UNDERCURRENTS is published evev

two months ( well, nearly) by

Undercurrents Limited, 275 Finchley
Road, London NW3, England, a
democratic, non-profit company, without
share capital and Limited by
Guarantee. Telephone 01 794 2750.
Our printers are SW Litho Ltd.,
Corbridge Crescent, London E2.
Our distributors are Moore-Harness Ltd.,
31 Corsica St., London N4.

Number Eight
October -November 1974
EDDIES..
Eddie Currents

..................................... 1
.. ...... .................... 5
Letters..,>..toc.ii...o<it.ooo.<iooo<i.ooo<i
6
8
........
COMTEK: a Celebration of People's Tech
Consume-it-Yourself
-..
-.. 10
...........................
BRA~/~ithin-y-~aer
11
Interview: the National Centre,
,..
.
12
................................
15
Organic Living
SwardGardening............................... 18
The other London Underground ................. 19
F r e e R a d i o ................................... 21
, ,
., 27
Building With Rammed Earth
DIY Multi-blade windmill design.
-.
29
Wind Generator Theory,,
. .... .... . 33
COPYRIGHT. All articles in
Undercurrents are Copy right
......................
Breaking the Hermetic Seal
35
@unies>otherwise stated. But
REVIEWS ...................................... 41
we will give permission freely t o non-profit groups who
Undercurrents Business News,, .......... .
........ 46
wish t o reproduce our materca

.a

o..

o .

o . ,

c..

o,.

o . ,

n.

o.

o
.
.
. o
.

Yes, yes, we know. UNDERCURRENTS

is late again.
Why? Well becauseras you'll appreciate
if you read Chris Hutton-Squire's tear
jerking account of our financial position,
the magazine is grossly under-capitalised.
This means we have to do things the
long, laborious way, because it's the
only way we can afford --we're only
just beginning to get our subscribers
on to a simple, stencilled addressing
system, for instance: up to now, we've
done it all by hand.
Being under-capitalised means we can
only afford to pay a half salary to
the poor ,starved wretch who edits
the magazine, with the result that he
has to go grubbing around for additional
work to keep body and soul
together. ( pause for sob).
One additional source of work, and
also of capital for the magazine, has been
our project to produce a book on
'Radical Technology', for which we have
received an 'advance' from Wildwood
House in the UK, and Pantheon Books in
the States. Radical Technology ( can
anyone think of a better title?) will
consist of about 290 A4 pages covering
Energy ,Food, Shelter, Materials and
Communications, and quite a bit more.
It's due for publication sometime in the
first half of 1975, and we think when
our readers see what's in it, they'll forgive
us for always being late with the
magazine.

<,

o
.o
.
.
o

o,

But lest readers getthe impression

that our monetary situation is so precarious that we're about to fold, let us
reassure them ( a la Court Line) that
although the magazine is losing a
little money ( say about 00 an
issue at the moment) the surplus on
the book ( when we get all the
money from the publishers) ought to be
enough to offset the loss on the last
few issues. Meanwhile we hope to have
built up the circulation near to our
break even point. We have always
believed in giving readers as much
information as possible about why, and
how, we produce the magazine : that's
why we issue these little explanations
now and again. Having explained
the constraints we work under, we hope
you'll understand if we don't post
out copies to you as quickly as we might
or i f we leave letters unanswered for
long periods ,or if the next issue is
also a bit late in appearing.
Apologies also to readers who expected
another instalment of AT-Man: trouble
is, we couldn't think of a good story
line to get him out.of the dilemma
we put him i n in UC6. Any suggestions?
You may also have been expecting
Peter Harper's guide to Sources and
Contacts in Alternative Technology to
have continued in this issue. Well, it
would have, had Peter not been
stricken by flu for a week just before
publication. Next issue, we're promised.

ial, without charge, provided

they credit Undercurrents.

Undercurrents is designed and edited b y

Sally and Godfrey Boyle.
Pat Coyne looks after News,
Durham takes care of reviews, and
Peter Harper keeps thinking up reasons
why we ought to keep on doing
whatever it is we 're doing. Or not, as
the case may be. Chris Hutton-Squire
maintains a cheerful despair about our
finances, and fatalistically tries to
sort us out. Jenny Pennings set the type,
except for a few thousand words ( these
included1 set on dear ole Aunt Ann
Wards composer at dead of night (yawn).
Brian Dax screened the pies, and
George Bowden kindly helped with
the pasting up. Nigel and Mary and the
Metro folk handled the incoming mail
and tolerated our eccentricities.
Among the many other people who 've
helped us are: Jerome Burne, Steve
Boulter, Alan Campbell, Oliver Caldecott,
Charlie Clutterbuck, Roger Cox, Duncan
Campbell, Robin Clarke, Alan Dalton,
Sotires Elefetheriou, Gerry Foley,
Lyn Gambles, Robin Hall, Satish Kumar,
Dave May, Mike Muller, Kit Pedler,
Chris Roper, Pat Rivers, Chris Ryan,
John Shore, Derek Taylor, and Dieter
Pevsner.
~ oforgetting
t
the anwing Monica Hill
who moves in mysterious ways and
looks after distribution.

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

Pilkingtons. Transport of the

Royal Person round the

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 workshops. To crown the occasion,
Mr. Sehastian de Ferrinti has
agreed to use the occasion
for the unveiling of a new

renovating the outbuildings of the old quarry

where the Centre has its home
They have had tittle opportu-

ks' breath away.

bject is not even confined
to British Royals, as the
visit of Queen Juliana of the
Netherlands t o Sietz Leeflang's
rather similar "Small Earth

nology "movement" in Brit

Yet very little is known ahou
the Society in AT circles
apart for the vague general
impression that it has hidden
wealth and considerable Est-

by Royal Train. No doubt the

local Mayor, John Beaumont
- w h o also happens to be the
owner of the National
Centre's quarry - will be there
to greethim. From the station,

a few weeks ago and talked

a y or another wit
singly frequent o
he Establishment

devote more time to the

paper known as a Free

thus virtually a Licence of

at Chequers . . . hauled off.

to the nearest Fuzz House
screanling 'Expedient in th
national interest'. . . it's a
lovely thought.
Geological maps arc

the extent that a whole lotta

ical Museum. Inhibition

the hills armed with rock pick

or from Stanforcis on Lon

in the province with the

exception of areas desiguated as National or Provincial
Details of the act are still

it bare and give it the 'lunar'

ment and may even bring in

a buck o r t w o . . .
Suppose a hunch of AT-frea
armed with geological ham-

live on their claims in log

WE ALL KNOW how consumer ~ r o d u c t sare created to give

anufacturers a market rather than to fulfil a real need.
d reluctantly accepted. But what is not often appreciated
the way in which the same brand of thinking is applied to
Top level documents from International Computers
Limited, Britain's major computer manufacturer recently
fell into Undeicurrents 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 t o generate future dependence on the company -and
thus further business - as to fulfil customer needs. The
international standards. But in fairness to ICL, it is clear

system prices by I
machines will be required
with at least three times this

pheral prices. It will be

and scientific uses in ICL 's

markets'.
The company has also
decided not to try to pull old
tricks on its computer con-

latter high in view

growing proportion
enhancement busln
The mark-up on th
pherals? 270%!

be as large as possible. ICI,

will not be operating on the
principle used by IBM in th

ng an automated pr
a grinding halt, is a grow
ea of the technology.
four main processors

two Service Interrupt

the current I d . users
o must be persuaded to
ome users of the New

quote growth paths

ii the consideration of future

enhancement rounds. It
would be difficult to rniroduce further models into a
(General Motors will also

ancement replacements
existing ICI, products'..
nhancement is the profit-

at present is the nature o f

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

'inconvenience' (one interruption per shift) occurring

to once in ei&t shifts.
At the lower level of the

to keep people buying).

ICL have also learnt a
lesson from the British aero-

computer (of the sort used

for scientific and technical

ge working compo

Undercurrents 8
grammes needed for this selfdiagnosis and reconfiguration will be one o f the keys
t o the success or failure of ,
the top end of the market.
And. as this is ICL's first bid
t o get into the markets which
demand these facilities, it

the desire to co-operate in

setting up rational standards
for the benefit of the
computer user.
'We should try ha
strain IBM'sfreed
tion arbitrarily to change
their own standards to

monising proce
on at least one
rds issue, 1CL has
misleading its cust
ers or years. The compan
has been consistently c

replacement ofirrecoverly corrupted entities, such

hardware modules, by

alphabetic and other c

acters in terms of bina
bits) substantially diff
from that chosen b y t e

gree of system service,

to the telecommunicatio

Standards Double-Talk
talk dealing with public
statements and private
licy 'It is important that
should have a coherent
policy t o present to ICL
customers' notes the company in a briefing .tocu
on the attitude t o be take
t o various international
standards organisatio
' hough not all aspec
ur policy need be d e
publicl)
It will he easier to put across
to our customers if our
cieclarerl p-rlicy statements
e a true subset of the

policy
Corporate Futures
ICL's credibility is perhaps
the most important issue at
stake with the introduction
f the New Range. Many ohervers will be 1ooking;not
much at the details of the
nee, but at its likely im.t i n t h e market. This is
rhaps ICL's last chance t o
keep its place as a major bigoininuter manufactnrer. Over
the past few years, despite
the support of the UK government through its policyo
share of the British mark
falling steadily.
At one time, ICL could
compete with IBM in the
open market. Yet last year
ICL failed to get any o f the
vernment sector. And
spite the 4 million aid
eived since 1968 is still,
cording t o Eric Moonman,
P, 'a critical company in a
In this context, the release

READERSOF New Scientist

no doubt were intrigued by
a piece in the May 9 issue
entitled /.noking for electron
hungrv explosives in Ulster
( ~ 3 1 0 which
)
described two
new electronic 'sniffers'
capable of detecting hidden
explosives and outlined the
problems involved in making
such devices differentiate
between everyday substances
(like perfume) and the real
thing..What they will not
have realised was that the
article was altered by a bit
of subtle pressure from the
Ministry of Defence, including the threat of a 'D
Notice'.
The sniffers, Pye Dynamics, model L1A1 and the
Analytical Instruments (AI)
model 47, both work on
the 'electron capture'
principle which depends
on the fact that explosives
give off large, electronhungry, molecules which
will reduce a known current
in a detector. Both pass a
stream or argon over a
radioactive source which
ionises the gas, which is
then mixed with the vapour
to be tested. If enough
electrons are pulled off
the ionised argon, the
alarm is sounded. The
article explains how other
substances, such as the
musk in perfume, the
freon in aerosols, and
tobacco smoke, can also
trigger the detectors but
what did not appear, because it was cut from the
original, was a paragraph
which read:
Virtually all explosives
contain nitro compounds,
and the @e unit apparetrtly has a substance which
absorbs these compounds
a t ambient temperatures
but rejects them a t a higher temperature. Thus the
vapour to be tested is first
passed over this substance
then the collector is heated and the vapour is expelled into the ionised Argon.
The whole process takes
16 sec. uti a a e p i a h l c lime
'o search \i person but I V J O

long for a mail check. According to A t , the 1,lA 1 responds

only to nitroglycerine-based
explosives - - gelignite and
dynamite (which are in fa
the most commonly used in
Ulster) - but not to TNT
or plastic explosives. A 1
also says that contrary to
Army claims, neither deteetor will respond to 'co-op
sugar' (sodium chlorate
weedkiller mixed with
sugar) because it is not
electron-capturing and
has no nitro compoun
The actual contents of
the paragraph, while inter
ing, are hardly (to make
bad pun) dynamite and a
most certainly would n
tell the IRA anything t h
did not already know - r
had not found out by experience. But leaving aside the
morality, or the wisdom,
of making false claims ah
anything - even weaponry
- the actual manner of the
request by the MOD to dro
the paragraph is instructive
as an example of how the
establishment deals with
the situation when the un
conscious self-censorship,
that'is assumed t o be part
of every journalist's mentality threatens t o break do
At New Scientist rece'
the news of the Ministry's
displeasure in a telephone
call at 5.30 on press day,
Monflay before publicatio
There was n o outright order
merely an announceme
that the MoD did not like
the offending paragraph,
with the implication tha
the Ministry had powers
act if nothing was done
voluntarily. It was a seco
order D Notice, as one N
journalist put it.
Since all copy had to be
at the printers by 6 pm t h
evening, the question bee
one of expediency not
principle. The offendin
paragraph was dropped
that the issue could appear
on time. New Scientist had
been out-manoeuvred and
the bland fdcdde of the
British e'.tablishnifnl
ri.'iiiainei.l unJisIiirhcd

FRIGGIN' ON THE RIGS

THE ECCENTRICITIES of
the Celtic fringe are making
life extremely difficult for
the eager visionaries directing
First there was that tiresome Ulster Magistrate,Maxwell,and his recent insistence
that all exploration rights
round the enlire island of
Ireland below the low water
mark are properly the province of the Government o f
the Irish Republic. Realising
the minimal probability of
a strike on Ulster's beaches.
Her Majesty's Government
have now referred the matter
t o the Privy Council, where
no doubt Mr Maxwell will
get the comeuppance he
deserves for presuming to
Now the recent upsurge
in Scottish Nationalism has

ening to kick everybody out

and limiting production to
a paltry 50 million tons a
But keen students of

certain people are beginning

to suspect that there is cunning in the old hitch yet.Two,

200 million tons of oil a

year - larger than any production figure for the entire
UK North Sea so far releassay 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 t o be discovered) and
the Frigg gas field, no pipeline is being constructed t o
Scottish mainland, nor are
any being planned.
Ethnically and psychologicdlly, 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 accommodat
ing t o the Shetianden, and
their ideas on how the oil
boom should be handled.

Nats. And if by sum

chance Scotland she

'respect the wishes of the

limes in the past and indcf

are doing now in Northern
Ireland . . .

I
Radio 88 is an illegal Swedish
Radio Station that broadcasts
to Stockholm and its suburbs.
Three members o f the group
visited Peoples News Service
recently, and left this account

present one gets taken

We have had 60 to
police cars chasing us si
taneously. They don't try
to get us every week as the
get tired of trying. In fact

illegally mainly because it was

fun. The programmes were
mostly music and jokes and a

not catching us. One o

posing as a 'straight' repo
ter once interviewed a

the station on the front pages

cast it 15 minutes lat

We use our broadca

partly because of the fierce

police reaction to them and
a lot more people became
interested and started workins for Radio 88 and extending its scope.

s o m e anarchists, some

safety procedures that we

keep to closely.
We broadcast once a

atus t o a different place

each week. All broadcasts
are pretaped so that we j
set things up, go away an
come back to collect the
stuff when it's safe - may

ment block, because in

Sweden they're locked
from the inside, from t
bottom. Even if the po
trace the broadcast and
in they still have the
trouble of locating the
drive out t o forests just

but East and North of the

due to be taken t o the stillunbuilt terminal at Sullom
Voe in the Shetlands which
is destined to become the

Irish I2oreign Minister

Garrctt Ht~gerald'sreactio
when he heard the news,
and he announced that his

there's a big strike on i

Stockholm we'll try an
get a long interview wi
the workers concerned
cover home and inte
ional news. We tran
poetry and music to

lost three sets t o them in

one box (in Sweden t

n't have numbers, wh
zzled the police whe
y found out we had

ny mail sent t o the

ss given below will

from anyone who h

Spy in the Sky

you're wondering what
ndon will be like in a
uple of years' time, when
e CITRAC system of
veillance TV cameras
e UC7) has gone into
peration above the city
reets, you can get a pretty
good idea by looking at
what's been happening in
Sweden lately. Sixty teles i o n cameras have been
ailed in the underground
way network o f central
ckholm. The TV cables
verge at a church.in the
city, which is now the
eadquarters of a 139 strong
special branch unit.
The TV network was installed for crime prevention,
particularly drug dealing. Fach
is manned by two officials,
video tapes of 'suspicious
" are frequent'y
evidence.
e initially installed the
meras in public places
without government permisn, although the government subseouentlv authorised
this TV network, and
3 the figure was 4651.
re convicted. According t o
: 'Everywhere you go

'igure 5. Catastrophe theory applied to the behaviour of a dog

A free bone is offered to the first reader who can correctly
determine the function which generates this surface, without looking at the October '74 issue of Futures in which
it appears. Entries (on the back of a dog meat wrapper,
please) t o Maior Canis. Phi Do. our veterinary correspondent,

In Berkeley, California, 55
education experts, school
administrators and psycholQgists listened
to a
scholarly lecture by a Dr FOX
on 'Mathematical Game

theory applied to physical

education'. In a survey
afterwards 45 of t h e 55 said
they found the lecture clear
and stimulating. 'Dr Fox'
then announced that he was
an actor and had been talking a load of rubbish.

'rv camera watching you.

They're so powerful that you
can read the time on someone's wristwatch storeys
below on the street'.
Radio 88 also says there
have recently heen reports in
the Swedish dailies about
police plans to coordinate
their 'security' activity with
that o f various other groups.

the plans involve the large

numbers of security men
employed by hie Swedish
firms. Some reports say tliat
the plans entail the unification of all these groups into
a regularised unit with its
own hierarchy and information pool. Colonel Stirling
and General Walker, please
note.

Foxed!

PROPERTY SPECULATION
tion or Nuclear attack? Alas,
it almost certainly is not.
Dedicated army watchers

lies buried on the Northerly

ds, sewage compressors
Still, t h e Depots would
ntion a total of mo

say, the world's first noisefree underground pop festi-

ohone tapping
.. - in the last
Undercurrents, you won't
be surprised t o hear that
overseas phone calls from
the United States are syste
atically monitored by the
National Security Agency
(NSA). What is surprising is
that, according t o information leaked to intelligence
Report, a Washington magazine, the NSA now has a
computer programmed t o
switch on to cue words sue
as 'dope', 'marijuana'
'Mao' for evidence of radic
political or drugs activitie
We didn't think their voice
recognition Systems wer
quite so well advanced.
According t o Intelligent
Report'scorrespondent (a
former NSA worker, Wins1
Peck) NSA has been cave dropping on private lines
the late 1960's but until
recently, the decision t o
record was made on the bas
of who was calling whom an
what country the call was
placed to. The monitorin
transoceanic telecom
tion began as part of
programme to collect c
mercial intel1igence.wh
now considered t o be eq
importance to miiitar
diplomatic informatio

nothing i n a positive
t o either Socialism or Ca

Ill,Anarchism, the Albion

The Customs, who I don't
see getting a knocking review
in UC - I'll d o one free - charge
w f t y for exactly fuck all.
The V A T mothers here i n
Britain get 1.3 Iretaii price
is 13.1 again for exactly
fuck ail.
a v i d l y Soviet Socialis
o m the completely
thereby entraining a lot o f
constructing the world's

s good. How about

Plutonium sniffer

an check out the

Smialism=Marxism?
Dear Undercurrents

own private market, so the

Soviet Union uses Eastern
Europe and Cuba.

then I can get either Scienc

As for internal repression,

the Soviet Union indulges i n

n o pun intended) of Marxist

e appears t o be a misapension on the part of one

i n that meaningless expression

'class struggle'.
For the purpose of this
missive, I am going t o make
some assumptions which I hope
do not strike people as being
too outrageous, indeed too

currents entitled 'Behaviour

Modification' was an eye-openr , check out the far more
barbaric and inhuman treat.
ment That seems t o be prevalent
i n Soviet mental hospitals.
(Contact: The Working Group
for some of the most '
magazines ever t o pop t
my letter box. There isen
i n the few I've got t o keep
busy if I retired today!
Your enthusiasm is itfw-

liquid columns i n each case.

re is one exception to this
and that is the use that can
made of the hydraulic ram

theory only, you would be

playing into the hands o f
people like Aims Of Industry

zine. spoiled a little f o

us:

on Socialists who

ion is an untenable o
that has t o be done t o

nV good people can't

v alienate prospectiv

uld learn further about amateur

ectronics or T V .
We are very disappointed. You
aazine holds nothing of interes
is We do not like nor do we
ree with the contents or the
pies you cover. We herewith
turn the unwanted and unliketi
gazine and would appreciate
return of our 35p.

;t the word ou

atmoral Avenue
ockton-on-Tees,
leveland TS17 7JP

;ear of the future, of course,

BE DAMNED
a t e my subscnpurrents and for
of the year's monded or donated
a t i o n Society'.
,as you do, that many
s need changing in this
ty of ours; however, one
which I prize highly is
freedom of speech which
r magazine seeks to undere. In a democracy a man
p e a k his mind. The time
subversion is under a repres-

n d certificates for those statons who work t o help make

he weekend happen. But there
will also be sessions on
lmics, Alternative Ener
Sources, Women's Issue
education, The En"ir0
Decentralized living, Ham
Radio's Future, and Other
'erns we share.
ideas is
One Of the
'pen u p Our shacks and
share this ham radio weekend
with others. Some sessions will
use single sideband-only, and
some radio teletype, hut many
of the sessions will utilize Slow
t o permit Weakers to
scan
illustrate their weekend "open
house" to the local ham
members, and maybe even to
the whole town as well. It will
be a perfect chance t o show
off what SSTV can do, and t o
show off a serious use of ham

r Schofield is presumably
erring t o the letter in UC7

ut Well are needed for

mtor duty, and to I,0
t speakers (either in t h
ck or via phone patch).
ow-scanners willing t o conrt
slides and photos
to SSTV tapes are needed
fly; if you know one
'doing" people workard a better future in
eld or other, See if he
as a
won't
The
rdinator of this effort
Brink, wA"BKR. If
e t o lend a hand, conon 3898 KHz
and Thursday nights
acific time, or Sunnoons on 14253 at
noon. (If ham radio fails You.
his address is RFD 2, Box 301B, Port Orchard, Washington
98366.)
HE RTTY TECHNICAL

n,erits, '*

,,

wouldn't have printed that

letter. Perhaps Mr Schofield
it? Surely free speech logical!
implies freedom even for those
who advocate its abolition?-Ed

give A T a bad name.

Maybe my definition

..wjhen
/he foil,,^
radio amateurs
would like to o f f the ufe 0
,he,,
c~lmp
otfiers. Certain of them a h
have access to informati
orem of ititeres
people with experience
t i c 1 f i e l d If asked,
hams _. attempt , .,,.vide
information via radio in the co
e g o r i e listed Contact individ
uals directly to make arrange-

~ , of ~us is~capable
h
of serv.
ing
miniature, radio acce
sed information scrvicc, hi,,
the types of informatiou
you have xm
mere is
bound to be at least one or
two areas of personal knowledge. For starters, on what .~
subject do you have more than
If a printed word netfive books? In addition, you
ham radio, or comprobably have access to knowputer access tie-ins via ham
ledgeable friends and neighradio, turn you on, contact
Mitt Nodacker, WA7TFE. Mitt bors. See if they'd be willing t o
sent out a newsletter a couple share their info via ham radio.
of weeks ago o u t l i i the
LL - 3
7-41~&5,
technial problems to be over.
come, mentioning sources ,f
RTTy
suggest.
ing a onc..a-week RTTY get.
together on the air as soon as a
few people have even a crude
mp, write him at gox 8557,
pocatello, Idaho 83209 and
him for a copy of the news-,
(send a
stamped envelope).
Copthorne Macdonald (WOORX)
INFORMATION AND
516 N W First Ave
STATION SHARING
Rochester, Minn. 55901 USA
Much of the New Direc-

advert in UC6 for a community

based on the ideas of BF Skinne

~oufidtibie Weft Coast

us having a license and a sta

ion in the Mothercolumn
along with some basicinf
tion. This list will be acc
panied b y the following

day.

8:mp.m. PDT

,,,,

Undercurrents 8

IT IS YET another of the paradoxes o f

our quasi-Orwellian world that Doing-itYourself can simultaneously be Big
Business.
But Doingit-Yourself, in the eyes of the
vast majority of the companies who
booked space at September's DIY Exhibition at Olvmpia. means little more than the

and quality control checks .-a tir

and laborious business in any case
What DIY ought to be about w
summed up admirably on one o f t
slogans in the Chinese handicraft
pavilion, which extolled the virtu
of "Maintaining independence and
keeping the initiative in our own

elimination of the need for final assembly

if articulated, could

One of the few genuinely amateur, truly

Do-it-Yourself stands at the show. The
Popular Flying Association demonstrate
how you, too, can build and f l y your o
aeroplane. Not that Iliich would regard
the DIY-aeroplane as a particularly convivial
tool, but the PFA at least seems free of the
instant, packaged commercialism of the
majority of exhibits. Enthusiastic, too.

be

mmed up: " Keep the custo

pendent on us as suppliers;
e marketing and advertising in
our hands, and for God's sak
on't let them do too much f o r t h
lves, or they might realise that o
refully-packaged kits aren't reall

Do i t Yourself. Be Your Own Boss Start

Your Own Business, Bv the manazine that
ecently told its readers how they
rofit from exploiting cheap prison
labour- the 'Business Ideas Letter'.

It can be pretty lucrative t o prey on the

insecurity of strike-worried middle cl
consumers. Pay 2 for a low power
Jermyn invertor f i t can just run the tell
a few lights) and you can at least be
entertained while you freeze to death
during the forthcoming minerslgas wor
electricity workers1 pinko commie bast
next blackmailing wage battle.

DIY Exhibitions could ever demonstrate

DoitYourself canoe building. One other

apparent bastion of amateurism and
nthusiasrn amid a sea of money grub
product pushers.

Now here's a piece of DIY-Technology

the world really needs: the magnetic
window cleaner that cleans both sides o f thi

e Markets are Briskand the Prices are

Ie". Not a slogan one would have expectd t o see on the Chinese pavilion. Has the
umerist rot really set i n even in China?
'ntaining Independence and Keeping t h
ative i n our own Hands and Relying on
r own Efforts" . That's a bit more like

sheeting instead of glass, and in having

tosite the roof i n a position where it
is overshadowed by a steeply rising
hill for a good part of the day.
Doubting sceptics have only t o put their
hands in the trough at the roof base after
only half an hour or so of sunshine to
realise the potential of solar power.
The gentle trickle of warm water over
your fingers is highly sensual , and
highly recommended.
Next on the Biotechnic agenda is a heat
pump. John Clemeau reckons i t might
just be possible to develop a heat p
on the evaporation, rather than the
vapour compression, principle .wh
would have the advantage of no mo
parts.Theoretically, the efficiency

be evaded somehow. Any ideas?

BRAD, the 'Biotechnic Research and
Development' community set up by
Robin Clarke and a dozen or so friends
in 1972, prefers to be known these
days as 'Eithin-y-Gaer' -the name of the
Welsh farm where the group has settled.

ore traditional heating system. a Jotu!

od burning stove, made in Norway
ry efficient, but costs about 70
'

n water trough where rain f

side of roof glass gets caugh
ain water collection has been
t BRAD this year, as the farm's
has dried up. Woe betide the
who flushes a lavatory
omposting toilets havent been
ailed yet, though a rustic privy
in the garden does the same job,rnore
draughtilyl

.......

oof space behind the solar collector.

espite 3 inches of polystyrene, it get

The change of name symbolises the

change of emphasis which the community
has undergone over the past couple of
years, a change which culminated in
Robin and Janine Clarke's withdrawal
from the community a few months ago.
Robin apparently felt that the group's
role should remain largely as he originally
envisaged it at the beginning as a
communal research centre, aiming to
develop a new kind of science and
technology that would be valid 'for all
men and for all time'.
The others, however, felt that they
needed to get their heads and their own
inter-personal relationships straightened
out a good deal more before they would
be ready t o start telling the world what
to do.

Those, at any rate, seem to be the two

sides to the conflict concerning
BRAD'S future. But the issues
are complicated by the frictions that
arise in any closequartered community,
and are probably impossible for any
outsider either to understand or explain.
Robin and Janine, however, seem
eager to start out onanother similar path
soon as possible - only this time they're
hoping to avoid some at least of what
they see as the 'mistakes'of the BRAD
experiment
Meanwhile, back at the Farm, the
community's huge solar roof has
become a major symbol of success,
following the cover story wnteup in
New Scientist by Philip Brachi

View looking down the mountains, to

the side of Eithin-y-Gaer.To the right
is a twin Savonius rotor 1 oil drum type),
which spins merrily but which will need
another type of pump to drive if it is to
do i t s water lifting job properly. The
, ,
present Archimedes screw system
isn't too satisfactory.

John Wood's little black box, which

controls the solar roof. !t compares
temperatyre of water at the roof with
temperature in the storage tank, and
when the former i s greater than the
turns the circulating pump I below)
John will be giving full circuit detail
of a simplified version of the Box in
the next Undercurrents.

Undercurrents 8

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 orqanisation between big
business and the environmental movement.
I t s Chairman i n 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 t o attract quite a few famous names as its patrons:
Lord Annan, Provost of University College London, Lord Robens, former
Chairman of the National CoalBoard, Sir Bernard Waley Cohen, former Lord
Mayor of London and Roy Jenkins, the Home Secretary, are just a few of
the notables who dignify i t s letterheads.
The Society's brief history has not been without incident, however. I t s
first full-time Director ,Peter Whiteley ( ex-Cassells publisher and husband
of Lady Angela Whiteley) quit i n 1973 because of a disagreement
with Morgan-Grenville. And in June 1974, Steve Boulter, the Society's
Technical Manager, was fired b y Morgan Grenville ,allegedly because
he had, according t o Morgan-Grenville,'lost the confidence' of his fello
workers at the Centre, and because he had taken up a part time
at University College, London, while s t i l l working for the Socie
Boulter contends that he was dismissed because he expressed di
with the direction i n 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. Thot trend has now been reversed.
Boulter also says he took his part-time lectureship with Vorgan-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 i s a US citizen) i n 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 50,00
which started the Society off two years ago (supplied by a backer
who s t i l l insists on anonymity) will hardly last much longer.
And with a figure of 200,00 being talked about as the sum needed to
renovate all the quarry'soutbuildings, set u p engineering workshops and
provide living accomodation o n site, the Society for Environmental
Improvement will need a lot of money soon i f any of i t s original
grandiose ambitions i s to be realised.
In this interview, Gerard ^organ-Grenville the aims and ~hilosoohv

What are the historical antecedents

the project? How did you yourself g
interested i n the environment and in
alternative technology?
Well, I came through industry - I
ed i n industry for twenty odd ye
became involved in questions o
trial pollution and then, on the
n g side, became involved in try
make marketing forecasts. As a resul
of this I began to feel that a nu
of factors were going to influen
pretty decisively the buying pat
of people in the Western world T
led me to look at the whole resourc
syndrome. I think - o n a slight1
parallel course - I came to the t
through conservation. I ' m a paint
by hobby and I constantly perha
have a slightly over-sensitive eye
things that have been spoiled. Th
a straight way in which quite a lot
of people have come into the envir
mcnt 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 lust 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 i s that almost no
two people have come here for the
same reason.
The industrial activities that you were
involved in led you t o realise that
there was going to be a resource shortage?
Yes, i t made me realise that we were in
for an apparently endless period o f
steeply rising prices. This gave one - i f
for no other reason, because one's
livelihood depended on it - a fairly
vested interest in actually determining
whdt wds going to happen in the future
How did this concern of yours for the
environment and the rapidly-approaching resource and energy crisis o f industr
cohere into the National Centre, and
initially to the Society for Envir
tal Improvement - how did tha
Before: the old quarry outbuildings
were in a chronicallv-dila~idatedstate

vas at about thetime when

Gerrv Leach was oublishine his memorceship Earth'. That woke up a
people to some o f the facts and
T h u s in my case i t gave a great
petus to a feeling that was probably
Iready there, and I startedlooking
round and reading things and talking
people and travelling about a bit and

on your letterheads these days - h o w

did these people get involved i n your
society?
Well, i t was a deliberate policy. A lot

a large number of people who head

industry, government, large organisations, who are every bit as aware as are

which are 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
t some funds, and as you know got

me. Then we spent about a year just

oking at the whole environmental

ce suddenly and this centre was

n as an idea, and very shortly after-

or were there any other people at the

beginning who got involved.
did start it, but I regard myself as partme conductor of the orchestra. I have
fairly silent role in the thing - the
eople upon whose skill one depends
any sort of success are the players
he orchestra and most of the work
en done by other people -such a
ge number of people that I think it

.,

walk. To try to make this a bit more

the more effective, more intelligent

people i n various departments. This
pohcy is construed by some people
to mean that we get huge hidden
subsidies, or that we are a sort of
professionally-infiltrated department
of the Establishment, or even that
we're funded by the CIA - a l l sorts
of funny ideas.. Furthermore, I
think one needs to realise that the
people towards the top of the pyramid
are vastly more effective in lerms 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. I t would be
naive to think that someone like the
Duke of Edinburgh isn't an incredibly
powerful figure
in the country. No
.
matter undt anyone's \ I C * S might oe
on the munarch\ and i t s o\crtunes,
I in'nK most pc-up c In [he countri
rcalisl- that nc. as an i n d \ i u ~ a . is
,
simpi\ ij man c:ugn[ 'n d pos:tion
who is tr) :ng to do the best ih:ng oy
toe (oh hc'i gi~t,wn ch i s a pri'tty
~n~'nv:abic
one. Thcrcfori; he is
snmconc wnose 5\ mpatny s most
'iijluaolc to the uhu.c AT muiement,
i n d he 'someone who is w a l i n g
across this pretty delicate bridge
which we are in the process of putting up.
There is possibly a greater measure
of responsibility shown a t managerial
level by people who work i n business
than i s generally appreciated.. I
think that people perhaps at the lower
end o f today's pyramid fail to appreciate that some of the people who
control industry are i n fact highly
intelligent and fairly wise, fairly farseeing individuals.
Sebastian de Ferranti, for example,
who's the chairman of Ferran

A small, experimental solar water heater.

This small Pelton wheel may soon be

harnessina one of the waterfalls at the

Gerard Morgan-Grenville stands outside one

of the disused cottaaes. t o be converted

',,

View from one of the Ideal Home windows.

wish to come here and help, and we've

cot 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 wouldn't deny his competence, or
his intelligence or his sincerity. What I
would be worried about is that he will
seek solutions t o the problems o f
society in such a way that those solutions will continue t o imply Fcrranti
and roughly the same kind of industrial
structure that there is now. For instance,
a structure with companies owned by
shareholders rather than owned by the
people who work for them, a structure
where you have private enterprise
rather like we have now rather than
some kind o f possibly municipal or
local ownership.. small cooperatives
and that kind of thing.
Sebastian de
Ferranti will want t o see tots o f solar
cells coming off the Ferranti production
line. Sincerely, he may believe that it
will be better for society -and i t might
be a bit better - b u t it won't be as
good as i t could be if the people were
working on these things themselves.
Even though that might be less efficient.
I think that you've got to remember
that high technology develops from
high technology, and somebody like
Ferranti is a high technology wizard.
Now, we agreed earlier that high
technology i s i n principle, desiriible
because i t can free a lot of people
from nastv, reuetitivc
lobs Solar cell-i
,
are in the forefront of today's technology, and i f a firm like Ferranti which
has the resources can produce these
things by means o i high technology,
I think there's a place for them.
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 i s valid, before you
throw away everything that you've
got dt the present time I t 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, I t just doesn't happen
that wav, and history shows that the
~

~~~~

far as I'm concerned, i f we can show

see yourselves starting t o manufactur
that there are alternative ways o f
these things on a small scale?
living which are socially good, and
Yes - we have done just that,
environmentally good - that just in
The problem now i s to find so
terms of the science o f the environwith prototype facilities to ac
ment they are sustainable -then
make it, and maybe we can then
the more intelligent people at the
it to a small manufacturer - it's th
top of the pyramid will start to take
sort o f thing in fact could be mad
a real interest. I think that there's far
a garage for a royalty. We migh
too much talk at the moment and
ourselves that way. But basically,
not enough doing. There arc
hope to f ind ourselves by 'gate
thousands of communes around
money', and through publications.
the country, far more than are
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
t o be discovered. But some commun.ities
. probably have discovered it, just
by having the right combination of
people..
I've done a round-up, 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 i s
that we've got an external interest
here at the centre whereas most communities are internal - they're
interested in their own survival, doing
their own thing. O f course we're interested in that too, but we are also here in
Straight as a die. The old quarry railw
been re-laid, and i s now used for trans
order to serve people outside, a fact
building materials round the site. And
which has already been very valuabl
in producing solidarity among the
people here. There's a crvine

piece of wood or getting on with

each other.
To turn towards the future of the
Centre, dre you hopiiiy that i t will
become rcldtively iclf-sufTicient
Yes totally in energy, and as for
food, well, by virtue of the fact that
we haven't any money, we're vegetaria
and we'll grow most o f our vegetables
We hope to get a piece o f 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

Old fashioned slate cutting guillotine, a

legacy from quarrying days. Still works,
though.

vegetables, calculated from

Controversy report I mentioned is incon-

el, chemical fertilizers, pesticides,

e feeds, medical supplies and drugs
for livestock - is as difficult t o calculate as is the health value o f the
exercise, nutritional quality and sheer
pleasure of growing your own.

n analysis o f the statistics in Dudley

mp's The Land of Britain (Longans 1948), suggests that of the com-

or land classified as agriculturally non-

Architectural Association, 1974) that

according to recent studies, 'nude

in England and hill-land in Wales. I am

n o t suggesting everyone lives on little
rectangles. Our natural resources could
never be equally divided i n 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

irrational technology like non-use

employment, can only continue i f
cheap energy substitutes are availabl
through the exploitation o f overse

shoes better than the ga

important point is tha
be close t o their resou
communities, and awa

access to land -either o f their own o

rented from the community at minim
charge. The most direct way o f solviri
our current economic crisis is for peop
to demand an increase in the s i ~ ean

the British seem increasingly incapable

of producing at home. The country's
present economic strategy, based on
the assembly o f energy-extravagant
luxuries, cannot continue t o support
our nation in a world where more
than half the people are poor and

community decision t o end the

distribution of all such primary
es. (See Lawrence Hills' proposal
Fertility Gardens in J u l y l August's
Association {ournai, 1 974).
Individuals have more power

are now beginning to be experienced

by the industrialised countries, and
mass unemployment is forecast.

energy like coal and oil. Such expl

tion cannot be justified.
There is no need for able-bodied

The feeling o f isolation, political imp

tence and the practising of double-

Use of Land for Food Product!

According to the figures already
(and Shewell-Cooper in The Complete
Vegetable Grower; Faber paperback,
1974) two people can grow their fruit
and vegetables they need on 418m2 of
land. (approx 40m x 1Dm).
Shewell-Cooper describes the cropping
of the plot and suggests that cultivation
will take 288 hours a year (an average
of 5% each week).
Since these figures refer to a diet
where protein is supplied by meat, the
area will have to be cropped very
intensively if enough protein is to be
grown from vegetable sources (legumes
and cereals). The experience needed t o
do this successfully may take years to
acquire, and i t may be impossible for a
beginner with a garden suffering from
weeds, and pest to produce and store
enough food. Food production varies
greatly with environmental conditions
such as climate, extremes of weather,
soil fertility, pests and disease, as well
as the skill and knowledge of the
cultivator.
Diagram 1 shows a possible way of
using a one-third acre plot which I
hope to try soon. An area 1 Om x 16.5m
i s taken for the dwelling, which will be
described i n a later issue of Undercurrents. Next to this i s a small orch
containing bush and tree fruit and, t
help supply protein regularly, freerange laying hens. To the south of
dwelling is a crop rotation scheme
four 130m2 plots. South o f the
orchard are another four 130m2 plots
which can be cropped with grass and
clover, or with potatoes followed by
wheat. Wheat harvested from this area
(just under 1/8th acre) at an average
yield ( 1 % tonslacre) should be enough
for 500 one-pound loaves. As a reeuiar
supplier of protein (milk, yoc$urt and
cheese) a goat would be useful but
feeding would be a problem on oneeighth of an acre though goats can
be fed on comfrey, kale, swedes, turnips
fodder-beet, mai~c,nettles, docks,
hedges and a small pasture of herbs
and white clover. (See David
Mackenzie's Goat Husbandry, Faber
and Faber, 1970).

nother method is to divide the land

strips; a continuous cropping sequence for 3 years on one strip might be:
Beetroot in May, followed by Spring
Onions i n October, Cabbage i n April,
Swedes in mid-August, then Broad beans
i n mid-Nov, April sown Tomatoes plant.
ed out in June, and in October either
Broad beans again, or winter greens
and lettuce, early Potatoes in Feb, after
which we can start again.
The Henry Doubleday Research
Association's experimental 'Survival
Garden'at Booking, Braintree, Essex,
should reveal important information
on the rotation, cultivation and harvesting o f highly productive and nutritious
crous from small areas of land, as the

fertility is by Sward Gardening, develo

ed by Tony Farmer from suggestions '
Andre Voisin's Better Grassland Swar
(Crosby Lockwood 1960). This tech
described in greater detail in an acco
panying article, is being tested at the
Henry Doubleday Research Associatio
Rows of vegetables are surrounded by
complete ground cover of white clove .
When the leguminous, nitrogen-fixing
clover i s cut or mown, iust like little
strips of lawn, nitrogen is released into
the soil when the roots die off. Associated with the clover are large numbers of
earthworms, which benefit the soil by
adding secretions of carbonite of lime
to the leaves and soil that they digest
and excrete. Even better results are
obtained i f a surface mulch o f leaves,
animal manure or compost can be
applied. (Lawrence Hills wrote an
article on sward gardening in the Aug/
Sept 1974 issue o f the Ecofoqist.)

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 1% x 4 feet o f 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 lor inspection.
Below the squat-plate a row o f inverted channels, cut from plastic pipe
supported the compost materials and
allowed air to flow below, around
and through the mass, drawing off
nloisture and any odour through the
experiment progresses. (See the
vent pipe to the outside air. The unit
Association's Dig for Surv/voi leaflet,
was divided into two compartments
price 3p).
by a bulkhead, one beingthecomposting part and the other the receiving
No-Digging and Sward Gardening Systems part for finished compost. A layer of
There i s evidence that regular inverting
soil was laid in the bottom o f the toilet
or digging damages soil structure and
to absorb excess urine. I t was intended
disturbs beneficial soil organisms to such
to lift the squat-plate end o f the toilet
an extent that neither may ever get a
after use, so that the bottom sloped,
chance to settle down into an optimal
allowing the compost to move slowly
CROPPING AND ROTATION
state. James Gunston's Successful
downwards. In practice this unit was
found an unsuitable shape and size,
The aim of crop rotation is to prevent the Gardening Without Digging (Stanley
but the problems experienced taught
build-up of pest and disease and to balance Paul, 1960) though not organic, has an
one more about the process than could
interesting section on intercropping, is
out demand for plant nutrients over the
land. Diagram one shows a rotation where only possible if the soil can be kept rich
be learned from a more perfect proto.
the legumes are grouped together on one
with plenty of fertility and humus, and
type.
plot. The following year see root crops
this means regular applications o f
The Cornposting Process
on this plot and brassics the year after.
compost. But can a closed system
Though every human produces faeces
However this type of cropping may not
garden supply sufficient compost?
make best use o f your land.
The conservation of all oraanic
and urine, a certain amount of care i s
.
Try to keep the land productive
materials (faeces, urine, vegetable
needed in their handling.
- Our intestines
trimmings etc) will make iin important
ecessary overlap the harvesting and
and faeces contain large amounts of
contribution, but additional mdterial
anting of crops, but try not t o gro
hdctcr~asuch as E coii, Barriers within
e same tvve of crou on the same la
mav still be needed.
the body retain these bacteri
twice in one year
One alternative way of building soil
they are normal and useful.

stinal parasites such as worms can

to each unit of nitrogen, a compost

mass with a 30:1 ratio is ideal and will
quickly break down. Plant and vegetable
and increase their surface area.
As the decomposer organisms use
carbon for energy and nitrogen (plus
some carbon) for cellular protein,
the amount of carbon i s reduced

he purpose of the cornposter i s to

in these materials safely, to

s after defecation risks infection

faecal diseases, whichever form
toilet they use). The compost must

higher than 30:l will take longer

(more generations of micro-organisms

extent t o which we waste energy and

nutrients must be considerable. Food
is a scarce and valuable resource.
Fortunately, many foods do not
require cooking (though meat. fish
and potatoes do). Haybox cookery the placing o f the heated pan and contents into a well insulated container certainly saves energy but Is no good
for vegetables, which, i f cooked a t all,
should be steamed over almost boiling
water t o conserve their vitamins.
Though people say that foods are easy
to cook in vacuum flasks, I have ofte
but without much satis

My first composter was used from

February until September 1973 (1 1 0
times). In April, analysis of a sample
of compost from the unit revealed a
rather wet but useful end product -.
moisture 64%; Nitrogen 1.82%;
Phosphorus 3.94%; Potash 1.75%;and
a C/N ratio of 9.1: 1. Two more composters have been built and are presently in use. Composter 2 (see diagram 2)
is installed in a friend's flat at
floor space. Steps are needed to mount
the toilet. Inside, four grids of ^A" diameter tube support compost materials
as they move gradually down to the
Eggs are a high protein food which
require cooking to neutralise the avidi

Composter 3 (see diagram 3) i s a

smaller toilet, 19" high, 16" wide,
20" deep and like C2 is made from
12mm chipboard. C3 is used by a
number of people i n a Covent Garden
studio. It incorporates a stirring

a cold composter will be slow.

In the composting process, microorganisms (bacteria, fungi and moulds)
feed on the materials, transforming'
them through molecular changes into
nutrients suitable for uptake by plant

To encourage them, I am writing a

composting manual, which should be
published soon. Pathogen destruction
in low-temperature cornposters and
prevention of fly-breeding are two
aspects which need study. There are

of carbon to nitrogen i n the materials

their own units. Old fridges, surprisingly,

make ideal composters, once you've
added a seat, cover, air venting and ,

nts require nutrients with about 10

Energy, Economy, Nutrition

water i s 60 and the eggs are

a flask so that such water can be

grated roots and apple, shredded

cabbage and runner beans, sproute
wheat and legumes, chopped nuts,
tomato and lemon, with

s shelters from Zeppelin bombing

ttacks was hit upon. At the time, the

tunnels were com~letedbv 1917. The11

e s t i l l exists and, inter aha, i s used
il. The so-called
les, other art treasures, and
disnitarie'i
cowered i n these tunnels
0
-as Zeooelins elided above. I n 1917. one
of the twin tunnels of the Piccadilly
e branch from Holborn to Aldwych
s closed. 130 feet beneath the street,
s used as shelter accommodation
IPS. After the First World War,
al stations were closed, or rebuilt.
These were:
Piccadilly Line, Dover Strect, Down
treet, Brompton Road
rthern Line, City Road, South

>

ntral Line, British Museum

I n the second world war, Down Street
tion was used for the Railway ExecuCommittee's bunker. I t was also
by Winston Churchill and his family
o s umber whilst the blitz destroyed
the workers' homes in the East End.
t Dover Street, London Transport's
gh-ups resided, 80 feet down. Control
staff of the Great Western Railwa
in a bunker in the Bakerloo stati
Paddington, whilst the Emergenc
Engineering staff of London Tr
used part of the uncompleted Dist
express tube beneath South Kensington.
The War Cabinet used a 'citadel' beneath
Hampstead i n the old, never completed
tation of 'North End' or 'Bull and Bush'
at the deepest part o f the tube network,
between Hampstead and Golders Green
stations
I t is, however, the new sections built
1940-43 that need further scrutiny, as
these formed the core of the svstem now
in existence The deep shelters built on
the Northern Line, and used for public
shelters were'- Clapham North, Clap
ham South, Belsize Park and Stockwell.
Those constructed for government use,
and retained to this day, were:
Clapham Common, Goodge Street,
St Paul's, Chancery Lane, and the
special underground telephone exchange
at Kingsway. Goodge Street is closely
connected with the complex of tunnels
beneath the GPO tower, and was used

th the platforms of existing

erground stations. The ostensible
was to connect them up to form

'--/"

I'm; spirit 01 Spies for Peace

lives on. Undercurrents

recently received a pamphlet
r o m a arouo called Anarchist?

details the s e c r e t Government

bunkers and tunnels under
London, and explains their
counter-revolutionary role.
This article i s a slightly

Just part of the Post Office's intricate

tunnel network that runs under London.
the Postal railway from paddington
t o Whitechapel via Mount Pleasant
they were connected up anyway,
either on initial construction, or subsequently. A new station was built at
Highgate (Archway) for the extension
Park on the Northern
from
Line, and tunnels were built at Aldenham. These sections, planned i n the 193540 otan o f London Transport, were
never opened, on the lame excuse that
these areas were now green belt and did
not need underground stations.
Nuclear War

insb bur^

government had built 4bunkers 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 o f steel framed office buildings i n 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 i t 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 i n the main with
concrete. The 'experimental' use of
concrete for tunnels made great
publicity when London Transport
b u i l t ' the Victoria Line 20 years !at
(see below). Another GPO tunnel ra
from Trafalgar Square (where they
are building another 'new' undergr
railway, the Fleet Line) to the Ro
at Horseferry Road. Post Office tunne
grew in length continuously. I n 1941
there was 1 mile; 1942, 1% miles;
1945, 3 miles; 1967, 15 miles. In the
early 70s, a new tunnel was driven
beneath the Thames a t Waterloo, and
Tunnels, connected t o the bunke
network, run from Croydon in th
south to Hampstead in the North

shima and Nagasaki, war was different,

a cable run, later expanded for p

formed 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

tunnels were enlarged in the 19

Bicycles are used in the small bore
tunnels, and electric cars in the lar
bore tunnels for rapid communica
Intimately linked with

Undercurrents 8
ment has been constructing
own tunnel system since the
nd world war. There is good evie that the Victoria Line tunnels
e constructed,in 1942, not 1960,
the concrete lining adopted
(releasing vaiudbie metal for the war
effort) is a pointer to this. I t 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 the ground - it rests on a
concrete 'raft' - a necessity caused by
the multiple tunnels beneath it. Chapman Pincher, i n the Daily Express in
1959 reported (28112/59) 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 o f 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

tion between Office Blocks and subterranean government establishments i s

well-defined.
Centre Point, empty for nearl y ten years, is strategically placed above
the tunnel network. Thousands o f
gallons o f oil were delivered t o it at
the height ot the fuel crisis, ostensibly
to 'heat i t 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 t o the city
o f London. Other blocks and complexes are connected t o the tunnel system.
Government ministry and police offices
are all connected. At the end o f the
Whitehall system is the Citadel in
Horseferry Road, and a massive comulex of offices. For example, the
Police National Computer Unit,
Romney House, Marsham Street, the
Home Office Police Department,
Horseferry House, Dean Ryle Street,
and the Parole Board, Romney House,
Marsham Street.
This complex is connected by tunnel
with the nerve centre at Whitehall
where 3,000,00 was spent on 'renovating' 10 Downing Street in the
1960s. From Whitehall, a tunnel runs
to the Waterloo Complex (the Shell
Building, etc) another to the Victoria
redevelopment, via New Scotland Yard.
The Victoria redevelopment tunnels
are linked to the Victoria Line. The
main Whitehall tunnel runs northward
to Trafalgar Square, where i t connects
"
with the Fleet Line bore, constructed

f^l

beneath
Square
in
the 1950s.
underground
the Post
TheOffice
tunnel
station,
t oruns
Leicester
where
from the

Hampstead stations both had

rebuilt in the 19405, the old 1

University of London and possibl

British Museum, both nearby. In t
early 1950s, tunneling was carried
from a shaft near Tavistock Square.
Several Government departments exist

to Tottenham Court Road undergro

station, where i t links with the tunn
from Trafalgar Square. Centre Poin

More detailed sketch-plan of Gove

K .City of London
L .Waterloo Complex

%s?

Northern Line Central Supervisory

Control Room i s situated. The Leicester
Square tunnels were built in 1940-43.
From Leicester Square, the tunnel runs
MUTS.
to connect under Centre Point with
HALL
WMN
Mrfriuuo
the tunnel from St Paul's t o Euston.
This tunnel begins somewhere around
Euston. The evidence points to its
UvalivWf
KOAD
commencement at Camden Town
Diagrammatic plan of tunnels known
where the standard twin 16'6" sh
to Anarchists Anonymous with
tunnels were driven in World Wa
localities.
The tunnel, if connected, run
Kingsway Tram Subway at Aldwych
Euston via Mornington Crescent
was converted into a road underpass.
station, which narrowly avoided
In theearly 19705, the Post Offic
closure in the mid '60s. Half o f the
built a tunnel for 'cable runs' und
tunnels at this station are not used for
theThames at Waterloo, connectin
passengers - at least. Euston station was
up the 180-feet deep emergency te
completely rebuilt between 1961 and
phone exchange at Waterloo.
1966 The underground was rebuilt at
Underground lines built, but never opened, this time, and the Victoria ~i~~
was
include the Bakerloo Line extension,
connected up The tunnel runs from
commenced at the Elephant and Castle
Euston to the GPO tower, whose main
in 1950 southwards to Camberwell, as a
purpose i s microwave commun~cation
replacement for the heavily trafficked
from Museum telephone exchange, to
tramway routes Subsequently, massive
the Sub-Regional Controls (see below),
air-conditioned office blocks have been
military basesand bunker networks.

?&2'

S~.PAUL

Eastwards from Holborn, the tunnel

runs under the air-conditioned office
block 'State House', the Meteorological
office, near the Daily Mirror building,
to St Paul's, where it loints the Post
Office complex. A northward branch
runs to the Barbican, connecting with
various abandoned parts o f the Northern city underground railway and the
offices of the Department of Health
and Social Security at Finsbury Square.
There may also be links to the vast
underground refrigerated warehouses
for meat at Smithfield The southward
tunnel from St Paul's connects the
(literal) Citadel telephone exchange
with the Central Electricity Gencriiti
Board's national grid control Len
at Bankside, the Supplies Di
the Department of the Envir

io station: the most practical' methods of operation

ethics of independent radio what are you broadcas

then discusses the general desirability and practicality of operatin

communications systems i n a 'post-industrial' low-technology environment.

OPENING UP
THE AIR WAVES
Why Are You Doing It?
There are numerous r
to communicate; let's
them.
nt
1) You are part of a P
and you want to corn
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 matter o f principle (who
does?). I n this case, your best bet is
probably the Short Wave bands. You can
communicate over long distances with
a very low power - in fact, the 1.
transmitter in UG', with a couple of
modifications, (reducing the number o f
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 shortwave band, you'll probably find a lot o f
other people with the same ideas. At one
time there was a network of stations all
over the country, ail 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 o f a few friends, an
independent radio service for the ge
public, and especially for people lik
yourselves who resent the degree o f
control exerted on existing radio co
munication, whether governmental, as
in the case o f the BBC, or capitalist as
in the case of the commercial stations.
There is a lot of demand for an 'all-dav

certainly. Or an up to the minute cornmunity news service. The trouble is,

the Post Office won't like you doing it,
and you'll probably end up d o i n g t
on Sundays only. A Medium Wave
station i s the obvious choice, as lone
as you choose your frequency carefully.
And for your listeners' sakes, get a
.. get one made specially i f you
have to -because there are few things
more likely to put your listeners off
than a variable frequency radio station
that starts on 300 metres and five
minutes later is on 255. Apart from
which, it's unethical . because you
cause interference to other people who
have as much right to be there as you
have.
4) The last possibility I am going to
consider i s that you want to set up a
radio station playing good music of
whatever sort, with some attempt a t
drama, news, documentary presentation
~erhaps., . with the accent on Qi/&v.
Sound ouality, nrogramme quality
basically trying to meet, and beat, the

need sound equipment as good a

can get, and a good transmitter o
ting on VHF, of course. Unfortunate
the VHF transmitter described in UC7
won't do - it needs to be more stable,
for a start and unfortunately, that
means more complicated equipment.
You'll probably need upwards o f 2
electronics
unless you have
industry.
,ome Amates
broadcast-quality
in the
transmitter can be constructed around
a stable 10.9MHz (or thereabouts)
tuneable oscillator, followed by a phase
modulator, doublers and amplifiers up
to the final frequency of 88-97 MHz or
so I n my opinion, there is no point in
using the VHF band unless you want to
do it properly, and that means using the
best there is available. My advice would
be to stick to the Medium waveband
unless you're willing to spend a considerable amount of time, and unfortunately,
a good deal of bread too. But i f you are
prepared to go into this side of 'People's
Radio' You could bring a very large
number of people a great deal of pleasure,
information --and, in return, their
support when the time comes. A power
as low as 8 Watts will cover London from
a suitable location (it's been done. . .
see later). This leads to another question
What Area Do You Want to Cover?
If you are on Medium Wave and living
on a housing estate, you can quite 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. I f this
occurs, or i f you find the signal i s travelling too far, tune the transmitter
tuning for theminhimum dip valu
meter. Then tune up again until
either at the required power, or
just before the interference starts. This
type of interference is due to Harmon;
ie, multiples of the broadcast freque
cy - that happen to fall within the T V

50-watt transistor VHF transmitter and cassette machine.

~ nw
d r e nut an the dir long enough
for detection tu be I kel\ in thc
beginning. A number of other stations
sprang up on another wavelength,
A medium-wave transmission i n progress.
197m. The 197 metres 'Helen
Broadcasting Network! was organised
band or the T V I F (intermediate Frewith, eventually, at leasta dozen
quency) band. The best way of getting
stations doing pre-recorded programrid of these troubles is by fitting a further . mes in rotation, every Sunday, for
coil and capacitor in the anode circuit
half an hour at a time. They to
of the BufferIDriver stage as shown in
changed 'location' every week,
Fig 1 and tuning the capacitor for
eventually the 'locations' (as th
maximum output. (Substitute Fig 1 for
houses were known) ran out, a
Fig 4 in UC7). Hopefully, however, this
stations began to use the same plac
modification will not be necessary.
more than once, or even for se
i f you just want to cover the block
successive weeks. The PO finall
you live in or your housing estate, and
struck, and a number o f prosec
you tune the transmitter up until you
ensued. The network eventually
are using sufficient power fie not more
came disorganised and fell apart,
than you need) you will be relatively safe
a number o f the stations, including
from Post Office interference unless
the now-famous Radio Jackie, decided
you're causing interference and someto go i t alone, initially from further
one reports you. So don't tune in to
locations, but eventually going
another station and try and block it out;
'Mobile', with equipment powered
though you may succeed in your back
from car batteries. Consider what
room, it'll only be a nasty whistle next
this, one of the most effective means
door. Not only is it a nasty thing to do,
of high-power regular broadcasting,
but legal stations are often running
entails. A medium wave transmitter,
5,000 times the power so you won't get
almost always using valves, must h
very far. Keep an ear open for empty
a device to convert the 12v DC fro
spaces on the band at the times you
a car battery to 250.350~DC to
intend to transmit. Once you've found one supply H T to the valves. Either a
try and set up regular times of broadcast,
rotary converter (inefficient, available
and stay on your chosen spot on the dial.
from surplus shops) - o r a transistor
Soon you will find the station being
inverter (up to 90% efficient; either
purchased via ads, or home constructIked about, and you'll gain listeners,
lc may initially mistake you for
ed - see articles in Wireless World
o One and, liking what they hear,
and similar magazines) can be us
n again. I f all goes well, you may
VHF transmitters are usually tra
ide eventually to increase the power,
sistorised throughout, so this pro
doesn't arise. Program
nd show the rest o f North Cheam what
ey've been missing. Or South Lond
recorded, to enable pla
Manchester. But beware! Don't tr
portable cassette mach
run before you can walk.
You then need to fin
oing to try to cover a sizea
For Medium Wave, a site that is low
ou wilt have to adopt a far
ore likely to bcdamp) will give
phisticated strategy. I t will t
earth, which i s essential in this
ganisation, a good loyal staf
f operation. I t should also be
bly held together in
with two tall trees a suitable
emocratic group str
(quarter-wave) distance apart - - but
ce o f dedication, plu
don't worry too much about getting
ace a few risks. Remc
this distance bang on, as the 'pi-network'
are breaking the law;
on a MW transmitter will tune almost
ything Preferably w t up the aerial
Id be fined up to 40
months for a first offence. T
few davs in advance. Choose a site

It will also he useful 11, h.ivi.' on? or

t u o q o ~ p of
s two pcop c cruising
round the area i n cars. They will soon
get to know the sort of places where the
PO hide their vehicles (usually private
cars) d o w n quiet sideroads, etc.
Quite often the PO men will be in o
or two cars only (the police prefer t
keep out of radio piracy work unless
they're forced into it, apparently)
unless it's; large raid in which case
your vehicle-borne lookouts should
prove their worth by informing you
well in advance. You might try walkie
alkies for this, but preferably not 27 MH
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 o f 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
should 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,sorne o f them
are quite friendly. Talkio them by all
means (as Ions as neither of you are 'on
duty'). They may ' - h e got to know you
t c well i f you've been slow cnou~h.
viously you don't admit an:!thin;
but
on't be nasty to them either. Most of
em are just doing their job (there
aren't many fanatics left) and i f you are
nice to them, they will often be considerate to you. T ' T ~may, for instance,
iust go out to close y o u down (ie you

cfi
--

Van

---

6V6
100K

O,OI

see them, take tiic gear and scram; they

go home after looking round a bit) as
o~onsedto raidina
fvou
see them
" vou
,
,,
take the "ear, are met by 20 policemen
rapidly converging on your spot from
every corner of the fieid, with your look.
outs all rounded up. You are led to
olice station, hot transmitter in hand,

a commercial station, God rest his

oul) devised a brilliant VHF drive
unit, along the lines 1 described
hi^ was subsequent.
oughly earlier,
y upgraded to produce a lovely
ompact unit running off 12 volts

New monitoring vans have been introduced by the Post Office

requires a splitter box to feed the two
aerials from the transmitter; it also
requires a certain distance between the

which reflects bacbradiation from the

radiator into a forward direction. This
reinforces the forward signal and
reduces the signal wasted in tke opposite direction. A simple dipole, the
radiator without the reflector, radiates
in a niore-or-less figure-of-eight pattern.

vew unusual to find usable high <faces

available, all from transisto
from 1 2 volt car batteries.

aring equipment and staff. They all

t up a group called the 'London

one night per station) until quite

recently,
hi^ isa fundamentally good
method of running a VHF station
becausepooling 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 i n section 4

London for a night each a

2 years. This i s how we

in the centre of towns. However, Radio

nvicta, a London-based VHF soul

they almost certainly know more or

his previous lines, he'll be on to you like

a shot. It can take him as little as 25
minutes on a good day (medium waver'
daylight). VHF at night can take up to
1 hour or more. Anyway, don't be
tempted to use the same location twice,
although you may get away with a
'mobile' site more than once if it's
dark and you're on VHF,
Depending on the site, you will need
to get your VHF aerial high up. I n
some place5 YOU can get away with slicking the pole in the ground and tying i t
to a fence to keep i t upright, as long as
the pole is at least a couple of metres
long to minimise interfering with the
beam path (otherwise the radiation will

This i s to ensure thatthe signal leaves

the aerial in a horizontal plane with
'horizontal polarisation' because at
least 75% o f your potential listeners
receiving
aerials
have
horizontally polarised too. BBC
V ~ is
Fpolarisedthis way and rtey
chose this method because i t travels

tfi
a transistor
radio with a
moveable
teiescopic piace
aerial horizontal and tune to a BB
which

arks

either way --

the set for best reception. Now move

the aerial until i t i s in a vertical
position. The signal will almost vanish
(unless you live down the road fro,,
trdn5mittcr,, This is
difference
your listeners will experience i f you

commercial radio. Many static

have any ideals at all, and were

f i ~ a1

L
the centre of a town, but no good if
you want to 'beam in' from a hill on
the outskirts.
r..

sues

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 scrvice
area on a good day - from a suitable site,' even if this is the top o f 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 trans.
mitters, and i f 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 Rest Time to Broadcast
Broadcast at night; it's less obvious.
Although a VHF aerial i s 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. I n the former
case their 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 o f a lot
of noise crashing around in the bushes.
Lookouts should be stationed as described for Medium Wave. and the same
generally apply. You can spot the
H F tracker vehicles quite easily
e they cannot track you with a

.~

with a large multi-element aerial on

top (the more elements, the narrower
the beam width). These vans are usual.
,I ~ 4 0 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 i s 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 diox'
replayed on a cheap Philips
Generally-speaking, these m
are excellent for on-site repi
visible in the photo on p21) as Ion
take the output from the low 1e
socket and not the external spea
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 i s no problem.
Basically, if you produce good quality
programme
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 i t 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

form of a visit4rom
the Postman
and
~-. -.
\
a stiff fine. A t anyrate, there aren'
~

many of them left now. (presumabl

they all grew up).
Let's assume that the people running
acommunitY 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 bv the
listeners. This means an efficient system
of feedback between the listeners and
You, the operators, I t is no trouble to
ask a friend to act as a mailing address
some of the 'free radio' organisations
do this also (though only some;
keep
the Free Radio AsSoc'
ation, for example; they can get
raided and lose important data to the
PO - like your addresses, for example).
I f a friend is running your mailing
address, i t 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 i t sound?
If your friend wants to sit at home
during the broadcast (or your staff can
d o 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 dnv tests or broadcasts
from there either. Keep your names
secret too, use pseudonyms on the
air an'd k e e ~vour real names unknnwn

ercurrents 8
I

--

to anyone outside the group. You

may get contact from other, similar
roups; solidarity is the name of the
ame, but be careful at all times;
them on neutral ground, and
when you are sure they're OK,
t tell them unnecessary informaSimilarly, any potential new
embers of the group should be
nown personally by at least one of
ou. I suppose all these precautions
e standard practice to most 'underound' groups, but the point i s that

lectromagnetic communication offers

st opportunities for information,
ucation, entertainment and even
vernment; not only today but even
ore so i n the society of the future
hich would presumably be i n the
m of small villages or similar-sized
al self-sufficient communities.
But the present methods of comnication (Radio, T V or Telephone
I require very sophisticated technogical processes to provide the active
mponents (valves or transistors:
gh quality contacts, etc).
o we can only have our radio and
ision if we feel that its great use.
ess justifies the equipment and
ocesses involved in the manufacture n f
live components. My personal opinion
at, taking into consideration the fact
one small plant could not only proe standard parts for the entire
untry, but also make things like lightIbs (especially if valves rather than
sisters are chosen as the standard
e electronic element - - which is a
approach in view of the less corn.
ex procedures involved), the processes
Id be justified. Radio, certainly,
d be the backbone of community
hing, information, and some aspects
ertainment. Television is less easily
ed; its visual functions could
ly be covered by printed or
u what if society collapses catasphically - perhaps, because of

s famine? would electromagnetic

unication he possible in a society
no high-technology industrial base?
asicaily, yes. I f you can s l i l l make the
ts, that is. Wire is no real problem ere may well be a lot of it lying about
d besides you can easily recycle the
f f - i t only has to conduct electricity;
oesn't necessarily have to be of
ular cross section. Hence you can
aKe coils, insulated with paper or
organic varnish Resistors are little

would certainly work, as w o ~ ~ l d

Certainly, too, telephones would be

practical; a small hand-operated
'exchange' running out to self-energised
transducers or carbon microphones
would work very well in a small
community.
When it comes down to it, the only
problem about radio i s the active
components; the valves or transistors.
Transistors require the production of
a pure crystal of Silicon or Germanium.
This is usually done in a very high
vacuum, and this fact, plus the necessity
of extracting the silicon or germanium
in the first place makes such devices
imnractical. Valves, however, are a
different matter. 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 adevice 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 tube
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 i f
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.

Subregional Controls known t

Anarchists Anonymous
.Warren Row, Kidderminster,
Hatch, Bawburgh; York; Presto
Kingsbridre; Cambridge; Readin
Dover; Tunbridge Wells; Carlisle;
Lincoln; Macclesfield; Mexborou
Bishop's Waltham; Melton Mowb

RSG's
In 1959, i t was discovered that, due
to the vast progress made by the Nuclear
Powers in atomic weaponry develop.
ment, H-Bombs were now large enough
to wipe out the London tunnel system.
The Government pumped more o f our
money into creating a system of underground bunkers throughout the country

-.the Regional Seats o f Government.

hen 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 co-ordinating military activities. The bunkers
were intended to be seats o f 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 ~urvivors
- 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 Hbomb. Along with those, the microwave communications system, codenamed 'Backbone' was to link all these
together.

Continuedfrom page 1 7
and Wokes, in Plant Foods For Human
Nutrition (May 1968) point out that
giotrongenic substances in the Brassicas and sulphur-containing vegetables
combine with iodine and inhibit
thyroid gland function. Soy-beans
are also associated with thyroid
problems. But seaweeds such as kelp,
and to a lesser extent onions and
cabbage, contain useful amounts of
iodine. The oxalic in Spinach, rhubarb and beetroot leaves are known
to combine with calcium, making i t
unavailable to the body. So much for
Popeye. Iron i s also affected. i n
Turnip greens, on the other hand,
calcium availability is almost as high

vitamin C increased by 60%; B1 by 3

B2 by 100%, B3 by 90%; B6 by 1OOOo
Pantothenic acid by 80%; Biotin
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
water and soak overnight. Next m
drain off the fluid (it contains usefu
vitamins;'only soy-beans must have t
water discarded) and transfer thesee
to a tray, rinsing and draining well
Sprouting for Nutrition
each morning and night for 3-4 days
Sprouting greatly increases the vitamin,
when they are ready to eat. Sproute
mineral, fat, enzyme and protein conwheat can also be crushed and baked
tent of seeds and legumes. Researchers
into biscuits in a solar oven.
found that after 3-4 days sprouting of wheat,

continued from page 20

several Stationery Office buildings and
the Rampart trunk telephone cxchan
One branch runs cast to London
Bridge Station,and connects with
way tunnels. The other, wester1
branch runs to Waterloo and th
Greater LondonCouncil's head
at County Hall. From Waterloo,
beneath the river i t goes back to
Whitehall, from which another tunnel
runs to Victoria (see above). This links
the Foreign and Commonwealth
Office's Communications and Elecironic Security Department, Scotland
Yard, London Transport Headquarters,
Westminster City Hall and the Board
of Trade.

Continued from page 18

times as great as that of the next best
host . - good meadow grasses. A
bacterium living i n symbiosis with
the clover produces nitrates which are
stored i n the clover roots. When the
clover green is clipped, a certain percentage of the root mass is thrown off,
complete with nitrogenous sacs - a sort
of underground fertiliser.
lhe
And here liesOne key
which a sward-harbours while naked
soil does not: the bodies of the bacterial

Possible Other Subregional

Potter's Bar; Watford; Bath,
,

In London, the tunnel system

expanded, and is till being improv
Not for abandonment was the syst
It is useless in a nuclear war, so its
existence cannot be justified on the
grounds of National Security. The
only war in which it would be use{
i s a civil war, when the governmen
could dive and batten down the
hatches whilst the army came out
of the underground military vehicl
park beneath Hyde Park and dealt
with the rebellion. I n direct comm
ication with the military bases outs1
London by the sabotage-proof GP
tower microwave system, they
be virtually-invulnerable, excep
continued on page 45

as from milk.
Phytic acid in wheat, oats and
maize make calcium and iron unavailable but this disadvantage can be
overcome by 'sprouting', as I will
explain in a moment. The tryptophan
inhibitor Trypsin' in soy-beans prevents the digestion of proteins. All
imported soy-beans are steamed at
high temperature to destroy trypsin - .
but again, sprouting will also do the
same thing.

Another benefit to be gained from

a living sward is increasedporosity.
of the turf grow round
The
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
would haveit. ~h~~~pores
have a power^y.ary
effect as,
once they fill with water, it requires
temperatures greater than 100 degrees
Centigrade, or centrifugal force amountatmospheres to drive the
ing to

Previous to applying the sward

system my garden required about t
weeks in the spring to prepare - - t
clear and sow.
Now i t requires five days.
Maintenance during the year (clipp
etc) is about the same as i t would take
to hoe a garden of this size growing
exhibition vegetables, and last year's
can be expected to continue.
What the long term results will
can only guess.
Whether the sward will ever sup

f drought could accomplish this. The

once the soil has reached a h i d
fertility, of continuous croppin

Undercurrents 8

EARTH

is achieved by the addition o f a sufficient

. No fuel i s required for processing

particles throughout the mix, producing

which i s another point i n favour

' ing the earth wall, now that
will no longer be a cheap com-

a homogenous mass of differing particle

.-

sizes.
In this issue 1 intend to deal With

monolithic earth walling technique and

ich consists of compressing soil
ost conventional materials.
Simple 'unstabilised' metho

match the perfurmanc

stone. However, with
This i s no ordinary suburban house: it's a fine examp
lithic earth walls, built by the Ministry, 1919.

puddled methods and also because o f

its relative ease and speed of erection.
Building constructed using Pise
are found in abundance in the province
of Lyons. France, where i t has been
used for centuries, but i t is not very
well established as a traditional walling
material in other areas of Europe, with
the exception of Catalonia i n Spain,
and Germany's Rhineland. Improvements in Pise techniques have been
made by a few pioneers who have experimented by deviating from traditional lines, testing new types of shuttering,
implements and material.
To build economically in Pise, suitable soil must be found on the site, and
the equipment kept as simple as
possible. The speed o f erection depends
on the ease with which shuttering can
be taken down and reset in position.
Consequently much of the work of
improvement has been concentrated i n
this direction, particularly in the USA.
1. Shuttering
Traditional varieties of wail formwork
have been heavy and cumbersome,
requiring a lot of bracing, and alignment.
Having to use these forms is more than
enough to discourage anyone from
building a monolithic earthwall, but
recently a number of improvements
have been made.
At Texas Agriculture and Mechanical
College lighter weight plywood has
been substituted for the heavy planking
usually employed. And the Commonwealth Experimental Building Station
in Australia developed a roller form
with detachable wooden clamps, after
finding that the old types of shuttering
required three men working for one and
a half hours to dismantle, reset and
'plumb'. Their roller shutter averaged
eight minutes for the entire operation,
and required only one man.
A combination o f these two improvements is shown in Pi", wish the addcd
improvement of detdchdblc hinges
which allow thc construction of corners
at any angle using only one set u f
shustcring.
Contractors Dan and John Magdiel, again
in the USA have developed an all-metal
form for their own use ,tnd now manufacture i t for sale. The shuttcrinsiis
;d after the completion

Undercurrents 8
-

~~

(a layer o f walling) by a lever which

loosens the sides o f the form. The M
die1 system also eliminates the bothe
and expense of having to use a swiv
corner form. One straight section i s
simply rammed at right angles to and
over another, i n much the same wa
a 'quoin' of brickwork.
2. Method of Construction.
The walls are built off an impervious
base wall to prevent rising damp and
the splashing of rainwater from damaging
the base of the wall. The formwork i s
placed in position, taking care that i
aligned and true, and the prepared s
i s placed between the shutter
of about 100mm. The layers
are then thoroughly 'tamped'
use of a ramming iron.
The first strokes of the rammer
should be given close t o the sides of
the mould but afterwards should be
applied to every other part of the sur- ,
face. The ramming stroke should leave
hardly any imprint on the soil when
the soil is properly compacted.
The shawe of the iron will varv with
the type of work. For rammed chalk
'
work a 'heart' shaped rammer i s
recommended, but for most types of

I be inferior and will require a larger

n be commenced as soon as th

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
ewly made walls the instant they
re completed. The work may be

best results, because the fine soil era'

fill in between coarse particle>,
Soils with too hiyh a percentage of
one particle size (clav, silts or sands)
are considered unsuitable unless they
are blended with other soils or
'stabilised'.

Fig 1 Rolling Formwork. (from Ken

Kern's Owner Built Home.),
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 i n one place
makes the soil rise in another, making

Too much aggregate (g

sand) will produce crumb1
the bindinvgent i s clay, t
binder will produce shrinkage and
cracking. Generally clay is responsible
for the compressivestrength of a soil,
while sand reduces shrinkage and

the'soil dries out in the shutter.

ing between the shutters each layer

used without the addition of stabilisers

are preferred. All soils with between
40%and 75%of sand will be suitable,
the best results being obtained with

ould be a sandy clay loam cont

rounded pebbles passing a 25mm siev
with 18% colloids (clay) 6% silt, 33%
sand and 43% gravel passing a 25mm

although above this point stre

goes down.

ash a sample in the following way:

A large tin 15 to 20 litres capacity
s filled to a third of its depth with
the sample. Sufficient water i s added
to be able to stir the sample, without
spilling, to form a soil suspension.
I t is left for 1 minute and water containing soil particles i s poured off.
The procedure i s repeated until the
sample is sand. This test i s crude but
t i i n in a soil. The-sample is generally
taken from a twice quartered heap
ensure that it is representative.
Another test for good ramming soil
is to make a series of blocks 400mm
x 200mm x 100mm from the soils to
be used. When dry and hard, place them
on t h e ~ o u n dat an angle of 4S0 so t h
the rain washes the long surface. Afte
a couple of weeks the hocks are chec
ed and if they have not disintegrate
or cracked excessively i t may beta
that the soil is satisfactory for ram
A soil that does not pass this test mus
be mixed with a stabiliser or blended
with a suitable soil before i t is used.
A minimum working strength for
soil to be used for rammed earth
allowing a liberal factor of safety, i s
1.97/mm2.
Tests after 30 days on soil sped
of varying compositions to be used
rammed earth construction (mixed
with 11% water content by weight)
gave the results shown i n Fig 2.

Compressive Strength
sand 2 clay
sand 2 clay
sand 4 clay
1 sand 1 clay

1 shale
1 K shale
1 shale
0 shale

Preparation of the Soil for Building

The soil should be extracted from about
600mm below the surface and thrown
to exclude particles larger than tho
passing a 25mm sieve. Make sure th
the mixture does not contain clods,

Undercurrents 8
Here i s another i n the 'Systeme D' range of French windmill designs.
Numbers 6 and 9 in the series were described i n Undercurrents 6, and
i n this issueDerek 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 t o those interested i n building a different kind of windmill,
the information on tower construction wilt probably come i n handy.

--

Many
Blades
make

perates the pump.

e tail vane or rudder.

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 t o
form the box at the top of the tower.
(Figs 1 and 2). Two o f the posts are
then joined at the bottom by a 1.500m
cross-beam, the ends of the cross
beam being drilled to f i t the bolts or
rivets for assembling (Fig 3).
The third post i s 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 perfectequi-

posts at the level of the slits secured

with bolts or rivets.
The intermediate cross beams, of
fixed like the others between the posts
(these could also be fiat 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 (we Fig 3).
For these tension wires, holes need to
be drilled i n the angle iron and the
wire well stretched.
The base of the pylon ciin be fixed;
but to be able to maintain the dynamo,
lubricate the bearings or carry out
repairs, it i s more satisfactory to have
a system that will hinge down. For
this reason the foot of each post is
extended by adding a piece of f l u

slot fitting onto the rim and the strap

riveted to the disc. Th
inclination is shown on fig 6.
o f the bicycle hub is replaced
steel axle (A) about 400mm l o
will have to be turned on a lathe
that i t will fit the hub.

iron drilled with one hole at the

bottom and two more holes for riveting it on the end o f 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 f i t 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 downstheother 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

lat iron ( C , Fig 5 ) of

circular
some 300m diameter, 20mm thick, by
bra~ingit On to the spokes. Onto this
diqc will be fixed the ends of the blades
(P) which will be slit togrip onto the
rim (1).
The blades are made of sheet aluminium or iron 8 to 10mm thick, cut as
shown in fig 7,600mm long and 400mm
wide at the blade tip and 10Omm wide
at the hub. A strap 20 x 20mm i s fixed
on the hub end o f each blade to fix i t to
the hub disc. Make 12 identical blades,
curve them, fold over the fixing strap

Turntable
The dynamo (D) or alternator
in an aluminium, or mild steel
wood box reinforced by two 'U' sh
flat irons (U) fig 8 on which the ax
o f the wind wheel is fixed by two "8
block bearings (C) riveted or bo
the box. The box i s drilled in l
(E fig 9) for the passage of a v
axle (F fig 8 ) , rotating betwee
bearings (B). Fig 9 shows the con
tion of the box, the dimensions o
will depend upon those of the dy
or alternator used. The reinforcin
'U' i s also drilled at pointsT. The s
metal forming the box i s riveted or we
ed to the 'U'and will have two rem
able or hinged sides to allow for in
tion of the dynamo. The front of
will have el hole at point P (fig 10)
permit the passage of the end o
dynamo axle. Under the box, a
point where F goes through an i
ring or disc made of rubber or P
is glued (with something like Aral
a brass ring rotating contact, whic
connected to the positive of the d
( i f the system i s 'negative earth'
The top of the pylon i s capped b
riveted sheet iron triangle i n the cen
of which i s the bearing (Fig 11) sup
ing the orientation pivot (F). A spri
contact (K) or brush (preferably car
and in an insulated case) is fitted so a
to ensure contact with the slip ring
when the box is fixed on. An insula
wire is connected to the contact (K
and from there to ground level and t
the positive connection on the batte
Remember to connect the negati\
the dynamo to the structure, and.
structure to the negative battery
terminal
The cog wheel on the bicycle wheel
i s connected via a bicycle chain to
a cogged wheel fitted to the axle of the
dynamo or alternator. The ratio of the
number of cogs on cdch wheel will
depend on the rotation speed of
dynamo used (This type of windmill
i s not idedlly suited for electricity
production so a low-output dynamo
will have to be used. I f a car alternator
or dynamo i s chosen, i t will have
be rewound to 'cut in'at a l o w r r
otherwise, an increased blade diam
of about 4 metres will have to be
used, with additional strengths
to the blades towards the tip
ing of say, a couple of ho

has riveted additional rib X, which

also supports the second bearing for
the shaft B, on the end o f which is a
crank l ~ h i c hactivates the lever of the
pump. The reinforcing metal 'U' is
centred on the cap o f the tower.
The axle or drive shaft A o f 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 on the end of
The crank wheel at the other end
of B consists of a flat metal disc,
welded or riveted to shaft 8 , which
has a lug D riveted to it. This lug, as

this plate, rivet, bolt, or weld

1.250 metres long pieces of
gle iron, so that the overall length
the tailplane is 1 650 metres
g 12). The front 150mm of these
ieces are sawn as in Fig 12, and
hese ends are riveted, bolted or
elded to the bottom and top of
e protection box.

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 wilt be fixed to
the upper cap on the tower. The
interior ring i s fixed to the fiat iron U,
in which a circular hole has been cut.
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 o f the
pump I, i s 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
I 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 Liewellen).

DMILL NO 1 RIGGED TO
RIVE A PUMP
e o f windmill is best utilised as
owered pump because its
e flat blades will respond to very
ind speeds, but do not perform
I in higher wind velocity.
windmill as described so far
e to be slightly modified in
to drive a reciprocating suction
p Fig 1 shows the modified

74 Eoliennes, Systeme '0' by J Raphe

Societe Parisicnne d'tdition, 43
Paris Xc, France. ( I n French and now
out of print).

i t i s 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 allowfor the
passage of the lug, which is shaped
fo 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 o n 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 i n P should be clad
in a metal tubular sleeve,
One of the more difficult problcms
in this construction, i s to allow

inued from page 28

Id be carefully regulated as i t controts the durability and resistance to
cracking. A simple test i s to sift a
sample of soil into a pan and oven dry
it. Place 10kg of the dry soil into a
flower pot or similar container having
a hole in the bottom. Place the pot in
a pan containing 1.2kg of water.
Through capillary attraction the earth
will absorb all the water. The uniformly moistened soil will now contain about
12% moisture, which is the maximum
amount of water allowed. Light sandy
soil of low colloidal content should
contain from 7% to 10% water. The
water should be added gradually to
distribute it evenly throughout the
mix. When soils are to be blended or
stabilisers added these are mixed dry
before the water is added. ~ l t h o u g has
a general rule vegetable matter of any
kind i s excluded from the mix, some
authorities suggest that 12%o f straw
may be added cut to 75mm - 100mm
lengths to reduce cracking. This might
be adopted where excess shrinkage is
anticipated.
work should be covered along with the

between courses. Another met

to lay barbed wire in a zigzag

ance. Inequalities of expansion

contraction in the earth and co
are likely to cause cracks, When
are exposed the weather will enter

thick to secure good thermal

properties and protection against the
passage of water - although this may
be reduced with the use of a stabiiiser.
Since Pise walls require this kind o f
thickness, they are generally not used
for internal partitions.
Chimneys and Openings etc
Chimneys have been built in the past

have been developed to stabil'

waterproof earth walls after t

with Pise de Terre:

1) Shuttering should be simp
easy to take down and reset.
2) Projections should be avoided
this complicates the shuttering.
3) Organic matter should be ext
from the soil before ramming.

min
contain a mixture o f gravel
and clay. The ideal soil wou

soils may be blended or stabilise

as soon as the walls are comple

8) A wall about 2.4 - 3m high

REFERENCES

not dry out too quickly.

Vegetable Matter
A German writer on the subject recom.
mends 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 i s used to restrain shrinkage
to take the place of straw as a binder.
Burnt clinker i s an alternative to stone
as i t i s inert and will not react chemically
with the soil. No parot's or organic
matter should be tolerated as this renders

the shuttering used, and the speed of

erection goes down drastically. Openings
are formed as the work proceeds and
timber fixing grounds are rammed into
the jambs t o form fixing for door and
window frames. The lintels are placed
over the openings and the wall is carried
across, although adequate bracing
should be inserted to support the lintel
while the wail is rammed over it. I t i s
possible to cut openings out o f Pise
walls which i s useful when carrying out
alterations.

ised Earth' Country Life, 2nd Editi

1947. Describes traditional techniq
Szcelkun, Stefan: Survival Scrap
List. Brief summary of traditional
fOrms~
Of testing
Of making
cement blocks and i n situ.
Patty, Ralph L & Minium L.
Rammed Earth Walls for Farm

Inter-American Housing:
his was done by embedding planks

Power Obtained
Wii~dmillperformance may be investigated under the Betz (Gottingen, 1927)
momentum theory, which deals
with the decelerations in the air traversmg the windmill disk. The column of
air arriving at the windmill with a velocity V i s slowed down, i t s boundary is
an expanding envelope as shown below.

/-n

--

~(1-2o)

-'--y

by Cliff Collins

Y DIFFERENT types of windmill

ave evolved through the ages, but
ith the development of the aerofoil
opellor for aircraft in the 1920's, and
e commercial availability o f storage
tteries, came the 'low solidity' mills
he solidity is the ratio of total blade
rd to circumference at any given
us), used for the generation of
ectricity, The blades or rotor were
ed by the actual wind
Id exceed it by 6 to
in such 'aerogenerators'
ially for the more sophisticated
er mills, accurate and detailed
ed measurements are necessary.
he fact that the power in the wind i s
rtional to the cube of its speed
this a prime consideration in
nerator design. Otherwise, most
ormation (such as wind roses, prevailg winds etc) can readily be found in
any good Atlas or fromthe Meterological

AIR TM'EQSING
WINDMILL DISK

The diminuition 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 i s 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 = 2ilR2. pV3. a (1 - a)2 where
V = velocity o f the wind
R = disk radius
p = the mass density o f the air
(air pressure)
The power originally contained in a
cylinder of air of radius R isgiven by.
Po = /;.pAV.V2 = '/;pAV3 where
A = an area through which the wind
passes
thus

P = %WR* O V ~

Because of aerodynamic imperfections

in any practical machine and mechanical
losses, the power extracted is less than
that calculated above, so that in practice,
the multiplying factor may not be
greater than about 0 4 rather than 0,593
The Rotor
Reduced to its simplest terms, the
propellor-type windmill consists o f a
number of blades disposed radially
around a shaft, to which they are attach
ed, and which lies parallel to the wind
direction so that the blades rotate in a
plane approximately normal to this
direction. The rotor i s carried aloft by
a supporting tower and provision is
made for it to orientate or 'yaw', so
that i t can be held into the wind, and
for its rotational speed to be controlled,
The power developed by the rotor
then has to be transmitted to the
machine to be driven.
The blades of the rotor are usually
shaped to follow one of the conventional aerofoil designs whose aerodynamic
characteristics are known - such as the
one below (adapted NACA 4415).
~ " 1 ~ L ~ ~ " s*,,,""a:,
" ~ p
""d

.r.,?

L*:.,.:

Ley."
A
-

-.

,'G!

. .

i t can be seenthat the power obtained

.,.J
,#.*$I
isa maximum when a = Vi, i n which
.,"
.,,: :35
:
case P is 16/27 (or 59.3%) o f the power
R,
,',.>,6>
oriy,iiially in the air.
R'
:,Wf;
This is the total power ava/loble in
Having decided upon the chord length,
the wind for extraction, but actually
multiply nand D by this figure (eg
only a traction can actually be extracted,
multiply by 100mm to give the acrofoil
The density, p, of the air varies a little
with
and with the atmosp~cric section dimensions fo6,a blade width
(chord] o f 100mm). Note, one side o f
conditions but it is reasonble'to acceot
the blade i s flat.
the value of 1290 g/m3.
The blades may vary in number from
Using a multiplying factor of 0,593
. two to twelve or more, may be tapered
(59.3%). the general formula for dcteror o f the same chord width throughout,
mining the maximum amount o f power
and, may be of plane form or twisted.
extracted by an ideal aerogenerator i s
Their pitch may be fixed or variable
P(kW) = 0,593.k.~.V3
and they'may either be rigidly mounted
P
= 0,593.0,00064.~.V.3
or allowed to 'cone' or 'drag' to relieve
ie P
= 0,000364:ffR2.~3
the stresses set up by rapidly changing
where
wind speeds.
R
= radius o f swept area by
Aerodynamic considerations
The underlying theory assumes that the
= wind velocity (m/s)
whole of the active surface is moving
at the same speed v, when met by d wind
V. The combination of the two speeds
P.P.~.
m f S * I . crt
$la tork
dia
d t o ?.rt
results in a relative wind speed V R making
%

-.--

The important lactors to determine

. the highest wind speed (and
crefore the maximum stresses upon
he rig), the duration of calm spells,
he prevailing wind, and ihe mean annual
wind speed.
This article is an edited versit
eaflct published by the Polytec
of Central London's Department o
Architecture, for the National
or the Development o f Alternative

. ~ .
,.r34

>,B,

3,

1.5

:..,>

,,,

an angle of att; ickgwith the surface

and producing lift (L) and draa (D)
forces perpendicular and parallel respec-

ich are available from scrapya

it is important to check the perf
ance curves of these, for often t
RPM's needed are far above thos

the speed v for an elemental section

of the blade at radius r isgiven by:

along the blade to i t s extremity at

radius R when v = 2 m N . 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.

PC _.

220-240V at 50 Hz,and one m

careful to ensure that there i s n
mission lines. To gain versa
the 12V system it is necessary
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.

...-----

possible lift and the smallest possible

drag. To extract optimum power at
each succeeding section along the
blade, it is thus necessary that both i t s
shape, and the blade angle which its
principal axis makes with the plane
of rotation, shall be varied to suit
the peripheral speed X r N , 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.

A = tip angle of attack

R = tip radius
(f> =angle of attack for radius r
the air is proportional to the Power

ms to exist between solidity at 0.7

the blade tip radius and the tip
speed ratio for maximum power coefficient, a rotor with a low solidity
having a maximum power coefficient

loss o f energy,

The difficulty in using AC equ

ment i s that the alternator 'needs t
run at constant RPM's in order to

There are two basic types of battcri

1. Lead-acid; as used in cars, these
the least expensive and have a typic
lifetime o f 750.1 200 cycles. The
can discharge or charge at high r
they should in fact never be mo

where

n = number of blades
c = chord at 0.7 o f the blade
tip radius
D = diameter of swept circle

is the case with:

2. Nickel-cadium batteries: these

laminar-flow blades (DragILift ratio

= 0.005 approx) i s about 0.51 with an

open rotor hub and about 0.535 i f the
hub i s 'fairedSie enclosed by a streamline surface o f revolution which enables
power to be extracted from the wind
meeting this hub area. The maximum
occurs at a tipspeed ratio
of about
1) .5 although the loss o f efficiency

does not damage them.

Batteries should hold a reservoi
for 12 times the hourly output of the
generator.
All batteries
store DC only. The con.
version of DC to AC (to use standard
equipment) requires the use o f rotary or
static inverters. Rotary inverters are in
general cumbersome and unreliabl
can easily be made up) compared
highly efficient, they are very expe
(eg 2kW output: 75approx).
Some form of voltage regulator will
be necessary, to ensure that a constant
to the batteries. The regu
prevent any flow of curre

Hermetic seal

, '

by Peter Sommf r
ed me to see the analysis of words and
their meanings as the supreme skill - the
that the education given t o most o f us in
only way t o really understand the
the West has been designed t o suppress
any notion o f transcendance i n our world- problems involved in understanding how
view. Slowly some of us are attempting
the world can be 'explained'. I was
encouraged t o become a cosmic exile,
t o fight our way out of our 'intellectual
a brain apart from the rest of nature,
heritage' without losing all contact with
carefully and rationally observing and
what we fondly describe as reality. It's
hypothesising. But, it doesn't always
not all that easy.
My own intellectual training encourag- work like that.. .

AY, SOMEONE will try and show

t distinct cultural formulations:

MAGIC =SCIENCE
CIENCE = MAGIC,
MAGIC = TECHNOLOGY

in 1962. Then came Jacques EllulS

fiercer political critique in The Technological Society, published here i n 1963.
I n the light of these and many other
criticisms, i t may be thought that we
have now liberated ourselves from the
idea that science is value-free. But just as
those scientists whose sole concern was
'pure knowledge' and those technologists

which this will happen, I'll suggest, will

not be at all 'scientific'.
I ' m increasingly persuaded
that it i s our worship o f science itself -the belief that, given enough talent,
time and expenditure, most things can
be explained and the mechanism of
the way the world operates revealed - ~ .
that i s the real source o f nonsense. This
magic: science: technology relationship.
I n the past few months I've had to own
up to myself that there is, on many occa-

trap. A dedicated band of scientisttechnologists, with their ideals firmly

fixed on the concept of spaceship earth

er half o f the western world. These

ngs, because the majority o f users do

might have i s whether, individually

collectively, the items are good or
.. white magic or black.
n t i l the early sixties science and
nology were seen as the magic that

uum for total knowledge by the

gent application of a faultlessly logical

First Lewis Hcrber's Our

own magic alternative technology

offers alternative progress.
It is because this notion of progress

has long carried articles worrying that

A T has no coherent core. I would argue
that it cannot have, because A T i s
about technique. The most it can offer
is that Lhrough its application by
individuals, by action, sume o f the

whether one should even attempt to

create a steady-state 'ideal' lifc-style,
as opposed to devising a temporary
strategy for existing, evolving, and

of this article I'll be conjecturing that

AT may have, ior certain individuals,

mechanistic explanations of everything,

An allowance in one's world view for
mystery and magic, I've discovered, can
greatly enrich it and even permit a fuller
'explanation' of whdl it i s ail about. Until
recently, my problem hasalways been
that the great 'modern mystics of our
time. whether Asian or Ccntral
Amcricdn gurus, zappcd-out ex-scientists
or drop-out academics have never
been able to articulate to my satisfaction

This arlicle i s an historical and

modern view of magic and
i n particuldr
one of the
great suppressed sysiems of worldexplanaliun H m e t k i s m . I could
have started from 'I number o f beginn.
i n s : during the prucs-ss o f trying to readjust my idei.ss I looked at .-ittitudcs
towards fringe science Kirilian
photot;riiphv 2nd ESP in particular.
Whilst writingreviews of 'M Kowak's
Where the Wustc~/uridEnds (which I
probably over-condemned) and David
AUa'nulh,e Tvchnolouy, I
Di~kson'5

have been (he p l ~ ~ it>

e

book review

i t i i the iiuihor, not the reviewer who

Lndercurrents 8

discovery of what has been happening

to the History of Science lately.,
I t seems that a redefinition
of 'science' has led
to a redefinition of the concerns of the
'history of science' and that has led to
of great figures from the past who'are
usually labelled as 'scientists'.
These new developments are what
persuaded me that our own tests
of what we bclievc in are false. AlterPI~'~
native technology and P C O Science
needs to know about the quality of
transcendentalism i f i t i s not to prove
unsatisfactory
'Until recently, the history of science
was a story of success', begins Jerry
Ravetz in his remarkable article in the
1974 Encyclopaedia Brittaflica. "The
triumphs of science represented a
cumulative process of increasing
knowledge and a sequence of victories
over ignorance and superstition; and
from science flowed a series of inventions for the improvement of human
life".
But it's not only scientists who are
Inherently interested in the new and in
'progress'. Historians of science, who
only really started chronicling the'main
events in man's discovery of the
physical and biological world i n the
late 19th century, have also been curiously concerned with validating the
belief that, once scientific method had
been propounded (an achievement
ascribed to Francis Bacon), progress
was smooth and automatic. Even
Thomas Kuhn offers only a modification of this idea i n his notion of
paradigms. Scientific discovery isn't
altogether even-coursed affair, he
says. Ordinary scientists work within a
framework of beliefs - theparadigm . and essentially all they do is to provide
a n elaboration on the basic idea. However, after a time, certain inconsistencies
in this world-view appear and, after a
period of paradigm confusion, a rcvolution takes place, ? new paradigm
emerges and scientists continue to
elaborate on that. The usual example
quoted is the breakdown o f Newtonian
explanations for planetary motion and
gravity and their modification and
replacement by Einstein's Special and
General accounts of Relativity.
Most histories of science aren't even
as sophisticated as this. What they near!y all do i s to assume a certain definition
of what science is and what scientists do.
Bernal, in his Science as History and

the notion is also implicit i n Bronowski's

The Western Intellectual Tradition-and
Richie Calder's Man and the Cosmos.
As. a result, they all go back through
recorded history looking foractivity
-rheY
that is recognisab~y
then pass that off as a truepictureof

i n their original settin

to control it.
This sort of history of science

look shows that this sort of history is

only an account of unalloyed success
if one chooses to ignore certain movements and activities which operated
closely to what we would now recognise

their activities and comment o n the

I n a completely different area of
history o f ideas, Norman Cohn's
splendid Pursuit o f the Millenium d
cribes the great waves o f peasant

ifonly because it created a

~ronowski'sAscentof Man, was the
fa^ that Newton wrote far more on

the 11th century Christian, where

'excommunication' was not just a

to return for a Millenium. Hopes fo

better,life could only be rcalised thr

Religion and magic are scarcely a

few decades dismissed from our wor
view, but where are the historians of

as an aberration or'patronisingly say

that he had an 'enquiring' mind, but
that wouldn't really be good enough.
Walter Page! sets the criteria for
a 'new'approach to the history of
science:
"Instead o f selecting data that
'make sense' to the acolyte of
modern science, the historian
should try to make sense of the
philosophical, mystical, or religious
'side-steps' of otherwise 'sound'
scientific workers of the past - 'sidesteps' that are usually excused by the
spirit, or rather 'backwardness', o f the
period. I t is these that present a
challenge to the historian: to uncover

might have lived in a world almost a

remote as that inhabited by the med
eval millenarian who would give up a
on the rumour that a Saviour was to b
found in Antwerp, or perhaps Leyden
or Budapest.. .?

Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. Over th

last eleven years she has published fo
amazing books on some o f the 'sidesteps' o f the Renaissance, concent
on the chief one, Hermeticism. L o

movement, from which so many of

at today passes for 'the occult' seems
o stem, and which was one of the preeit an inconvenient one, o f
four books have to be taken
r: they are not a coherent seence in that they do not present a
aightforward exposition o f her views
d conjectures, but represent a
eveloping stream of interpretation.
he books are: Giordano Bruno and the
rmetic Tradition, The A r t of Memory,
eatre o f the world, and The Rosicrucn Enlightenment.
ss Yates's approach seems to be
ct, obscure, and scholarly i n the
of the word, and one reason
spect she i s so little appreciated
side a fairly limited, though influenI, academic sub-community is the fact
t her main concerns in each book are
immediately obvious and her very
areful marshalling of evidence seems
t first sight trivial. Theatre o f the
id, for example, appears to be an
mpt at reconstructing Shakespeare's
tre - a worthy but limited
reject for a historian to work on. The
ening chapter takes us straight into
examination o f the records o f the
rary o f Dr John Dee, the English
naissance magus, best known populars the court astrologer and magician,
Elizabeth I. Frances Yates has taken
s man, who i n his time had the
eatest library in England at his
ortlake house - he had gathered
iscarded books and manuscripts fro
monasteries purged by Henry V
travelled extensively, and had
ore books than the Queen, an
obleman, or Oxford or Cambri
iversities - and sets about se
knew anything about the classic
t e r on architecture, Vitruvius.
Vitruvius was the man who codified
the classic precepts o f architecture hat buildings should offer not only
helter and places for ceremony, but
hould also be an image to man and be
oportioned accordingly.
Enough i s known about the plans for
Globe Theatre to say that i t was
intended to have more than a purely
functional appearance i n relation to
building techniques then available. It
was to be some sort of metaphor for
the world - hence its name.
But really Dr Yates i s hiding her
main concern, which i s to give some
hint of the character of Dr John Dee
himself and t o rescue him from the
category into which sensationalists
have placed him. She i s inviting
- the
reader to admire her scholarly 'soundness' as she takes us through a form
o f the 'know your host by his books'

game which most o f us play on first

entering someone's home. By the
device of apparent obscurantism,
albeit written with more excitement
than one might believe possible in
the circumstances, she gives us an
insight into the preoccupations o f
this remarkable man.
Dee was interested in the Cabala, in alchemy, and in summoning up angels. He
obviously saw the theatre and masque
as some form of magic. But he was also
the author of a Preface to the 1570
English translation of Euclid's geometry
in which he ranges over all the mathematical sciences and strongly encourages
their further development as being
basic to the advancement of science.
Dr Yates claims that as a manifesto for
science, Dee's Preface was much more
important than Bacon's Advancement
of Learning published thirty-five years
later, which, together with his New
Atlantis, is traditionally regarded by
historians of science as the basis of the
Scientific Age.
I t i s at this point that the obscurantism disappears and.although I never
thought that the all-powerful view o f
science would crumble in the face o f

an apparent footnote in theatre

history, in fact for me i t has. How
does one reconcile the image o f a halfcrazed lunatic juggling with occult
rubbish with a powerful prophet o f
science? Theatre of the World goes on
to make i t s conjectures on the likely
appearance o f the Globe (it did
mirror the world, but the astrological
and hermetic one'of Robert Fludd,
not anything else) but i t also shows
us how far traditional historians of
science have misled themselves,
the public, and us, by being unwilling to examine inconvenient facts,
I n the traditional exposition, the
Middle Ages were dominated by the
Church's upholding of Ptolemy
(which gave, among other things, an
earth-centred view of the universe)
and a suppressed belief in sympathetic
magic. Then came the Renaissance,
scholars read Plato, looked in the
heavens, saw that i t was more likely
that the earth went round the sun,
and the scientific age was born . . .
The inconvenient element in this
exposition is the total absence in it of
any account of the Hermetic Tradition
of knowledge. i t was withm this that

Dee worked, as did Kepler and late

on, Newton. Almost everything th
today passes for the western 'occ
i s a degeneration o f Renaissanc
cerns and dates from Macgrego
Mathers' "Golden Dawn" mov
of the 1880s. The Hermetic traditi
interposes between Mediaevalism a
Modernism but i s important sti
because it attempts to cope wit
mysteries that still remain.
The Hermetic Tradition was
avowedly the cult o f t h e lost knowledge of Hermes Trismegistus thrice
great Hermes, the Egyptian priest-god,
Thoth. To appreciate his cull one ha
to dispose of the,nution that man has
always looked forward in his search
for knowledge. In the later Mediaeval

forms of truth in the ancient Latin

and Greek texts and wondered i f there
were not truths to be found in Hebrew
mystical writings like the Cabala, they
also had great hopes of the Corpus
Hermeticum which was said to be of
ancient Egyptian origin and hence
older than any other known source of
knowledge. Hence Cosimo di Medici
ordered Ficino, already about to
translate the works of Plato, to tiicklc
Hermes first, which he did in 1463.
The Pimander which is a Hermetic
Crfriesi'i was taken as evidence of the

material, which was regarded as being

contemporaneous with Moses. I n fact,
later textual criticism of the Corpus
reveals that theindividual pieces were
probably assembled between 100 cc and
300ce 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 elements. Modern
occultists, of course, have no doubt.
The point here, though, is that
these texts were believed and a t precise
ly 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 o f Her-

meticism and his contemporary Pico

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 PhJiosopbia which i s today
regarded as one uf the great occult
source books. Dee, of course, had a l l
these books in his library, but there i s
little doubt that it was not only traditional 'occultists who knew about them.
I t is this aspect which interests Or Yates,
me, and I hope anyone who really wants
to examine the nature o f scientific and
religious belief.
Hermeticism divides the universe into

and the intellectual. Agrippa says eac

world receives influences from the on
above it, 'so the virtue of the C e
descends through the angels in
intellectual world, to the stars '
celestial world, and thence to t
tial elements and all things composed
them'. Magicians aim to make the s
progress upwards, and draw the vir
o f the upper world by manipulating
lower ones. Agrippa says they try
discover the virtues of the element
world by medicine and philoso
celestial world by astrology and mat
matics, and the intellectual world
study o f the ceremonies of religio
The Renaissance magus i s thu
magician and occultist of sorts, b
is trying to manipulate the world
good effect - hence Dee's concern
summoning up angels is not real
'equivalent'of the witchtwarlo
summoning up a familiar. Dee
summon up angels because he w
t o find out about the upper world. T
Hermetic world-view is thus ab
series o f animistic corresponde
and many o f the early discove
'science' can now be interpret
attempts at validating this worl
Here i s an extract from The Em
Table which gives some idea o f
hermetic mystery:
True and not false, exact an
true, what is below is analagous
what i s above, and what is above
analagous to what is below, f o r t
fulfillment o f the miracle o f the
unique whole. Similarly, as all thin
arise from the unique Beginning,
by means of that One. so all thin
born arise from the Same one, thr
the processes of adaptation.
His father i s the Sun, his mother t
Moon, the wind bore him in its w
and the Earth was his nourisher. I
him the source of every form in th
whole universe. His power i s comp
if i t i s turned'to the Earth. Th
wilt separate Earth from Fire,
subtle from the dense, quickly and
with great ability. He goes from
Earth to Heaven and returns ag
to the Earth, and receives force
from higher and lower sources.
1. I n this way you will possess t
glory o f the whole world.
2. And darkness will fly from yo
3. I n this lies the potent power o
strength.
4. I t will conquer everything sub
and i t will penetrate everything
dense.
5. So is the whole universe creat
6. From i t comes all miracul
adaptations, based on the sa
7. That is whv I am called Herm

the idea of science that he acquired

during his education is only one of
many and that it is a product o f
temporary circumstances. The latter
include the presence o f nearly autono.
mous centres o f research in universities,
large scale application o f scientific
results by technologists, and the independence of scientific research from
politics and religion . . . the dominant
style of work o f the early twentieth
century was reductionist: investigations
were concentrated on the artificially
Newton's concern with gravity and the
attraction of bodies came from the same
inspiration as that of Gilbert.. . it all

achieved in the laboratory. . . almost

all the philosophy o f science in this
period assumed that a real science is
one modelled on theoretical physics.
The prestige of this style i s 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 i n a dangerous
ignorance of the facts and principles
of the behaviour of the natural envirRavetz might have gone on to point
out that theoretical physics is presently
going through 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
f how the world works.
So the equations about Science
and Magic, and Technology and Magic

concile ourselves that we will never

derstand' or 'control' ourselves or

14 and 161 5. The Rosic

a later form of Hermetici

Millenium. Bacon's contem-

he earth is a giant lode-stone in

restatement of an ancient Hermetic

This has been a whirlwind tour. Dr

history, of Renaissance politics, and the

History o f Art are good aids, though
fortunately she writes well enough to
to change one's beliefs in Science and
about the period during which 'imper-

I'll conclude by going back to Jerry

Ravetz and his Bfitannica article.

from science or f r ~ ~ a l t e r n a t i v e
technology; 1 rely more on instinct
and feeling. Only, unlike some, I'm not
going to try to write about it. Roszak,
iilly,~ e a rand
i Castenada have tried to
My intellectual 'training' came i n the
analysis o f 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
o f mysticism, yet my contempt (because that i s 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 mysticism, devote
myself to podgy boy gods, attend
sabbats, or try to improve my mastery
of Hebrew to ascend into the Cabalistic

Here haue yoii(;>:ccrJ'lnxto my p r o n ~ i i l ~ t lGroundplx

ic
of
rnrMATL4E%$ArlCALLP & : w d e E d d < ( - G * " >
,,iLlhd,.lBlh,.atlu.Bl

,,
..

'+ ,.

hf",,.-."-+AA"+.+
L\CL,,>,S

,,rv,"

----."--*

c",mp%p
-.L
%
,h
.,.m
-.m
"' .,.<
.-,-

tree, but I've found my own certainty

and humanist scepticism sorely tried
in the past few months. And all because,
like those readers of exploitative occult
books and followers of new religions,
I too feel cheated -cheated because
what I believed to be true about my
historical intellectual antecedents i s
manifestly false. 1 don't believe in the
value of alchemy, practiced today, any
more than I ever did, but now I trust
my own scepticism less and realise that
my anxiety to fit my perception of the
world into the mechanical 'scientific'
worid-view too eagerly has possibly
cut me off from certain things. . .
Which in a bizarre way brings one to
Alternative Technology. One of the

effect it has on those who become

involved with it. The process o f thinking about and creating practical l i f e
styles that are alternative to the 'consensus' without the aid of the conventional 'alternative' dogmas, and the
questioning of almost all one's
fundamental beliefs, seems to guarantee an inner change of some sort. The
starting points may be different and
the end-products, in terms of human
beings with varying world-views may
be different, but changes (and in some
cases transcendance) are common.
The individual concerned with conservation of the environment discovers his
political perceptions are taking him
towards anarchism, the disaffected
scientist moves from shunting psychedelicised rats through m a m to hydro-

ment.

know about Dr Yates's work, you

read her books not take my word

consist of a series o f promiseswhich I

you through a series of locked doors.

ist, an alchemist, a Yogi? I n the end

there i s no longer any mystery, there
never was one anyway, but the process
of investigation of the mystery has
caused a succession of self-questions
which have so changed the individual
that he has now achieved what he s

matter what he calls himself or that

what he needs to know for his own
satisfaction.
Are we all really on a mystery trip.
Have a good time building windmills.
solar traps and shit-houses..You never
know where it may lead . . .

rench: Routled

at was 'the Scientific Rev01

and when you've read some of th

Objective Knowledge: An Evolut

o f Scientific Knowledge, Ka

tried to invite you to read a few books

ex o f Possibilities, Volume 1
and Power
Published lointly by Clanose Publishers,
2 Blenheim Crescent, London W11 and
Wildwood House, 1 Wardour St.
London W1. Paperback (2.50or
hardback (5.95')
ntic Work, whichever
way you took at it. Physically, it
measures 13% inches (343mm) by
10 inches (254mm). The paperback
(ersion is over half an inch thick, and
[he hardback proportionally larger.
It has taken a large number of people
ivery long time to prepare, and whilst
it has its shortcomings (about which
more later), the overall impression is
that it was welt worth the effort.
The aim, as the Introduction states,
was 'to reassemble and cross-reference
information. comuare and contrast

.the good wholly overwhelms the bad.

'I

Undercurrent, 8

. . devising ever simpler ways of monitoring hazards,

Bread: an assessment of the British

bread industry. The TACC report
(Technology Assessment Consumerism Centre). 1.2 (including p&p
i n UK only) from Intermediate
Publishing Ltd, PO Box 6, Kettering,
Northants.
GOVERNMENT HEALTH
WARNING: WHITE BREAD
MAY DAMAGE YOUR HEALTH
You've never s e n that on a packet
of bread, but arguably the warning
ought to be there, and advertising of
white bread on T V should be banned.
The caseagainst white bread is
still in its infancy, perhaps at about
the stage the cigarette argument had
reached 20 years ago. But even the
suspicion that white bread is going
to give me gut cancer i s enough to
put me off. Like a lot of people, of
course, I've known for years that
wholemeal bread is better for you.
I've even followed the research of
Burkitt and Painter as they linked
one after another of the diseases of
affluence with our low-fibre diet based
on refined flour and sugar. But until
I read the TACC 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 womble 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 Commission investigation and for a full

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 University Business School is not going to
go 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

more human production syste

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 equivalent^ Would they be cheaper i f
they were produced and distributed
in the quantities that white bread
and flour are now? What happens
to Happy Monday's loaf when
Hdppy Tuesday comes along - i s
it fed to pigs, made into sausages,
or ground up and mixed with

local bakers tailor the sup

their perishable produc o t
demand more accur
huge distributors ca
pesticide in 'techno
ful to TACC for a clear sum
of the scientific evidence, an
also for their sensible handlin
that thorny question which
cerns not only white bread b
tobacco, automobiles and he
what do we do when people 11
and want something which
obviously isn't good for them?

DANGER:work at men
Work is dangerous to your health.
kannc Stellman and Susan Daum.
Vintage Books, Random House, NY
(Distributed i n UK by Pandemic)
1.25
The Haifardsof Work. Pat Kinnersley.
Pluto Press (Unit 10, Spencer Court,
7 Chalcot Road, London NW1) 90p.
Both booksare concerned with attaining proper health standards for wor
not just the minimal health requi
to keep The Machine working.
To help workers i n gaining more
control over their working conditions,
and in changing them, both are
as clear, simple manuals. Manuals to
train people to deal effectively with
hazardous work situations, to
knowledgeably with so-called
and t o assess precautions. Detail
technical information is presente
in an easily usable form.
The books differ in the emp
they give to various aspects. Kinnersley's
deals not only with physical and
chemical hazards, but also with the
patterns of work, and the legal and

system, and the personal tragedies

involved, his book i s unsurpassed.
Little more needs to be said; b y 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 i s American,

human body and i t s responses.

also list hazards according to occ
tion. Details are not only given o
to control pollution at source, b
ventilation systems, and
but also on methods of sim
measurement and monitori
and chemical hazards.
I t i s emphasised that this is a
struggle, as much as a sci
A brief description of the spe
demands made by the Oil, Chemi
and Atomic workers, well with'
context of US legislation, poin
way for what can be done.
he same message - to mak
demands and to take action
equally to the Britain's new & e
Health at Work Bill, which is rep1
general recommendations, but o
no clear definitions of practical I
But when you've bought, read
digested both of these books, w
else can you do? The term liber
technology applies not just to win
and telephones, but to devising eve
simpler ways of monitoring hazard

People in the US, concentrate on

need for workers to organise arou

Aerospace, the Vinyl Chloride issu

the midwest workers fight, and ho

ILLING ZOMBIES
or SILENT REBELS
e Private Future by Martin Pawley
hames and Hudson, 1974.

~~~d~~~
~ by
chael Velli compiled and edited by
rraine and Fredy Perlman
d & Black, Detroit 1972

IF YOU TAKE either of these books to

bed, with you, be prepared for a sleepless night; they both gave my head a
whirl it's not seen for ycars.
in privatefuture, pawley looks all
the targets o f contemporary rddical
criticism and examines them with rare
freshness and rigour, but his conclusions
are distinctly those of one who cannot
separate his wonderment amidst
modern hiTek Kommodity Kulture
from his common love of humdnity.
His most tenuous and controversial
assumption is that people in today's
western world know what ishappen,ng
on a profound level and that they
understand in secret what they cannot
press publicly They know that the dim
f a commodity culture i s to smash
unity and replace i t with isolatio
d thisprivatisation is what they
hat i s why they continue to supper
such a culture By cataloguing a mass of

powerful air of reality to some far fetched ideas that fuelled my adolescent imagination. He uses such techniques -- expressed
i n exciting, journalistic quick-fire prose
t o package his thesis and to turn up the

In Manual For Revolutionary Leaders,

Hi, on the other hand, makes the
ssumption that whilst pcoplc are not on
he wholeconscious of what's happening,
they are progressing towards a point of
detonation by practice - practice of
individual acts uf rebellion and ofexperimentation with appropriations o f the
productive nature o f :i.i-ii:iology. This i s
the way in which the IndustriallCapita!
Revolution happened: by the gradual
1 extension o f bourgeoispractice.
Only then did Usury become Banking

1
1
!

ted with full colour collages on alternate

pages and is - apart from the leaders'
quotes which are essentially boring -full of droll humour and precisely-articulated ideas.
To return to Private Future, Pawley
is arguing
people want (and,
~ that what ~
are working towards achieving) i s a
society arranged so that one doesn't
take the good with the bad but a non.
society where one keeps aloft continually on illusions, ideas, and images. A
world of fantasy.
Consumer society is a form of barter
for dreams. Private activity that does
not need or lead to any tedious
responsibilities (especially social) 15
what is desired. The public realm,the
space between the private citizen and
the government, i s being evacuated in
therush to the comfort o f privacy, and
the sector left becomes a wasteland of
environmental terrorism. I t is only
the previous culture and morality that
holds us back from sinking into our
own individual euphoric and troublefree day dreams. Perfect peace, at one
without the world. It is the commercial that is legitimised by the

and extortion become Marketing. What

developed within feudalism was not a
consciousness,
an~
ideology, or even
~
lan
organised revolutionary movement, but
rather a practice, a form of social
behaviour which undermined and
ultimately overthrew the piety, the
gallantry, and the sovereignty of earlier
forms.
And this is how the detonation o f all
the possibilities of the productive forces
in the hands of politically self-determining individuals is happening - is happen'"9
lhe
gradual extension o f
PoweredPractice After laying Out this
thesis 1" a brief historicdl expose, Veil1
goes on to discuss in two parts how the
revolutionary leader can take over such
a dangerously detonating situation and
create the conditions for the instatement
of organised power centres, in the form
of workers councils, proletarian dictatorships and the like

anus/ F~~
~

icy represents. The issues are merely a

native opportunities for

Come t h e
r e v o l ~ t i o n ...

f l.r-f-i-d- .~, .~. c

i. . . - vire.verw
v
vnnt
-.-.~-,

Without revolutionary leadership,

continually changing responses t o continually developing productive forces
move towards chaos. Without revolutionary organisation, attempts of individuals
to realise their self powers to the level
made possible by the productive forces
move towards anarchy.
i n the first part Velli takes quotes
from revolutionary leaders and cuts in
passages of his own critique, using a
system o f negation marks and typeface
changes to drive his point in. The second
part begins with a lighter and extremely
funny scenario of revolutionary situations
(essential reading for all aspiring lead
and despairing disciples). He then g
to complete the manual of aversion

AII

Personally, I can't take that first

assumption about everybody knowing
where they are s i n g deep down
inside, considering the perverted
state of our currently available information sources. But the book certainly
wakes you up from the daze of imrnersion in mass media.
Back at the Manual there arc many
points Velli makes that clarify a lot o f
the conclusions that are conlinuallv
cropping up in discussions and articles.
For example: the point at which state
power is classically seized i s the time
in which the populace voa/tate with
indecision and fear after the old order
has been sprung into the air but before
the mighty burst o f independent
creative enthusiasm has begun to
explore the myriad possibilities of
modern productive forces, ?hi5 is the
short period in which people hdve l-o
throw oft' the mass psychology of
dependence that has p e r --'red the'r
lives for years. Intermediate .,
tcchnologies can be used to illustr?te
in practice the impermanent nature
of this dependence and the enormo

we're

going our separate ways to super

zombieland!

some material missing right at t

beginning. As for further readin

Methane (Atomic Rooster's Here)

by Steven Sampson, edited by Andre
Mackillop. 1.60 72pp.

bridge, Cornwall.
THEREIS quitea lot of useful ma
i n these books; but there is somethin
peculiar about them -apart from t h
orthodox inadequacies, of which more
anon. I t i s as i f they were written by
a team of schizophrenics. They keep
umping from one thing to another,
and making bafflingallusions ['atomic
rooster's hire', 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. I t 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. I t has a bibliography
of sorts, but i t i s unannotated and
is mostly devoted to things other
than hydropower Of the 13 items
on hydropower, eight are about
old watermills, two are sources
from which most of the designs in
the book arc taken (although i t
doesn't say so), two are 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 i s given over to advcrtisements (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 zoo catalogue of different types of
digestors, agitators w d feed systems,
building on two classic articles by
Ram Bux Singh and Golueke (alth
it is hard to tell where the original
end dnd the editor's additions star

tried i n British conditions, and my

guess is that most o f them would
produce hardly more power than

ge scale. There is a free posterversion o f LID'S gas-conversion

prints that appeared in Undercurrents No 6 - n i c e l y printed.
There is less off-the-subject material
than in the hydropower book, but
again there i s an awful lot o f padding.

I f AT is ever to be more than

VB No 3 i s an AT special - don't
miss it.
Ekologiskt Byggande 1: Metodi
Teknik, Eko-nomi och Levnads
('Ecological building: I: Repo
Trip; methods, techniques, e
and lifestyles).
Eko-Bygg Gruppen, Teknista
kolan i Lund, Architecture Dept
BOX725, S-220 07 Lund, Swed
Jannbaereren No 2 Summer 197<
This is a report (basically writ
rhis is a far-out Norwegian freaks'
by Hans Nordenstrom) of a visit
nag covering political/ecologicdl
Britain i n the spring of 1974 by a
tlternative/mystical topics. It's
group of staff and graduate stude
iery good and there's plenty of i t
at Lund Technical University
- 70 pages, without the covers
Eke-Bygg('Eco-build'). For
I'm sorry I don't know what
dinavians. it must be the best g
Vunnbaereren means - can't find
to what's going on in Britai
he ruddy dictionary anywhere).
I t starts with an introdu
Most of the articles are local and
the principles of ambient-energ
original, but there are also transladesign in building, and a descrip
tions o f important articles from
of Eko-Bygg's research programm
ather languages i n many cases
including plans for a test-house.
probably the first into a ScandiThe account of the visit to
navian language, which i n itself
Britain covers work at Cambrid
IS a very useful service. The price
and the Architecture Associati
af a single issue might seem high to Us
Street Farm House (the cover s
(10 NKr) but you get a lot for your
picture of Graham Caine's famous
money and no adverts (yearly sub i s
sculptured toilet seat, which i s wh.
50 NKr). This issue had articles On
makes peoplelinger so long in the
communes and reviews of the COW
ITDG; the National Centre for
mune movements in Norway, DenDevelopment of AT; BSSRS; a bi
mark, Sweden, and USA; several articles communal squat; and a report o
on organic and biodynamic farming;
meeting o f the UK section of th
others on farm schools; translations of
International Solar Energy Socie
an interview with Murray Bookchin
much of the material ofwhich is
(from Undercurrents, we suppose7 we
reproduced. There are drawings a
ripped i t off from Alternative Sources
photographs, and lists o f address
of Energy - long may i t recirculate')
magazines, booksand other pub
and an article by George Woodcock
tions.
on Anarchism and Ecology, a prosePS- Vsnnbsreren m
poem story; article on making a fibreelass greenhouse; and two allegorical

IPECIA L SCANDINAVIAN
1ECTION
in honour of the fact that our
ild friend Per Janse gave us a
l u g in Doyens Nyheter the other
lay, and Undercurrents can now
ie purchased i n Stockholm at the
jook-Cafe (BokCafe), Drottningt a n 19).

whom the taxes themselves

being extorted. However, by
ptitious means, the whole
paratus has been pieced together.
e majority o f people in Britain
not know o f their existence eirexist.
y even refuse to be!'
mething
ce Yet refusal to be1
es not make it cease t
'
rely allows i t to fun
e itself unhindered a
m e against the people, and have
ith similar results - the presen
let. Undoubtedly, there i s
degree o f error, but the
nnels are known to be accurately
cribed. The whole sham of demotic government in Britain i s exposed
hollow lie by these bunkers, built
out the public knowledge, from
blic money, to Protect public Servants
inst those who are conned into the
lef that they have elected them The
vings of retired Colonels and generals
er the supposed threats to 'public
er* can be ignored by the govcrw
A few strong-arm men are the
r of the Walkers and the Stirlings.
tcning down the hatches is the
swer of government. Five years o f
r a n d revolutionary action in
n Ireland has been weathered
s system, and the forthcoming
ers predicted by all the pundits
scist and communist, Liberal and
Y, Labour and Monarchist,republiand anarchist, are well anticipated
ationai Seat o f Government
But .1" rcddcrs are inufi'nni; that ihc
fuvcrnmcrn, h.ivc cun-.iruciet.ibunkcr-i

wrong. When it was realised that the

Neston. At Corsham, the largest of
undcr-city bunkers were no longer safe
the four underground factories built
against nuclear attdck, the authorities
in World War 2 is still ready for
made provision for their survival by
emergencies, 2,000,000 having
building the National Seat of Governbeen spent on i t 1940-43. Important Navy
ment, deep underground and a long
armamentsresearch a'ld administration is
~ IOther
I ,
way from malor city-taigcts Bath or Chelt found at F ~ ~ ~Bath.
enham appear to be the most likely NSG
excavations may be in the Forest 01 Dean
sites
They are both within rapid
At Chinnor, i n the Chilterns, the
ss of London by rail and motorgovcrninent is excavating a massive
(Bath M4). At Cheltenham, there
new tunnel -ostensibly as an exwo possible sites, the Government
perlment in tunneling for the Channel
Communication Headquarters being
Tunnel.
t likely candidate, as it backs
What You Can Do
limestone escarpment which
The concerned citizen will ask 'what
00 feet of vertical cover in a
can I do about this menace to liberty?'
nd a half. Even this, of course, is
They arc, by their nature, sabotageugh for protection against a 50
proof, even proof against a small
or 100 megaton nuclear weapon. At,
nuclear weapon The interested citizen
and near, ~ ~aret a number
h
of sites
should document and publish anything
which may house the NSG. Box tunnel,
he or she can find out, from whatever
sambard Kingdom Brunei's mastersource is available, Anarchists Anonypiece of engineering on the western
mous hold anti-copyright on this
of ~ ~ i t~ i ~~ houses
h~ 1 many
,
publication. Please republish it whcresecrets. There are 4 sets of points
ever you can write to the local press,
TV, radio (they all know already, but
(he tunnel, leadingthrough
are prevented by D notices from
steel gates into the interior o f the hill.
publishing) - it will show them that
Above, in the village of Hawthorn
there is outside knowledge. Complain
which had important telecommunicato your local MPs and councillors
tionslinks built in W W ~ ,
are
Demonstrate at known bunker entranbomb.proof covers on the ventilation
ces and distribute literature. Explore
shafts of the tunnel. The RAF base of
the London underground. There are
Rudloe Manor i s also on the hill,
many passages you can walk along that
complete with its microwave comarc not on normal pedestrian intermunication tower. Hawthorn is full o f
changes. Try doors on the Underground
many other military establishments too many for even the incredulous
you can always claim you have lost
sceptic to dismiss Near to the village
your way. Goodgc Street, Holborn,
IS t
k H-bomb proof security deposit
Leiccster Square, Trafalgar Square are
at Neston, where, i n a stone quarry
central stations which need investigation.
called Goblin's Pit, Wdnsdyke SecurThe main thine i s to publish and dis.
ilics stoic lei-nrds ol cumpaniei.
icminatinfermiltion. Tne marc people
01 s any impurMdsi B i i i i i h ~ i m p t i n ~ e
thdi kr~oi\,i h c bittcr.

orror prob
searching expose of Undercurrents finances.
LIKE EVERY0
Undercurrents has been
knocked sideways by inflation. To
try to hold our costs down,
printed this issue on much Ii
paper. The print bill has still g
up, but by 'only' about 8 sine
the last issue. T o have printed
issue on the same paper as be
would have cost us an extra
Using lighter paper also means
save our postage (5p instead of
Also, as subscribers will notice, we
are now using wrappers instead of
envelopes for copies sent by post.

WHERE THE M
Many readers have told u s that at
35p Undercurrents seems too dear.
'After all', they say, 'it only cost
about lop 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 motithly niagii/ine ~ i t h
a full lime editor and .a .-ir:iilation 01'

The surplus is only about 0.

debts incurred

Undercurrents Planned Monthly Budget

Income per month
Subscriptions
Postal Sales
Newsagents
Bookshops

1500
2000 at 2 8 . 5 ~per 35p copy
2500 at 45% of 35p = 15p
2500 at 60% of 35p = 21 p

(weighted average income per copy: 22p) TOTAL INCOME

Costs per month
Paper: 8000 copies
Print cost for first 6,000
Print cost (including paper) for next 2,000 at 6 Op
PRINT COSTS
Editor's Salary (including national insurance etc)
r,
Other Staff salaries "
Contributors' payments
Typesetting
Promotion and advertising
Office Rent and Running Costs
Expenses (travel, meals, etc)
Postage
Other Costs (insurance, legal accountants fees etc)
0

uickly and with no hassle. We be

in two ways: the marginal cont

From the letters we get,

exception finance has th
hand, however much we 111

nd, we have t o pay 'on the nail'.

present we reckon we need a
he gap

. A quarter

ly issues. The problem is that t o

finance a monthly we need about
another 2,00 in working capital.
Some of i t we may be able to borrow
at commercial rates. from our

even on only a 6,OOOcirculation.

and we have the use of your for
a while, as working capital.

THE PROBLEM OF DISTRIBUTION

Many readers write t o tell us of the

of Undercurrents Ud. A

The Other Branch

Arjuna Wholefoods
12, Mill R d
OXFORD
East Oxfor Advnrttsr
- -Books
3 4 Cowley Rd.
Maxwells
9-10 St Clements
MANCHESTER
Orbit Books

John Carlyle
3 6 Albert Rd, G42
A F & J Barmt
178 Bvres Rd. G 12
LEICESTER
Black Flail Books
1 Wilne
Leicestef University Bookshop
University Rd.
BRIGHTON
Symposium

st.

ubtic House Bookshop

LEAMINGTON SPA, Warwicks.

B,,$t0W
4 Bndewell Alley
NORWICH. Norfolk
Mushroom
261 Arkwnght St
NOTTINGHAM
Ultima Thule
Handyside Arcade
Percy St
NEWCASTLE.0N-TYNE
Dave Taylor
8 The Crescent
PURBROOK Herts
Andrew D Douglas
2 Wellington St
Stoke, PLYMOUTH

Grass Roots Bookshop

178 Oxford Rd, M.13

OOkShOP The Fourth Idea

Bookflair
Mount St. M.2
Clapham Pk Rd, SW4

Architectural Association Bookshop,

36 Bedford Square, W C l
Freedom Bookshop
84b Whitechapel High St, E l
Mandarin Books
New College Pde, NW3
flobinson & Watkins
Cecil Court
19.21 (off Channg Cross Rdl
London WC2
Rismg Free
197 King's Cross Rd, WC1
CAMBRIDGE

EDINBURGH
John Selim
23 Launston Place, EH3
Better Books
11 Forrest Rd. EH1
BIRMINGHAM
Tapetus Bookshop
201 Corporation St
Prometheus Books
134 Alcester Road,
Moseley, B13
Birmingham Peace Centre
18, Moor St. Rinawav.
- .
632 Bookshop
632 Bristol Rd,
Sally Oak B29
BATH
Seanghts Bookshop L t d
9 New Bond St Place, B1
Bath Community Workshop
l a The Paramon 81

BRISTOL 1
Christopher Pitts
27 St Thomas' Hill
CANTERBURY, Kent
Bogus
21 Princes Avenue
HULL. E. Yorks
O u t of Time
Hvde Park House
King X Road
King X,
HALIFAX
EJ Archer
13 Coronation Walk
KEIGHLEV, West Yorks
News From Nowhere
9 Sefton Drive
LIVERPOOL 8
lnhn tharirlin
-- ". -"
19 Anlaby R d
HULL

B m t i f u l Stranger
6a Hunters Lane
ROCHDALE, Lanes
Cleveland Wrecking Yard
175 Newcastle St
Burslem
STOKE ON-TRENT
Spice Island
Osborne R d
SOUTHSEA, Hants
John Smith & Son
Stirling University Bookshop
STIRLING
Red Light Books
202 Derby Rd
SOUTHAMPTON
Rare & Racey
166 Devonshire St
SHEFFIELD
Conservation Books
28 Bearmod Rd
WOKINGHAM, Berkshire
Posse
Mount Farm
Escnck
YORK
EIRE
Rea's Bookshop
St Stephens Green
Dublin
Eblana Bookshop
Grafton Street
Dublin
Eco Shelter Group
Dept o f Psychiatry
University College
Earlsfort Terrace

their trade comes from only a d o ~ e n

titles. They cannot be expected to
carry an unknown title except on a
sale-or-return basis, and then only
if it is heavily promoted. Even the
large chains like Smiths are only
really interested in about fifty titles.
Undercurrents is just too small to,
bother with. We are fortunate that
Moore Harness have agreed to distributt the magazine, even on a limited
scale: usually commercial distributors
don't want to know about a magazine
unless its circulation is more than
20,000. These, gentle readers, are
the commercial facts of life. The magazine trade is a free market - if YOU
can afford the entrance fee. If.

an issue after we'd come to re1

them, that would bankrupt us,

So that's why we want you to subscribe, dammit!

MR SMUG THE CENSOR
There is one other objection to using
the retail newsagent system. As
readers of Time Out, Private Eye and
Socialist Worker will know, W.H.
Smith and Son, who own or supply
most of the large newsagents in this
country, insist on their lawyers vetting

it for their imprimatur before

print it. Any comments on th

Northumber'and

ly Distribution Manager of Private

Eye, precisely to get round this
formidable obstacle. Socialist Worker
issold on subscription or in the

-----------------am----

SMALL ADS FORM

this hour!'

--- ------COPY DATE:/^ post,

MO*
OWW.~~XP9
Piit>h!A t*\set/w\. ........... _ I W s e d . . . . . . ../nft^lf^~r/w,.
....\~)~ds,-tobeUMU+
LM
f'!AM................-... - ....-.
ADDRESS-- - - .- - .- - .- - .- - - - - - - .- ..- - .
PRINT YOUR AD. I.\ BLOCK CAPITALS,ONE NOW i'N EACH 8 0 X

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -...................
------

SELL UNDERCURRENTS
We don't expect anyone to do i t
'just for the money', but we don't
see why you should do it for
nothing, either. Selling magazines
requires a certain amount of time
and effort, and we think such
efforts should be rewarded at
rates comparable to those which
prevail in the distribution trade.
So we're offering you a discount
of 40 per cent if you order more
than 10 copies from us. After we've
paid the cost of posting them t o

you, we're hoping to get about the

same nett amount back as we would
have got from a straight distributor.
But if you don't feel like being
a salesperson, why not just take a few
copies round to your local newsagent or bookshop? They'll ask for
a 25 to 33 per cent discount, usually, and they won't pay you until
they've sold the copies, but the
few coppers you'll make on the
deal will at feast pay for your bus
fare.

NAME

ADDRESS.

...............

.........................
.........................
1 enclose a chequelpostal order
f
in Payment for.. copies
Of Undercurrents Number
at
2 1 a~COPY. (Minimum order, 10
copies). I understand that Unde
currents will buyback any copies
which I return in good condition
~ co~v.
at 2 1 per

....

..

....

--------- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -- -------TAKE
OUT A SUBSCRIPTION
/u
/&&a
& fD S u b S f d S ~ i h M c u ~ ~ L V&
Ts
&~49&/~&dwder/~~2
00 ($5 onus w9
00 US ~ ~ f f u ~ o t f r ^ )
Q Ptfi3se ~ a < <i^
1 00 YSW si^fiscfuJhavi
I,* dci/7 MVOG
mf-,4~-/i~
(TICK THE /\PP^o@~IAT
fiG^ & S A S E START M Y S U 6 5 C f l l P T I O N hlITH ISSUE NUMBER
/D St\ S f p W t W f & ~ bl-m<>L.^\^ ISMS p o r n log sM!M!ddS.5 JWSCf'/'W /D
C~LWIW

SMALL ADS..

.. S M A L L A D S . .

. . S M A L L A D S . . .. S M A L L ADS.. .. S M A L L ADS.. .. S M A L L

ember for a year

- stu

ould like t o hear f r o m a

g toqether and who wou

RUNNING PRESS,
Nineteenth St, Phila
Penn. 19103, for b o
crafts, freak science
Write for Catalogue.

OCIETY

-T

ivalists who are deeply

d t o peaceable chanqe

eds a new home. For details

"tact Philip Brachi, Eithin y
er, Church Stoke, nr Bishop
s:le. Montqomeryshire. Tel:

from PO Box 6, Ket

Northants or 6 Call

n - Keith Hudson, 79 Sut

venue, Eastern Green, Coven

. ""-

ETCETERA
N T I - X M A S and hereti
ain. Resurgence,

Leeway, London

tive IdeasIPro

d helpful. Write
E for lists. L o o k
u s e s from Nove

eks t o save a few survivor

1.99 payable t
from 275 Finch!

t with the r c ~ a i of
r ha

tool for ethnocide and as a s

onscious structure t o sup

soon; 3% from RS.1, 9 Pol

ondon W l V 3DG: subscri