Phenol, bacteria, Consett Coke ovens

An example from my personal experience: At Consett Coke Ovens one of the waste streams was phenolic liquor. Once-upon-a-time it would have been dumped down a disused mineshaft! We treated it in an activated sludge plant (loads of bacteria). Pretty amazing that it worked at all considering that the old name for phenol is carbolic acid and it’s a disinfectant which kills just about anything. We had a “spike” in phenol concentration (the plant was old, some of the processes had problems and the control systems were partly f*cked). As a consequence the bacteria “went to sleep”. They weren’t actually dead, but they weren’t active. As a consequence, even after the phenol levels returned to normal, the activated sludge plant no longer worked. We couldn’t treat the phenolic liquor, we weren’t allowed to dump it and we had only limited storage capacity. In these circumstances the official solution was to get a tanker load of sludge full of adapted bacteria from another coke plant. The nearest one with a suitable plant was in Sheffield (probably Orgreave). Cost at the time – several hundred quid. We chose the cheapskate option: buy a lorry-load of steaming, fermenting farm-yard manure and dump it in the sludge tank. Cost – 50 quid. After a short time (not more than weeks, and within the limits of the buffer storage capacity) the activated sludge plant was back and operating to specification. BTW on that plant they described having too much liquor as being “embarrassed” – as in “an embarrassment of riches”. A nice turn of phrase, with a touch of irony - “an embarrassment of sh1te”.

I doubt there are bacteria in nature which actively use phenol as a food source. Thankfully there isn’t enough of it around. There are undoubtedly bacteria which can tolerate phenol up to a certain concentration. The moral of the tale is that given the opportunity, within a very short time, bacteria can adapt to use something which is an outright poison to them (phenol) and not simply tolerate it, but use it as a food source. How they do it is not clear to me, but they certainly do. That is amazing and scary! The rubbish-dump programme was another example of the same.

The messenger (6) Anticipation (ABCD)

All 4 of the crew are sitting in the control room. Andy and Beatrice have been there for some time. Charlotte and Dave have just come in. Andy is sitting at the main control console facing the main control screen. Beatrice is sitting at the sensor monitoring console to one side. Charlotte and Dave are sitting towards the back of the control room with Beatrice and have turned towards the main screen. The atmosphere is tense as they await the arrival of the visitor.

C: “How long do we have to wait?”

B: “Not you too!” With a smile, “I’ve just been chastising Andy for asking – Are we there yet? You’ve both arrived just in time. There are about 10 minutes to go. Our visitor is very nearly dead astern, as they say. It will appear to draw alongside and come to a halt. Of course we are all hurtling towards the centre of the solar system at the usual phenomenal speeds but the two objects will be stationary to one-another. Even after all this time, I find the mathematics easy but the actuality continues to surprise me. ”

D: “Is there anything much to see yet?”

B: “Not a lot. It’ll all happen a bit suddenly. Because of the end on approach, the relative velocities at the moment and the relatively small profile of the object, it will start off as a disk which will grow in size until it resolves into a long thin object. When there is something worth seeing, with Andy’s permission, I’ll stick it up on the main screen. It won’t be long now. ”

A: “Anybody care to guess what we’ve got?”

C: “Probably a valueless lump of Ice which just happens to be a funny shape. Mind you, if that is what it is, then the shape takes a little bit of explaining.”

D: “Well, I’m going to be optimistic and say that we have a lump with lots of juicy nickel and a sprinkling of precious metals. The shape is because it got squirted out of some explosion.”

A: “That’s a good explanation. Despite all the teasing, I really can’t believe it’s an alien artefact. Those things just don’t happen outside of entertainment. Come to think of it, aliens aren’t really that popular as entertainment at the moment. I think I’ll go for an agglomeration of ice, rock and metals. What about you Beatrice?”

B: “I’m not speculating any more. I’ve seen too much. It would be cheating if I said too much. Take a look at this.” The image on the main viewing screen changes, in the centre is a small white dot. The image is surrounded by a red circle and there are target arrows pointing inwards.

C: “Is that it then? Is the little dot in the middle our visitor?”

D: ”It seems to be twinkling? ” interjected Dave.

B: “Yup. Whatever it is, that’s it. And the ‘twinkling’ which Dave has noticed is one of the things which make me think that it is rotating. There are some other interesting features too.” A table of figures flashed in the bottom of the screen.

“One of the things I find interesting is its albedo. It’s really quite bright. Unfortunately, that might suggest that it’s got a lot of ice on the surface. The twinkling might be caused by a patch of discoloration on the face towards us. As the object rotates, so the colour moves and we see a twinkle. It’s a bit like a spot in the centre of an old-fashioned vinyl record. Also there is a hint of some irregularity further back. Our visitor isn’t a perfect cylinder, that’s for sure. Any bumps may be contributing to the effect. “

D: “It gets full marks for interesting. Have you got an estimate on the rate of rotation?”

B: “That is one little disappointment. The estimate is pretty much the same: one revolution every 5 or 6 minutes. Maybe it’s the lumps, or maybe it’s something else, I really don’t know. What I do know is that we’ll know shortly when it’s alongside. There’s nothing much we can do now. The systems will take care of it all. There’s no risk. Let’s settle down and watch the show. Has anyone bought the pop-corn?”

With that, everyone turns to look at the main screen and the changing disk in the centre of the field of view.

The messenger (5) Playing Catch-up (AB)

Andy and Beatrice are sitting in the control room. It’s not a large space. There are 3 seats in front of a console. Andy is sitting in one of these seats and is looking intently at a monitor screen ahead of the console. It shows what appears to be a stationary star-field.

A short distance behind Andy there is a group of 4 more seats. 3 of these are facing inwards towards the centre-line of the control room. Beatrice is occupying the fourth seat. She has swivelled it round and is looking intently at a smaller monitor screen on a panel in front of her.

A: “How’s it going?”

B: “I was almost expecting you to ask – are we there yet?” She smiled. “It’s coming. It will be long-side of us in about 45 minutes.”

A: “I hope I didn’t sound like I was nagging. I want to see this thing in the flesh, or ice or iron or whatever-the-heck it is.”

B: “It’s alright. I really do understand. If we are wasting our time then I would like to know as soon as possible, so that we can get back to the daily grind. If it’s a money-making opportunity then I would like to be doing something about it too.”

A: “And if it’s little green men?” (with a smile)

B: “You and your little green men. If it’s little green men, or even something which hints at little green men, then I want to know yesterday! If it’s that, then doesn’t matter what else, we’re famous. But of course it’s not. How can it be? There are plenty of strange things out here, without them being caused by aliens. You know. We’ve seen enough of them together.”

A: “Well, what does it look like then?”

B: “If I’m going to be honest, and I should be. I’m still not sure. Whatever it is, it doesn’t play too nicely with our various sensors at this range. I can tell you that it’s about one-point-two kilometres long. It’s about 100 metres wide. It seems to be a very regular long shape. I can tell you its mass within a few 100 kgs. That was actually the first thing we knew with any accuracy. As for density, it’s too dense for a typical snowball, more like solid water ice, but certainly not dense enough for solid metal.”

A: “But have you any idea what it looks like?”

B: “No. And in a way that is the puzzling bit. I can tell that it is rotating. It’s not tumbling mind you. It’s rotating about its longitudinal axis. It certainly isn’t tumbling. But for some reason the Doppler isn’t giving a clear estimate of the rate of rotation. That might be because it has a bright albedo, or to put it another way, it’s rather shiny.”

A: “Shiny, as in – like a lump of ice?”

B: “Exactly. That’s what I was thinking too. If it is, then it’s a really funny lump of ice!”

A: “Anyway, when to we get to see this marvel?”

B: “It will be clearly visible in about half an hour and then be alongside us about 15 minutes after that. It will seem to be overtaking us, pull alongside and then come to a halt. It’s all to do with the relative velocities, but it always strikes me as a bit strange. Should I call the others? I don’t suppose they want to miss the big event of the trip.”

The door at the back of the control room opens. Beatrice turns to one side and Andy turns round in his seat.

A: “Hello there. We were just talking about you both. Beatrice says that the show is about to start. Pull up a chair and make yourselves at home.”

Charlotte and Dave take the front seats in the group of four and turn towards the front viewing screen.

Plan for The Messenger - Rendezvous

Plan for The Messenger - Rendezvous

Notes for the next Chapter of The Messenger. Each line represents a section.

1. "It will seem to catch us up" (2/4)
2. Anticipation, End on (4/4)
3. Stationary at X mph! Wow! (4/4)
4. Little Green Men
5. Communications
6. Sychronisation

------------------------------------

This represents an experiment in method. This is what I am doing/going to do/have done:

• Brainstorm a topic and location for the "Chapter":
• List a number of topics, in sequence to be covered
• Based only on the line item, write (stream of consciousness) for a topic
• Link the topic from the list when it is done
• Conclude the chapter

Let's see how it works as a creative process.

The messenger (4) Board Meeting (ABCD)

The four of them: Andy, Beatrice, Charlotte and Dave are sitting around the table in the mess-room. Each of them had a drink in front of them. Andy and Beatrice are reading reports on their slates. Charlotte and Dave are sitting back exchanging glances from time to time. Eventually, Andy and Beatrice both look up and put their slates down. Beatrice takes a sip from her cup.

D: Dave coughs and looks around the table. “First of all, I’d better apologise for getting you out of bed. And thank-you Charlotte for staying back. It’s a nuisance.” He pauses. “The whole situation is a nuisance. We’ve probably all been wishing for a bit of variety, but probably not like this. You can see the picture which has been building up over the last day-and-a-bit. Probably from Andy onwards you know more about the situation than I do. It happens that the decision point seems to have fallen on my watch.”

A: (With a yawn) “We understand. Really we do. “When I first noticed the anomalies I didn’t pay much attention to them. They were just a bit or variety. But now they seem to have crossed the line of us needing to take some action.”

B: “Yes. We understand. The sensor problem is just on the margin of being acceptable, but it looks like it has continued to grow.” She indicated her slate without picking it up. “It’s at the point where, even if it was an isolated problem, the Officer of the watch should notify Head Office.”

C: “So you think I did the right thing?”

B: “Definitely. Even as an isolated situation it justifies a report and, just possibly, extending our scheduled stop at Ceres.”

D: “Do you think that’s justified?”

B: “At present, probably not. But certainly worth noting HO and when combined with the incoming visitor, definitely worth the notification. On its own the sensor problem, meetings the criteria for logging as a low level risk. It would be different if we knew what was causing it, but we don’t and it’s getting worse, so we notify HO, even if only to cover ourselves. Personally, I think the risk is tiny, but that’s not the point. The rules say we notify, so we notify.”

A: “And what about the visitor?”

C: “That’s different. From the investigations that Beatrice and I have done, it looks like it could be pure opportunity. If we put in a course alteration at the point I’ve indicated, then we can rendezvous and stake a claim. Nice big lump of nickel-iron will do the bank balance no harm at all.”

A: “And what about the other features of our visitor?”

C: “You mean long-thin and rotating?”

A: “Yeah. It’s long, thin and possibly rotating. Those combined with your density estimate mean that we have to notify HO. But what do you think?”

C: (with a smile) “I think you and Head Office have got little green men on the brain. People have been mining out here for the past 50 years. A few people have struck it lucky with visitors but very few, and nobody has found anything even remotely like an alien, green or any other colour for that matter. If we’re lucky we’ve got a lump of iron with holes in it. That’s worth the effort. If we’re unlucky, then it’s a big lump of ice with a funny shape and we’re wasting our time. I think it’s worth a look but that’s all. Head Office wouldn’t expect us to do anything different. They like money too, and they’re not taking any risks.”

D: “So, what do people think? Shall we divert and go and have a look at it? For what it’s worth, I don’t feel particularly lucky at the moment but if the rest of you fancy the trip then I’ll go along with you. It will mess up our pub night and the call at Ceres though, to say nothing of having double up.”

Dave looks around the table. Charlotte and Beatrice nod vigorously and Andy gives a thumbs-up.

D: “OK. That’s a decision then.” He picks up his slate and makes some notes on the screen. “I’ll log the decision and notify HO that we’re diverting to have a look at our visitor.”

B: “I’ll put the wine for the pub night on hold. It could probably do with a bit more maturing anyway.”

D: “I’ll go and program in the course change.”

B: “I’ll set the sensor arrays to give our visitor even more attention. Let’s hope the white noise blips don’t get in the way too much.”

Everyone leaves the mess-room.

The messenger (3) Shift Change 3 (C - D)

Dave sat at the galley table sipping a mug of strong black coffee. He had placed a glass of orange juice in front of the seat opposite him. Between sips he looked intently at pages on his slate, sometimes scanning back to revisit earlier pages. He was surprised that Charlotte was late, that’s not like her at all, and he was puzzled by some of the notes she had added to the shift log.

The door opens and Charlotte rushed in. She is a little flushed and seems to have been hurrying.

C: “Sorry I’m late. Something has come up which I think you will want to look at.” She sips her orange juice.

D: “Is it urgent, as in ‘we do it ahead of the standard hand-over’?” said Dave looking at her intently. He’s a big man with a florid, craggy face.  His long hair is combed back into a ponytail.

C: “No. It’s not that urgent. But I think it is important. I may be wrong, but I think we may have to call the others in on this. Let’s do the standard hand-over and then talk about it.”

D: “What! Get them out of bed? Andy won’t be pleased about that. OK. Let’s do the hand-over.”

For the next 5 minutes Charlotte and Dave got through the report pages on the slates. Both were a little impatient and both wanted to get to the end of the standard hand-over so they could deal with the important issue that Charlotte is excited about. Eventually they got to the end.

C: “Now we get to the important points.”

Dave leant forward.

C: “You’ll be aware that nearly a day ago the systems drew Andy’s attention to two issues: an internal issue, that there was periodic interference on the main sensor array; and an external issue, that we had an incoming object which has a trajectory which will cross ours in a little over a day from now.”

D: Dave nodded and said: “Yes, I know about those. Something to keep us all occupied. I was a little disappointed that both things had come along a once.”

C: “You may not be disappointed for much longer. Andy worked out a plan for dealing with tackling the incoming object. Basically, if we were going to intercept it here” She indicated the appropriate point on the slate’s chart, ”then we would have to initiate the manoeuvre here, and that means that if we are going to make do everything by the book, then we would have to make the decision to intercept before here, which is during your watch”

D: Dave nodded: “I understand. So in a way, either the decision about the decision is down to me, or we all get involved.” He paused. “Is there any more information? More than is in the logs, I mean.”

C: “Just a little. Beatrice investigated the problem with the sensor array. She didn’t really establish much, except that the problem seems to be getting worse. That’s worrying. That alone justifies the message she’s sent to head office.” Dave nodded again.

C: “Regarding the incoming object, she also managed to estimate its mass, based on a deflection here. She put together a plan for getting some more data about it, even though it is still well beyond the range of our sensors.”

D: Dave nodded again. “That’s the transit of Neptune idea. Did it work?”

C: Charlotte took a deep breath. “Yes. And that’s the point. The incoming object has become significantly more interesting on three counts.”

D: “Three counts. What are they? You were only trying to estimate the density.”

C: “That’s true, but there are other things I had to find out at the same time. First of all, the density comes out as substantially higher than a snowball. The volume estimate is subject to a pretty big margin of error, because of the way it was calculated. The object is not solid nickel-iron, but it’s could be solid, and I mean solid, water-ice. That’s very unusual. Second,  I had sort-of assumed that the object would be spherical, or at least spheroidal. Look here, it’s very long and thin. The length to width ratio is more than 12. It’s very long and thin. And finally, three, there are indications, based on the way its silhouette changed as it passed in front of Neptune, that it is rotating around the long axis.”

D: Dave exhaled and scratched his chin. “It’s ticking a lot of boxes for alerting head office and investigating, isn’t it?‘’

C: “Afraid so. It’s just a couple of points short of ‘drop everything and investigate’ What do you think?”

D: ”Getting people out of bed or not, I think it’s time to call a meeting.” 

Letter from an Island in Winter

(I'm having a clear out. I want to retain the text of this and remove it from my hard-drive at the same time. It has been redacted to give people a little privacy. If you know, then filling in the details is easy enough. It was originally written on 23rd November 2012)

Xxxxxxx,

Isle of Xxxxxxx

Argyll

Scotland

23^rd November 2012

Dear Aaaaa,

                It’s a different address at the top. I’m up here for a week “chilling”. That’s chilling in both senses of the word! It’s beautiful but my goodness it can be cold.

                I’m staying with my cousin Qqqqq. “Xxxxxxx” is the name of the house where she lives, out in the wilds. It’s pronounced (locally,  so I suppose that must be right) “Cairn-na-xxxxx”. The first bit is obvious enough “Pile of stones of…” but nobody is sure what the rest means. The commonest explanation is that it is “xxxxx’s Cairn”, that fits the pronunciation, but not the spelling, and there is no known association of “xxxxx” with the island. There is general agreement that whatever the name is, it is a slamming together of Gaelic “Cairn-na-” and something else, probably from another language, and that could be English, Scots or Norse.  It’s one of life’s puzzles, and likely to remain so.

                Whatever it’s called, the view from the place is spectacular, in every direction: East and West I can see the sea, North and South Rocky hills. To the west is the island of Mmmm, very mountainous and to the east Kkkk.

                I don’t know whether I shall get this finished, printed and posted before I leave the island, but you will know by looking at the stamp: if it is UK, then it was posted in Scotland; if it is Irish then the letter came back to Ireland with me and was posted there.

                Like I said, I’m up here “chilling”.  I felt like a trip up here to see the relatives, and Qqqqq was happy to have me. She works at a poultry (egg) farm on the mainland. She gets a ferry at around 8 in the morning, drives 10 miles to work and then returns in the evening and gets home a little after 6. She has a car on the mainland and one here. It’s a long day and if the weather delays here on the island she can lose hours (or even a whole day’s pay). I haven’t asked her what will happen if she gets stranded on the mainland, and I’m not going to. It’s certainly not an easy life for a single woman. During the day I am left of my own devices. This is the house which Qqqqq was brought up in, and I can see the Farm which my Grandfather took out a lease on in 1916 (!), so you can see that the family connection with the area is pretty strong. The house is constructed from two stone buildings (one the original house, one a stone barn) joined together by a wooden “covered way” in an “H” shape. The house could really do with some serious maintenance. It isn’t falling down, but it is cold, draughty and damp. Qqqqq does a good job keeping the place clean, tidy and homely, but it must be a struggle. In the house end, the living room and the downstairs bedroom where Qqqqq sleeps are nice (although you have to think about how to keep the places you want to be at the right temperature). The kitchen is an ice-box, and the two bedrooms upstairs have been relegated to attics (even the electrics have been stripped out, and the stairs up there have been covered  at landing level to  keep downstairs warmer). In the barn end, where I sleep, only one of the 3 bedrooms is habitable (and is actually quite nice, if chilly). The bathroom is usable but…

 The work required on the house is real “building”, rather than the DIY and decorating which I’m up to. Qqqqq doesn’t have the money and the island Trust, which is her landlord doesn’t either, so she will just have to wait for things to improve. I had hoped to do a little maintenance work for her, but as it happens things weren’t ready so I’ve been excused that. I’m sorry, and not sorry at the same time. Sorry the work won’t be done (and I would probably have enjoyed doing it), but not sorry that I don’t have to mess about outside in the weather.

If the house was mine, and I had unlimited budget, I would give it a complete refurbishment. Probably hire Kevin McCloud as a consultant and find a local architect. It would make a good Grand Designs. I think the approach I would take is to re-furb each of the stone buildings in turn and then completely replace the covered way with something of similar appearance, but different construction. Given where it is, I would emphasise weather-proofing, insulation and self-sufficiency. The south facing roofs of the stone buildings are not visible from the road, so that gives scope for solar water heating and photovoltaic cells. We’re half-way up a hill, on an island, so a wind-turbine is an obvious possibility. Water is never going to be a problem! The end result would look very similar to way it does now. At the barn end, the ceiling height of the rooms is really way too high. Also the existing internal walls are all stud-work, so I would regard that as completely disposable. There is a wooden floor which I expect was used for levelling, but it isn’t great quality. I would take advice from an architect and consider lowering the ceiling height and creating more bedrooms upstairs. So, at present the house (both bits) has a total of 6 bedrooms, of which only 2 are really habitable. The others I would only give to real hard cases who had arctic, four-seasons sleeping bags and camp beds. I think there is potential for 9 to 12 bedrooms etc. It’s never going to happen that way, but I certainly enjoyed writing about it. Qqqqq has dreams of having a B and B here. The house just isn’t acceptable at the present (except to afore-mentioned hard-cases, and I suppose I may be included among them), but I hope she gets to something like it in the end. She deserves it.

(And it’s 13:35, and there’s the afternoon ferry to Yyyyyy in Xxxx passing)

Meanwhile back in Ireland,  Ssssss and Mmmm are doing “work experience” the week I’m away. Ssssss is helping out at the Infant’s school down in the town. On the day I left, she had drawn a giraffe on the wall (the giraffe is holding a measuring tape for “how tall am I”). Mmmm is at the garden centre across the road. So far, she has been watering plants in poly-tunnels and has learned how to operate the till. Ironically, I’ve been involved in creating two point-of-sale systems, but I’m not sure I could operate a shop till! Nnnnn is still working at the school. She seems to be endlessly marking books. They’re all fit and well and I hope they are feeding properly. They should be,  I left the fridge well stocked.

One of the things I’m doing while I’m away in Scotland is writing up a “business plan” for something over in Ireland. I have to confess I’m struggling, but it’s getting done. This is a good place to work. I may push the “go” button this month (for a January start).

As usual, I’ve included some clippings from the local papers:

David Bowie – Has continued to rise in my estimation: weird? yes, but undoubtedly creative and influential. It seems he may have decided to retire, or is this just another “stage persona”?

The Rolling Stones – They’re a good blues band, but I always said Jagger was more of an accountant than a rock star.

Curative Well – Well, what does one say? I hope they didn’t ever dose you with lithium. I always thought that lithium was more of a sedative and anti-psychotic, but maybe it has anti-depressant properties as well. By the way “TG4” is the Irish Language channel.

Fearless Felix -  What does one say? The kind of thing he does only goes wrong once.

Sulky Racing (*2) – What does one say?

Regards,

Old Boar