If we look around us, much of what surrounds us started life as various rocks and sludge buried in the ground in various places in the world. But, of course, they don't look like rocks and sludge now. They look like TV cameras, monitors, annoying radio mics. And so this magical transformation is what I was trying to get at with my project, which became known as the Toaster Project. And it was also inspired by this quote from Douglas Adams, and the situation is from "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." And the situation it describes is the hero of the book -- he's a 20th-century man -- finds himself alone on a strange planet populated only by a technologically primitive people. And he kind of assumes that, yes, he'll become -- these villagers -- he'll become their emperor and transform their society with his wonderful command of technology and science and the elements, but, of course, realizes that without the rest of human society, he can barely make a sandwich, let alone a toaster. But he didn't have Wikipedia.
Ako pogledamo oko sebe, puno toga što nas okružuje započelo je kao različito kamenje i blato zakopano u zemlji na različitim mjestima na svijetu. Ali, naravno, sada ne izgledaju kao kamenje i blato; sada izgledaju kao TV kamere, monitori, dosadne radio kompilacije. Tako sam ja tu čarobnu transformaciju pokušao postići svojim projektom koji je postao poznat kao Toster Projekt. Također, bio je inspiriran i ovim citatom Douglasa Adamsa. Radnja je iz “Vodiča kroz galaksiju za autostopere“. Situacija koju opisuje jest heroj knjige – on je čovjek dvadesetog stoljeća – nađe se na čudnom planetu nastanjenom samo tehnološki primitivnim ljudima. I nekako pretpostavlja da će postati -- tim seljanima – da će postati njihovim vladarom i promijeniti njihovo društvo svojim čudesnim vladanjem tehnologijom i znanosti i elementima, ali, naravno, shvaća kako bez ostatka čovječanstva jedva može napraviti sendvič, a kamoli toster. Ali, on nije imao Wikipediju.
So I thought, okay, I'll try and make an electric toaster from scratch. And, working on the idea that the cheapest electric toaster would also be the simplest to reverse-engineer, I went and bought the cheapest toaster I could find, took it home and was kind of dismayed to discover that, inside this object, which I'd bought for just 3.49 pounds, there were 400 different bits made out of a hundred-plus different materials. I didn't have the rest of my life to do this project. I had maybe nine months. So I thought, okay, I'll start with five. And these were steel, mica, plastic, copper and nickel.
Tako sam pomislio, dobro, pokušat ću napraviti električni toster ispočetka. I tako, radeći na ideji da je najjeftiniji toster jednostavno i najjednostavniji za unatrag izgraditi, otišao sam i kupio najjeftiniji toster koji sam mogao naći, odnio ga kući i bio na neki način razočaran otkrivši da unutar tog predmeta, koji sam kupio za samo tri funte i devedeset četiri centa, ima 400 različitih dijelova napravljenih od više od sto različitih materijala. Nisam imao ostatak života da završim ovaj projekt; imao sam možda devet mjeseci. I tako sam pomislio, dobro, počet ću s pet. To su bili čelik, tinjac, plastika, bakar i nikal.
So, starting with steel: how do you make steel? I went and knocked on the door of the Rio Tinto Chair of Advanced Mineral Extraction at the Royal School of Mines and said, "How do you make steel?" And Professor Cilliers was very kind and talked me through it. And my vague rememberings from GCSE science -- well, steel comes from iron, so I phoned up an iron mine. And said, "Hi, I'm trying to make a toaster. Can I come up and get some iron?" Unfortunately, when I got there -- emerges Ray. He had misheard me and thought I was coming up because I was trying to make a poster, and so wasn't prepared to take me into the mines. But after some nagging, I got him to do that.
Tako sam počeo s čelikom: kako se pravi čelik? Otišao sam i pokucao na vrata Rio Tinto Chair of Advanced Mineral Extraction na Royal School of Mines i pitao kako se pravi željezo? Profesor Cilliers bio je jako ljubazan i sve mi detaljno objasnio. Moje slabo sjećanje znanosti iz srednje škole – čelik se tvori od željeza. I tako sam nazvao rudnik željeza. Rekao sam: „Bok, pokušavam napraviti toster. Mogu li doći i uzeti nešto željeza?“ Nažalost, kada sam došao tamo – pojavio se Ray. Krivo me je čuo i pomislio je da pokušavam napraviti plakat te nije bio spreman odvesti me u rudnike. Ali, nakon nešto nagovaranja, uspio sam ga nagovoriti.
(Video) Ray: It was Crease Limestone, and that was produced by sea creatures 350 million years ago in a nice, warm, sunny atmosphere. When you study geology, you can see what's happened in the past, and there were terrific changes in the earth.
(Video) Ray: To je vapnenac. Stvoren je od morskih bića prije 350 milijuna godina u lijepoj, toploj, sunčanoj klimi. Kada učiš geologiju, možeš vidjeti što se dogodilo u prošlosti. A dogodile su se ogromne promjene.
Thomas Thwaites: As you can see, they had the Christmas decorations up. And of course, it wasn't actually a working mine anymore, because, though Ray was a miner there, the mine had closed and had been reopened as a kind of tourist attraction, because, of course, it can't compete on the scale of operations which are happening in South America, Australia, wherever. But anyway, I got my suitcase of iron ore and dragged it back to London on the train, and then was faced with the problem: Okay, how do you make this rock into components for a toaster?
Thomas Thwaites: Kako možete vidjeti, sve je bilo ukrašeno božićnim ukrasima. I, naravno, to više nije bio aktivni rudnik, zato što je, iako je Ray bio rudar, rudnik bio zatvoren i ponovno otvoren kao vrsta turističke atrakcije zbog toga, naravno, što se nije mogao natjecati s brojem radova u Južnoj Americi, Australiji, gdjegod. Ali, svejedno, dobio sam svoj kovčeg željeza i odnio ga natrag u London vlakom i tada bio suočen s problemom: Dobro, kako napraviti dijelove tostera od ovog kamena?
So I went back to Professor Cilliers, and he said, "Go to the library." So I did and was looking through the undergraduate textbooks on metallurgy -- completely useless for what I was trying to do. Because, of course, they don't actually tell you how to do it if you want to do it yourself and you don't have a smelting plant. So I ended up going to the History of Science Library and looking at this book. This is the first textbook on metallurgy written in the West, at least. And there you can see that woodcut is basically what I ended up doing. But instead of a bellows, I had a leaf blower. (Laughter) And that was something that reoccurred throughout the project, was, the smaller the scale you want to work on, the further back in time you have to go. And so this is after a day and about half a night smelting this iron. I dragged out this stuff, and it wasn't iron. But luckily, I found a patent online for industrial furnaces that use microwaves, and at 30 minutes at full power, and I was able to finish off the process.
Tako sam se vratio nazad profesoru Cilliersu koji je rekao: „Idi u knjižnicu.“ Tako sam otišao i prolazio kroz udžbenike za preddiplomski studij metalurgije – potpuno beskorisno za ono što sam pokušavao napraviti. Zbog toga, naravno, što ti ne kažu zapravo kako napraviti nešto ako želiš to napraviti sam, a nemaš peć za topljenje rude. Tako sam završio u knjižnici povijesti znanosti i gledao jednu knjigu. To je prvi napisani udžbenik metalurgije, na Zapadu barem. Tamo se može vidjeti da je zapravo ono što sam napravio bio drvorez. Ali, umjesto mijeha, imao sam puhač lišća. (Smijeh) I to je nešto što se iznova događalo cijelo vrijeme projekta, što niže na ljestvici je ono na čemu želiš raditi, to dalje u vremenu moraš ići. I to je ono što se dogodilo nakon dan i pol topljenja željeza. Dobio sam tu tvar, ali nije bila željezo. Srećom, našao sam patent na internetu za tvorničke peći koji koristi mikrovalnu. Trideset minuta na najvišoj temperaturi, i uspio sam završiti proces.
So, my next -- (Applause) The next thing I was trying to get was copper. Again, this mine was once the largest copper mine in the world. It's not anymore, but I found a retired geology professor to take me down, and he said, "Okay, I'll let you have some water from the mine." And the reason I was interested in getting water is because water which goes through mines becomes kind of acidic and will start picking up, dissolving the minerals from the mine. And a good example of this is the Rio Tinto, which is in Portugal. As you can see, it's got lots and lots of minerals dissolved in it. So many such that it's now just a home for bacteria who really like acidic, toxic conditions. But anyway, the water I dragged back from the Isle of Anglesey where the mine was -- there was enough copper in it such that I could cast the pins of my metal electric plug.
Tako, moja sljedeća – (Pljesak) Sljedeća stvar koju sam pokušao nabaviti bila je bakar. Ponovno, rudnik je nekad bio najveći rudnik bakra u svijetu. Više nije, ali pronašao sam umirovljenog profesora geologije koji me je odveo u njega. Rekao je: „Dobro, dat ću ti nešto vode iz mog rudnika.“ Razlog zbog kojega sam bio zainteresiran za nabavljanje vode jest, jer voda koja protječe rudnikom postaje na neki način kisela i počne se nakupljati, rastapajući minerale iz rudnika. Dobar primjer toga je Rio Tinto koji je u Portugalu. Kako možete vidjeti, ima veoma puno minerala rastopljenih u njoj. Toliko puno da je sada dom za bakterije koje jako vole kisele otrovne uvjete. Ali svejedno, voda koju sam donio natrag iz otočja Anglesey - gdje je rudnik bio – imala je dovoljno bakra u sebi da sam njime mogao omotati igle svoje metalne električne utičnice.
So my next thing: I was off to Scotland to get mica. And mica is a mineral which is a very good insulator and very good at insulating electricity. That's me getting mica. And the last material I'm going to talk about today is plastic, and, of course, my toaster had to have a plastic case. Plastic is the defining feature of cheap electrical goods. And so plastic comes from oil, so I phoned up BP and spent a good half an hour trying to convince the PR office at BP that it would be fantastic for them if they flew me to an oil rig and let me have a jug of oil. BP obviously has a bit more on their mind now. But even then they weren't convinced and said, "Okay, we'll phone you back" -- never did. So I looked at other ways of making plastic. And you can actually make plastic from obviously oils which come from plants, but also from starches. So this is attempting to make potato starch plastic. And for a while that was looking really good. I poured it into the mold, which you can see there, which I've made from a tree trunk. And it was looking good for a while, but I left it outside, because you had to leave it outside to dry, and unfortunately I came back and there were snails eating the unhydrolyzed bits of potato.
Moja sljedeća stvar: uputio sam se u Škotsku kako bih nabavio tinjac. Tinjac je mineral koji je jako dobar izolator i veoma dobar u izolaciji struje. To sam ja kako nabavljam tinjac. I zadnja tvar o kojoj ću govoriti danas jest plastika. Naravno, moj toster je morao imati plastično postolje. Plastika je definirajući dio jeftinih električnih dobara. Plastika se dobiva od nafte, i tako sam nazvao BP i proveo dobrih pola sata uvjeravajući djelatnika javnih odnosa BP-a da bi bilo odlično za njih kada bi mi platili let do platforme za iskopavanje nafte i dopustili mi uzeti lončić nafte. BP je očito imao malo više nafte na pameti. Ali, čak i tada nisu bili uvjereni i rekli su: „Dobro, nazvat ćemo vas“, nikad nisu. Tako sam potražio druge načine dobivanja plastike. Možete očito napraviti plastiku iz ulja koja dolaze od biljaka, ali i iz škroba. Ovo je pokušaj pravljenja plastike od škroba iz krumpira. Neko vrijeme se to činilo vrlo dobro. Ulio sam ga u kalup, koji možete vidjeti tamo, koji sam napravio od debla. Izgledalo je dobro neko vrijeme, ali sam ga ostavio vani jer ga morate ostaviti vani da se osuši i, nažalost, kada sam se vratio, puževi su jeli nehidrolizirane komadiće krumpira.
So kind of out of desperation, I decided that I could think laterally. And geologists have actually christened -- well, they're debating whether to christen -- the age that we're living in -- they're debating whether to make it a new geological epoch called the Anthropocene, the age of Man. And that's because geologists of the future would kind of see a sharp shift in the strata of rock that is being laid down now. So suddenly, it will become kind of radioactive from Chernobyl and the 2,000 or so nuclear bombs that have been set off since 1945. And there'd also be an extinction event -- like fossils would suddenly disappear. And also, I thought that there would be synthetic polymers, plastics, embedded in the rock.
Tako sam iz očaja odlučio da ću razmišljati sa strane. I geolozi su ustvari krstili – zapravo raspravljaju hoće li krstiti – razdoblje u kojem živimo – raspravljaju hoće li ga prozvati novom geološkom epohom nazvanom antropocen, razdoblje čovjeka. Zbog toga što bi geolozi budućnosti mogli vidjeli naglu promjenu u slojevima stijena koja se događa sada. Odjednom bi postala radioaktivna kao iz Černobila i oko 2.000 nuklearnih bombi koje su aktivirane od 1945. Također bi se dogodilo i istrebljenje – fosili bi iznenadno nestali. I, također, pomislio sam da bi sintetički polimeri, plastika, bili ugrađeni u stijene.
So I looked up a plastic -- so I decided that I could mine some of this modern-day rock. And I went up to Manchester to visit a place called Axion Recycling. And they're at the sharp end of what's called the WEEE, which is this European electrical and electronic waste directive. And that was brought into force to try and deal with the mountain of stuff that is just being made and then living for a while in our homes and then going to landfill. But this is it.
Potražio sam plastiku – odlučio sam da bih mogao iskopati nešto ovog današnjeg kamena. Otišao sam u Manchester posjetiti mjesto zvano Axion recikliranje. Oni su dio nečega što se zove WEEE, direktiva o električnom i elektronskom otpadu. Pokrenuti su kako bi pokušali i nosili se s hrpom stvari koja je upravo proizvedena i živi neko vrijeme u našim domovima i onda ide na smetlište. Ali to je to.
(Music)
(Glazba)
(Laughter)
(Smijeh)
So there's a picture of my toaster. (Applause) That's it without the case on. And there it is on the shelves. Thanks.
Evo slika mog tostera. (Pljesak) To je to bez presvlaka. Evo ga na policama. Hvala.
(Applause)
(Pljesak)
Bruno Giussani: I'm told you did plug it in once.
Bruno Giussani: Rečeno mi je da si ga i uključio jednom.
TT: Yeah, I did plug it in. I don't know if you could see, but I was never able to make insulation for the wires. Kew Gardens were insistent that I couldn't come and hack into their rubber tree. So the wires were uninsulated. So there was 240 volts going through these homemade copper wires, homemade plug. And for about five seconds, the toaster toasted, but then, unfortunately, the element kind of melted itself. But I considered it a partial success, to be honest.
TT: Da, uključio sam ga. Ne znam možete li vidjeti, ali nikad nisam uspio napravio izolaciju za žice. Djelatnici Kew Gardens - a bili su uporni da ne mogu doći i koristiti se njihovim plastičnim drvetom. Pa su žice bez izolacije. Tako je 240 V protjecalo ovim domaće izrađenim bakrenim žicama, domaće izrade uključenima. I za tih oko pet sekundi, toster je radio, ali tada, nažalost, dio se na neki način otopio sam od sebe. Ali smatrao sam to djelomičnim uspjehom - da budem iskren.
BG: Thomas Thwaites. TT: Thanks.
BG: Thomas Thwaites. (TT: Hvala.)