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.
Ak sa rozhliadneme, väčšina toho, čo nás obklopuje, začalo svoj život ako rôzne skaly a usadeniny pochované hlboko v zemi na rôznych miestach sveta. Prirodzene ale, dnes už nevyzerajú ako skaly a usadeniny; vyzerajú ako kamery, monitory, otravné bezdrôtové mikrofóny. A práve táto magická premena je to, na čo som sa snažil zamerať vo svojom projekte, ktorý je známy ako Projekt Hriankovač. Bol inšpirovaný aj týmto výrokom od Douglasa Adamsa. Je to scéna zo "Stopárovho sprievodcu galaxiou". Táto situácia opisuje ako sa hrdina knihy -- muž z 20. storočia -- ocitne sám na neznámej planéte obývanej iba technologicky primitívnymi ľuďmi. A tak akosi predpokladá, áno, že sa stane -- pre týchto vidiečanov -- že sa stane ich vládcom a pretvorí ich spoločnosť svojou úžasnou vládou technológie, vedy a prvkov, ale, samozrejme, si uvedomí, že bez zvyšku ľudskej spoločnosti si ledva dokáže spraviť sendvič, nie to ešte hriankovač. Ale on nemal Wikipediu.
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.
Tak som si povedal, áno, pokúsim sa vyrobiť elektrický hriankovač od nuly. A tak, vychádzajúc z predpokladu, že najlacnejší elektrický hriankovač bude aj najjednoduchšie znovu zostrojiť, som išiel a kúpil najlacnejší hriankovač, aký som našiel, vzal ho domov a bol som mierne zdesený zistením, že vo vnútri tohto objektu, ktorý som kúpil len za 3 libry 94, sa nachádza 400 rôznych častí, vyrobených z niečo vyše 100 rôznych materiálov. Nemal som na tento projekt zvyšok svojho života; mal som možno tak 9 mesiacov. Tak som si povedal, dobre, začnem s piatimi. A to boli oceľ, sľuda, plast, meď a nikel.
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.
Takže, začínajúc s oceľou: ako vyrobíte oceľ? A tak som zaklopal na dvere predsedu spoločnosti Rio Tinto v oblasti Pokročilej ťažby minerálov na Kráľovskej baníckej škole a spýtal sa: "Ako sa vyrába oceľ?" A profesor Cilliers bol taký milý, že mi vysvetlil celý proces. A moje matné spomienky z maturity z prírodných vied -- oceľ sa vyrába zo železa, a tak som zavolal do železnej bane. Povedal som: "Dobrý deň, snažím sa vyrobiť hriankovač. Mohol by som si prísť zobrať nejaké železo?" Nanešťastie však, keď som tam dorazil -- objavil sa Ray. Zle mi rozumel a myslel si, že som prišiel, lebo som chcel vyrobiť plagát (poster) a teda nebol pripravený zobrať ma do baní. Po troche naliehania sa mi ho podarilo presvedčiť.
(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 bol zvrásnený vápenec. Vyprodukovali ho morské živočíchy pred 350 miliónmi rokov v príjemnej, teplej, slnečnej atmosfére. Ak študujete geológiu, môžete vidieť, čo sa dialo v minulosti. A boli to obrovské zmeny.
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: Ako vidíte, mali rozloženú vianočnú výzdobu. Už to, samozrejme, nebola fungujúca baňa, pretože, aj keď Ray tam robil baníka, baňu zatvorili a neskôr znova otvorili ako turistickú atrakciu, pretože, prirodzene, už nemohla konkurovať veľkosti projektov, aké sa dnes realizujú v Južnej Amerike, Austrálii, hocikde. Tak či tak, získal som svoj kufor železnej rudy a dotiahol ho vlakom naspäť do Londýna a potom nastal problém: Dobre, ako prerobíte túto skalu na súčiastky do hriankovača?
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.
Tak som sa vrátil za profesorom Cilliersom a on mi povedal: "Choďte do knižnice." A tak som išiel a prezeral som vysokoškolské učebnice metalurgie -- úplne nepoužiteľné na to, čo som robil ja. Pretože, prirodzene, vám vlastne nepovedia, ako to urobiť, ak to chcete spraviť sami a nemáte pec na tavenie kovov. Tak som nakoniec skončil v Historickej vedeckej knižnici čítajúc túto knihu. Toto je prvá učebnica metalurgie, teda aspoň v západnom svete. A ten drevoryt, ktorý vidíte, predstavuje to, čo som nakoniec robil. Ale namiesto mechov som mal odfukovač lístia. (Smiech) A to bolo niečo, čo sa počas toho projektu objavovalo znova a znova, a síce že v čím menšej škále chcete pracovať, tým viac do minulosti musíte ísť. A toto je výsledok po asi dni a asi polovici noci tavenia tej železnej rudy. Vytiahol som tú hmotu, ale nebolo to železo. Ale našťastie som na internete našiel patent na priemyselné pece používajúce mikrovlny. A pomocou 30 minút na plnom výkone som dokázal ten proces dokončiť.
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.
Takže, môj ďalší -- (Potlesk) Ďalšia vec, ktorú som sa pokúsil získať, bola meď. Opäť, táto baňa bola kedysi najväčšou medenou baňou na svete. Už to síce neplatí, ale našiel som profesora geológie na dôchodku, ktorý ma zobral dole. A povedal mi: "Dobre, nechám vás odniesť si trochu vody z bane." A dôvod, prečo som sa snažil získať vodu je ten, že voda tečúca cez bane sa postupne stáva kyslou a začne do seba naberať, rozpúšťať minerály z bane. A výborným príkladom toho je rieka Rio Tinto, ktorá sa nachádza v Portugalsku. Ako vidíte, má v sebe rozpustených veľa, veľa minerálov. Vlastne tak veľa, že dnes je domovom iba pre baktérie, ktoré obľubujú kyslé, toxické podmienky. Tak či onak, voda, ktorú som dotiahol z ostrova Anglesey, kde bola tá baňa -- bolo v nej dostatok medi, aby som dokázal odliať kolíčky mojej kovovej elektrickej zástrčky.
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.
Takže ďalšia vec: vyrazil som do Škótska, získať sľudu. Sľuda je minerál, ktorý je veľmi dobrým izolantom a veľmi dobrým v izolovaní od elektriky. To som ja, ako získavam sľudu. A posledný materiál, o ktorom tu dnes budem rozprávať je plast. A samozrejme, môj hriankovač musel mať plastový kryt. Plast je charakteristickou črtou lacných elektrických spotrebičov. A keďže plast sa získava z ropy, zavolal som do BP a strávil dobrú pol hodinu snažiac sa presvedčiť oddelenie styku s verejnosťou v BP, že by pre nich bolo fantastické, keby ma poslali na ropnú plošinu a nechali ma odniesť krčah ropy. BP má očividne teraz na práci iné veci. Ale ani vtedy neboli presvedčení a povedali: "Dobre, zavoláme vám späť." -- nikdy to neurobili. Tak som sa pozrel na iné spôsoby výroby plastu. Plast sa vlastne dá vyrobiť zjavne z ropy, ktorá je z rastlín, ale tak isto aj zo škrobu. Takže toto je pokus vyrobiť plast zo zemiakového škrobu. A chvíľu to vyzeralo naozaj sľubne. Nalial som to do formy, môžete ju tam vidieť, ktorú som vyrobil z kmeňa stromu. Chvíľu to vyzeralo veľmi dobre, ale nechal som to vonku, pretože to musí vyschnúť, a nanešťastie, keď som sa vrátil našiel som slimáky požierajúce nehydrolyzované kúsky zemiakov.
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.
Takže v podstate zo zúfalstva som sa rozhodol problém obísť. Geológovia vlastne pomenovali -- alebo teda diskutujú, či pomenovať -- vek, v ktorom žijeme -- diskutujú, či to vyhlásiť za novú geologickú epochu nazvanú antropocén, vek Človeka. A to preto, že geológovia budúcnosti uvidia celkom prudkú zmenu vo vrstve hornín, ktorá sa usadzuje teraz. Odrazu začne byť tak trochu rádioaktívna z Černobyľu a tých zhruba 2 000 nukleárnych bômb, ktoré sme odpálili od roku 1945. A tak isto sa objaví aj príznak vyhynutia -- napríklad skameneliny odrazu vymiznú. A taktiež, povedal som si, tam budú uložené syntetické polyméry, plasty, zapustené v skale.
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.
A tak som vyhľadal plastové -- tak som sa rozhodol, že si môžem vyťažiť trochu týchto súčasných hornín. Išiel som teda do Manchestru, aby som navštívil miesto nazývané Axion Recycling. Oni sú na úplnej špičke niečoho, čo sa volá WEEE, to znamená Európska direktíva elektrického a elektronického odpadu. Boli ustanovení a vytvorení na to, aby sa pokúsili vysporiadať s tou hromadou vecí, ktoré sú vyrábené, potom žijú chvíľu v našich domovoch a nakoniec idú na skládku. A toto je ono.
(Music)
(Hudba)
(Laughter)
(Smiech)
So there's a picture of my toaster. (Applause) That's it without the case on. And there it is on the shelves. Thanks.
Tak toto je fotka môjho hriankovača. (Potlesk) A takto vyzerá bez krytu. A takto vyzerá na polici. Ďakujem.
(Applause)
(Potlesk)
Bruno Giussani: I'm told you did plug it in once.
Bruno Giussani: Dozvedel som sa, že raz si ho aj zapojil.
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: Áno, pripojil som ho do siete. Neviem, či to bolo vidieť, ale nebol som schopný vytvoriť izoláciu na drôty. Kráľovské botanické záhrady v Kew trvali na tom, že nesmiem prísť a sekať do ich kaučukovníka. Takže tie drôty zostali neizolované. A 240 voltov teda prechádzalo cez tieto doma vyrobené medené drôty, cez doma vyrobenú zástrčku. A asi 5 sekúnd ten hriankovač fungoval, ale potom, nanešťastie, sa výhrevné teleso samo roztavilo. Ale považoval som to za čiastočný úspech, ak mám byť úprimný.
BG: Thomas Thwaites. TT: Thanks.
BG: Thomas Thwaites. (TT: Ďakujem.)