) burning
the mixture, in the case of zinc oxide. and (lJ) by simple aerosol spray for
the bromoacetone.
Zinc oxide smoke: Mix equal quantities of finely divided magnesium
powder, zinc dust, and potassium nitrate. Place one ounce quantities in
heavy card tubes, and fit detonators filled with the following mixture:
I part flowers of sulphur 2 parts of charcoal
3 parts of potassium nitrate.
Bromoacetone: an agent that for all the simplicity of its preparation is an
extremely potent one. Its high boiling point seems to be its only
disadvantage, though the use of an aerosol or shell would overcome this.
h has previously been considered unimportant, although
the exact reason for this is unclear. Preparation of bromoacetone is
extremely simple. Liquid bromine is added carefully to cold acetone, and
the temperature allowed to rise to room temperature. Excess bromine is
used. and this will boll off when the temperature of the reaction is raised
to 59¡C. although this latter should be done slowly. Great care should be
UC05: page 63
taken that pressure does not build up in the reaction or distillation vessel
while the bromine is being used t as an explosion may easily result.
Steve Cook
BIBLIOGRAPHY (general)
Fries, A.A. and West, C.J. (1921) ·Chemical Warfare·, McGraw Hill (N.Y.)
Prentiss. Augustin. M., and Fisher, George, B .. (1937) ·Chemicals in Warfare· McGraw Hill
(Lond)
(defensIve)
War Office (1935) ·Defence against Gas publ: H.M.S.O.
A.R.P. ·H8IKD:>books, 1,4.5,6, &: 7· pub, H.M.S.O.
Hanslion, R. (1935) ·The Gas EquIpment of Foreign states: Service and Civilian
1 Masks of Various States.· pub: Gassch. u. Luftsh.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Paolo Soleri:lnterview 36 - 38
Canned Heat: Steve Baer·s Solar House 39
are not here: they were unfit for OCR.
UC05: page 64
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
40 Corn Hic! . . . . cups
IT·S A very sociable thing to have a wine supply. A generous supply can
made from mainly kitchen wastes. It is ready to drink in just over a
month. At the same time it gives an introduction to the art
of wine making.
Requirements
Bottles: wine bottles, beer bottles, flagons etc. Anything which will take a
cork. 2 litres or bigger are best for fermenting and settling.
Sieve and filter funnel: plastic ones normally used in kitchens are OK
2 plastic buckets: one bucket is left in the kitchen to collect tea and fruit.
Stirrer: a wooden spoon.
Air locks: 6p in Boots.
Yeast: Boots sell special wine yeast which encourages a stronger wine
than bakers· yeast.
Corks. Ip in Boots if no other source. Rubber tubing for syphoning: few
pence from aquarists· shop.
Sugar: worth buying in bulk.
Fruit: greengrocers often throwaway rotten fruit which is superb for
winemaking. Citrus fruits are best. The amount and variety of fruit give
taste to the wine.
A warm place for fermenting: an airing·cupboard, a mantle·piece over the
fire or just a shelf in a warm room.
A cool, dark, draught·free place;:: for settling and storing · a cupboard in
a cool room, a garage, a cellar etc. Collect the dregs from your tea· pot in
a clean plastic bucket. Add orange and melon peel, apple cores, peach
stones, mouldy fruit from the market or local greengrocer · anything free
and fruity. When the bucket is full · our house fills a two gallon bucket in
two weeks
remove the liquid and fruit (cutting it up small) into another bucket. Add
two pounds of sugar and a couple of lemons or a grapefruit (cut up or
sliced) per four pints of liquid. The fruit determines the taste. Each batch
will have its own distinctive taste.
Fill your bottles to within a couple of inches of the top. Add a teaspoonful
of yeast, put in air lock, and place in a warm place. The mixture should
start bubbling after a day or so. If not add more yeast or place in a
warmer place. When the bubbling stops after about a month sieve the
fermented brew and put in a corked bottle to settle. After a few days it is
ready for drinking · but it improves with age. It can be siphoned off as
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required or bottled. Store it in a cool, dark draught·free place.

Sion Corn
P. S. Aunt Sally says: beware the dreaded vinegar fly. It has been known
to attack while the ingredients are being collected. So to avoid your wine
turning to vinegar overnight, always keep the collecting bucket covered
by a lid or a sheet of plastic. Washing the utensils in camden solution
also helps cut down the risk of contamination.
·
UC05: page 66
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Lockett The plastic’s not for burning
LAST YEAR you used 25 kg of plastics if you were an average person. In
1980 it is planned that you will be using over 60 kg. You can be sure that
plastics producers would like you to be using even more. Anyway they
won't be complaining about a 140% increase in consumption in 8 years.
In this article I want to illustrate firstly how plastics are used in the
existing society and how they affect the environment. Secondly, I have
tried to assess how plastics would be used in an ecologically·stable
community and how their adverse effects can be lessened. The
information has come mainly from "official"sources, such as plastics trade
magazines and government publications. There seems to be little work on
plastics in the "alternative" fjeld, 80 not a great deal of practical
information is readily available · it would be useful if it was.
HOW TO MAKE THEM
Some technical information is needed
to understand the effects of plastics · but tbis is not complicated. Plastics

are long molecules, polymers, made up of
a chain of "monomer" units · usually thousands of them. Their production
can be divided into making the monomer and polymerisation into the
plastic. Plastics can be divided into two groups: thermosetting types.
where polymerisation involves an irreversible chemical reaction which
causes the plastic to set, and thermoplastic types, where the polymer can
be softened by heating but resumes its normal state when cooled. Most of
the common plastics are thermoplastic · for example polyvinyl chloride
(PVC); polystyrene
(PS); polypropylene (PP); and polyethylene (PE), which is divided into low
density (LDPE) and high density (HDPE).
Nearly all plastics are made from
UC05: page 67
fossil fuels (oil and natural gas) and
so deplete irreplaceable natural resources. 2% of the crude oil
processed in Britain goes to the
plastics industry, and more is used
to supply the energy needed to produce and transport its final products.
As well as fossil fuels, some plastics need other chemicals: for example
PVC requires chlorine produced from salt. Figure 1 given an outline of
how some plastics are produced.
h would be possible to make some of the chemicals needed in plastics

manufact ure from biological sources · see Alan
Dalton IS article in Undercurrents 4
on "Chemicals from Biological Sources". Some plastics. notably cellulose,

are made from biological organisms.
As well as the fossil fuels needed to make them, some plastics require
very large energy inputs in their
manufacture. PVC and LDPE need such large quantities of electricity that
Ilproducers . are obliged to generate their own" for economic reasons
(NEDO Report"The Plastics Industry and Its Prospects·' £1.60). However
PVC has been polymerised
in small quantities using sunlight only, so such large imputs of

non·renewable energy may not be necessary.
After manufacture of the polymer,
other substances can be added. Plasticisers are usácd to increase the

flexibility of thermoplastics. Fillers increase the bulk of thermosetting
plastics, while adding to their strength. Stabilisers are added to give better
UC05: page 68
resistance to degradation, whether from irradiation, chemicals or other

sources. Colorants can be added to give specific colours, and lubricants
to ease processing and moulding.
The "economic" size for plastics plants are reckoned to be about 350.000
tonnes a year for monomers and 100,000 tonnes
for polymerisation of thermoplastics. Production will tent to become

more
and more concentrated as the "economic" size of the plants increase. For
example an "economicallyll sized PVC plant would now add about 25%
to the UK capacity for PVC. As developing countries only use about 1/20
of the amount of plastics
the developed countries do, the former will be forced to rely on supplies
from the latter · unless they want to become self·sufficient but pay more.
WHERE THEY GO
Concentrating on Britain. official
figures show where the plastics produced in this country are used. Britain
uses less plastics per capita than the rest
of Western Europe as Table 1 shows:
Table 2 shows where plastics were used in the UK. by type of plastic and
market.
So 1,094.000 tonnes of plastics were produced in Britain in 1968. Five

years later it is over Ii million tonnes. By 1980 it is forecast that the total
productioo will be 3.72 million tonnes · see table 3.
The most interesting (and controversial) of the uses of plastics is in the

packaging field · which is expected to grow faster than the other uses. At
present plastics account for a quarter of all packaging and this share is
UC05: page 69
increasing. (For a survey of plastics in packaging see Packaging in Britain.

by Friends of
the Earth, SOp.)
It has been estimated that 4% of the plastics in packaging become litter ·
in other words 10,000 tonnes of plastics a year are scattered

indiscriminately around the country.
However, it is excessive
packaging, and not litter, that is
the main ecological problem.
DURABILITY AND DEGRADABILITY
Failure to recognise the durability of plastics is at the centre of many

problems. Many uses of plastics rely on durability
. and resistance to chemical attack (e.g
.· plastic dustbins), but in packaging plastics
, are regarded as a once·only material.
Degradability is often put forward as
the answer to the problem of plastics
in packaging. But degradabillty should be rejected on social. economic

and ecological grounds. The great advantage of plastics · that they are
difficult (but not impossible) to destroy · is completely nullified by
degradability, which is really a superb form of builtin obsolescence.
h is only for the 4% of plastics that

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end up as litter · as opposed to waste that degradability might be of any

use in disposal. Yet all packaging plastics would have to be treated, to be
made
degradable, making t·em more expensive ·this is the economic cost of

degradability. The treatment needed would be to make
the plastic sensitive to light or microorganisms, photo · and

bio·clegradability respectively.
The four major thermoplastics
(pP, PS, PE, PVC) are all photo·degradable when exposed to ultra·violet
light unless
a stabiliscr is added. However this
degradatioo is not normally a quick enough process, so extra chemical

agents would be needed, but not in such a concentration that the product
would degrade indoors; which presents quite a complex dilemma.
Photo·degradlblllty has been studies
by Prof. J Guillet of Toronto University amongst others. He is now

chairman of "Ecoplastics Ltd". a firm whose first product is "Ecolyte · S", a
degradable polystyrene·
As for bio·degradability, it is unfortunah that the normal, high molecular

weight, types of PVC, PE, PP and PS are very unlikely to be affected by
mlcro·organisms. The best approach Is one which combines photo· and
bio·degradability.
Such a mechanism would get rid of the unsightly but fairly harmless litter
outdoors, but is likely to lead to problems in disposing of the 96% waste
packaging left over. Recycling will be impossible due to the built·in
degradability.
UC05: page 71
In his booklet "Degradability of Plastics" (BPF, 25p) Prof EM Evans states

that: (a) The least harmful prooucts of degraded pla·tics will be carbon
dioxide and water
(b) PVC will degrade to give hydrochbric acid products.
(c) Methane could be proouced and this could cause explosions in

underground tips.
(d) Aliphatic acids could be proouced contaminating water supplies.
RE·USE AND RE·CYCLrnG
Some form or forms of re·use or
re·cycling of plastics is the logical but partial answer to the problems of

plastics.
I have split the subject into re·use.
direct recycling, indirect recycling, energy recycling and chemical

recycling. RE·USE is self explanatory. If a
product, once used, can be returned, cleaned and sent out again this will
save both energy and natural resources. Plastic milk bottles have been
produced that can be re·used over 200 times. DffiECT RECYCLING
involves the production of a plastic in bulk from used products made
from that same plastic. New products can then be made from the new
plastic, but returned plastic products must be of high·quality and not
mixed with other plastics.
rnDIRECT RECYCLrnG is a recycling process in which a lower quality

plastic is produced from a mixture of plastics. The quality of the recycled
plastic depends on the mixture put in. Often this will mean that only
thick sheets can be produced.
ENERGY RECYCLING is a fancy name for burning. PSt PP, and PE contain
only hydrogen and carbon, and so are very clean energy sources. l?VC,
however, gives off hydrochloric acid fumes.
UC05: page 72
The energy yield from PSt PP and PE
is equivalent to that of high quality fuel oil. This method is wasteful of

natural resources but could be used for some contaminated wastes.
CHEMICAL RECYCLrnG or pyrolysis involves heating a collection of

waste in an atmosphere of inert gas. h can be used with domestic waste
and produces mixed organic chemicals (rom the plastics.
A plant in San Diego, California, prcxluces two barrels of fuel oil from
each ton o( organic waste. The non·plastics provide enough heat for the
pyrolysis process.
The impact of the various types of recycling can be seen from figure 2. ····
denotes an energy input, and
···· a transport operation, usually
consuming energy.
Not much recycling is done in the plastics field despite the large
potential.
Usually only waste within producing and processing factori·s is recycled.
In the packaging field, this may be a hangover from the days of paper
packaging, wherepaper was regarded as waste after being used once.
The effect o( plastics on food is still being investigated. One of the

hazards being looked into by the US Government at the moment is the
possibility that the harmful PVC monomer in plastic drink bottles
migrates into the alcohol.
PLASTICS rn A MASS COMMUNITY
1. Plastics are a facet of consumption and it is in the interests of

producers and processors of plastics to try to sell more.
UC05: page 73
2. Very often, sales of plastics are in ecologically harmful industries, such

as the car industry.
3.Degradability ensures that plastics destroy themselves automatically, so

paving the way to more consumption. 4.Recycling is only in the producer
I s interest if it is cheaper to buy recycled material. It Is only likely to
become widespread if the price of oil rises greatly or there is a shortage
of oil
or if punitive taxation is imposed. S.Energy recycling simply disposes of

plastics and boosts consumption.
6. Design is an important factor ·· one design of a product can lead to

easy re·use or recycling, another may make recycling very difficult.
7. Energy is needed at all stages of processing plastics; this is another

drain on fossil fuels.
8. If plastics recycling is introouced, an eCflcient system of waste sorting

will have to be devised.
9. Plastics can be both better and worse ecologically than other

materials. A total approach comprising both Industrial, private and social
costs and benefits is needed.
PLASTICS IN AN ECOLOGICALLY STABLE COMMUNITY
l.BIological sources of chemicals would be used as much as possible.
2.Plastics would be produced by methoos requiring the minimum Input

of energy, where possible using "primitive" methods like sunlight.
3. Transport energy would be kept to a minimum by the use of small local

plants rather than very large ones as is now the case.
4. Processing and production would be designed to facilitate re·use of

plastics products wherever possible.
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S.Plastics would be separated from
ordinary waste and sorted into types ·· sorting could be eased by having a
colour code for each type, e.g.red for PVC.
6. The preferred order of processes for recycling would be: re·use, direct
recycling, indirect recycling, pyrolysis and finally burning.
7. PVC would be used carefully to minimise the possibility of
hydrochloric acid fumes or products which cause corrosion. It would,

therefore, be treated differently from other plastics.
8. Plastics consumption in general would be kept at a low level.
But plastics are useful and should not be rejected as ecologically

unsound. At present, they consume irreplaceable fossil fuels, but it may
be possible to produce more of them from biological sources.
Recycling or re·use and limiting of consumption are the best ways of

reducing their effect on the environment.
Martin Lockett
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Durham Why the Pentagon loves Pure Research
Let's not get our hands dirty. Let's do Pure Research. Let's get as far from
the nasty real world of bombs and nerve gas as we can. Pure
mathematics. Group theory. What's it like up in 24·dimensional space?
We'll publish 500·page papers proving single theorems. We'll discover
strange things called Sporadic Groups which contain a million million
million million elements. Generals haven' time to read 500·page papers.
They don't know what numbers like a million million million million
mean. You don't find numbers that big anywhere else in mathematics.
You don't find 500·page papers anywhere else in academic literature.
Our Sporadic Groups don't fit into any known pattern, but we're looking
for one. They're the duck·billed platypuses of mathematics. Fascinating,
little understood, and fundamentally useless ....
UC05: page 75
So you might think. But turn to page 146 of Science, 13 July 1973. You'll
read that there is a recentlx·discovered "startling connection" between the
arcane and apparently useless Sporadic Groups and one type of
error·correcting code. Error·correctlng codes make messages immune to
the effects of cheap recording tape and noisy radio links. The code
concerned, says·, Is ''the Golay code used in certain military
applications". It's a blow to those scientists who think there is some
research so pure it can't be used offensively. On the other hand, it's a
nice example to support the view that all research, however basic, pays
off in the end. Perhaps we should even write a few 300GeV accelerators
into our blueprints for survival.
Tonv Durham
UC05: page 76
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
After the energy crisis - what then?
Methane. Fuel of the Future, by Bell. Boulter, Dunlop and Kelller,
Publlahed October 1st by Andrew Singer, Bottlaham Park Mlll, Bottl.ham,
Camb.ldgeahire, at £2 hardback. A paperback edition wlll soon be
avallable coating about 65p (add 5p per book for shipping If ordered
direct).
FOSSIL FUELS like coal, oil and natural gas are all the result of solar
energy generated millions of years ago. As such. they have the advantage
of being locally abundant in high concentrations. but they cannot be
replenished quickly. But what happens when we come to the end of
these natural fuel resources?
The energy contained within the atom may be tapped. Most industrialised
nations now have nuclear energy development projects under way.
projects designed to bring reactors into service before the coal and oil r
\D1 out. There is. however. increasing public disquiet both about the
dangers from nuclear power accidents and about the long·term
environmental effects of this form of energy conversion. There are also
technical problems yet to be resolved. This is particularly true of the
second generation fast breeder reactors now being planned.
What are the alternatives? The techniques for converting the energy in
falling water into electricity are well developed, though hydro·electric
reserves alone seem
unable to meet even present energy needs. Wind energy represents a

much larger worldwide reserve. but practical schemes for utilising its
power on a large scale have not. as yet. been demonstrated. The other
possibilities for using solar energy or other ''natural'' energies include:
*Solar energy converted directly to electricity, liquid hydrogen, or heat.
*Solar energy collected and transmitted to earth from space.
*Systems using photosynthesis to convert solar energy to vegetation for
digestion, burning, or dlatUlatlon Into fuela.
*Geothermal energy.
Who's to say which of these will turn out to be the best solution to the
problem? Maybe they all have a part to play. One thing is clear. though.
The technologies for all these "unlimited reserve" fuels are in their infancy
compared with the technology (or collecting. distributing. and using
(oss11 (uels.
UC05: page 77
Because so comparatively little bas yet been done to explore the many
possibilities associated with the production o( methane gas from organic
materials. this booká claims to be no more than a starting point. "m. it ...
according to the authors. "we are not saying' here is all you need to know
to solve the energy crisis.'
We're saying 'This is how little seems to be known about how to exploit
methane's enormous possibilities. All we can do is put it down (or you in
a reasonably·organised form and hope that when we write the second
edition we will have some fundamental advances to report·"
, In the domestic energy budget. water and space beating can be

provided for
a large part of the year by the direct use o( solar energy as a heat source.
These heating needs require a low·grade heat which is always much more
readily available than. the concentrated beat source given by a fuel. It is
thus for cooking that methane is most attractive in the home.
The average British gas cooker uses the equivalent of 32 cubic feet of
unscrubbed methane per day. whereas the average British family would
generate (rom its toilet wastes about
35· cubic feet. Clearly. the decentralisation of the sewage works to the
backyard digester digester is not, alone. going to get us
very far. We can match supply and
demand a little more closely by various means: going vegetarian (thus

producing more faeces); eating more uncooked
food (thus using less fuel); adding organic refuse into the digester; and
living comm\IDally (less fuel per head).
But the most hopeful technique for matching supply and demand is the
addition of a plant growth stage, the plant so far considered being algae.
The wastes are fed to the algae in slDl1it.tanks. The s\IDltght and wastes
produce growth. The resultant algae are then used in the digester. Figures
from US experiments suggest an energy production of 15kW per acre of
algae pond. Methane bas received much publicity as a transport fuel( "the
UC05: page 78
man from Devon who rtDls his Hillman on chicken shitll etc.) but frankly.
methane is not suitable for most transport applications. The trouble is it
doesn't liquify. so to carry the equiv.alent of 15 gallons of petrol, you'd
need 21 gas tanks, eacb weighing 85lb, and taking up about flve times
much room as a petrol tank .
We are therefore only likely to see methane used in transport applications

where trips are short and near methane sources (eg.on farm vehicles or
factory trucks). But apart from its present use in sewage works for
powering works equipment, and its great potential as a home·generated
domestic cooking fuel (using a plant growth stage). there is a tremendous
future (or methane 00 farms. particularly where livestock are kept fairly
Intenalvely. ( If you like that aort of thing ·Ed)
In such situations, the large volume of wastes presently generated are

considered a pollution problem. Using on·farm digestion. this problem
can be solved and free fuel generated for use in the farmhouse and for
farm machinery. All it needs now
is for standard equipment to be developed and promoted and this usage

will take off.
In the less·developed cO\IDtries. methane holds equally great promise.

Underdevelopment is almost synonymous with shortage of energy
sources. Particularly in hot conntries where
systems need no external heating, small·scale methane generation is
likely in future to be an important constituent of village and area

development projects.' So, all in all. methane, if not the fuel of the future,
should certainly become one important fuel for the future. m. the book
from which this extract is takená, the authors have tried, for the ffrst time,
to gather togeth···er the results of experimental and working digesters in
various parts of the world. The hope is that this will be a starting point for
some much more serious concerted development work. There's plenty
need to be delle before the oil and coal give out.
UC05: page 79
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
INNER SPACE SCIENTIFIC EXPEDITION 1973
The Centre of the Cyclone, an Autobiography of Inner Space, hy John. C.
Lilly. Paladin 5Op.
Six Approaches to the Person. ad Ralph Ruddock. Rootledge and Kegan
Paul £ 1. 75 Special reference is made to the essay 'A Map of loner
Space' by John H.Clark.
John Clark Is a senior lecturer In Psychology at Manchester University. He
draws lotus·flower maps of 'tnner space" and flow·diagrams of Patanjali's
YICa. John Lilly used to be one of the world's leading researchers on
dolphins. Trying to come to grips with their awesome, allen intelligence
he decided tbe biggest obstacles were In his own mind. The scientifically
correct thing to do was forget the dolphins for the time being and start
exploring his own psyche. which Lilly did with the help of LSD, hypnosis.
encounter groups and mystical exercises.
You'll find Clark's maps, with explanations. in bis contribution to the

essay collection "Six approaches to the person", LUly's log of the voyage
to heaven and hell is "The Centre of the Cyclone". Both men write like
scientists. But each has in his own way, taken his science where angels
fear to tread: into the realm of mystical states, satori. samadhi. bUss, the
Void. What are scientists doing here where, surely. faith is the rule. not
emplricism? Attemps at scientific introspection have an unhappy history.
In any branch of science, the act of observation perturbs the experimental
situation. however minutely. The worst possible case, preswnably, is
when the observer IS the experimental situation. Then there's the
problem, beyond poets even, of communicating a subjective experience
to others in precise terms. And what the hell, in this context, is a
repeatable experiment? No wonder the study of everyday consciousness.
thoughts and desires, by introspection still seems as tricky as picking up
ball·bearlngs with a pin. Why should non·everyday consciousness be in
this respect, any different? Scientific study of the mystical states of
consciousness presupposes. I think, that those states have structures or
laws of some kind. Most of the literature would confirm this. Carlos
Castaneda calls it a 'separate reaUty', self·consistent and only strange
when it contradicts the laws of everyday reality. Aldous Huxley coined
the phrase 'the mind's antipodes'. The metaphor of 'space'which Clark
and Lilly both use, regards each mental state as a 'place' which you reach
by well·defined routes; its essential features are the same on each visit,
though of course you'll always find something different happening there.
The fact that every day something new happens in Parsons Green doesn't
stop you drawing a Tube map.
UC05: page 80
\\'bat's more, given a Tube map, anyone can get a train to Parson's
Green. and they'll all find it looking much the same. Both Clark and Lilly
are in the game of showing that all the mystics. Hindu, f"h"IAtiAn ·Ilri.
'7.IPn_ SIIrlP in fSllM tAlkinlt
about the same set of eight or nine different states of consciousness.
Clark's terminology, which is all his own. and Lilly's, which is borrowed
from Gurdjieff. look different. But I have seen a map. hand drawn by
Clark, which shows where Lillv/Gurdlieff's states Ue In Clark's 'Inner
space'. For a scientist. there Is nothing surprising in the discovery that the
structure of Inner space is the same for all of us. Chomsky bas shown that
uman brains are wired up so tbat only certain ways of talking are
possible; no surprise. then, that only certain ways of tripping are possible,
too. because that's how we're all wired up.
That gives a certain repeatability to experiments with the mystical states.
The broad features of the Map can be checked. In principle by anyone.
Anyone, that it. who devotes the necessary time and energy to acquiring
the mystical skills. And I think the opportunities for a human to acquire
these skills are at least as good. as the opportunities to acquire the skills
of nuclear physics or molecular biology. which are needed to verify other
people's results In those fields.
That much I can accept, but one thing still bothered me. There Is a
lingering feeling that when we explore the 'real world' we come up
against ''truths'' which we have to accept. because they are part of the
structure of that world; while It is easy to suspect that the "truths"
encountered in "inner space" don't have the same absolute value. Perhaps
the "inner truths" are merely fulfilments of our, or our guru's,
expectations. Perhaps all mystical experiences are similar, because each
man's experience is modelled. unconsciously, on that of his teacher, and
his teacher's teacher. and so on. Lilly encourages this suspicion when he
says "What one believes to be true either is true or becomes true In one's
mind. within limits to be determined experimentally and experientially. "
However I don't think there's necessarily anything unscientific about
"what one believes becomes true". That, surely, was the experience of
Copernicus.
Newton, and Einstein: Surely "truths" about the "real world" are just as
impermanent as "Inner truths" . Newton's belief became oewton's truth;
but Einstein's truth transcended it. LlIIy and Clark ar" 8tlll only at the
beginning of the scientific Investigation: the stage biology was at before
Linnaeus. Too soon perhaps to call it a Science. But as anyone who's read
a Uttle of the Mystical lIterature must admit, for centuries already it has
been a mighty fine technology.
Tony Durham
UC05: page 81
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
CAR BATTERIES AND ENTHUSIASM ...
COMMUNITY RADIO IN BRITAIN: A Practical Introduction by Nigel G.
Turner (1973) 40p. Publishers: Whole Earth Tools, The Mill Cottage.
Swaffham Road, BOTTlSHAM, Cambs. CBS 9ED
In the first edition of "Undercurrents" we did a pamphlet which set out to

offer a very basic introduction to the practical side of setting up a small
community (or "land·pirate") radio staUon. The pamphlet contained a
section on the philosophy of or justification for. community radio. and a
technical section. whicb in the small space available could amount to
little more than a list of book·titles and information sources on the topic
of radio communications.
This book by Nigel Turner breaks down into roughly the same division:
there is a fair amount of space given to discussion of what has already
been done in the non:..commercial free radio field. both here and in the
United States. and a much shorter practical section giving details of how
to set up a working station. As a crude indication of the weight given to
each aspect, 17 of the book's 54 pages could be said to be given to
constructional matters, including the appendices, addresses and
booklists.
Dealing first with wbat is this volume's strong point. we must
congratulate the author on his handling of the nontechnical aspects of
community radio. Hts choice of topics · the American listener·sponsored
stations typified by KTAO in Los Gatos, California. Radio Oxford as an
example of the best of the BBC local radio stations and Radio Jackie as a
home·brew truly non·professional station run on enthusiasm and three
car batteries · is admirable. He has successfully conveyed in very little
space (for this is a short book) the excitement and captivating charm of
the whole business of running a radio station, which is heightened when
the odds against success are greatest. Pirate radio stm has the sweet tang
of sin, and sin which does not injure anyone or anything either, and I
believe that this comes across more than a little in the book.
Where the book is weakest, and inevitably so, is in the practical section.
The tone of this is very similar to that of the "Undercurrents" pamphlet.
with some passages lifted almost directly, and it suffers from the same
limitations.
When writing about radio as a technical subject, you must first look at
the space available and then consider very carefully how best to use it.
and what aims might reasonably be achieved in the wordage available. It
is rather like setting out to tell someone how to build a boat.
UC05: page 82
There are many, many different types of boat with greatly differing
potentialities. Telling someone how to build one particular craft, even in
great detail, may be worse than telling his nothing at all. It will not make
a sailor of him, it will not tell him how to navigate or read a chart or deal
with any of the thousands of things that are likely to go wrong on a
voyage.
It may be better to direct him to a school of sailing or nautical science, or
give him an extensive reading list. However, he may then feel cheated. in
that you have not answered his original question of how to build a boat.
In the same way radio is a really vast subject, and it is my contention that
you cannot in a few thousand words equip a newcomer with the
necessary skills to build a transmitter (bearing in mind the huge choice
and diversity that even this represents) and, more important, to set it up
correctly and keep it on the air dealing with all the faults, large and
small. to which radio equipment is prone.
I feel. perhaps too pessimistically. that even if a newcomer were to
succeed in getting one of the circuits in Nigel's book to operate, he
would find results disappointing for one reason or another, and quickly
run into problems which he would be unable to deal with and become
very discouraged. Considerable sophistication would be needed to get a
llesh·and·bloOO transmitter going from the circuits as presented ·
without indulging in too much nit·picking I found them far from easy to
read and suspect that others would share my difficulty. This leaves us with
the booklists and addresses, which have been very conscientiously
compiled, and from these even a completely non·technical person could
wend his way through to the construction of a successful station after a
little while, provided he really had the inclination to get there. I am
wondering. however. if there might not be an easier and better way to do
this. Everyone concedes that the two Radio Amateurs' Handbooks and
the amateur radio course offered in technical colleges give a very
thorough grounding in the art, and the usual reply to anyone who asks
how to get started is to tell him to go and read the books or better still, do
the course. This could involve him in anything up to two year's work, and
even the best American texts on radio. with their liberal use of colour and
much lighter style, are pretty stiff going.
Would it not be possible, in one carefully prepared volume, to answer.

not the question "how do I build a boat? II but "How do I build, sail and
maintain a twelve foot fibreglass row·boat on a small lake?" In other'
words. could we not prepare a course of practical instruction, leading to
the building of a simple statton, which would provide all the background
and theory necessary for practical success without soaring to the dizzy
etherial realms that offer such attractions and temptations to most
UC05: page 83
technical authors? The aim of this imaginary volume would be not to

educate but to train · to convey needed information and ignore the
superfluous.
By working to a standardised circuit many of the possible difficulties

could be foreseen and remedies offered. Prototypes of the equipment
described could he constructed and kept accessible to the authors 80 that
any unusual faults which cOIlstructors reported could be "duplicated" in
true Apollo ground·base fasbion, and a great deal of operating
information amassed on the circuit 8S time passed.
The book could cover such necessary items as elementary metal·work

and soldering, rudimentary aerial theory, a little about frequencies and
their relative merits, and of course a section on where to look for
additional information and where to buy parts. Perhaps "Undercurrents"
and Whole Earth Tools could undertake the writing of the Piracy Primer
as a joint venture. If any readers have further thoughts on the matter we
should be delighted to hear from you.
But as of now. Nigel Turner's book represents the very best introduction
to the subject that you can get, and the extensive list of individuals and
organisations willing to help should provide an adequate a\'enue of
rescue no matter what difficulties you find yourself in when it comes to
making the damned thing transmit· Nigel's book has started the ball
rolling · there is still room for much more literature on the topic · but
meanwhile the blessings of everyone in the free radio movement will go
with him for getting the job started.
David Gardiner.
UC05: page 84
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
. . and Sex and . .
Sex and Broadcasting, a Handbook on Starting a Radio Station for the Community, by
Lorenzo W Milam. Second Edition, price "Two Dollah" from KTAO, 5, University Avenue,
Los Gatos. California 95030, USA.
I KNOW. You've been listening to one or other (or worse, both) of

Britain's newlybegotten non·independent, non·local radio stations and
you're about to swallow half a ton of Aspirin,or throw yourself under a
double·decker bus in despair.
Yes, I understand. It's because you care about radio and you know how
good it could be if only .... , and you foolishly allowed yourself to
entertain naive hopes that perhaps. maybe. commercial radio just might
have begun to provide some kind of authentic, compelling alternative to
The Least Worst Broadcasting Service in the World.
And you turned on your radio when the new stations started up and
UGGGGGHHH·· · ··· your fond, fragile hopes were dashed to
smithereens by the first grating syllables of Janet Street Porter's
carefully·cultivated, chalk ·on ·blackboard. pseudo·working class voice.
by the artificially urgent tones of the news readers. by the frightful
banality of the "let's ask the expert" phone·in programmes I and by the
essential dishonesty of a medium that allows listeners to air their
comphllnts about society without attempting to stimulate them to
question the political and economic system that gives rise to those
complaints. Well. although I can sympathise only too well with your
suicidal pessimism, all I can say is DON'T 00 IT·
Not, at least, .until you've read Sex and Broadcasting . For I can
guarantee that after five minutes with this amazing volume you'll feel 500
% better ·· and Capital Radio and London Broadcasting will have paled
into richly··deserved irrelevance. Not that the book will do anything but
reinforce your conviction that radio, by and large. is run by men who are
at best complacent and at worst dishonest, and is regulated by a
well·nigh impenetrable bureaucracy the sole purpose of which seems to
be to stifle at birth any threats to the established order of the etheric
realm.
Not that sex and Broadcasting is about Sex. either. As the author explains:
"It's not that I am shy about offering you some passionate act of congress
in the transmitting room, as the tube·blowers rage overhead.
"No: it's just that I really wanted you to buy this book. and my Great Aunt
Beulah convinced me that a book with the word SEX in its title would
double its sales and quadruple its readership."
So what kind of antidote to the sicknessunto·death is that, you may ask?
UC05: page 85
Well, for a start, Sex and Broadcasting is funny. Very funny. Its humour is
of tht ironic. black variety that will strike a responding chord in the hearts
of all those who have ever struggled to smuggle a good idea across that
deadly minefield, studded with narrow·mindt>d nitpickers, which guards
the vested interests and the status quo in this country.
Sex and Broadcasting is about Community Radio ...... a fine thought·
Studios. turntables, tape recorders. available to anyone who pays a low
hourly rate: a common carrier·· with no censorship in any form. " Radio,
Milam firmly believes. is "a disease, a habit as hard and driving as the
very shriek of the blower which cools the white·hot tubes ... a blinding
habit ... which has to do with self·image, and the transmission of
generations, and the needs for minorities to see and hear themselves on a
million screens and in a million speakers in a million homes."
In the main. Milam's book is a tactics manual for US Community Radio
freaks who want to know how to tackle the blizzard of paperwork
needed to persuade "that absolutely maddening will·o·the·wisP. the FCC"
to let them loose on the air with a 10 watt. nOl\·profit FM broadcast
station. '
But at least, in the"'States. the possibility of gaining a license for
non·profit broadcasting exists. despite the infuriating frustrations of
dealing with the FCC. In this country. yourchances of being allowed to set
up even a OJ microwatt·powered listener sponsored ::D community
station are about as near zero 0 as chances can get. The raison d 'etre of È
Lord Aylestone, Baroness Sharp 0 Professor Meek and all the other
clowns n on the Independent Broadcasting Authority :t> is to issue
licenses to print money. not en to let radio lovers practice their beloved ··t
art. Maybe you'd better get out that bottle 2: of Aspirins after all.
Godfrey Boyle
UC05: page 86
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Please repeat your message . . Please repeat your . . Please
repeat . .
"Message of a Wise Kaboutel Roet van Duyn
Duckworth 75p. (Paper·back
THE author of this fascinating, uneven volume is a major figure in the
Dutch anarchist "Provo" (Provocateur) and "Kabouter" (Gnome)
movements. The activities of these groups reached a very high level
during the middle sixties, when thei r disruptive activities led to the
resignation of Amsterdam's Mayor and Chief of Police, and on the
positive side to the founding of the Orange Freestate. an anarchic
republic with its own anti·authoritarian schools, kindergartens and
creches, pure·fooo shops. bousing (squatting) projects, non·profit small
industries, free transport system, and even a tonguein·cheek assembly of
"shadow ministries such as the "Depa rtment of Sabotage of Fixed Roles
and the Habit of Obedience". Thei r acll vi ti es we re commended by the
Dutch Premier as "a whi(( of perfume amid the stale smell of cabbages in
our politics". but the existence of the Freestate did not become very
widely known outside Holland, even amongst anarchists. For this reason.
one is tempted to rema rk that a really comprehensive history of what
took place in tbe practical arena might have been a greater contribution
to the spread of libertarian ideas than the somewhat esoteric book that
van Duyn actually gives us.
I must say light away that van Duyn has a fine ift of summary. and the
most penetrating paragraphs are almost always the ones that sum up the
views of other anarchist theorists. especially his chosen mentor, Peter
Kropotldn. When he begins to speak with his own voice. and to apply his
conception of such things as cybernetics and modem social science to
the classical theories, is where he is at his weakest in my view,
It is Kropotkin's message which has inapt red van Duyn. and it is he
whom be cbristens "the wise Kabouter". A large part of the book is given
over to a biographical picture of Kropotkin and a description of his views.
This section. as I have indicated. is admirably handled In an elegant
couple of lines. he sums up the teaching of the 19th century phi
losopher/ sci enti st:·
"The revolution must avoid not only exchanging one authority for
another, but also removing one form of oppression in Cavour oC another.
Kroptkin would have freedom, whole and indivisible, for everyone."
A very succinct statement of the views put forward in Kropotkints
(unfinished) "Ethics". one of the finest anarchist texts available. KroJXltkin
spent a great deal of his time collecting evidence for the importance of
co·operation in nature, as a factor in evolution and survtvalj whether it is
UC05: page 87
found between members of the same species or between the species

themselves. Van Duyn's theory rests on an attempt to extend this into a
principle involving an equilibrium between the cooperative tendency and
"aggression". by which he seems to mean slightly di((eren: things in
different contexts. Part of the elusiveness of his ideas may originate in the
translation from the Dutch. but one suspects that the unsatisfactoriness
lies a little deeper than this.
His theory of the "alternating current" that swings successively between
aggression and co·operation (or creativity and destructiveness) has echoes
in it of Arthur Koestler's "janus·faced holons" which combine the
self·assertive quality of "wholes" with the co·operative. dependent
property of parts; but I. for one. find Koestler's model a great deal easier
to grasp. LikE Koestler (and more recently Stafford Beer). be refers to
cybernetic concepts to account for events in the social and political
spheres. and attempts to marry this to an older dialectic view of social
·hanlle. His conclusion Is that:
" the two systems are complementa ry. Dialectics can account for
historical leaps 1NitbJ the framework of a continuous evolution;
cybernetics explains tl continuity of events within the framework of a
discontinuous revolution . . “
Van Duyn's insistence on retaining the "aggressive instinct" as a necessary
noncomitant of social stability seems to lead him into some odd
contradictions. which Kropotkin. Malatesta, Bakunin and and the other
classical theorists avoided simply by making fewer generalisations about
the nature of man. This is a fault to which van Duyn seems particularly
prone, coming out with such statements al
"One of man's characteristics is his almost universal fear of finding
himself in the dark. This irrational fear. with which we are all familiar. sets
up a need for some fixed authorit)
Not only is this a total contradiction of Kropotkin's beliefs. it goes against
much good anthropological evidence and leads van Duyn into tbe
completely inconsistent call for a society ...... in which the need for
hierarchy will be satisfied. There would still be a rudimentary hierarchy in
this society, but it would be adaptable . etc.
There is something disturbingly loose about much of the reasoning that
leads to his theory of the "single continuous-discontinuous metabolic
process of living." It has about it the same poetic rather than rigorous
flavour that we find in the political theories or, say. George Bernard Shaw.
The conclusions seem to precede the chains of reasoning on which they
bang; and rhetoric and "imagery" figure in the argument as much as logic
and deduction:·
"The sperm Is dependent on the ovum. the ovum on the spenn, the
UC05: page 88
offspring on its mother. the mother on her offspring. man on woman.

woman on man. It looks as though nature, in her representational,
creative power. wanted to hold these up to us as symbols of the mutual
dependence and interconnectedness of aU things. It
Passages like this. as well as some dreadfully faulty examples drawn from
the physical sciences, may cause Undercurrents readers to wince. and yet
the man bas got his heart in the right place and obviously a great weight
of thought and reading behind what he 18 trying to say. Would it be very
Impolite for us to request that he try again?
David Gardiner
UC05: page 89
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Self·sufficiency
Self·Sufficiency: the science and art of producing and preserving your own food, by John &.
Sally Seymour (Faber & Faber, [2.95.
THIS is a book to bring the sharp reality or country living slap into the
middle of any murky urban pipe dreams of starting a rural community. It's
a How·to·do·it book to skim read UCM' while you plan and debate, a
book to devour word by word later when you 're ready to sow, hoe and
milk your flrst cow, ktll your first pig, make your own bread and butter.
cheese wine, beer. sugar and preserve your own vegetables. But Self
Sufficiency is much more than a doáit·yourselt handbook: itls rich in
astringent anecdotes. robust philosophy, earthy humour and even a kind
of poetry. For John and Sally Seymour know what they're at and where
they're going and, presumably why the hell they did it, though they don't
tell why.
They began with next to nothing, rearing their family of four children for
eight years on five acres of very poor land, growing most of their food
and cutting llearly all their fuel before moving to a bigger farm. John
brought in money from the System as a writer, Sally as a potter. They've
always worked hard, but they've always lived well. "We have lived
extremely well on a very small money income. and the tax eaters have
lltX done very well out of us", he writes "We have not contributed very
much to the atom bomb. nor to the building of Concorde. When the
latter breaks the sound barrier over our heads, and scares the wits out of
our cows, we have to endure it, but at least we bave the satisfaction of
knowing that we haven't paid for it."
They reckon that a family with four children can live very well on five
acres of good land. buying very little from outside, but only if they
manage their affairs very carefully. None of your wishy washy
vegetarianism for the Seymours. Not only do they enjoy meat and take
slaughter in their stride, but they put forward a vigorous ecological
argument for meat eating.
So far as they can they practise organic farming. They clearly have a love
of the land and · despite their lack of qualms on killing · a transcending
love for all life upon it. On poultry rearing John totally rules out 'Belsen
houses' (battery houses or broiler houses).
He writes, "To confine, whom nature has given the urge to scrap. to
perch, to nap her wings, to take dust baths, in a wire cage in which she
cannot do any of these things, is revoltingly cruel and I cannot bring
myself to talk to anybody who does it, nor would I. on any condition,
allow such a person inside my house". And on pig rearing he sums up the
whole horror of the factory farming on which straight society depend this
UC05: page 90
way: "Once you start to interfere with nature. with sows, you've got to
interfere more and more. Keep them too confined and they get worms ·
so you have to confine them even more. on concrete. Keep them on
concrete and they can't get iron, so you have to inject the piglets with it
or they get anaemia. Farrow them in a confined space with plenty of
straw and they get confused and smother the piglets. So you give them no
straw. They then loose their natural chain of Instinctual actions ·
nest·making and all the rest of it · so they lay on or eat their piglets. They
are mixed up.
So you confine them In a farrowing crate where they can't move at all
and attract the piglets away from them with a warm infra red light. And
the piglets get virus pnewnonia. So you go in for embryotomy. You kill the
sow and take the piglets out of her belly in aseptic conditions and bring
them up in sterile boxes. This Is actually being done on a large scale in
America and more and rrt more in England. Pigs are now being kept all
their lives, in total darkness except when they are fed, and In tiny wire
cages like battery hens. Where do you go from there?"
Muscular effort, varied relevant work. fresh air and good food are the
Seymour's alternative to the ills of urban living. To make their point they
quote a merry rhyme I must admit to not having heard before.
‘Ring a ring a roses
Coronary thom·bo·ses.
A 'seizure· A 'seizure·
We all fall down’
The book also has delightful illustrations by Sally Seymour.
Patrick Rivers.
UC05: page 91
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
SNAP JUDGEMENTS
YOU have to pay for anything good these days, even p·licity material.
Catalogue·poster costs 15p (single) or lOp (10 or more) including post.
from Low Impact Technology Ltd . 73 Molesworth Street. Wadebridge.
Cornwall. Lots of ideas for how to unhook your energy inputs, and shit
output, from city networks.
Economics of Water Collection and Waste Recycling, by Gerry E Smitb. pub. University of
Cambridge Department of Architecture, July 1973. 45pp. 60p
READ this if you think a Clivus in the basement will save you money. or
that methane equals riches from shit. Read it if you never worried about
how to recycle you drinking water without recycling your germs; if you
never realized your friendl) anaerobic digester was an explosion risk.
Read it for 1001 commercially available alternatives to mains water and
sewage. Read it if you want to know why none of them in average UK
population densities, is an economic proposition. Read it if you don't see
why the hell they should be. People who only do things which are "an
economic proposition" got us into this mess, didn't they?
Evaluation of Waste Disposal Systems for Urban Low Income Communities in Africa, by Uno
Wlnblad. published Scsn Pisn Coordinator Als, 3 Ssnkt Kjelds Gade, DK·2100 Copenhagen,
Denmark, 1972.
GERRY Smith (see review on this page) deals with the problem as you
find it in the Home Counties. Now transpose it to an African shantytown,
where at present there are open sewers or none at all. Population too
dense for 'traditional', countryside methods. Government too poor
(assuming orthodox priorities) to build piped sewerage. 'Intermediate'
technology to the rescue? Alas, Scan Plan scans range of existing
'non·network' methods (inCinerator, algae tank etc.) and finds all
wanting. All the good ones are too wildly expensive. They suggest a
hand·operated, ox·drawn 'cesspit emptier' which would be locally built,
but don It say how to build it. I hope they've had some ideas since the
1972 study was published.
Tony Durham.
Tbe Environment Film Review. Environment Information Center, Inc., 124 Easi 39tb St ..
New York, NY 10016. Published snnually, shout $20.
FILM Review Is just one of EIC's activities, actually. They also publish a
twice monthly journal of abstracts from the environmental literature,
which comes in two vers ions, printed and on computer tape. ('Fraid we
haven 't seen it and anyway the Undercurrents computer is broken
down.) Main merit of Film Review is the sheer number of films it lists.
UC05: page 92
Utility in UK is limited. though, since only US distributors are listed.

But people making or distributing environment films in Britain might find
it useful. Same goes for anyone researching the way the environment
Issue has been _ presented/obscured by US corporations and agencies.
Example: Atomic Energy Commission 's film "Return to Bikini" . where
the palm trees wave again over the radioactive sands.
Tony Durham.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
DOUBLE VISION? - SECOND VIEW
UNDERCURRENTS 4 carried a review of Theodore Roszak's latest book, by Peter
Sommer. Peter thought the book was a bit insubstantial. MIKE GREY thinks he missed
the point of the book. Since this is no mere quibble over literary style. we are printing a
re·revtev. by Mike Grey. Let no one now accuse us of 'single vision'.
I want to offer another viewpoint on Roszak's book because [ feel that
Peter Sommer's dismissal of it as a laxative for those of us in the rut of
everyday consciousness, is totally inadequate. Roszak's language is
not that of a scientUic treatise, but how could it be? It is difficult to
attack the very basis of one scientific culture, using a language geared
to the smooth operation of that culture. The result is therefore
sometimes trivial (as in Roszak's Disneyland example) but it is just as
often profound in its insights. The first two parts of the book. the attack
OIl the scientific world view and its consequences, are what make it
bulky and tedious to read for those already familiar with the
arguments. Part three is the crux of the matter; here Roszak Is hinting
at what may be a genuine alternative to objective consciousness. He is
not explicit because he can't be; there are no blueprints for action,
answers that are just dished up to us. or ue the product of analytical
thought alone, will only drive us deeper Into the alienation ci
objective consciousness.
The question which Roszak only begins to answer is, what is the nature of
reality, mind (conscious and unconscious) and culture, and the relation
between these. He seeks to build from such an understanding, a
revolutionary mysticism, to heal the split between the 'political' and the
'mystical' factions of the counter·culture.
What is needed is somethIng which will achieve large scale change
without depriving people and small communities of their right to self
determination and pSYChological wholeness. Only an understanding of
the reality of people and their cultures can achieve this. I believe that
people are more than just bebavioural mechanisms or just individual
consclousnesses; they are part of a culture. an enduring entity which
expresses a certain world·view and rIi>ordinates all its facets, science.
art, religion, language, technology, economics etc., to that expression.
UC05: page 93
That which hinds the individual to a eu1ture is myth·patterns of symbolR

woven into our being at many levels, both conscious and unconscious
which somehow tie our feelings, thoughts and actions to the ultimate
goals of that culture. (Such symbols, Roszak labels as 'resonant', e.g. the
Cross for Christians). We must take the clues further; wbat Is the nature
and origin of these resonant symbols. at what levels of our mind do they
register and how do they effect our actions Individually and collectively?
When we have an understanding of these. not just in theory, but in our
experience, we are well on the way out of one wasteland. But I
emphasise that we shouldn't expect neat, logical behavioural models
telling us what to do. We need new concepts (qualitative rather than
quantitative), new means of comm·nicatIng · not just ideas but ideas
interwoven with feelings and intuition · and new methods of participating
in what we study. Two criticisms of Roszak. I feel he has not taken
enough account of Jung's work · Jung Is still largely ignored even now.
Also, Roszak, like some of his mystical contemporaries, often shows a
·inge of aristocratic condescension In his attitude to the masses and the
Third World. I think he is wrong in thinking that a revolution of
consciousness can only happen in advanced, Industrial societies. Also, If
the Age of Aquarius is the Age of Man then raised consciousness and
heightened experience must be available to everyone Just as much as
alternative technology, political self·determination, de·schooled networks,
meaningful work, basic security, and so on. I believe that much of the
language and techniques of mystics is alien to those of a working class
culture (to use Roszak's terms, their symbolic base is not resonant in a
working·class environment). Only when the mass of people begin to
experience a breaking up of the old consciousness, is there any cause to
hope.
So if we are to transcend the old consciousness and culture, it is no good
tinkering with just our own mind or with just one or two facets of our
culture. We must seek to understand the Interrelation between
consciousness and culture and the part played hy myth and symbol. Only
then wtll it hegln to be apparent what actions are appropriate. What has
gone before In the alternative movement is only the prelude to the
changes to come; when we look back, I think Roszak's work. for all Its
many shortcomings, will be tJeen as a milestone, a source of integration
and Inspiration.
Where the Wasteland Ends, by Theodore Roszak, Doubleday Anchor (in USA) Faber (in UK)
UC05: page 94
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
SUBSCRIBE: I'd like to subscribe to Undercurrents, starting from issue
number 6 . * I enclose a cheque/postal order for £2.00+( or equivalent)
* Please put me on your mailing list and send me an invoice for £2.00+
(or equivalent) (please delete as appropriate) This entitles me to Six
hi·monthly issues by second class/surface mail. NAME !.block
capitals,please, so' we can read it) ..................................
ADDRESS . ...............................................................................
Country ................................. SIGNATURE .
DATE. · . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. (Please allow us a while to process your
subscription) * 'I'd like to order back issues of Undercurrents number .....
, and I enclose . a cheque/postal order for Back issues of No 1 are sold
out ·· sorry·
Readers who previously asked for No 2 (the "Peoples' Bomb" issue) may
be glad to hear that we've had a few returned, so write now if you want
one. Back issues of EDDIES are free if ordered with Undercurrents, but
we only have copies of EDDIES Nos 3, 6 and 8 left. "'The cost of back
issues is 30p for Nos. 2, 3 and 4, and 35p for No 5, post pai·L +Affi MAIL
RATES are as follows: EUROPE,£3.00. OUT:SIDE EUROPE: cost varies
according to distance and "Zone". ZONE A ( Middle Eastern countries, N.
Africa, and ex·British colonies, roughly·speaking) :£3.50. ZONE B (USA,
Canada, etc.,):£4.00. ZONE C (Australia, Japan etc.):£4. 75. If you find
Airmail postage rates hard to follow ( so do we). write and we'll let you
know how much airmail to your country costs.
THE COMMENTS above are just some of the reactions to Undercurrents
and EDDIES that have appeared in both the straight and underground
press over the past year or so .
As you can see, most of the comment has been pretty favourable. But
we're not getting complacent . Until now. Undercurrents and EDDiES
have had to leave untouched many areas of science and technology that
obviously need coverage from a radical viewpoint, mainly because of
limitations of time, money and energy. Now, with the reorganisation
that's underway, we're confident that we can soon provide an even better
coverage than . before. If you've liked what you've been reading in this
issue, and you'd like to ··.·P'_u·_ ··P·_I!.·_··_i1!lP·.·y_e_t·e ·····e, __ the
most useful thing you can do is take out a subscription. If at any stage
you're dissatisfied with the "value for money" you Ire getting, we
undertake to refund the outstanding balance of your subscription. Can’t
say ·fairer than that, can we?
UC05: page 95
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
All contributions gratefully received
Undercurrents welcomes contributions from its readers, either in the
normal typewritten form, or in the form of "pasted·up" artwork. If you do
send us pasteups, though, please make sure that the proportions of
your artwork are such that it
can be reduced to A4 size.
Line drawings, tables, and so on must be in black ink on a white
background. If they aren·t, our printers have hysterics, and we usually
have to re·draw them. Typescripts should be double·spaced, and on one
side of the paper only ·otherwise,they are very difficult to edit, and even
harder to typeset. If you must send handwritten copy, please write as
legibly as you can, and leave reasonable spacing between lines.
Please remember also that photographs may have to be cut before they
can be reduced to
fill the space on a page allocated to them. So if your photograph is
valuable and you don·t want it messed about, please write a note
prominently on the back to that effect.
These points may seem niggling, hut you·d be amazed at how much time
and effort woUld be saved if everyone observed them. OK?
Undercurrents can also accept inserts" for insertion into the envelopes in
which subscription copies are mailed.
a>obviously, there are limitations on the amount of weight we can add to
each mailing, so please contact us before sending any inserts. We·ll try to
include as much as we can, though.
from inside front cover:
bills. The cost of "servicing" our 400
subscriptions is roughly £360. Our "assets" are in the rather dubious form
of money owed to us by bookshops, and from copies
still to be sold, which should come to around £420. eventually.
The major reason for the deficit is that we·ve had to pay more for printing
EDDIES than we originally estimated for, and we·ve also had to pay more
to airmail it abroad, because the weight exceeds the first half·ounce,
airmail step. Trivial errors, you might think, but cumulative, and fatal if
allowed to continue unchecked. Another important cause of decreased
income has been the bigger·than·budgeted cost of sending copies out to
bookshops Many people don·t realise that we have to give bookshops a
33!% discount on every copy, and that it costs at least 3p per copy to
send copies, in bulk, to many bookshops. Which leaves us a mere 133P
income from each bookshop·sold copy ·· if we ever get ;t, At a cover
UC05: page 96
price of 35p, however, we should have an income of around 20p per

copy, and we may, in addition, be able to get
a distributor to handle the magazine eventually. Distribution companies
take at least 50% of the cover price of a magazine, which would leave us
with 17·p · not much, but enough. Subscription prices, you·ll observe, are
only rising slightly
in the UK, and staying the same for overseas subscribers.
That·s because postage, envelopes, invoicing and so on costs
us much less, proportionately, than the discounts that booksellers and
distributors require.
If you feel that 6 Undercurrents a year isn·t what you bargained for, let us
know and we·ll refund your subscription, less the cost of copies already
sent. But stick with us and we·re sure you·ll agree that you·re getting your
money·s worth, especially bearing in mind that we have no subsidy from
advertising or anywhere else. If you think about it, 35p every two months
is only 4p a week:
THIS Undercurrents was designed and edited by Sally and Godfrey
Boyle. The reviews editor was Tony Durham. Joy Watt and Moggs set the
type, helped out by Ann Miller and by Dorothy at Metro, where they
looked after the mail.
John Daniels and George Bowden and all at the Russell Press can take
the credit for the printing, and for waiting so long for their money.
Every Wednesday, a dedicated band of workers came round to help with
tasks great and small. Their names include David Gardiner, Peter Harper,
Chris Ryan, Martin Lockett, Charlie Clutterbuck, Alan Dalton, Hugh
Saddler, Sooty, John Prudhoe, and many others, all of whom should have
statues erected to them in Westminster Abbey. Equally invaluable, in their
own peculiar ways, were Pat Coyne (crookedest paster ·upper in the
West) the ever·resourceful Ant Schtoll, Lyn Gambles (thanks for the VW,
luv), and Peter Young who tried gallantly.to bend the Companies Act to
suit the needs of a crazy magazine.
Figures in the background whose help and encouragement are
appreciated include John Cima, Alan Campbell, Geoff Watts,
Nigel Thomas, Phil Reardon, Stan Gooch, Trux and May at the Catalog
and Peter Paladin Sommer.
There must be many others whose names should also be mentioned.
Please forgive us for forgetting you in the rush.
UC05: page 97

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Undercurrents 05 Winter 1973 Page 1

UNDERCURRENTS, the magazine of radical science and alternative technology [ISSN

From Class War Comix #1.

Undercurrents Winter 1973 CONTENTS

Meanwhile, in the Autumn of 1972, we decided to print our news

THIS UNDERCURRENTS was designed and edited by Sally and Godfrey

All contributions gratefully received

I CAN HARDLY bring myself to say it. It feels like kicking my

techniques that would:

Environmental impact was one area in which you could )X>possibly

incredible effort is required to get such things together.

beautiful old slow·speed mills of farcical efficiency. But to afford that

proposition. More recently the

environmental Impact possible?

the younger engineers). The likely

disease · notably schistosomiatic blindness, kidney perforation and death.

M. Borisov (after all we could touch it all up a bit if anything did go

waterlocks, drainage gates, bridges, reservoirs, ponds, embankments,

The water shortage is a product of concentration in cities and of

suppressed. They were suppressed mostly because they are by their

We focus on an urban industrial community, say the size of Belfast or

John Norden refers to ancient tales of catastrophes in his poems and

the Solar System have come into contact in

This has sparked off consider·able correspondence in the pages of Pen

planetary movements is that they are totally impossible in terms of

suggested by Velikovsky himself. ranging from relativity theory, the

drawn from that theory.

abdication of responSibility and ignoring. of "value". In his critique of

moderate eyesight to be horned while gibbous In phase, so that there Is

of a well·rounded Interpretation of many data about the Solar System and

Sempurna Transport, 94, High Street, Shepperton.

one recipient at at least seemed mortally offended at what be regarded as

groups. although many gases share properties of other groups. In table

The last mask commonIy available Is the service respirator,

required or bottled. Store it in a cool, dark draught·free place.

HOW TO MAKE THEM

Some technical information is needed

to understand the effects of plastics · but tbis is not complicated. Plastics

a chain of "monomer" units · usually thousands of them. Their production

Nearly all plastics are made from

fossil fuels (oil and natural gas) and

so deplete irreplaceable natural resources. 2% of the crude oil

processed in Britain goes to the

plastics industry, and more is used

h would be possible to make some of the chemicals needed in plastics

Dalton IS article in Undercurrents 4

on "Chemicals from Biological Sources". Some plastics. notably cellulose,

in small quantities using sunlight only, so such large imputs of

After manufacture of the polymer,

other substances can be added. Plasticisers are usácd to increase the

resistance to degradation, whether from irradiation, chemicals or other

to ease processing and moulding.

for polymerisation of thermoplastics. Production will tent to become

Concentrating on Britain. official

of Western Europe as Table 1 shows:

So 1,094.000 tonnes of plastics were produced in Britain in 1968. Five

The most interesting (and controversial) of the uses of plastics is in the

increasing. (For a survey of plastics in packaging see Packaging in Britain.