CASE STUDY 1: The CITY OF ADELAIDE is the last composite (constructed of steel and wood) clipper-ships to survive today, albeit in a lonely slipway in Irvine (Scotland) with a long overdue Demolition order hanging over it. It is the sister ship to the CUTTY SARK which found fame from carrying tea from China and wool from Sydney. The CITY OF ADELAIDE is 6 years older than her sister and was designed to carry imported trade goods into South Australia as well as exports such us our grain, wool and copper. As an immigrant ship it had passengers from England, Scotland, Germany and Ireland. The BID TO SAVE THE CITY OF ADELAIDE action group propose that 1/5 South Australians are descended from its passenger list. As Peter Goers so rightly put, preserving history is not always financially practicable, but even if we cannot save historical icons like the clipper ship, CITY OF ADELAIDE, let us use the lesson of its existence to improve our future. LESSON NO.1 RECYCLING PRECIOUS RESOURCES Laid & Wove Paper The First handmade paper was made from linen (flax or hemp fibre) rag pulp that was washed, boiled and macerated to separate the fibres. Most paper consists of cellulose materials and pre-1800 also utilized hemp, flax, mulberry and rice fibres. I urge Visitors and locals to visit to the Institute of Economy in the Adelaide Botanical Gardens to experience an excellent display of these elements. “Until 1883, over 75-90 % of paper was made with hemp & flax products” (http://www.hfmgv.org), which were sourced from worn-out clothes, curtains, diapers, old hemp fishing lines and sails. The latter items were sold by ship owners to scrap dealers, or “Rag ‘n Bone Men”, who in turn sold them for recycling into paper. Rag paper was the epitome of the phrase ‘waste not want not’. Laid paper was made by dipping a wooden mould and deckle into a fibre suspension slurry. The resulting paper had a “grid” pattern in the sheet, a result of the rag pulp resting against wires stretched across the timber frames. However, Laid paper was handmade and the higher demand created by the industrial revolution had a solution for this slow production which was high quality wove paper using netted wire. This was invented by James Whatman in 1756. The strength of rag paper is due to the long length of the fibres as opposed to short wood fibres that were to used later. It is believed that Rag paper containing hemp fibre and mulberry, is the highest quality and the longest lasting ever made, surviving up to five hundred years so far. After the Steam Engine was adapted for ocean travel, this magnificent primary resource of the paper industry was a threatened species. Some enterprising German inventers started to try out other sources and settled on soft wood conifers which became the default source of paper after 1883. We now know that the element, Lignin, in wood pulp paper guarantees it WILL have a limited life since as Lignin ages it produces acid thereby giving paper the defining feature of an aspirin.
LESSON NO.2 GROW HEMP & FLAX NOT COTTON Cotton is a pure product and is free of Lignin, hence the acid that element produces, but the Fibres made from Flax and Hemp do not have the high water requirements of Cotton (refer to the state of the Murray/ Darling river system and the degradation of the Lower Lakes). The different features of both plants can make fabrics, archival paper, construction materials, and linseed oil is useful in industry as an alternative to petro-chemicals ( eg linseed oil is prevents the incidence of rust and in the diet provides Omega essential fatty acids so has medicinal qualities as well)
LESSON NO 3. WIND POWER LESSENS CARBON OUTPUT With Global concerns about the Human Carbon Output and its effect on climate change (also read the opinions of Ian Plimer in HEAVAN & EARTH), the cargo ship operators sought a way to reduce the cost of producing that carbon by burning the crude fossil fuel necessary to power these huge craft. In the Sydney Morning Herald January 23rd, 2008, the MS Beluga, a the world’s first modern cargo ship, set sail from Germany bound for Venezuela partially powered by a 160-square-metre GIANT KITE (now where have we seen that before?) “During the next few months we will finally be able to prove that our technology works in practise and significantly reduces fuel consumption and emissions” said Stephen Wrage of Skysails. The huge vessel is pulled along by a computer-controlled kite attached to the bow of the ship. The computer regulated the sail efficiency retracting it when wind conditions changed hence achieving the optimum benefit. The result was the kite and modern technology attached to it assisted the engines , reducing fuel consumption by “up to 35 percent depending on the prevailing conditions”
a) Reduces Carbon output hence the amount of Offset when Carbon trading is introduced
b) Saves money in fossil fuel costs
c) Proves that what worked for human kind for centuries is still relevant and can be made more efficient by the applying modern technology.
d) History and the future are symbiotic. If all the generations get together just think of what can be achieve!
CONCLUSION.... and biggest lesson Most lessons have already been practised and the results, beneficial or not, are recorded by Historians. As an Antiquary specializing in prints generated by the inhabitants of the past, and a practising Conservation framer, I maintain CONSERVATION IS MORE COST EFFECTIVE THAN RESTORATION (and designed obsolescence = landfill and pointless waste) P.S. I have many more case studies in my head but just not word processed yet!
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