Gents, I make it a (wife aggravating) habit of ordering books from Lindsay Books every few months, whether I intend to do any of the projects or not.
After all, once we getted EMP'd by the North Koreans, that knowledge will be useful (assuming I survive the "Road Warrior" phase of year 1 and the
"Walking Canabalistic Zombie phase of year 2).
Anyhoo...I picked up two books: "The Voice of the Crystal" and "Instruments of Amplification". The latter, Instruments, notes that Galena was a
preferred tuning material back in the crystal radio days. Then goes on to say that "Argentiferous" Galena was the preferred Galena. Recognizing this
isn't exactly laying around in most people's medicine cabinets, he goes on to give an acceptably detailed "recipe" for cooking YOUR OWN galena
crystals, complete with desired impurities!
The last section of the books is dedicated to cooking your own brewed PNP transistors. I'm posting this here because all of you would be very, very
fascinated by them both. Particularly "instruments".watson.fawkes - 21-6-2010 at 13:29
"The Voice of the Crystal" and "Instruments of Amplification".
The author is H.P. Friedrichs and he has a home page.JohnWW - 21-6-2010 at 13:49
I thought that crystals of germanium were used for that.kclo4 - 21-6-2010 at 14:05
The Galena is used for making the diode right?
Please share if you ever make one of these, I think it would be very interesting to see one. roamingnome - 21-6-2010 at 17:18
Running with your Road Warrior thought
In those days fuel will be of high importance....
I was excited as you to find Galena is making a useful catalyst to turn plastic bags into useful fuels!
So tune in your radio and distill some fuel lets here it for Lead Sulfide
Catalytic pyrolysis of low-density polyethylene with lead sulfide into fuel oil
Abstract
The influence of lead sulfide as a catalyst on the pyrolysis of low-density polyethylene has been investigated. The yield and composition of the
derived gas, oil and wax have been studied in terms of the temperature, time and amount of catalyst. The oil consisted of mainly paraffins and
olefins. More than 70% yield of gas and liquid fraction with boiling point up to 350 °C was obtained. The composition of the oil fraction was
characterized by physicochemical properties of petroleum fuel. Distillation data showed that not, vert, similar10% have the boiling range of light
naphtha (<160 °C), not, vert, similar30% of heavy naphtha (160–208 °C) and not, vert, similar55% of middle distillate (208–350 °C). Lead
sulfide was found to be an effective catalyst for conversion of polyethylene into fuel oil.
[Edited on 22-6-2010 by roamingnome]not_important - 21-6-2010 at 17:25
Ah, John, you're talking about those Johnny-come-lately post WW-II radios. I believe germanium diodes went into production for use in radar sets
around 1941.
That's a pretty crappy yield if you're after gasoline, which has a boiling range of around 40-200 C.
Besides, while road warrior scenarios may be the male equivalent of bodice ripper novels, the reality is much more likely to be about getting food and
heating fuel than zooming about in a car. Do a little research into where the foods n your grocery store come from, and then consider if you can't
get fuel for your automobile, where are the trucks, trains, freighters, and airplanes getting theirs - assuming that any of them work after an EMP
attack. Electronic - tubes and relays, lads; see Howard Waldrop for details.
[Edited on 22-6-2010 by not_important]Anders Hoveland - 2-7-2010 at 14:14
That is scary. In many overcrowded suburbs, one little natural disaster, and there are runs on the grocery store; then food shortages in a matter of
about a week. Think about how much food is in you cupboard. Now divide all the food in the supermarket by the number of customers that go there. You
can see there are not much extra reserves if something bad happens. The poor are the first to starve, as scarcity increases the price, and the poor
live in very crowded inner city slums, that have few grocery stores relative to the big population, because of the lack of dispossible income. In many
parts of Los Angeles, USA, fresh fruits and vegetables (save perhaps for a few apples and some packaged lettuce) cannot be found in any of the food
stores, since there is not enough demand for them by the impoverished population. Have you seen "The Road" ?
The movie is not particularly far fetched. Normally during a disaster, there is a mass evacuation of people so food becomes less of an issue. During
the dike failure in New Orleans, there were so many people that the roads became jammed. Surrounding higher income neigborhoods closed their roads and
bridges to keep the poor Africans from overrunning their area, as there was a lot of looting. It took days for some of the people to flee, many had to
abandon their cars since the roads were either washed out or jammed with the flood of refugees. In many places, the farms are far away from the places
where people live. The agricultural corporations typically hire armed security to shoot any vagrants on their land during natural disasters, when
there are lots of vagrants roaming the surrounding area. I know in most states in the USA, this is perfectly legal if a "No tresspassing" sign is put
up and it is in a rural area.
Denmark respects human rights much more than the States. It seems Americans are often simultaneously self-righteous and hypocritcal; "freedom",
"liberty", "the American dream"
