[Terrapreta] The Reason for Pottery Shards in Terra Preta. Re: Char and compost ( was Char made made under pressurized conditions? )

[Gerald Van Koeverden]

The making of charcoal and pottery are inextricably related.   
Charcoal is used to fire ceramics in kilns, but also kilns are used  
to make charcoal.

for a neat review of the history of the development of ceramics from  
the earliest times, see

http://www.ceramicstudies.me.uk/index.html

gerrit


On 2-Apr-08, at 7:16 AM, David Hirst .com wrote:

> Is it possible that the pottery pots were used in the manufacturing  
> process? When full of stuff, it was set light, sealed up, and then  
> smashed open as part of the spreading process. Could it be that the  
> pottery baking was a by-product of the char-making? Could the clay  
> have been a soft, unbaked lining to a wooden container?
>
> Pure speculation, of course.
>
> David
>
>
>
> David Hirst
>
> direct:     +44 (0) 1723 570113
>
> mobile:   +44 (0) 7831 405443
>
> email:     david at davidhirst.com
>
> From: terrapreta-bounces at bioenergylists.org [mailto:terrapreta- 
> bounces at bioenergylists.org] On Behalf Of lou gold
> Sent: 02 April 2008 11:54
> To: MMBTUPR at aol.com
> Cc: terrapreta at bioenergylists.org
> Subject: Re: [Terrapreta] The Reason for Pottery Shards in Terra  
> Preta. Re: Char and compost ( was Char made made under pressurized  
> conditions? )
>
>
>
> Another good guess, I believe.
>
> If you look at the images in the BBC documentary of the "cut-away"  
> terra preta dig, it really looks like a honeycomb structure.
>
> And the density of shards is amazing. I wondered why? What function  
> and why so many? If you consider the population densities reported  
> by Francisco de Orellana (for example, a stretch of river where  
> people were living house-pressed-to-house for 20 miles) and the  
> normal volumes of human waste, it is easy to imagine huge amounts  
> of pottery shards.
>
> It seems to all be coming together, thanks to everyones' speculation.
>
> On Wed, Apr 2, 2008 at 7:29 AM, <MMBTUPR at aol.com> wrote:
>
>                from          Lewis L Smith
>
> The case of the pottery shards and the role of urine in terra preta  
> is fascinating.  Congratulations to all on a fine piece of  
> "detective work".
>
> However, a question sticks in my mind. Did the presence of lots of  
> shards in terra preta accidentally contribute to the effectiveness  
> of the ongoing chemical processes ?
>
> In Puerto Rico, researchers at the Bacardí rum distillery learned  
> that microbes which "snip" big molecules into smaller ones, like to  
> "sit down" while they do their work. So they greatly improved the  
> efficiency of the Company's digester for distillation slops by  
> placing a honeycomb like structure within in it. Without taking up  
> a lot of volume, this structure greatly increased the available  
> surface area to which microbes could attach themselves.
>
> I also recall from research into ocean-thermal energy conversion by  
> a former client, that there was a considerable loss of transfer  
> efficiency in the heat exchangers because the microbes in the sea  
> water like to attach themselves to the available surfaces rather  
> than float around.
>
> [ The solution turned out to be pretty simple. Every so often clean  
> the insides of the heat exchangers with a pots-and-pans cleanser,  
> such as Ajax. ]
>
> Query :  Is it possible that the surfaces of the shards contributed  
> to the terra-preta processes in an analogous fashion ?
>
> Cordially.
>
>
> **************
> Create a Home Theater Like the Pros. Watch the video on AOL Home.
> (http://home.aol.com/diy/home-improvement-eric-stromer? 
> video=15&ncid=aolhom00030000000001)
> _______________________________________________
> Terrapreta mailing list
> Terrapreta at bioenergylists.org
> http://bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/ 
> terrapreta_bioenergylists.org
> http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org
> http://info.bioenergylists.org
>
>
>
>
> -- 
> http://lougold.blogspot.com
> http://flickr.com/visionshare/sets
> http://youtube.com/my_videos
>
> _______________________________________________
> Terrapreta mailing list
> Terrapreta at bioenergylists.org
> http://bioenergylists.org/mailman/listinfo/ 
> terrapreta_bioenergylists.org
> http://terrapreta.bioenergylists.org
> http://info.bioenergylists.org

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: /attachments/20080402/d7eebf40/attachment.html