Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Undercurrents 08 October-November 1974
Undercurrents 08 October-November 1974
Undercurrents 08 October-November 1974
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Eddies: . . THE PRINCELY PURSUIT OF A. T.
DISBELIEF, followed by amused surprise, has been the reaction of most
Alternative Technology enthusiasts to the news that the Duke of
Edinburgh is visiting the National Centre for the Development of
Alternative Technology in Machynlleth, Wales, at the end of October.
Alternative Technology, until recently the almost exclusive province of
cranky eco·eccentrics, has become respectable with a rapidity that has
taken most AT freaks· breath away. Elevated interest in the subject is not
even confined to British Royals, as the visit of Queen Juliana of the
Netherlands to Sietz LeeOang·s rather similar "Small Earth Project" near
Eindhoven in mid·October makes abundantly clear. Equally clear is the.
fact that Alternative Technology enthusiasts are going to have to learn to
deal in one way or another with increasingly frequent overtures from the
Establishment.
The little town of Machynlleth has, until now, been largely unaware of the
jewel that has been nestling in its bosom. The AT ·crowd from the Centre
have spent most of the last year beavering away on renovating the
outbuildings of the old quarry where the Centre has its home and on
tinkering with solar heaters and wind generators. They have had lillie
opportunity to fraternise with the locals.
Prince Phillip·s visit should change all that. He·s scheduled to arrive at
Machynlleth station by Royal Train. No doubt tho local Mayor, John
Beaum·ont · who also happens to be the owner of the National Centre·s
quarry will be there to greet "him. From the station, His Royal Highness
will be transported, in a Harbilt electric car laid on specially for the
occasion, to the Centre itself. There he will inspect the "Ideal Home",
bought by the centre at last year·s Ideal Homes Exhibition, re·built on the
site, and now fitted with ultralow loss insulation and special double
glazing supplied by Pilkingtons. Transport of the Royal Person round the
quarry will be by means of the narrow·gauge railway, once used for
hauling slate, which has been renovated by the Centre.
Normally, the little railway wagons are pushed around the site by hand,
but on this occasion the Duke will be propelled by a proper narrowgauge
steam locomotive, constructed by a loving railway enthusiast Up North
some·. ·where and brought down to Wales by lorry for the event. On His
tour of inspection, Prince Phillip will view a ·solar roof, a wind mill, and
·a methane digester, · all ·built off the site · and will inspect the Centre·s
HOOKIN’ EM ON HARDWARE
WE ALL kNOW how consumer products are created to give
manufacturers a market rather than to fulfil a real need. Concepts like
built·in·obsolescence are generally understood and reluctantly accepted.
But what is not often appreciated ·is the way in which the same brand of
thinking is applied to areas of the highest technology. ·Top level
documents from International Computers Limitec1, Britain·s major
computer manufacturer recently fell into Undercurrents hands. They
reveal the actual management thinking that produces a new range of
computer. These documents reveal that the process is little different to
that with which we are already so familiar in less exotic fields. ·It seems,
for instance, that computers are designed as ·much to generate future
dependence on the company · and thus further business · as to fulfil
customer needs, The documents also show that even a prestigious
company like ICL is prepared to mislead its customers about its policies
·on international standards, But in fairness to ICL. it is clear that many of
these dubious marketing and technical decisions are taken under the
looming influence of I BM. the giant of the world computer industry.
which has immense power to manipulate the development of the industry
for its own commercial advantage, ·This is the right time to be talking
about how a computer is marketed. At the end of this month. leL is
officially launching its New Range. Two weeks before, they will have
closeted a few hunched journalists in some lush hotel for ·a confidential
briefing and preview, What follows is some of the private thinking behind
the public statements, , ,
Market Slots
The four main processors originally planned for the New Range have
been designed to fit into market slots with an eye to competitors·
developments. But just as important are the current ICL users
who must be persuaded to become users of the New Range.
·Adequate growth paths
for existing customers· must be provided, and the New Range ·must cOl/
er reasonahle enhancement replacements for existing ICI. products·,
(Enhancement is the profitable business of selling new bits and pieces to
improve
the performances of existing machines).
·The greater relative I/olume of enhancement business in fUlure means
that prices of enhancement products (store increments, peripherals) must
be kept high at the expense of initially·delivered products (processor,
basic peripherals) if necessary·.
The company also has to be sure that it does not pr· duce too good a
computer
which is so flexible that users never need to move to a bigger machine.
This is one reason why four mainframe processors were first proposed in
the New Range: ·A further factor leading to this choice
is the consideration of future enhancement rounds. It would be difficult to
introduce further models into a range already based on fine steps in
performance ·.
(General Motors will also tell you how important it is to save some new
features for next year·s model if you want to keep people buying).
ICL have also learnt a lesson from the British aer· space industry, They
have wisely put off attempts to produce a really powerful computer (of
the sort used for scientific and technical applications) until the market
expands somewhat.
·Beyond the power of this oj (the machine at the top of
the range) ·it is felt that
only the numberácruncher market is significant ·. So for
a really big computer we will have to wait a few more years.
_______________________________________________________________________ UC08: page 8
_______________________________________ Undercurrents 08 October-November 1974 Page 9
·For the mid and late seventies more powerful machines will be required
with at least three times this power for on·line commercial and scientific
uses in leI. ·s markets·.
The company has also decided not to try to pull old tricks on its computer
consumers:
·Maximum store sizes should be as large as possible, ICI.
will not be operating on the principle used by IBM in the 360 range
whereby store limitations on certain models were used to force the
customer to a higher model·,
Pulling a Price Out of the Hat You might think that the price you pay for a
computer is determined by what goes into designing and building it.
In reality, it is regarded more as a function of the limits dictated by the
competition.
Pricing is done, says ICL, bearing in mind tactical factors · .. the main
unknown at present is the nature of any new IBM range·_
So in establishing the tentative price structure, ICL·s guideline is that ·the
intermodule price spacing must be fine enough to deny any gaps to the
competition ·; and that ·a significant but
not exorbitant rental increase should accrue from customers who grow
from 1900 systems·,
Top price for the biggest processor, with a 2 MegaByte store? £ 1 ,37
million, at 1971 prices.
Consistent with the idea that after·sales business is where the real money
lies, ICt plans to keep initial prices low and then cane the customers on
after·sale service,
·We need to ensure that we can if we chouse, continue to price
mainframe at about 70% of IBM·s price, · t· ... thereby undercutting IBM
system prices by 10·15% even with higher equivalent pen·pheral prices. It
will be advantageous in future to keep the latter high in view of the
growing proportions of enhancement business·. The mark·up on the
peripherals? 270%!
Convenience Computers
One demand that computer users make, not unnaturally, is that their
machines should at least be reliable in the short period before they are
made obsolescent. Resilience, the ahility of a computer to cope with the
machine malfunctions and failures which can bring an automated process
to a grinding halt, is a growth area of the technology.
Computer performance
in this respect is measured in crude human terms. leL reckons that for the
user,
two Service Interruptions in an 8·hour shift will make it a bad shift. They
aim to reduce the number of bad shifts to
1 %. And they are trying to reduce the likelihood of ·inconvenience· (one
interruption per shi"ft) occurring to once in eight shifts.
At the lower level of the range, designers were toLd for instance to reduce
the time taken for the diagnosis and repair of faults from the present 2·3
hours to 30 minutes. But at the top end
. of the range, where on·line operation does not allow for any significant
interruption to the system, the aim is to provide facilities to aV<;lid
stoppages, The machines will be able to automatically rearrange working
components in the event of a partial failure, using built·in spare capacity,
and start up :tgain,
The complex control programmes needed for this selfdiagnosis and
reconfigura·
tion will be one of the keys
to the success or failure of
the top end of the market. And, as this is ICL·s first bid
to get into the markets which demand these facilities, it could have wide
implications for the future of the company.
It is also interesting to see how the computer dialect has adopted
emC"tive human terminology in this area where machine takes over from
thinking man.
Just the way in which ·resilience· is defined can give you something of the
flavour. Resilience includes ... ·facilities to allo HI by·pass
or replacement of irrecoverably corrupted entities, such as hardware
modules. by manual or automatic means, so as to maintain lOme
degree of system service, albeit it in crippled mode
(ie at degraded performance). And ·facilities to aI/ow reco·Very of
corrupted entities to a state suitable for continuation ... ·
Standards Double· Talk Another facet of computer industry dialect is the
doubletalk deating with public statements and private
policy. ·It is important that we should have a coherent policy to present to
Ie!. customers· notes the company in a briefing .. 1ocument on the
attitude to be taken
_______________________________________________________________________ UC08: page 10
_______________________________________ Undercurrents 08 October-November 1974 Page 11
have heard the phrase perfidious Albion, and as event unfold certain
people are beginning to suspect that there is cunning in the old bitch yet.
Two, it sro::ems, can play the independence game.
A quick glance at the appropriate map will show that the larger part ·
about two thirds · of the oil discovered in the North Sea lies not off the
coast of Scotland proper, but East and North of the Shetland Islands. The
oil is due to be taken to the stillun built terminal at Sullom Voe in the
ShetIands which is destined to become the largest oil port in Europe by
the early eighties. So large. indeed, that it is initially being built to cope
with ·200 million tons of oil a ·year · larger than any production figure for
the entire UK North Sea so far released. Knowledgeable experts ·say that
it could easily be trebled in capacity. No pipeline as yet connects
Shetland with the mainland, and apart from those connecting the Forties
field (the ·first to be discovered) and ·the f·rigg gas field, no pipeline is
being constructed to Scottish mainland, nor are any being planned.
·Ethnically and psychologically, the Shetlands have never been part of
Scotland and do not consider themselves so now. This point has not been
lost on the British Government, which has ·been remarkably
accommodating to the Shetlanders and their ideas on how the oil boom
should be handled. ·Any referendum on the future of Scotland would
amost certainly find Shetlands · ·and the Orkneys for that matter · voting
against the Nats. And if by some mis· chance Scotland should vote for
independence the English government would no doubt do the decent
thing and ·respect the wishes of the majority· · the majority in ·the
islands, that is ·áas they I ·have, of course, done so many times in the past
and indeed are doing now in Northern Ireland ... ·As predicted in this
column the little AngloáJrish .contrctemps over Rockall is now hotting up,
following the British Government·s recent unilateral annexation of
100,000 km2 of continental shelf in the Atlantic, an area stretching way
beyond Rockall. Pained surprise was Irish Foreign Minister Garrett
Fitzgerald·s reaction when he heard the news, and he announced that his
Government did not accept the claim. There·ll be plenty of action yet, me
hoys.
RADIO 88
Radio 88 is an illegal Swedish Radio Station that broadcasts to Stockholm
and its suburbs. Three members of the group visited Peoples News
Service recently, and left this account of their activities.
"The Station began about two years ago. A group of people started to
_______________________________________________________________________ UC08: page 14
_______________________________________ Undercurrents 08 October-November 1974 Page 15
PROPERTY SPECULATION
FOLLOWERS of the clandestine activities of Her Majesty·s Government
normally have to rely on books like Peter Laurie·s Beneath The City
Streets and on organisations like Spies for Peace and Anarchists
Anonymous (see page 19), for the occasional tantalising glimpse into the
underground machinations
of the Establishment.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
. . 06-07 Letters
Poor ‘ol Tabitha
Dear Undercurrents.
·Thanx· for the negative plug on poor ·01 Tabitha Baby-though I don·t
care too much. The people who make it are always saying they·d like to
make more, bring price down etc, but anyhow there·s no-one else
making a similar. When there is I reckon there·ll be something to gripe
about. Enclosed is a Customs Stamp from a Fireless Cooker imported into
Eire. Now LIT, a rip off outfit. makes £1.50 on each Fe we sell about 20
so far. The Customs. who 1 don·t see getting a knocking review in UC ·
I·ll do one free · charge nearlY £1 for exactly luck all. The VAT mothers
here in Britain get £1.30 (retail price is £13.101 again for exactly luck all.
We advertise it. and sell it ·cos we like poor ol’· Tabitha Beazelly who
makes it, and becos no·one else does ·50 how much will it cost when the
AT groovies get i onto it? Tune in later.
The phone phreaking thing in UC7 was good. How about a People·s
Plutonium sniffer that we can check out the environment with after the
krash. The krash ... ? You think it·s likely/possible/ unlikely in the next year
or so?
Yours bionically, Andy MacKillop
Low Impact Technology
73 Molesworth St, Wadebridge Cornwall.
Sorry Andy, nothin· personal mate
Gasbag
Dear Undercurrents,
There appears to be a misapprehension on the part of one
of your contributors concerning the device for compressing methane in
UC6. He is apparently under the impression that
when you release liquid from
one vessel to another the pressure difference varies according
to the volume of the vessels.
This in fact is not so and all that matters is the relative height of the liquid
columns in each case. There is one exception to this
rule and that is the use that can
be made of the hydraulic ram effect; by using this device:e a high surge
pressure can be created by bringing a liquid column to an abrupt
standstill and this is used for pumping ·water to higher levels but it is
difficult to see how this effect could be used in the device shown.
We Y\would very much favour the storage of methane in a butyl rubber
bag or a water seal·
ed cylinder. The compression of fuel gases can lead to trouble if not
handled by experts; indeed
a mini·Flixborough would be quite possible with methane, butane.
propane and other heavier·than·air gases if they were released from high
pressure thereby entraining a lot of air
to produce an explosive cloud. This would be much less likely to happen
from low pressure storage.
Yours sincerely, PJL Whybrow Glien, Manordeilo, Llandeilo,
Carms, S. Wales.
Socialism = Marxism?
Dear Undercurrents
I must attack the undercurrent (no pun intended I of Marxist verbiage in
the review of The New Technology of Repression in UC7. most signally
revealed in that meaningless expression ·class struggle·.
For the purpose of this missive, I am going to make some assumptions
which I hope do not strike people as being too outrageous, indeed too
simplistic. The first is to equate Marxism with Socialism. The second is to
note that whenever I use the term Socialism, I am not dealing with it in
theory but rather in practice. To do otherwise would be theoretical
bullshitting. Besides, if you Y\ere to look at Capitalism in theory only, you
would be playing into the "hands of people like Aims Of Industry who
want you to do just that
There is virtually no difference between Socialism and Capitalism in
practice. Under both systems, power is concentrated in the hands of an
elite; both exist by exploiting not only the natural world but people as
\Nell; both subscribe to what is probably the biggest political fallacy in
the twentieth century · sustained economic growth, both in the
main, support highly materialistic lifestyles; both require social
uniformity, thus repressing dissenting minorities.
On the subject of economic growth, it is interesting to note how avidly
niche, and turning away from the completely discredited and bankrupt
doctrines of Capitalism and Socialism?
I always thought that Undercurrents was part of that force. Actually, I still
do. But please no more bullshit Marxist verbiage like ·class struggle·. If I
want that sort of language in a magazine about science and technology,
then I can get either Science for People or Radical Science Journal. I quite
deliberately refrain from buying either of those asePtically academic rags.
They are for other s who are travelling a quite different road from
Undercurrents.
Nigel G. Turner
MUSTARD GAS
Dear Sirs,
We saw your magazine advertised in Electronics International so we sent
for the No 7 issue to see if we could learn further about amateur
electronics or TV.
We are very disappointed. Your magazine holds nothing of interest to us.
We do not like nor do we agree with the cOntents or the topics you
cover. We herewith return the unwanted and unliked magazine and
would appreciate the return of our 35p.
Yours,
A & EM Mustard, 6 Balmoral Avenue Thornaby. Stockton·on Tees
_______________________________________________________________________ UC08: page 22
_______________________________________ Undercurrents 08 October-November 1974 Page 23
• • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Comtek
AT FIRST, few people believed that COMTEK, Britain·s first Community
Technology Festival, would ever actually got off tho ground. Even tho
organizers, Bath Arts Workshop, must have had their doubts, for AT freaks
are an unpredictable bunch, not given to committing themselves In
advance to attending vague gatherings least of all some airy fairy
subsection of the Bath Arts Festival.
But somehow, with the aid of an impressive·looking last·minute brochure
and some well timed publicity, Thornton Kay, Rick and the rest of the
Workshop gang managed to assemble that critical mass of definite,
committed attenders necessary to set the social chain reaction going. And
so on Wednesday. August 20th, the cars and tents and caravans started
rolling, Circus wise, into the big field just on the outskirts of town that
had been set aside by the City Fathers for the Freaks.
Even then, event began to move with painful ponderousness, and it took
two more days, until Friday, for the dampened spirits of those who had
first camped in that empty field to be lifted by the realisation that
COMTEK 74 was slowly becoming the joyful, mass celebration of
Peoples· Technology that everyone secretly hoped it would be.
UNDERCURRENTS had hoped to bring you a feast of COMTEK pictures,
illustrating virtually every aspect of the five·day extravaganza. But believe
it or not our camera turned out to have 8 faulty shutter (just shows you
can·t trust these Hi TeK consumer products) and none of the 100·odd
pictures we took came out! The picture shown here were taken by Tony
Durham, who wasn·t attempting to capture everything on film, So we
haven·t been able to bring you pictures of the two ( yes, two) COMTEK
radio stations, of the people who made shoes from old car tyres, or the
solar·powered shower. You won·t share, were afraid, the amazing sight of
an old Austin encased entirely in concrete. dumped
at dead of night in the middle of the City as 0 protest against the City·s
transport policies ¥. That little episode resulted in the only arrest of the
Festival: Philip Brachi of Brad was lifted for stealing a road sign, but later
managed to convince tho police of his lack of complicity in the car
dumping operation. Nor will you see the amazing solar·powered trumpet,
a huge contraption constructed by the Belgian group, Mass moving ,
which "broke wind" just at the right psychological moment as the Fuzz
passed by on their way to do a perfunctory interrogation of the
car·cementing suspects. You·ll miss, also, the Media. Tent, pleasure dome
for COMTEK head trippers, where Max Rhynish enthused, as only he can,
about airships; Francis leonard blew many minds with his talk of tri ..
strut domes, flying saucers, and the . incredible, all singing, all dancing
solar·powered laser he says he·s working on; where Hoppy and Graft On
played their videotapes of the ugly scenes at Windsor Free Festival; where
Hygeia Labs explained the subtle effects of light and colour on our bodies
and our minds; and where the Street Farmers gave their fast·moving,
pop·packed tape·slide show.
If this sketchy retro view of COMTEK whets you appetite for more, you·ll
want to send for Bath Arts Workshop·s own, definitive COMTE!<
brochure. Just sand 25p for 40 A4 pages , complete with pictures,
bibliography and contacts guide, to Bath Arts Workshop, la, the "aragon,
Bath, Somerset.
Interaction·s glossy, ultrahigh technology media bus, crammed with
portable video equipment, film and slide projectors,and large screen TV
monitors for the public to watch, contrasted sharply with the chewing
gum and string image of the other exhibits
Francis leonard of Earth Star Structures wows ·em in the Media Tent with
his idea for a flying saucer that could work. A thin, concave shell spins
rapidly, frisbee style, above the stationary cabin, rotated, to avoid counter
torque. by a high power to weight Wankel engine driving the periphery of
the rotor. But is this really peoples· tech? More in the Marines line, if you
ask me ........
Inside the Media Tent during one of the many informal discussions. The
topic here is land Reform, the discussion catalysed by Satish Kumar and
Herbie Girardet of Resurgence.
·
_______________________________________________________________________ UC08: page 27
_______________________________________ Undercurrents 08 October-November 1974 Page 28
Another, smaller, windmill, made by Derek Taylor and John Shore at the
Architectural Association. A two blade prop drives an alternator by means
of a belt gear. Francis leonard·s Earth Star Structure dome. made on the
dazzlingly·simple, universally·applicable "tri strut" principle, can be seen
in the background.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Interview with Gerard Morgan Grenville of The National
Centre
THE SOCIETY for Environmental Improvement limited, a registered
Charity, was set up in the Autumn of 1972 in the role of link organization
between big business and the environmental movement. Its Chairman is
Gerard Morgan·Grenville; other directors include Michael Bray, who
controls Stuart Wrightson Ltd., reputed to be the second·largest insurance
company in the world, Diana Eccles, and Timothy Jones.
Gerard Morgan.Grenville is an industrialist who, with his brother. runs a
stainless.steel processing plant. Chichester Stainless Steel, and a company
dealing in fancy glassware and china, Dexam International. The Society
has managed to attract quite a few famous names as its patrons: Lord
Annan, Provost of University College london, Lord Robens, former
Chairman of the National Coal·Board, Sir Bernard Waley Cohen, former
Lord Mayor of London and Roy Jenkins, the Home Secretary, are just a
few of the notables who dignify its letterheads.
The Society·s brief history has not been without incident, however. Its first
full·time Director, Peter Whiteley ( ex·Cassells publisher and husband of
lady Angela Whiteley) quit in 1973 because of a disagreement
with Morgan·Grenville. And in June 1974, Steve Boulter, the Society·s .
Technical Manager, was fired by Morgan Grenville, allegedly because
he had, according to Morgan·Grenville:lost the confidence· of his fellow-
workers at the Centre, and because he had taken up a part time
lectureship at University College, london, while still working for the
Society.
Boulter contends that he was dismissed because he expressed
disagreement with the direction in which the Centre was moving at the
time · towards
a more inward·looking community, instead of the outgoing technical
advice centre which he had envisaged. That trend has now been reversed.
Boulter also says he took his part·time lectureship with Morgan
Grenville·s permission, and that it gave the Society access to valuable
University facilities in any case.
The dispute, which at one stage became so acrimonious that Boulter was
offered a one·way ticket to the ·States ( he is a US citizen) in lieu of his
notice money, now appears to have been settled · at least financially. But
Finance lies at the heart of the Centre·s problems at the moment. Big
Industry, originally envisaged as the source of most of the Society·s funds,
could hardly be shorter of cash these days. The initial £50,000 which
started the Society off two years ago ( supplied by a backer who still
insists on anonymity) will hardly last much longer. And with a figure of
£200,000 being talked about as the sum needed to renovate all the
quarry·s outbuildings, set up engineering workshops and provide living
accommodation on site, the Society for Environmental Improvement will
need a lot of money soon if any of its original grandiose ambitions is to
be realised. In this interview, Gerard Morgan·Grenville the aims and
philosophy behind the centre, and what he would like to see it achieve.
What are the historical antecedents of the project? How did you yourself
get interested in the environment and in alternative technology?
Well, I came through industry · I worked in industry for twenty odd years.
I became involved in questions of industrial pollution and then, on the
marketing side, became involved in trying to make marketing forecasts.
As a result of this I began to feel that a number of factors were going to
influence pretty decisively the buying pattern of people in the Western
world. This led me to look at the whole resource syndrome. I think · on a
slightly parallel course · I came to the thing through conservation. I·m a
painter by hobby and I constantly perhaps have a slightly over·sensitive
eye for things that have been spoiled. This is a straight way in which quite
a lot of people have come into the environment movement · they have
just been concerned by pieces of litter they have seen on the street and
gradually they equate that paper with not being just a visual eyesore but
with a waste of paper. Then they_ realise that paper in fact requires an
incredible quantity of timber just to produce. Then they see that it is not
recycled, and one thing leads to another. But one of the things we·ve
found at this centre is that almost no two people have come here for the
same reason.
The industrial activities that you were involved in led you to realise that
there was going to be a resource shortage?
Yes, it made me realise that we were in for an apparently endless period
of steeply rising prices. This gave one · if for no other reason, because
one·s livelihood depended on it _. a fairly vested interest in actually
determining what was going to happen in the future.
How did this concern of yours for the environment and the
rapidly·approaching resource and energy crisis of industry cohere into the
National Centre, and initially to the Society for Environmental
lmprovement · how did that happen?
Before: the old quarry outbuildings were in a chronically dilapidated state when the Centre moved in a year ago. It will
cost a lot of money to restore or re·build them.
Well, it was at about the time when Gerry Leach was publishing his
memorable series of articles in the Observer on ·Spaceship Earth·. That
woke up a lot of people to some of the facts and figures. Thus in my case
it gave a great impetus to a feeling that was probably already there, and I
started looking around and reading things and talking to people and
Traveling about a bit and became quite convinced that the sort of things
that are beginning to be seen now, were in fact Going to happen. I then
thought, well, everyone who can do anything about this ought to try and
do something. So I set about trying to get some funds, and as you know
got some. Then we spent about a year just looking at the whole
environmental problem and trying to see what we could do that was not
being done by anyone else and which could be done on the sort of
money that we had, and the sort of skills which we might be able to
obtain. Everything fell into place suddenly and this centre was born as an
idea, and very shortly afterwards in practice as a project.
Have you yourself been the primary driving force behind the whole thing
or were there any other people at the beginning who got involved?
I did start it, but I regard myself as part-time conductor of the orchestra. I
have a fairly silent role in the thing · the people upon whose skill one
depends for any sort of success are the players in the orchestra and most
of the work here and right at the beginning has been done by other
people · such a large number of people that I think it would be difficult to
name one or two dominant figures.
You·ve got a lot of very eminent names on your letterheads these days ·
how did these people get involved in your society?
Well, it was a deliberate policy. A lot of people regard alternative
technology as some sort of rationale for old·style anarchism · whereas
there are in fact a large number of people who head industry,
_______________________________________________________________________ UC08: page 33
_______________________________________ Undercurrents 08 October-November 1974 Page 34
government, large organisations, who are every bit as aware as are these
other people that something needs to be done. But for reasons which arc
perfectly obvious, they are sort of frozen in their particular positions, and
can·t easily move. So one of the things that we set out to do right from the
beginning was to establish a bridge which anyone could walk. To try to
make this a bit more obvious, we deliberately set out to enlist the support
of some of the wise men of our age. The people we have got on our
letterhead are amongst the more effective, more intelligent people in
various departments.
This policy is construed by some people to mean that we get huge hidden
subsidies, or that we are a sort of professionaIly·infiltrated department of
the Establishment, or even that we·re funded by the CIA · all sorts of
funny ideas ... Furthermore, I think one needs to realise that the people
towards the top of the pyramid are vastly marc effective in, terms of what
is done than the people at the bottom of the pyramid · this is absolutely
obvious. Therefore if you can enlist the support of the people at the top,
you·ve got a chance of achieving, by conventional means, really
worthwhile things. It would be naive to think that someone like the Duke
of Edinburgh isn·t an incredibly powerful figure in the country. No matter
what anyone·s views might be on the monarchy and its overtones, I think
most people in the country realise that he, as an individual, is simply a
man caught in a position who is trying to do the best thing by the job he·s
got, which is a pretty unenviable one. Therefore he is someone whose
sympathy is most valuable to the whole AT movement, and he is someone
who is walking across this pretty delicate bridge which we are in the
process of putting up.
There is possibly a greater measure of responsibility shown at managerial
level by people who work in business than is generally appreciated ... I
think that people perhaps at the lower end of today·s pyramid fail to
appreciate that some of the people who control industry are in fact highly
intelligent and fairly wise, fairly farseeing individuals. Sebastian de
Ferranti, for example, who·s the chairman of Ferranti, is a convinced
AT·man. He·s expressed a wish to come here and help, and we·ve got his
solar cells simply because he believes in what we·re doing. His brother,
Boswell (sic) de Ferranti, has actually spent a lot more time and money
than anyone else trying to develop heat pumps, because he thought they
were a good thing.
I·d be delighted if people like Ferranti make solar cells, provided that the
people who are working on those solar cells are not exploited in any way.
provided that their jobs are interesting and they can see the end product
of their work, and that the production of solar cells itself isn·t an
ecologically wasteful process that uses up too many natural resources and
isn·t inordinately profitable.
I think these are the dangers. But it must be a more intelligent approach
to try to devise an alternative system for living which is valid, before you
throwaway everything that you·ve got at the present time. It would be
very naive to think that out of the chaos, phoenix wise, a wonderful new
era will arise, where everyone can do their own thing. It just doesn·t
happen that way, and history shows that the people who are naive
enough to think it does go very ruthlessly to the wall. Therefore, and this
is fundamental as far as I·m concerned, if we can show that there are
alternative ways of living which are socially good, and environmentally
good · that just in terms of the science of the environment they are
sustainable · then the more intelligent people at the top of the pyramid
will start to take a real interest. I think that there·s far too much talk at the
moment and not enough doing. There arc thousands of communes
_______________________________________________________________________ UC08: page 35
_______________________________________ Undercurrents 08 October-November 1974 Page 36
around the country, far more than arc recorded. But they are unbelievably
fragile, and they don·t really add up to a saleable philosophy for mankind
in the latter part of the 20th century.
Some new and obviously workable way of living in a community has got
to be discovered. But some communities probably have discovered it, just
by having the right combination of people ...
I·ve done a roundup, and they·re very rare. The ones that survive · funnily
enough, the same ones that have survived throughout the centuries tend
to be the religious ones. I think a very important point to realise is that
we·ve got an external interest here at the centre whereas most
communities arc internal · they·re interested in their own survival, doing
their own thing. Of course we·re interested in that too, but we are also
here in order to serve people outside, a fact which has already been very
valuable in producing solidarity among the people here. There·s a crying
need tor masses of institutions like this one, where people can actually
get together and show how you can have a better life. We·ve had person
after person here, people from the entire social spectrum who·ve said
·Thank goodness we·ve found a place where it is happening· · where
people are doing things, where they·ve actually got off their backsides
and they·re up against real life sized problems, whether it·s knocking
nails into a piece of wood or getting on with each other.
To turn towards the future of the Centre, are you hoping that it will
become relatively self·sufficient?
Yes · totally in energy, and as for food, well, by virtue of the fact that we
haven·t any money, we·re vegetarian, and we·ll grow most of our
vegetables. We hope to get a piece of land in due course where we can
grow wheat. We want to make quite a lot of things ourselves · all our
outbuildings, and so on. Do you see yourselves at some stage say if you
came up with a particularly ingenious windmill design. would you see
yourselves starting to manufacture these things on a small scale? Yes · we
have done just that, actually. The problem now is to find someone with
prototype facilities to actually make it, and maybe we can then sell it to a
small manufacturer · it·s the sort of thing in fact could be made in a
garage · for a royalty. We might find ourselves that way. But basically, we
hope to fund ourselves by ·gate money·, and through publications.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Shore Organic Living
Land Area For Food Production
FIRST of all, I want to clear up some errors in Undercurrents 6, page 18.
The areas needed to supply four people with fruit and vegetables,
calculated from JC Baker·s smallholdings should be: 335m2 for potatoes;
251 m2 for vegetables; and 251 m2 for a fruit orchard. Total; 837m2.
Also, the Garden Controversy report 1 mentioned is inconclusive, since it
considered the ·cash value· of crops rather than their nutritional value.
Despite these reservations, however, it still seems obvious
that a serious gardener, growing food
for survival, will produce a greater quantity and quality of food per acre
than the farmer who grows for profit. ,But such assertions remain
unproven, mainly because the true cost of mechanised farming ·
including the production, distribution and maintenance of machinery,
and the cost of
fuel, chemical fertilizers, pesticides,
the feeds, medical supplies and drugs
for livestock · is as difficult to calculate as is the health value of the
exercise, nutritional quality and sheer pleasure of growing your own.
In England and Wales there are two thirds of an acre for each person. My
own analysis of the statistics in Dudley Stamp·s The Land of Britain
(longmans 1948), suggests that of the combined English and Welsh land,
one·third of an acre per person could be potentialIy useful for leaf and
vegetable crop production. This figure includes 50% of the area taken by
houses and gardens.
It does not include rough grazing land (presently producing wool, dairy
and meat products), forest and woodland,
or land classified as agriculturally nonproductive.
Of course the lands of England and Wales are varied, with most arable
land in England and hill·land in Wales. I am not suggesting everyone lives
on little rectangles. Our natural resources could never be equally divided
in this way: they are the common wealth of the people. We must share
the access to and the care and use of these resources. Some people grow
food better than others, one person may weave or make shoes better than
the gardener. The important point is that people should be close to their
resources and their communities, and aware of the ecology of the regions
_______________________________________________________________________ UC08: page 38
_______________________________________ Undercurrents 08 October-November 1974 Page 39
digest and excrete. Even better results are obtained if a surface mulch of
leaves, animal manure or compost can be applied. (Lawrence Hills wrote
an article on sward gardening in the Aug/ Sept 1974 issue of the
Ecologist.)
Aerobic Composter Toilet Experiments
My own attempts to design a toilet to recycle organic materials for garden
fertility began in June 1972. Aerobic composting (ie decomposition in the
presence of air) seemed to be the simple and natural way of conserving
these materials safely.
A small PVC·lined hardboard container was constructed along the lines
of a miniature Clivus unit. It was 20" high and covered 11> x 4 feet of
floor. The top had an air outlet at one end and a squatting plate, cover
and air outlet at the other. The whole top could be removed for
inspection. Below the squat plate a row of inverted channels, cut from
plastic pipe supported the compost materials and allowed air to flow
below, around
and through the mass, drawing off moisture and any odour through the
vent pipe to the outside air. The unit was divided into two compartments
by a bulkhead, one being the· composting part ,and the other the
receiving part for finished compost. A layer of soil was laid in the bottom
of the toilet to absorb excess urine. It was intended to lift the squat·plate
end of the toilet after use, so that the bottom sloped, allowing the
compost to move slowly downwards. In practice this unit was found an
unsuitable shape and size,
but the problems experienced taught one more about the process than
could be learned from a more perfect prototype.
The Composting Process
Though every human produces faeces and urine, a certain amount of care
is needed in their handling. Our intestines and faeces contain large
amounts of bacteria such as E coli. Barriers within the body retain these
bacteria where they arc normal and useful. But given
access to other parts, bacteria can be harmful and fatal. Though diseases
such as typhoid and tuberculosis and intestinal parasites such as worms
can be present in excreta. the average healthy person does not ,suffer
from such problems. All these organisms can. however, be destroyed
either by heating the compost so that their proteins coagulate. or by
exposing them to hostile environmental conditions and the activity of
bacteriophage,. The
thing.
Sprouting for Nutrition
Sprouting greatly increases the vitamin, mineral, fat, enzyme and protein
content of seeds and legumes. Researchers found that after 3·4 days
sprouting of vitamin C increased by 60%; Bl by 30%; B2 by 100%, B3 by
90%; B6 by 100%; Pantothenic acid by 80%; Biotin by 100%; and Folic
acid by 700%.
To sprout, put a handful of, say, wheat (use only organically grown food;
do not use seeds that have a mercury dressing) into a jar, cover with water
and soak overnight. Next morning drain off the fluid (it contains useful
vitamins; only soy·beans must have their water discarded) and transfer the
seeds to a tray, rinsing and draining well each morning and night for 3-4
days, when they are ready to eat. Sprouted wheat can also be crushed
and baked into biscuits in a solar oven.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Farmer PLOUGHS INTO SWARDSHARES
FERTILITY CAN BE defined as the availability to the plant roots of
nutriments, air and water. The factors governing this availability can be
grouped under two broad headings:
(1) The presence of the proper salts,·in the right balance and in a highly
water·soluble form.
(2) Structure of the soil.
Under the second heading come such details as air spaces, porosity (the
ability of the soil to hold water). and permeability (the ability of the soil to
pass water through it).
In human agriculture, these two necessities are generally supplied by:
(1) The transference of organic or inorganic plant foods from outside.
(2) Ploughing or digging.
But how does nature manage things on her own?
According to M Henri Voisin, in
his fascinating book Better Grassland Sword which deals with the botany.
ecology and management of grazing land, research has shown that it is
earth worms which make available the soil·s plant food clements.
I ¥¥¥ where earthworm excrement is compared to the top six inch layer
of soil, the excrement is seen to be:
5 times as rich in nitrate nitrogen 2 times as rich in exchangable
magnesium
2}S times as rich in available phosphorus
7 times as rich in available phosphorus
11 times as rich in exchangable potassium .. .·
The principal mechanism for the production of this highly potent water-
soluble compost appears to be the activity of the Actinomycete in the
soil. Actinomycete is a micro·organism
halfway between a bacterium and a fungus, and plays an important part
in the decomposition of the soil·s organic content and the creation of
humus. Its numbers in the soil are increased by a factor of six or seven by
the passage
of the soil through the gut of the earth worm. Added to this, the worm is
continually discharging a fluid rich
in calcium into its digestive tract from glands in the lining of its
_______________________________________________________________________ UC08: page 47
_______________________________________ Undercurrents 08 October-November 1974 Page 48
piece of good forest meadow may reach seven tons per acre.
(3) White clover actually benefits
from treading. Like the brassica family, it prefers firm soil. And air is well
provided by the network of worm-burrows.
Another benefit to be gained from a living sward is increased porosity.
The rootlets of the turf grow round
and through a piece of soil and compact it to such a degree that it
resembles a soft pebble_ Then the hair roots die off and decompose
leaving fine pores in the pebble or ·crumb· as the soil scientists would
have it. These pores have a powerful capillary effect as, once they fill with
water, it requires temperatures greater than 100 degrees Centigrade, or
centrifugal force amounting to 1,000 atmospheres to drive the . water
from the crumb. No amount of drought could accomplish this. The only
process in the soil capable of applying suction of this magnitude is a
plant rootlet, thus a considerable reservoir of water lies in a well
established sward. Previous to applying the sward system my garden
required about three weeks in the spring to prepare · to dig, clear and
sow.
Now it requires five days. Maintenance during the year (clipping etc) is
about the same as it would take to hoc a garden of this size growing
exhibition vegetables, and last year·s results suggest that crops of this
standard can be expected to continue. What the long term results will be
1 can only guess. Whether the sward will ever support continuous
vegetable cropping I cannot at this moment say, but the possibility once
the soil has reached a high level of fertility, of continuous cropping using
only refuse from the garden and kitchen as a source of compost is not in
the realms of phantasy.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
THE UNDERGROUND OTHER
The spirit of Spies for Peace Iives on. Undercurrents recently received a
pamphlet from a group called Anarchists Anonymous titled "London:the
Other Underground", which details the secret Government bunkers and
tunnels under London. and explains their counter·revolutionary role. This
article is a slightly edited version of the pamphlet. with some added
pictures.
Nuclear War
After the Atomic annihilation of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, war was
different. Even the Hamburg Fire·Storm and the extermination of Dresden
had transformed war into the annihilation of whole cities at a stroke. The
government, having constructed shelters for itself, dared not allow them
to be used for express tube lines, let alone shelters for the citizens in the
event of a nuclear war. Unknown, or forgotten, they were, and so the
government kept them, while frantically spending funds allocated for
·Civil Defence· on their expansion. Based on the Northern Line and a few
other tunnels (see below), the network was extended and improved,
communicating with government Offices, strategic telephone, radio and
TV land lines, and strategically placed ,office blocks. As early as 1941,
with rumours of atomic weapons, the government had built 4 bunkers
known as ·Citadels·: The Admiralty Blockhouse, Pall Mall; Citadel
telephone exchange near St Paul·s; The ·Rotundas· in Horseferry Road,
Westminster, the ground floor of the Department of Education and
Science in Curzon Street. Also erected at the time were a number of steel
framed office buildings in New Oxford Street, and between the Strand
and the Embankment. These were intended to be bomb proof
strongholds, and were connected by tunnels · on the admission of
Winston Churchill himself.
The Post Office constructed a network of cable tunnels, beginning in
1939, The first ·run· was 100 feet below the surface, to the south of and
parallel with Holborn, linking Holborn telephone exchange with St
Martin·s Le Grand and Faraday House. At the eastward end it divided; the
southern branch ending beneath Citadel telephone exchange, at the north
east corner of the Faraday building. Citadel has walls of solid concrete 7
feet 5 inches thick, its own artesian well (like Kingsway underground
exchange), and was built in 6 months in 1940. The tunnel was 7 feet in
diameter, lined in the main with concrete. The ·experimental· use of
concrete for tunnels made great publicity when London Transport
·built·the Victoria Line 20 years later (see below). Another GPO tunnel ran
from Trafalgar Square (where they are building another ·new·
underground railway, the Fleet Line) to the Rotundas at Horseferry Road.
Post Office tunnels grew in length continuously. In 1941 there was 1
mile; 1942, 1l·S miles; 1945,3 miles; 1967, 15 miles. In the early 70s, a
new tunnel was driven beneath the Thames at Waterloo, and tunneling
continued apace elsewhere. Tunnels, connected to the bunker network,
run from Croydon in the ·south to Hampstead in the North. The Dartford
Road Tunnel was originally
a cable run, later expanded for public use. Small and large bore tunnels
are used. Some important small bore tunnels were enlarged in the 1960..
Bicycles are used in the small bore tunnels, and electric cars in the large
bore tunnels for rapid communication. Intimately linked with
the ·cable· runs· are the government bunkers and the ·new· underground
lines (ie the post·war central area tubes).
The Government has been constructing its own tunnel system since the
_______________________________________________________________________ UC08: page 53
_______________________________________ Undercurrents 08 October-November 1974 Page 54
second world war. There is good evidence that the Victoria Line tunnels
were constructed.in 1942, not 1960, and the concrete lining adopted
(releasing valuable metal for the war effort) i .. pointer to this. It links
many important telephone exchanges, including the GPO tower and
Buckingham Palace (which is linked by tunnel with Heathrow Airport).
The GPO tower, though over 600 feet in height, is not built in the
conventional manner, on piles driven deep into ·he ground · it rests on a
concrete ·raft· · a necessity caused by the multiple tunnels beneath it.
Chapman Pincher, in the Daily Express in 1959 reported (28/12/59) that
the government were building a new bunker in the country to replace the
ten miles constructed after WW3 below London, as those could no longer
withstand the latest H·bombs. Thus, the system was admitted to be useless
in a full·scale nuclear war.
The Government, however, continued to extend the system. An attempt
was made to abandon the Piccadilly Line from Aldwych to Holborn
(which has been single track since 1917). Regular passengers made
representations to London Transport, and the plan was dropped. In 1965,
an act of Parliament was made authorising the construction of an
extension of the Aldwych line to Waterloo. This has never been done.
Much redevelopment has occurred at Waterloo, and part of the
abandoned Kingsway Tram Subway at Aldwych was converted into a road
underpass. In the early 1970s, the Post Office built a tunnel for ·cable
runs· under the Thames at Waterloo, connecting up the 180·feet deep
emergency telephone exchange at Waterloo. Underground lines built, but
never opened, include the Bakerloo Line extension, commenced at the
Elephant and Castle
in 1950 southwards to Camberwell, as a replacement for the
heavily·trafficked tramway routes. Subsequently, massive air-conditioned
office blocks have been erected at the Elephant. The connection between
Office Blocks and subterranean government establishments is
well·defined.
Centre Point, empty for nearly ten years, is strategically placed above the
tunnel network. Thousands of gallons of oil were delivered to it at
the height 01 the fuel crisis, ostensibly to ·heat it to stop condensation·. It
went straight down into the bunkers.
A similar block exists at London Bridge railway. station, built directly
above a tube station, which was rebuilt at the same time. This links up
with the old City and Southwark Subway to the city of London. Other
Otis lifts being replaced with automatic express lifts, for more rapid
access to the bunkers. It is rumoured that Goodge Street tunnels are
connected to the University of London and possibly the British Museum,
both nearby. In the early 1950s, tunneling was carried on from a shaft
near Tavistock Square. Several Government departments exist
in Russell Square and Southampton Row.
From Goodge Street, the tunnel runs to Tottenham Court Road
underground station, where it links with the tunnel from Trafalgar Square.
Centre Point is above the tunnel running below New Oxford Street,
where there is one of the 1941 steel·framed buildings. At Holborn is a
cross of tunnels. One travels southwards, possibly the abandoned
Aldwych tube, linking ·up with a system beneath the Thames
Embankment, which goes to Whitehall, linking many ministries.
RSG·s
In 1959, it was discovered that, due
to the vast progress made by the Nuclear Powers in atomic weaponry
development, H-bombs were now large enough to wipe out the London
tunnel system. The Government pumped more of our money into creating
a system of underground bunkers throughout the country
· the Regional Seats of Government. When the RSGs were exposed by the
spies for Peace in 1962, they were in their infancy. Bunkers at
Portsmouth, Dover and below Wentworth Golf Course had been used in
the war as communications centres for coordinating military activities.
The bunkers
were intended to be scats of Government after the nuclear holocaust had
wrecked the status quo. In a way. they were a protection for the
government against the people, a haven of the old order in the wreckage
created by that same
order. In the worst possible situation,
the inmates would be the sole survivors · a country of policemen, soldiers
and civil servants! As well as the RSGs (now renamed Sub·Regional
Controls), there were ·hardened· telephone exchanges
· at Birmingham (Anchor), Cambridge, Manchester (Guardian), Coventry,
Tunbridge Wells, etc. These were supposed to be operational even if a
near miss had been recorded from an H-bomb. Along with those, the
microwave communications system, codenamed ·Backbone· was to link
all these together.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Martin OPENING UP THE AIR WAVES
This article is as an extension to The People·s Radio Primer in the last issue
of Undercurrents. Rick Martin now looks at the practicalities of running a
radio station: the _most practical methods of operation; and the ethics of
independent radio · what are you broadcasting for, to what extent do
technical factors influence the medium, and so on. He then discusses the
general desirability and practicality of operating communications systems
in a ·post·industrial· low·technology environment.
Why Are You Doing It?
There are numerous reasons for wanting to communicate; let·s consider a
few of them.
1) You are part of a political movement and you want to communicate
your subversive plans to your mates. Well, don·t use radio, whatever you
do. The only potentially secure system would use narrow·beam UHF and
microwaves, but the practicality of this is low ·
unless you work for a big communications company.
2) More sensibly, you just want to talk to your friends, but you don·t see
why you should have to use the telephone network, or you don·t want to
help the Post Office as a mailer of principle (who does?). In this case,
your best bet is probably the Short Wave bands. y,;" can communicate
over long distances with a very low power · in fact, the B36 transmitter in
UC7 with a couple of modifications, (reducing the number of turns on the
coils by about one third) works very well indeed. You obviously need a
short·wave receiver for this, but once you·re down there on the short
wave band, you·ll probably find a lot of other people with the same
ideas. At one time there was a network of stations all over the country, all
illegal, on about 6MHz. However, they got raided, this being the biggest
problem involved in
the use of radio in this country.
3) Alternatively, you want to provide, with the help of a few friends, an
independent radio service for the general public, and especially for
people like yourselves who resent the degree of control exerted on
existing radio communication, whether governmental, as
in the case of the BBC, or capitalist as
in the case of the commercial stations. There is a lot of demand for an
·all·day music service· in your area, almost
easily cover the estate with a simple aerial like the ·Emergency Aerial·
described in UC7. You may also appear on everyone·s television sound
channels as well. If this occurs, or if you find the signal is traveling too far,
tune the transmitter down by tuning for the minimum dip value on the
meter. Then tune up again until you are either at the required power, or
until
just before the interference starts. This type of interference is due to
Harmonics · ie, multiples of ·the broadcast frequency · that happen to fall
within the TV
band or the TV IF (intermediate Frequency) band. The best way of getting
rid of these troubles is by fitting a further coil and capacitor in the anode
circuit
of the Buffer/Driver stage as shown in
Fig 1, and tuning the capacitor for maximum output. (Substitute Fig 1 for
Fig 4 in UC7). Hopefully, however, this modification will not be
necessary.
If you just want to cover the block you live in or your housing estate, and
you tune the transmitter up until you
are using sufficient power (ie not more than you need) you will be
relatively safe from Post Office interference unless you·re causing
interference and someone reports you. So don·t tune in to another station
and try and block it out; though you may succeed in your back room, it·ll
only be a nasty whistle next door. Not only is it a nasty thing to do, but
legal stations are often running
5,000 times the power so you won·t get very far. Keep an ear open for
empty spaces on the band at the times you
intend to transmit. Once you·ve found one try and set up regular times of
broadcast, and stay on your chosen spot on the dial. Soon you will find
the station being
talked about, and you·ll gain listeners, people may initially mistake you
for
Radio One and, liking what they hear, listen again. If all goes well, you
may decide eventually to increase the power, and show the rest of North
Cheam what they·ve been missing. Or South London. Or Manchester. But
beware! Don·t try
to run before you can walk. If you are going to try to cover a sizeable
area,
you will have to adopt a far more sophisticated strategy. It will take good
organisation, a good loyal staff prefer·ably held together in some form of
democratic group structure, and a large degree of dedication, plus a
willingness to face a few risks. Remember that you are breaking the law,
and you could be fined up to £400 and/or get 6" months for a first
offence. That shows you how much the Post Office hates anyone
challenging its monopoly.
Which leads us neatly on to the question of:
Broadcast Strategy
There have been land·based pirate stations since at least 1966, and
probably before that. One of the first organised stations was Radio Free
London. It started in 1968, broadcasting on 255 metres on Sundays,
which is when the PO are thought to be least active · it·s assumed they all
have to be on overtime,
and will be less likely to be listening. RFL used a different house each
week, and were not on the air long enough for detection to be likely in
the beginning. A number of other stations sprang up on another
wavelength, 197m. The 197 metres ·Helen Broadcasting Network· was
organised with, eventually, at least a dozen stations doing pre·recorded
programmes in rotation, every Sunday, for half an hour at a time. They too
changed ·location· every week, but eventually the ·locations· (as the
houses were known) ran out, and the stations began to use the same
place more than once, or even for several successive weeks. The PO
finally struck, and a number of prosecutions ensued. The network
eventually became disorganised and fell apart, but a number of the
stations, including the now·famous Radio Jackie, decided to go it alone,
initially from further locations, but eventually going ·Mobile·, with
equipment powered from car batteries. Consider what this, one of the
most effective means of high·power regular broadcasting, entails. A
medium wave transmitter, almost always using valves, must have a device
to convert the 12v DC from a car battery to 250·35Ov DC to
supply HT to the valves. Either a
rotary converter (inefficient, available from surplus shops) · or a transistor
inverter (up to 90% efficient; either purchased via ads, or home
constructed · .. see articles in Wireless World and similar magazines) can
be used. VHF transmitters are usually transistorised throughout, so this
problem doesn·t arise. Programmes are all prerecorded, to enable
playback from a portable cassette machine.
You then need to find a suitable site. For Medium Wave, a site that is low
down (more likely to be damp) will give a good earth, which is essential
in this type of operation. It should also be wooded, with two tall trees a
suitable (quarter·wave) distance apart · but don·t worry too much about
getting this distance bang on, as the ·pi·network· on a MW transmitter
will tune almost anything. Preferably set up the aerial a few days in
advance. Choose a site
that makes this practical without being observed. Move the equipment in
un the day itself; you may lose it if you leave it for any length of time. All
you do now is connect up, and switch on (try not to test in advance time
is precious.) By this time, your team of lookouts should be in position.
They should cover all exits to the area, and be within visual range of the
site itself at a moment·s notice. Make sure they can·t be seen .· their job is
to warn you, not attract attention. Raids have more than once been a
result of the Post Office seeing half a dozen ·lookouts· freaking about with
blaring transistor radios. It will also be useful to have one or two groups
of two people cruising round the area in cars. They will soon get to know
the sort of places where the PO hide their vehicles (usually private cars)
down quiet sideroads, etc.
Quite often the PO men will be in one
or two cars only (the police prefer to
keep out of radio piracy work unless they·re forced into it, apparently) ·
unless it·s ·a large raid in which case
your vehicle·borne lookouts should
prove their worth by informing you
well in advance. You might try walkie talkies for this, but preferably not
27 MHz types · the PO must have sussed these
by now. But you may find that your transmitter blanks out the walkie
talkie
at close range. Walkie talkies are also illegal, which means that your
lookouts can all be prosecuted instead of just wandering away as
innocent bystanders.
The minute the PO are seen (you·ll soon get to recognise your local ·Man·
and his various borrowed cars) you shouid switch off and get the gear out
to a waiting car. You and the driver
should know the safest way out. You can sacrifice the batteries they·re
no problem to replace and the PO don·t want them much anyway. So,
with luck, you·ll survive. One word of warning, however. Those Post
Office officials are Human. Not only that, some of them
arc quite friendly. Talk to them by all means (as long as neither of you are
·on duty·). They may have got to know you quite well if you·ve been slow
enough. Obviously you don·t admit any thin::, but don·t be nasty to them
either. Most of them are just doing their job (there aren·t many fanatics
left) and if you are nice to them, they will often be considerate to you.
They may, for instance, just go out to close you down (ie you
see them, take the gear and scram; they go home after looking round a
bit) as opposed to raiding you (you see them, take the gear, are met by 20
policemen rapidly converging on your spot from every corner of the field,
with your look outs all rounded up. You are led to police station, hot
transmitter in hand, and your case comes up a few months hence) which
is what will almost certainly happen if you annoy them.
VHF Broadcast Strategy
The way we discovered VHF was that someone (who is now an engineer
on a commercial station, God rest his soul) devised a brilliant VHF drive
unit, along the lines I described roughly earlier. This was subsequentIy
upgraded to produce a lovely compact unit running off 12 volts and
providing. enough to drive a good power stage. Initial tests and
broadcasts were using a QQV03·1 0 output valve, but we soon had 15,
25, 35 and finally at least 50 wallS output available, all from transistors
and all from 12 volt car batteries. Jackie VH F started up, then Radio
Aquarius, then Radio London Underground, all sharing equipment and
staff. They all set up a group called the ·London Transmitter of
Independent Radio· which ran several evenings per week (one night per
station) until quite recently. This is a fundamentally good method of
running a VHF station because pooling of gear and bread can lead to a
very sophisticated setup. (The group hopes to return soon
with stereo · that·s practical, too).
I was part of Radio London Underground · as far as I know we were the
first to use Dolby noise reduction
on radio in the UK. We also specialised in a varied format; trying to get as
near to the aims described in section 4 above. The others had a good try
too; Jackie VHF was pop and news, Aquarius was light music, and we all
covered London for a night each a week for over 2 years. This is how we
did it:
Aerials
chose this method because it travels better. This means that if you use a
vertical whip, or car aerial, hardly
anyone will hear you because your
aerial is at right angles to theirs. You
can hear the difference this makes by getting a transistor radio with a
moveable telescopic aerial. Place the aerial horizontal and tune to a SBC
VHF station (note: not a commercial
one because they use circular polarisation, which works well either way ·
very nice, but impractical for us
because of the power required). Move
the set for best reception. Now move
the aerial until it is in a vertical
position. The signal will almost vanish (unless you live down the road
from
the transmitter). This is the difference your listeners will experience if you
transmit with a vertical aerial instead
of a horizontal one. Also, a car aerial whip or similar vertical aerial is
omnidirectional· which is OK if you·re in Post Office official (left) with
transmitter, escorted from the courtroom by a radio journalist
the centre of a town, but no good if you want to ·beam in· from a hill on
the outskirts.
Sites
The actual site you choose for VHF will obviously depend on your
locality, but a main criterion is to get as high up as you can. A good rule
is: ·You should be able to see the entire service area · on a good day ·
from a suitable site.· even if this is the top of a tree. VHF is very much a
line of sight business, and even a small hill in the way will throw a large
·Shadow·. The BBC publish technical data sheets for all their local stations
and VHF transmitters, and if one of these is in your area, a study of the
appropriate sheet will give a good idea of VHF propagation. These sheets
can be obtained free from BBC local stations, or from Local Radio
Information, BBC Broadcasting House, London.
The Best Time to Broadcast
Broadcast at night; it·s less obvious. Although a VH F aerial is relatively
compact, compared with metres of MW aerial wire, it still looks strange
peeping out of the top of a tree. The PO can·t get very close to your
station on bearings alone, either on MW or VHF. In the former case their
_______________________________________________________________________ UC08: page 68
_______________________________________ Undercurrents 08 October-November 1974 Page 69
receivers get swamped, and in the latter case they pick up all sorts of
confusing reflections from nearby trees, buildings, etc. Either way, they
will arrive in the area and look out for your visible signs; aerials,
lookouts, etc. They will probably find your particular tree more by luck
than judgement, and in the dark they might not find it at all. Trouble is, of
course, that you can·t see them very well either or at least you wouldn·t
but for the fact that they use large torches and make a hell of a lot of
noise crashing around in the bushes. Lookouts should be stationed as
described for Medium Wave, and the same rules generally apply. You can
spot the PO VHF tracker vehicles quite easily because they cannot track
you with a simple transistor radio like they can on medium wave. They
have to use a van, specially kitted out with a powerful Eddystone VHF
communications receiver and a very distinctive extendable mast sticking
through the roof, with a large multi·element aerial on top (the more
elements, the narrower the beam width). These vans are usually A40 type,
with windows in·the side. They are painted green or yellow. They may
come on their own, but if you·re particularly successful they may well
have some private cars as back·up vehicles, so look out for them too.
Equipment
As I said earlier, I personally don·t believe VHF is worth considering
unless you are ready to do it properly. RLU used to produce programmes
which even surprised BBC monitoring station staff (one of them used to
write to us) who assumed we used expensive reel
to reel recorders on site whereas we
in fact used chromium dioxide cassettes replayed on a cheap Philips
3302. Generally speaking, these machines
are excellent for on·site replay (one is visible in the photo on p21) as long
as you take the output from the low level
socket and not the external speaker socket, as the amps in the speaker
drive stages aren·t quite up to standard. This means that you need high
quality audio stages in the transmitter, but the average phase modulator
requires very little power so this is no problem. Basically, if you produce
good quality programme material, and record it on good quality cassette
recorder, you will be able to use minimal equipment on site, which is, of
course, a big advantage when it comes to an emergency.
One unfortunate fact about the ·pirate· radio scene (at least on the
entertainment front, excluding revolutionary· stations) has been that
almost without exception the stations have had no conception of why
they were doing it · apart from the vague ideal of ·free radio·, which
usually meant a return to the offshore stations, ie commercial radio. Many
stations did not have any ideals at all, and were presumably there for the
thrill of adventure and the sting of illegality_ This was particularly true of
the ·back·bedroom· pirates, who no doubt found the ·sting· in the form of
a visit from the Postman and a stiff fine. At any late, there aren·t many of
them left now. (presumably they all grew up).
Let·s assume that the people running a community radio station are doing
so out of a desire to be of some service to the community · the people of
their area · by giving them the sort of programme that they want to hear
in a way that is non·commercial, non·profitmaking (you·d never make a
profit out of
it, anyway), and controlled by the listeners. This means an efficient system
of feedback between the listeners and you, the operators, It is no trouble
to ask a friend to act as a mailing address: some of the ·free radio·
organisations will do this also (though only some; keep away from the
Free Radio Association, for example; they can get t raided and lose
important data to the PO · like your addresses, for example). If a friend is
running your mailing address, it is very unlikely that he will be raided (I
don·t think it·s ever happened to anyone yet) although they may steam
your letters open (no matter; you·ll probably be reading them over the air
anyway) and possibly even listen to his phone (they·re in rather a good
position to do it). So don·t just ring him up and tell him you·re
broadcasting from the common today and how good does it sound?
If your friend wants to sit at home during the broadcast (or your staff can
do it in rotation), then why not give ·out a telephone number? This will
give your listeners an immediate means of telling you what they think,
plus invaluable instant reception reports.
But don·t keep any transmitting gear on any premises that they know the
address or might know the address of. And don·t do any tests or
broadcasts from there either. Keep your names secret too; use
pseudonyms on the air and keep your real names unknown to anyone
outside the group. You may get contact from other, similar groups;
solidarity is the name of the game, but be careful at all times; meet them
on neutral ground, and even when you are sure they·re OK, don·t tell
them unnecessary information. Similarly, any potential new members of
the group should be known personally by at least one of you. I suppose
all these precautions are standard practice to most ·underground· groups,
but the point is that they·ll get you if you make mistakes.
_______________________________________________________________________ UC08: page 70
_______________________________________ Undercurrents 08 October-November 1974 Page 71
plus the necessity of extracting the silicon or germanium in the first place
makes such devices impractical. Valves, however, are a different mailer.
They again need a vacuum, but not so intense. Some friends of mine are
trying to construct a workable vacuum pump entirely out of natural or
easily·processed materials I will be interested to learn if anybody else
manages to do this. I assume glass will be available; experiments would
have to be made in the field of metal! glass seals, but I see few difficulties
in this part of the operation. Hi tech modern valves use a device called a
·getter· to remove the last bit of air after the envelope has been sealed;
this consists of a small amount of Barium which is ignited by baking the
lube after sealing. The Barium combines with the remaining air and
condenses to form the characteristic ·silvering· often visible on the inside
of the envelope of a ·good· valve. I doubt if this is practical, so
low·technology valves will not be as efficient as they are today. But they
will work. In fact, the radio valve manufacturer may well be a craftsman,
producing wonderfully intricate fine·wire electrode assemblies in a
remarkably small space though not as miniaturised as today because the
poorer vacuum requires greater electrode spacing to avoid flashover. They
would probably last almost indefinitely, merely requiring a return for
re·evacuation every few months or a new envelope if dropped.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Taylor BUILDING WITH RAMMED EARTH
WALLS BUILT OF EARTH are rot-proof and have very good insulating
qualities; they have been used extensively in many parts of the world,
including Britain, in one form or another. But prejudice and economic
competition has led to their gradual decline. All earth wall techniques, it
is true, require a fairly large input of labour; but the equipment required
is generally simple to operate and construct.
As a building material, earth is free from the restrictions of transportation
and delivery and has virtually no capital cost. No fuel is required for
processing soil · which is another point in favour of reviving the earth
wall, now that energy will no longer be a cheap commodity. The impact
of soil walls on the environment is relatively small, particularly as soil
does not require external, potentially polluting, processes to transform it
into a walling material. Earth walls, are in short, independent of many of
the restrictions set upon most conventional materials.
Simple ·unstabilised· method, of building with subsoil have proved quite
satisfactory, but they cannot match the performance of brick or stone.
However, with small additions of modern ·stabilisers·, such as cement,
lime or resins, it is now possible to build walls to match the performance
of some of these conventional materials.
There are two basic methods of preparing soil for building.
a) Ramming: Compaction of the soil is achieved by compressing it closely
so uniting the soil particles and increasing their natural attraction.
b) Puddling: Compaction of the soil is achieved by the addition of a
sufficient quantity of water to distribute fine particles throughout the mix,
producing a homogenous mass of differing particle sizes.
In this issue I intend to deal with rammed monolithic walls, but in
subsequent issues I·ll be covering other techniques, both traditional and
relatively modern. Pise de terre is the French rammed monolithic earth
walling technique and which consists of compressing soil between
boards or shuttering: Pise has deservedly received a good deal of
attention recently as a method suitable for revival, because its resistance
to loading and moisture penetration is generally much better than that of
puddled methods and also because of its relative ease and speed of
erection.
Buildings constructed using Pise are found in abundance in the province
of Lyons, France, where it has been used for centuries, but it is not very
_______________________________________________________________________ UC08: page 73
_______________________________________ Undercurrents 08 October-November 1974 Page 74
prepared soil
is placed between the shutters in layers of about 100mm. The layers of
soil are then thoroughly Stamped· with the use of a ramming iron.
The first strokes of the rammer should be given close to the sides of the
mould but afterwards should be applied to every other part of the surface.
The ramming stroke should leave hardly any imprint on the soil when the
soil is properly compacted.
The shape of the iron will vary with the type of work. For rammed chalk
work a ·heart· shaped rammer is recommended, but for most types of soil
flat rammers weighing between 3.2 and 5.5 kg are generally used. The
soil should be moist but should not contain too high a percentage of
water, as this produces swelling under the blows of the rammer and a
stroke in one place makes the soil rise in another: making the material
difficult to compact. The soil though, should have sufficient moisture to
be compacted. An additional sprinkling of water can be applied if the soil
dries out in the shutter. Working between the shutters each layer must be
well rammed before commencing the next. The material is rammed in
successive layers until each layer is about 750mm to 900mm high ·
generally the height of the shutter. This constitutes one course height, and
further courses follow the same procedure.
The second course is laid in the opposite direction to the first, which
increases the firmness of the work, and can be commenced as soon as
the first course is completed. As much as 2.4 3m or about a storey height
of walling can be laid in one day without damage to the lower courses.
As soon as the walls are erected to a height to receive beams, joists or
rafters, these may be placed on the newly made walls the instant they are
completed. The work may be carried up over and around joists etc, which
are placed on a timber plate or concrete pad to spread the load over a
larger area of wall.
Suitable Soils
For ramming, a soil should consist of a mixture of graded particles for the
best results, because the fine soil grains fill in between coarse particle,
creating a dense homogenous material. Soils with too high a percentage
of
one particle size (clay, silts or sands) are considered unsuitable unless
they are blended with other soils or ·stabilised·.
Too much aggregate (gravel and sand) will produce crumbling and if the
binding agent is clay, too much binder will ;>produce shrinkage and
Vegetable Matter
A German writer on the subject recommends a mix consisting of 1 part of
stiff clay, and 1 part sharp sand, 2 parts of broken stone (the size of a
small apple. The stone is used to restrain shrinkage to take the place of
straw as a binder. Burnt clinker is an alternative to stone
as it is inert and will not react chemically with the soil. No porous or
organic matter should be tolerated as this renders the wall hydroscopic.
As much vegetable matter should be removed as possible
REFERENCES
Williams Ellis, C & Eastwick Field,
I & E; ·Building in Cob, Pise and Stabilised Earth· Country Life, 2nd
Edition 1947. Describes traditional techniques.
Szcelkun, Stefan: Survival Scrapbook: Shelter Unicorn Bookshop,
Brighton 1972. See section on earth. Good Book List. Brief summary of
traditional forms, of testing soils, of making soil cement blocks and in
situ.
Pally, Ralph L & Minium L.W.; Rammed Earth Walls for Farm Buildings
Agricultural Experiment Station South Dakota.State College, USA. June
1945.
Kern, Ken, ·The Owner Built Home, Ken Kern Drafting, Sierra Route,
California U.S.
Inter·American Housing: Soil Cement: Its use in building. United Nations,
1954, New York UN Sales No 64 IV 6. A good builders manual.
Concerned with sandy soils only.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Taylor Many Blades Make Light Work
Here is another in the ·Systeme D· range of French windmill designs.
Numbers 6 and 9 in the series were described in Undercurrents 6, and in
this issue Derek Taylor gives details of windmill number 1, a multi blade
machine which can be used either as an aerogenerator or for pumping
applications. But even to those interested in building a different kind of
windmill, the information on tower construction will probably come in
handy.
WINDMILL No. 1
This windmill can be used either to activate a pump or for driving a
dynamo although as an aerogenerator it is not as efficient as a
propellor·type windmill. For pumping applications you will have to
assemble a side rod system driving an iron bar which in turn operates the
pump.
The Tower
The tower is a pylon assembled from 25 x 25mm (minimum) angle iron.
In all, about 28 metres of angle iron will be needed, cut into the
following lengths: 3 lengths each 1.500m for the cross beams of the base,
3 lengths of 1.050m and 3 pieces of 600mm for the mid·section, 3
lengths of 200m for the top, and 2 pieces of 1.250m for the 14 vane or
rudder.
Flat iron is also required, 30mm size, bolts, rivets, metal wire or cable
of 22mm diameter and a few other odds and sods that will be mentioned
tater.
The three main posts of 5 metre
height have to be slit with a saw on
one side of the angle iron, 500mm from one end, so that they can be bent
to form the box at the top of the tower. (Figs I and 2). Two of the posts are
then joined at the bottom by a 1.500m cross·beam, the ends of the cross
beam being drilled to fit the bolts or rivets for assembling (Fig 3).
The third post is bolted to the other two cross beams in a similar manner.
Because of the inclination of the angle posts the bolts should not be fully
tightened during assembly but only when the three posts have been
joined so as to obtain a perfect equilateral triangle. The top ends of the
posts will be joined with cross beams of 200mm following the same
procedure, and 3 bars of flat iron join the posts at the level of the slits
_______________________________________________________________________ UC08: page 80
_______________________________________ Undercurrents 08 October-November 1974 Page 81
secured with bolts or rivets. The intermediate cross beams, of 1.050m and
600mm respectively are fixed like the others between the posts (these
could also be flat iron). The bolts are then fully tightened and the whole
structure is tensioned with cable ties stretched between each module of
the tower, in diagonals on the face of the structure (see Fig 3). For these
tension wires, holes need to be drilled in the angle iron and the wire well
stretched.
The base of the pylon can be fixed; but to be able to main 14in the
dynamo, lubricate the bearings or carry out repairs, it is more satisfactory
to have a system that will hinge down. For this reason the foot of such
post is extended by adding a piece of flat iron drilled with one hole at the
bottom and two more holes for riveting it on the end of the post. These
pieces of iron fit between two similar pieces placed in parallel and
immersed in a concrete pile. These two pieces of flat iron are also drilled
so that a pin or iron rod will fit through the three holes. This will behave
as a hinge joint as well as anchoring the foot. (see fig 4). Remember to
make all the hinges turn in the same direction (fig 3). This will enable you
by releasing one of the legs of the tower by withdrawing the pin, to swing
the tower down, the other two legs forming a hinge. Two ropes are fixed
to the top, to manoeuvre the pylon up and down.
The Rotor
The motor system of the windmill can be made either from scratch or
from
a bicycle wheel with hub, spokes and rim intact. A rear wheel is more
suitable so as to have a hub with a cog wheel. The first job is to fix to the
wheel a circular piece of flat iron (C, Fig 5) of some 300m diameter,
20mm thick, by brazing it On to the spokes. Onto this disc will be fixed
the ends of the blades (P) which will be slit to grip onto the rim 0).
The blades are made of sheet aluminium or iron 8 to 1Omm thick, cut as
shown in fig 7, 600mm long and 400mm wide at the blade tip and
1OOmm wide at the hub. A strap 20 x 20mm is fixed on the hub end of
each blade to fix it to the hub disc. Make 12 identical blades, curve them,
fold over the fixing strap and fix them onto the wheel with the slot fitting
onto the rim and the strap riveted to the disc. The angle of inclination is
shown on fig 6. The axle of the bicycle hub is replaced by a new steel
axle (A) about 400mm long, which will have to be turned on a lathe so
that it will fit the hub.
Turntable
so that the overall length of the tailplane is 1.650 metres (fig 12). The front
150mm of these pieces are sawn as in Fig 12, and these ends are riveted,
bolted or welded to the bottom and top of the protection box.
Windmill No 1 Rigged To Drive A Pump
This type of windmill is best utilised as a wind·powered pump because its
multiple flat blades will respond to very low wind speeds, but do not
perform very well in higher wind velocity.
The windmill as described so far will have to be slightly modified in order
to drive a reciprocating suction pump Fig 1 shows the modified turntable.
The box is assembled as previously described, except that it has riveted
additional rib X, which also supports the second bearing for the shaft B,
on the end of which is a crank ",which activates the lever of the pump.
The reinforcing metal ·Ut is centred on the cap of the tower.
The axle or drive shaft A of the wind wheel rotates between two pillow
block bearings as before and the
drive is still transmitted by cog wheel chain to the cog wheel at the end of
the axle B.
The crank wheel at the other end of B consists of a flat metal disc, welded
or riveted to shaft B, which has a lug D riveted to it. This lug, as
it is rotated by the wind wheel via
the chain drive, activates a rod E, made of a round or flat iron and drilled
at the end to allow for the passage of the lug, which is shaped
to fit. The other end of this rod is coupled to a stirrup flexible coupling F,
which is mounted on the end of a transmission shaft or rod G, which
slides in a sleeve coupling or rolling contact bearing P, mounted on a
plate at the level M on the pylon. This rod G can be of hardwood,
bamboo, or light metal tube. In the case of a wooden shaft G, the section
that reciprocates in P should be clad
in a metal tubular sleeve.
One of the more difficult problems in this construction, b to allow
enough room for the sideways motion of the rod E (activated by the
rotation of the crank) as the windmill rotates about a vertical axis to cope
with changes in wind direction. The difficulty is overcome by using as
support for the rotating section a ball bearing with a large enough interior
diameter to allow for the movements of the rod E. In this situation the
exterior ring of the bearing will be fixed to the upper cap on the tower.
The interior ring is fixed to the flat iron U, in which a circular hole has
been cut.
_______________________________________________________________________ UC08: page 83
_______________________________________ Undercurrents 08 October-November 1974 Page 84
The pump itself should be in the centre of the triangle formed at the base
of the tower, and is supported by a frame K fig 2a. The piston of the pump
I, is extended by a bar H, which is then joined to the flexible stirrup
coupling F fixed to the bottom of shaft G.
The pump I is kept upright and in the centre of the base of the tower by
three timber members at level N (fig 2a) locking it in position. The pipe or
tube J from the well or water source has its outlet at the tap L to which is
connected the pipe for distribution to the domestic water supply system,
reservoir or irrigation scheme. Fig 3a shows the whole system modified
for water pumping.
(translation from the French original text by Diseree Llewellen).
14 Eoliennes, Systeme ·0· by J Raphe. Societe Parisienne d·Edition, 43
Paris Xc, France. (In French and now out of print).
• • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Collins not fully corrected. Wind Generator Theory
The important factors to determine are: the highest wind speed (and therefore the maximum
stresses upon the rig); the duration of calm spells; the prevailing wind; and the mean annual
wind speed. This article is an edited version of a leaflet published by the Polytechnic of
Central London·s Department of Architecture, for the National Centre for the Development
of Alternative Technology, Llwyngwern Quarry. Machynlleth, Montgomeryshire. (Copyright,
1974, Society for Environmental Improvement Limited).
MANY DIFFERENT types of windmill have evolved through the ages, but
with the development of the aerofoil propellor for aircraft in the 1920·s,
and the commercial availability of storage batteries, came the ·low
solidity· mills (the solidity is the ratio of total blade chord to
circumference at any given radius), used for the generation of electricity J
The blades or rotor were no longer restricted by the actual wind velocity,
and could exceed it by 6-to 10 times in such ·aerogenerators·.
Wind Recording
Especially for the more sophisticated and larger mills, accurate and
detailed wind speed measurements are necessary. The fact that the power
in the wind is proportional to the cube of its speed makes this a prime
consideration in aerogenerator design. Otherwise, most information (such
as wind roses, prevailing winds etc) can readily be found in any good
Alias or from the Meteorological Office.
Power Obtained
Windmill performance may be investigated under the Betz (Gollingen,
1927) momentum theory, which deals with the decelerations in the air
traversing the windmill disk. The column of air arriving at the windmill
with a velocity V is slowed down; its boundary is an expanding envelope
as shown below.
The diminution of the velocity at the windmill disk may be expressed by
the use of an ·interference factor·, a. From energy and momentum
considerations. it can be shown that, behind the windmill, the factor
increases to an ultimate value of 2a.
Energy is obtained from the wind by slowing down the air. Disregarding
rotational and drag losses, the work obtainable from it per unit time P, is:
P = 2l1R2 pV3. a (1 . a)2 where
y = velocity of the wind R = disk radius
p = the mass density of the air (air pressure)
The power originally contained in a cylinder of air of radius R is given by:
Having decided upon the chord length, multiply n and D by this figure
(e.g. multiply by 100mm to give the aerofoil section dimensions for a
blade width (chord) of 100mm). Note, one side of the blade is flat. The
blades may vary in number from two to twelve or more, may be tapered
or of the same chord width throughout, and, may be of plane form or
twisted. Their pitch may be fixed or variable and they may either be
rigidly mounted or allowed to ·cone· or ·drag· to relieve the stresses set
up by rapidly changing wind speeds.
Aerodynamic considerations
The underlying theory assumes that the whole of the active surface is
moving at the same speed v, when met by a wind V. The combination of
the two speeds results in a relative wind speed V R making an angle of
attack alpha with the surface and producing lift (Ll and drag (D) forces
perpendicular and parallel respectively, to the direction YR. But the
relative wind speed actually has a third component the local· air
move·ment associated with aerodynamic forces on the blade ·. and of
course the blade surface is not moving at the same speed as the relative
velocity YR.
For a given speed of rotation, N (rpm) (N = 105.5280. V (mph) /D.3600
where D =diameter in feet of the rotor) the speed v for an elemental
section of the blade at radius r is given by:
v=2l\"r.N
so that v increases with the radius along the blade to its extremity at
radius R when v =. 2JlRN. Thus, for a wind speed V, uniformly distributed
over the rotor surface, both the magnitude and direction of the relative
wind velocity will vary with radius r. This means that the useful lift force
L, per unit of the blade surface will vary with r.
·1" ·"},..
The aerodynamic lift force, for a given relative wind speed, increases with
the angle of attack 01. until this reaches the stalling value which may be
about 150, after which the lift decreases. For high efficiency the blade
sections must be shaped to have the greatest possible lift and the smallest
possible drag. To extract optimum power at each succeeding section
along the blade, it is thus necessary that both its shape, and the blade
angle which its principal axis makes with the plane of rotation, shall be
varied to suit the changing magnitudes and directions of the relative
_______________________________________________________________________ UC08: page 87
_______________________________________ Undercurrents 08 October-November 1974 Page 88
wind. The smaller the peripheral speed 2l\"rN, the greater the angle
which, for any given wind speed, the relative wind will make with the
plane of rotation. It follows, therefore, that to maintain the best angle of
attack, the blade angle should vary continuously along the blade and
should be greatest at the root and least at the tip.
(/) = tan·lJrR tan 1
where A = tip angle of attack
R = tip radius
¢ = angle of attack for radius r
The percentage of power removed from the air is proportional to the
power
coefficient: Pc = P
(p. R2 . V3)
·1 he power coefficient of the rotor thus varies with the relationship
between
rotational speed and wind speed, which is most conveniently expressed,
for any given blade design, in terms of the·tip speed ratio·,
r..=·
V,
where V,= the undisturbed upwind speed of the wind.
I ··TTT·I 4á·thrQh S·Pfd type, ;·:a
mu!til;·i=:·1·"K´· Hi·i·t·i· ·,
;,
. ·. Dutch f,·arm ,···
,,
. i ·_.L.L
·25á·5b7áa
TIP SP:·[ RAre }.t,
The graph above gives some curves of power coefficients for different
blades used in low and high speed rotors and these curves show the
values of r·, . If the rotational speed of the rotor could be kept
proportional to the wind speed, optimum power would be obtained,
but this is impossible to achieve in practice, firstly because the inertia of
the rotor is high and secondly, the
wind speed varies over the swept area.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Sommer Breaking the Hermetic Seal
ONE DAY, SOMEONE will try and show that the education given to most
of us in the West has been designed to suppress any notion of
transcendence in our world· view. Slowly some of us are attempting to
fight our way out of our ·intellectual heritage· without losing all contact
with what we fondly describe as reality. It·s not all that easy. My own
intellectual training encouraged me to see the analysis of words and their
meanings as the supreme skill · the only way to really understand the
problems involved in understanding how the world can be ·explained·. I
was encouraged to become a cosmic exile, a brain apart from the rest of
nature. carefully and rationally observing and hypothesising. But, it
doesn·t always work like that ...
I am fascinated by two interesting,
linked, but distinct cultural formulations:
MAGIC = SCIENCE
SCIENCE = MAGIC,
and
MAGIC = TECHNOLOGY
TECHNOLOGY = MAGIC
These formulae are supposed to show that all those things that arc
primitive and superstitious, and as such arc labelled as ·magic·, have now
been brought within our understanding and control as a result of the
discovery of scientific method and its J?practical application, technology.
On a micro·level, examples of the ununderstood marvels of science and
technology are legion: high quality tape recorders and digital electronic
calculators, both available for under a week·s wages. have become
sudden reality in the last two years. Telephones, TV sets. rapid private
transport are seen as ·rights· by over half of the western world. These
things, because the majority of users do not really understand them · only
how to operate them · are, if we opt for just a little boldness of
expression. magic in almost every sense. The only quibble one might
have is whether, individually and collectively, the items are good or bad ·
white magic or black.
Until the early sixties science and technology were seen as the magic.
that was going to give us ·progress· · whatever that meant. The process
was entirely automatic: by the use of scientific method, selfless men
wisdom) of the
material, which was regarded as being contemporaneous with Moses. In
fact, later textual criticism of the Corpus reveals that the individual pieces
were probably assembled between 100 ce and 300 ce by the Gnostics,
though Dr Yates has obviously changed her view over the last few years
and now thinks that the actual sources and ideas
almost certainly have Hebraic, Chaldean and Persian clements. Modern
occultists, of course, have no doubt.
The point here, though, is that these texts were believed and at precisely
the same time and in the same way that Plato·s ideas were spreading
among Renaissance scholars, the Hermetic ideas were also gaining
currency. Ficino himself wrote interpretations of Her·meticism and his
contemporary Pica della Mirandolla brought in a revised contemporary
Cabala from the Hebrew mystic tradition. By 1533, HC Agrippa had
produced a widely influential guide to this new combined philosophy in
De Occulta Philosophia which is today regarded as one of the great
occult source books. Dee, of course, had all these books in his library,
but there is little doubt that it was not only traditional ·occultists· who
knew about them. It·is this aspect which interests Dr Yates, me, and I
hope anyone who really wants to examine the nature of scientific and
"·religious belief.
Hermeticism divides the universe into three worlds: the elemental, the
celestial
and the intellectual. Agrippa says each world receives influences from the
one above it, ·so the virtue of the Creator descends through the angels in
the intellectual world, to the stars in the celestial world, and thence to the
terrestrial elements and all things composed of them·. Magicians aim to
make the same progress upwards, and draw the virtues of the upper
world by manipulating the lower ones. Agrippa says they try to discover
the virtues of the elemental world by medicine and philosophy, the
celestial world by astrology and mathematics, and the intellectual world
by a study of the ceremonies of religion.
The Renaissance magus is thus a magician and occultist of sorts, but he is
trying to manipulate the world to good effect · hence Dee·s concern at
summoning up angels is not really the ·equivalent· of the witch/warlock
summoning up a familiar. Dee tried to summon up angels because he
wished to find out about the upper world. The Hermetic world·view is
thus about a series of animistic correspondences-and many of the early
True and not false, exact and utterly true, what is below is analogous to what is
above, and what is above is analogous to what is below, for the fulfillment of the
miracle of the unique whole. Similarly, as all things arise from the unique Beginning,
and by means of that One, so all things born arise from the Same one, through the
processes of adaptation. His father is the Sun, his mother the Moon, the wind bore
him in its womb and the Earth was his nourisher. In him the source of every form in
the whole universe. His power is complete if it is turned to the Earth. Thou wilt
separate Earth from Fire, the subtle from the dense, quickly and with great ability, He
goes from Earth to Heaven and returns again to the Earth, and receives force from
higher and lower sources.
1. In this way you will possess the glory of the whole world.
2. And darkness will fly from you.
3. In this lies the potent power of all strength.
4. It will conquer everything subtle, and it will penetrate everything dense.
5. So is the whole universe created.
6. From it comes all miraculous adaptations, based on the same ground.
7. That is why I am called Hermes, thrice great, because I have all parts of the
philosophy of the whole universe.
8. What I told about the Sun·s Action is realised
·impersonal· ·objective· science as a religion held sway over our lives. I·ll
conclude by going back to Jerry Ravetz and his Britannica article.
"The historian soon recognises that the idea of science that he acquired
during his education is only one of many and that it is a product of
temporary circumstances. The latter include the presence of nearly
autonomous centres of research in universities, large scale application of
scientific results by technologists, and the independence of scientific
research from politics and religion ... the dominant style of work of the
early twentieth century was reductionist: investigations were
concentrated on the artificially pure, stable and controllable processes
achieved in the laboratory ... almost all the philosophy of science in this
period assumed that a real science is one modelled on theoretical
physics. The prestige of this style is shown by the many attempts to extend
it to the human sciences (see Liam Hudson·s engaging Cult of the Fact for
its application in psychology). Its limitations, as now seen, were centred
in a dangerous ignorance of the facts and principles of the behaviour of
the natural environment·: Ravetz might have gone on to point out that
theoretical physics is presently goingthrough an enormous upheaval. The
investigation of sub·atomic particles has now revealed so many
conjectural forces that we are in practical terms, not much better off than
John Dee for an understanding of how the world works.
So the equations about Science and Magic, and Technology and Magic
are as powerfUl as ever they were. Pure Scientific Method isn·t going to
give us the answers to everything. We have to come to terms with the
existence and validity of metaphysics, we have to reconcile ourselves that
we will never ·understand· or ·control· ourselves or
our surroundings. ¥
So now I don·t expect too much from science or from alternative
technology; I rely more on instinct
and feeling. Only, unlike some, I·m not going to try to write about it.
Roszak, Lilly, Leary and Castenada have tried to explain their own recipes
for transcendence and they haven·t spoken to me. My intellectual
training· came in the analysis of words and their meaning.
My curiosity is undiminished, but now
I know certain things cannot be articulated.
I have yet to find a satisfying form of mysticism, yet my contempt
(because that is what it was) for those who have has become much less
strong. I·m still unlikely to take a crash course in Indian or Chinese
• • • • • • • • • • • • • •
REVIEWS
An Index of Possibilities, Volume 1: Energy and Power Publi,hed jointly by
Cia nose Publi,he", 2 Blenheim Crescent, London W11 and Wildwood
House, 1 Wardour St, London W1. Paperback (£2.50) or hardback
(£5.95!).
until I read the T ACC report Bread I was quite happy to eat what they call
'technological bread' whenever its convenience, its lack of messy
crumbs, and its suitability for electric toasters recommended it. I now
can't bite into a womb.le sandwich without thinking of a long list of
additives which, though they're probably not exactly poisonous, are
revolting to think about. Considering the strength of TACC's scientific
case, the actual proposals they make are pretty mild, with phrases like
'requires review' and 'further research'. Where TACC calls for a
Monopolies Com· mission investigation and for a full list of ingredients
on every bread packet, they could easily have demanded an immediate
ban on certain additives and a positive scheme of support for small local
bakers. Granted, a team largely based, as TACC is, on Manchester Univer·
sity Business School is not going to ~o beyond liberal, reformist
proposals. But even within those limits they could have been a lot fiercer.
Their report begs comparison with the CIS 'anti-reports' and I'm afraid
that at twice the price, but without a single photograph and almost
without diagrams and charts, it comes out of the comparison badly ..
There are also a few questions to which I still want to know the answers.
Why do wholemeal flour and bread cost more although they have
actually been through less processes than their refined equivalents?
Would they be cheaper if they were produced and distributed in the
quantities that white bread and flour are now? What happens to Happy
Monday's loaf when Happy Tuesday comes along - is it fed to pigs, made
into sausages, or ground up and mixed with Happy Wednesday's dough?
Could local bakers tailor the supply of their perishable product to the
demand more accurately than huge distributors can? And are there
significant amounts of pesticide in 'technological bread'?
Despite these gaps, I'm gratefulto TACC for a clear summary of the
scientific evidence, and also for their sensible handling of that thorny
question which concerns not only white bread but tobacco, automobiles
and heroin: what do we do when people /ike and want something which
obviously isn't good for them? Tony Durham
DANGER: work at men
Work is dangerous to your health. Jeanne Stellman and Susan Daum.
Vintage Books, Random House, NY (Distributed in UK by Pandemic)
£1.25.
The HAZArds of Work. Pat Kinnersley. Pluto Press (Unit 1 0, Spencer
Court, 7 Chalcot Road, London NW1) gOp.
_______________________________________________________________________ UC08: page 107
_______________________________________ Undercurrents 08 October-November 1974 Page 108
Both books are concerned with attaining proper health standards for
workers --- not just the minimal health required to keep The Machine
working. To help workers in gaining more control over their working
conditions, and in changing them, both are written as clear, simple
manuals. Manuals to train people to deal effectively with hazardous work
situations, to argue knowledgeably with so·called 'experts' and to assess
precautions. Detailed technical information is presented in an easily
usable form. The books differ in the emphasis they give to various aspects.
Kinnersley's deals not only with physical and chemical hazards, but also
with the pallerns of work, and the legal and bureaucratic apparatus in this
country which must be overcome. For information on the inequities of the
present system, and the personal tragedies involved, his book is
unsurpassed. Little more needs to be said; by now everyone should have
a copy - it's been out nearly a year.
Stellman and Daum concentrate much more on the scientific aspects, so
although the book is American, this doesn't detract from its usefulness to
Bri~ish readers. The authors go into great detail on physical and chemical
haLards (over 200 pages). together with a thorough section on the
medical aspects, explaining the human body and its responses. They also
list hazards according to occupa· tion. Details are not only given on how
to control pollution at source, by ventilation systems, and respirators, but
also on methods of simple measurement and monitoring of noise and
chemical halards. It is emphasised that this is a political struggle, as much
as a scientific struggle. A brief description of the specific demands made
by the Oil, Chemical and Atomic workers, well within the context of US
legislation, points the way for what can be done. The same message - to
make specific demands and to take action - applies equally to the
Britain's new Safety and Health at Work Bill, which is replete with
general recommendations, but offers no clear definitions of practical
situations.
But when you've qought, read and digested both of these books, what
else can you do? The term Iiberatory technology applies not just to
windmilis and telephones, but to devising ever simpler ways of
monitoring hazards, more human production systems, and less alienating
work conditions. Here, I must point you in the direction of BSSRS. The
latest issues of BSSRS's Science for People and Science for the People in
the US, concentrate on the need for workers to organise around
workplace health hazards. There are articles on the organisation at Lucas
Aerospace, the Vinyl Chloride issue, the midwest workers fight, and how
_______________________________________________________________________ UC08: page 108
_______________________________________ Undercurrents 08 October-November 1974 Page 109
product, not vice·versa. We're all going our separate ways to super
zombieland!
Personally, I can't take that first assumption about everybody knowing
where they are going deep down inside, considering the perverted state
of our currently available infor· mation sources. But the book certainly
wakes you up from the daze of immersion in mass media. • Back at the
Manual there are many points Velli makes th.1t clarify a lot of the
conclusions that are continually cropping up in discussions and articles.
For example: the point at which state power is classically seized is the
time in which the populace vacillate with indecision and fear after the
old order has been sprung into the air but before the mighty burst of
independent creative enthusiasm has begun to explore the myriad
possibilities of modem productive forces. This is t"e short period in which
people have 1O throw off the mass psychology of dependence that has
pee- ·'Ied their lives for years. Intcrmediatt, .. technologies can be used to
illustnlc in practice the impermanent nature of this dependence and the
enormous range of possibilities open to freely associating individuals.
Stefan Slippery
ATOMIC ROOSTER'S WHERE?
Hydropower Edited by Andrew Mackillop. £1.60; 72pp.
Methane (Atomic Rooster's Here) by Steven Sampson, edited by Andrew
Mackillop. £1.60; 72pp. Published by the Wadcbridge Ecological Centre,
73 Molesworth Street, Wadebridge, Cornwall.
THERE IS quite a lot of useful material in these books, but there is
something peculiar about them - apart from their orthodox inadequacies,
of which morc anon. It is as if they were written by a team of
schizophrenics. They keep jumping from one thing to another. and
making baffling allusions ('atomic rooster's here', for. example) which left
me at least wondering whether I'd missed something along the line
somewhere …
The Hydropower book has some useful material, basically oriented to
small-scale installations. It shows the basis for flow calculations; has
plans for DIY dams, and overshot wheel and turbine construction
(reprinted from Popular ScIence); lists River Authorities: gives form letters
for ascertaining the legal status of a proposed hydro installation; energy
conversion tables; and helpful,.if repetitive, remarks from a practicing
hydro-engineer. It has a bibliography of sorts, but it is unannotated and is
mostly devoted to things other than hydropower. Of the 13 items on
_______________________________________________________________________ UC08: page 111
_______________________________________ Undercurrents 08 October-November 1974 Page 112
hydropower, eight are about old water mills, two arc sources from which
most of the designs in the book arc taken (although it doesn't say so), two
arc basically about big-scale hydroelectric practice, and the remaining
one is nothing to do with hydropower at all, but the autobiography of a
Victorian cartmaker.
Another complaint that must be made concerns the amount of space 32
pages scattered throughout which has nothing to do with hydropower, but
is given over to advertise· ments (often repeated over and over again);
articles on nuclear reactor safety, oil advertising and solar energy; those
schizophrenic cartoons; and more that can only be described as padding.
The Methane Book is most usefully a lOO catalogue of different types of
digestors, agitators and feed systems, building on two cla"ic articles by
Ram Bux Singh and Golueke (although it is hard to tell where the
originals end and the editor's additions start). Certainly most of them have
not been tried in British conditions, and my guess is that most of them
would produce hardly more power than they needed to keep them at the
right temperatures, except on quite a large scale.
There is a free postersize yersion of LI D's gas-conversion blueprints that
appeared in Undercurrents No 6 - nicely printed. There is less off-the-
subject material than in the hydropower book, but again there is an awful
lot of padding. The flow of the text is often confusing, and there seems to
be some material missing right at the beginning. As for further reading,
there's an extensive, broadly classified bibliography covering sun, wind,
waterpower, helpful magazines and organi~tions. Seems to cover
everything, except - you guessed it methane. All this, plus a snide remark
about L John Fry's digestor designs, and a full-page advertisement for The
Ecologist, for a mere £1.60. If AT is ever to be more than a pimple on the
arsc of hip capitalism, we've got to do better than this.
Peter Harper.
• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • •
Undercurrents Business news - Inflation: shock horror probe!
WHY does Undercurrents cost seven times as much as the Daily Mirror?
Why can't you buy a copy at W.H. Smith's round the corner. Why are we
always late in getting each issue out? CHRIS HUlTON-SOUIRE reveals all
in this searching expose of Undercurrents’ finances.
LIKE EVERYONE ELSE in Britain, Undercurrents has been knocked
sideways by inflation. To try to hold our costs down, we have printed this
issue on much lighter paper. The print bill has still gone up, but by 'only'
about £80 since the last issue. To have printed this issue on the same
paper as before would have cost us an extra £300. Using lighter paper
also means we save our postage (5p instead of 7p) Also, as subscribers
will notice, we are now using wrappers instead of envelopes for copies
sent by post. These cost about 0.5p instead of 2p each.
WHERE THE MONEY GOES
Many readers have told us that at 35p Undercurrents seems too dear.
'After all', they say, 'it only cost about 10p a copy to print so you must be
coining it, mustn't you?' We wish it were true: but unfortunately 'small' in
the magazine game is not only 'beautiful', it is expensive. We have to
recover the cost of our overheads from a sale of only 8,000 copies every
two months (don't laugh - this is what we plan to achieve next year)
instead' of for example - Old Scientist's 66,000 copies a week. So though
Old Scientists' overheads are, at a guess, twenty times ours, the overhead
cost per copy of Undercurrents is four times that of Old Scientist. And at
present the disparity, with Undercurrents coming out, er, irregularly and
selling only 5,000 copies, is even worse. Nor do we have pages and
pages of paid advertising to pad out the paper and contribute to the
overheads.
Our aim over the next year or so is a modest one: to establish
Undercurrents as a monthly magazine with a full time editor and a
circulation of about 8,000 copies. When we achieve this target we will
be making a modest 'profit' of about £50 per month which will go to
repay the debts incurred on the way. For 8,000 copies we would use over
14 of a tonne of paper, priced at about £300/tonne. Note that,the paper
cost is only 9% of the price you pay for the magazine and only 14% of
our budget. In fact we spend about the same on postage (about £250 in
all) as we do on paper. The surplus is only about 0.5p :;or copy. If we arc
left with more than 100 copies unsold we make a loss. A single copy
given away wipes out the surplus on 40 copies sold. There is not much
margin for error in the small magazine business! Of course, if we sold
more we could charge less: at 25p we'd need to sell about 12,000,
double our present circulation. The magazine could even cover its costs
at 15p, but we would have to sell about 33,000 copies.
WHERE THE MONEY HAS COME FROM
In any business - and a democratic non-profit making company is no
exception - finance has the whip hand. however much we might like it
to be otherwise. To get sales we have to give credit, to booksellers and to
our distributor, Moore Harness Ltd. Most of our bills, on the other hand,
we have to pay 'on the nail'. At present we reckon we need a capital of
about £2,000 to bridge the gap . A quarter of this has come from the
members of Undercurrents Ltd. A publishers' 'advance' on the Radical
Technology book we are writing will, we hope, yield a nett £650 when
we get all the money. Our 1,000 or so subscribers have also willy nilly,
invested about £700 in the business. And we owe our creditors £150 at
the moment. From the letters we get, we are in no doubt that
Undercurrents is filling a need and that many more people would buy it if
they knew it existed. So we hope to move as quickly as possible to
regular monthly Iy issues. The problem is that to finance a monthly we
need about another £2,000 in working capital. Some of it we may be able
to borrow at commercial rates. from our bank, or perhaps from Industrial
Common Ownership Finance Ltd. Some of it will come effectively from
our printers, who will give us some credit. But there is still a gap to be
bridged. You can help us by taking out a subscription instead of buy. ing
each issue as it comes out. You benefit by gelling the magazine quickly
and with no hassle. We benefit in two ways: the marginal contribution of
a subscription copy to our overheads is more than twice what it is from a
new-stand copy (21p instead of 9p), so that if all our sales were
subscriptions we'd be breaking even on only a 6,000 circulation, and we
have the use of your £2 for a while. as working capital.
THE PROBLEM OF DISTRIBUTION
Many readers write to tell us of the difficulty they've had in gelling hold
of Undercurrents. This is maddening both to them and to us, but in no
way surprising if you consider how the magazine trade is organised. Most
retail newsagents are small under·capitalised and overworked. Most of
their trade comes from only a dozen titles. They cannot be expected to