Stone age? (was: George Morrow died Wed May 7th 2003

From: Christopher McNabb <cmcnabb_at_4mcnabb.net>
Date: Sun May 11 15:44:01 2003

On Sun, 2003-05-11 at 16:22, Fred Cisin (XenoSoft) wrote:

> Rebuilding? Without the existing infrastructure (in the wilderness), how
> many people would be capable of building/making ANYTHING? Other than
> Tony, could you make a battery? a bulb? Do you really know how to extract
> the materials needed from the ground?

I can think of two people off the top of my head - Captain Kirk when
fighting the Zorn Captain, and McGuyver in just about any episode.

Seriously, I agree that most people would not survive for long in the
woods. There are a few of us, though, who happen to relish spending a
few weeks a year in wilderness surviving on our own.

Given a few basic tools (knife) it would be relatively trivial to make
something like a crystal radio. You would need to find copper ore (look
for rocks that have a bluish-green tint) and some galena. You would
then need to light a fire and get it hot enough to smelt the ore to make
copper. Beat the copper into a long enough wire with a rock, then wind
it into a tuning coil. Use the piece of galena and the point of your
knife as the diode. You would also need to find some iron ore to make
an electro-magnet and a thin metal diaphram for use as a speaker. Easy
as pie.

-- 
Christopher L McNabb
Operating Systems Analyst         Email: cmcnabb_at_4mcnabb.net
Virginia Tech                     ICBM:  37.1356N 80.4272N
GMRS: WPSR255                     ARS:   N2UX  Grid Sq: EM97SD
Received on Sun May 11 2003 - 15:44:01 BST

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