LIGHT OPTIONS, WHEN THE LIGHT BULBS ARE GONE

What have the Zetas said about the period of gloom from volcanic dust after the pole shift, which they have predicted to last 25 years,
diminishing, of course, during that time until we are again at sunlight as today.
Just how much light can we expect, from the Sun?

ZetaTalk: Gloom, written August 10, 2002
We have stated that the Earth will be under volcanic dust gloom for 25 years. Obviously, this will depend upon region, proximity to burping volcanoes, being down or upwind of same, and elevation. Volcanic gloom is always heavier within a thousand miles down wind from the volcano.

Thus, if one if outside of the downwind corridor, one escapes this heavy fallout. Volcanic gloom is always heavier at lower elevations in such places, as the heavier particles fall back to Earth, after being air born by the force of heat rising or explosions, and high elevations some 500 miles downwind from a burping volcano might find they have less dust than a lower elevation 1,000 miles downwind.

The size of the volcano also matters, and whether it is under water of above ground. As silly as this statement seems, this is something to consider when planning a survival location. Remember that the sea level will rise, our estimate some 675 feet above current levels.

If a volcano, such as those in Indonesia or the Philippines or Central America, goes under water during this time, the ash will be carried by water, not air. Also, some volcanoes ooze, others belch, and the amount of ash differs.

Thus, some areas will find themselves groping through the dusk for 40 years, as Moses reported where he wandered just east of the volcanoes in the Mediterranean, and other locations will find the gloom like overcast days, the sun rarely shinning through, but occasional sunlight beaming through like a promise.

In those areas, which can be plotted by careful analysis of the new geography and factors to be considered, survivors will find vegetation struggling through, but crops will still be pathetic to nonexistent. These areas will find after 15 years, that the gloomy days are lightening up, and think this a return to normalcy, in their joy.

Where this sounds terrible, it is NOT the nuclear winter many assume.

ZetaTalk: Nuclear Winter, written on Feb 15, 2002.
The nuclear winter much discussed during the Cold War in fact does not occur during heavy volcanic ash times. Has this occurred in the past? Mankind surmises this, with the extinction of the dinosaur attributed to heavy ash. This is all speculation, and as we have stated, the dinosaur died because of a virus, not a meteor strike.

Sunlight warms even if it cannot make it through he clouds. It warms the clouds, the air, etc. Thus, especially since the core is warming the Earth today with its increased swirling, you can expect that the core will continue to make the globe warmer, after the shift.

In addition, the atmosphere will be torn away, so the clouds will be lower and the atmosphere less of a block to the warmth of the sunlight than today. All reasons for the globe to stay warm, which it will. You can anticipate the same degree of warmth, per latitude, that you experience today. Sunburn and radiation are suppressed by the ash cloud, the one advantage.

And there will also be almost continuous drizzle.

ZetaTalk: Drizzle, added Nov 30, 2002
Drizzle occurs most certainly during the months following the shift, and thereafter depending upon location. The atmosphere is low, clouds low, as the atmosphere was stripped away during the shift and must rebuild.

Thus, clouds being low, is like continuous fog, and fog settles out in the form of rain, or drizzle, upon any slight temperature change. If the land is downwind from a large water source, like a lake or ocean, then certainly there will be fog, and drizzle, until the atmosphere rebuild.

Continuous drizzle, has been predicted for the world for some 25 years, during the time when volcanic gloom will also prevail and the clouds lie close to the ground. There is a nexus between volcanic gloom and the continuous drizzle we have predicted in the Aftertime.

The volcanic gloom, where wafted into the upper atmosphere, is less devastating than when held close to the ground, but this is what will be occurring. The atmosphere is low, and the volcanic dust can only rise so high. It is no secret that rain often is incited by dust, water forming around a particle, and this process will be in place worldwide.

It is the rain, to some degree, which cleans the air of the fine volcanic dust that will blow about, otherwise, seemingly endlessly. Thus, there is a relationship, the 25 years we have predicted for volcanic gloom, also being in place for continuous drizzle. This is not to say that survivors must live in their raincoats, as this will be a reducing phenomena, over the 25 years.

What does folklore tell us?
The last pole shift as during the Jewish Exodus, with the Bible and various papyrus from Egypt documenting what happened.
Where this part of the world, near a number of volcanoes in the Mediterranean and environs, suffered more volcanic dust than most lands,
it is nevertheless descriptive of how gloomy it can get.

In his book, Worlds in Collision, Immanuel Velikovsky has gathered folklore related to the gloom that descended around the world,
from volcanic dust.

If the eruption of a single volcano can darken the atmosphere over the entire globe, a simultaneous and prolonged eruption of thousands of volcanoes would blacken the sky. Volcanoes vomit water vapor as well as cinders.

Following the cataclysm, the author of Codex Chimalpopoca, in his history of the suns, shows us terrifying celestial phenomena .. followed by darkness that covered the face of the earth, in one instance for a period of 25 years.

In the years of this gloom, when the world was covered with clouds and shrouded in mist, the Quiche tribe migrated to Mexico, crossing a sea enveloped in a somber fog. In the Manuscript Quiche it is also narrated that there was 'little light on the surface of the Earth … the faces of the Sun and of the Moon were covered with clouds'.

In the Ermitage Papyrus in Leningrad .. there are lamantations about a terrible catastrophe, when heaven and earth turned upside down. After this catastrophe darkness covered the earth. 'The sun is veiled and shines not in the sight of men. None can live when the sun is veiled by clouds… None knoweth that midday is there; the shadow is not discerned … Not dazzled is the sight when the sun is beheld; he is in the sky like the moon'

In this description the light of the sun is compared to the light of the moon; but even in the light of the moon objects cast a shadow. If the midday could not be discerned, the disc of the sun was not clearly visible, and only its diffused light made the day different from the night. The gloom gradually lifted with the passing years as the clouds became less thick; little by little the sky and the sun appeared less and less veiled.

It is the time of the wandering of the Isralites in the desert. The "shadow of death" is related to the time of the wandering in the desert after the Exodus from Egypt. The sinister meaning of the words "shadow of death" corresponds with the description of the Ermitage Papyrus: "None can live when the sun is veiled by clouds."

The phenomenon of gloom enduring for years impressed itself on the memory of the Twelve Tribes and is mentioned in many passages in the Bible. Psalms 44:19 - "The people that walked in darkness .. in the land of the shadow of death." Isiah 9:2. And the Lord 'brought them out of darkness and the shadow of death.'


Nihongi, a chronicle of Japan from the earliest period, refers to a time when there was 'continuous darkness' and 'no difference of day and night'. It describes in the name of the Emperor Kami Yamato an ancient time when ' the world was given over to widespread desolation; it was an age of darkness and disorder. In this gloom Hiko-ho-no-ninigi-no-Mikoto fostered justice, and so governed this western border.

In China the annals telling of the time of the Emperor Yahou refers to the Valley of Obscurity and to the Sombre Residence as places of astronomical observations.

The name 'shadow of death' expresses the influence of the sunless gloom upon the life processes. The Chinese annals of Wong-shi-Shing, in the chapter dealing with the ten Stems, the Earth's primeval history, relate that 'at Wu, the sixth stem .. darkness destroys the growth of all things.'

The migration in central Polynesia, shrouded in gloom, is narrated in the traditions of the aborigines of this part of the world about a chief named Te-Erui who 'lived long in utter darkness in Avaiki', who migrated in a canoe named 'weary of drakness' to find a land of light, and who, after many years of wandering, saw the sky clearing little by little and arrived at a region 'where they could see each other clearly'.

In the Kalevala, the Finnish epos which dates back to an enormous antiquity, the time when the sun and moon disappeared from the sky, and dreaded shadows covered it. The dreaded shadow covered the earth when Ukko, the highest of the Finnish deities, relinquished the support of the heavens. Hailstones of iron rained down furiously, and then the world became shrouded in a generation-long darkness.

Vegetation died in the catastrophe. The Iranian book of Boundahis says 'blight was diffused over the vegetation, and it withered away immediately'. When the sky was shattered, the day became dark, and the earth teemed with noxious creatures. For a long time there was no green thing seen; seeds would not germinate in a sunless world.

It took many years before the Earth again brought froth vegetation. This is told in the written and oral traditions of many peoples. According to American sources, the regeneration of the world and of humankind took place under the veil of the gloomy shadows, and the time is indicated as the end of the fifteenth year of the darkness, ten years before the end of the gloom.

Q: OK, so we have our batteries and are prepared to recover them if they wear out. We have our power generating setup, wind or water or leg power or whatever. This gives us lights at a minimum, I would presume, but probably won't run the microwave oven, the washer and drying, the video games on the TV or PC, right? Life won't be the same, I imagine.

Yes this is very true. A typical person in today's civilization uses in the 10's of KiloWattHours/day, after the PS one will be lucky to be able to generate one thousand times less or in the 10s of watts/day per person. Expect to not use curler irons, irons, Coffee makers, toasters, dishwasher, cloths dryer, electric heaters, air-conditioning, hot plate, blow dryers, popcorn poppers, cooking with electricity, and high powered tools.

Because of the low amount of available power one will shift to task lighting being the most important. The charging of two way radios for local and distant communication being second in importance. Occasion laptop computer use to look up needed information as third in importance. Super energy efficient small refrigerators and freezers are a better more efficient choice than peltier junction coolers and could also be a third choice.

Providing a low power source of music may be considered a forth priority by some and an unneeded luxury by others. This could be implemented by using car stereo CD players or personal Juke box with battery powered external audio amplifier. Battery operated TV using DVD or tapes would be another luxury for occasional short term use.

Depending on power availability growing lights and water distillation is right up there in priority. These take a lot of power that most will not have. Sodium vapor with mercury vapor being second would be the most cost effective for growing purposes. LEDs have too much initial cost for most to use for growing and are best used for task lighting.

Task lighting is defined as just enough light directed in the needed direction to do the task at hand. This would be head lamps, flashlights, drop lights, and LED tail lights. Energy efficient LED lighting should be used in preference to anything else if available.

As a worst case low tech Christmas tree bulbs could be used. One can take a string of 30, 40, or 50 bulbs cut out a section and run on low voltage DC (direct current). 115 volts divided by the number of bulbs in the full string gives the number of volts needed for each bulb. In this way one can match the number of bulbs to the voltage of the storage battery in use. 30=3.8 volts, 40=2.8 volts, and 50=2.3 volts. This would result in needing to use 3 bulbs from the 30 bulb string, 4 bulbs from the 40 string, and 5 bulbs from the 50 string for a 12 volt battery hook up.

Krypton and Xenon flashlight bulb are next in efficiency. Fluorescents are next with LED lighting being the most energy efficient. A LED tail light bulb can be made to use less than .5 watt on high and .005 watt on low by adding in the proper resistors in series. LED night lights are easy to make using 4 AA or 12 volts and a proper series resistor.

Amber or yellow is used to avoid bugs and for night lights. A night light in this case would be one burning most or all of the night time hours. White would be used for task lighting and reading. Red is for seeing a distance at night and for indicating danger. Ultra violet is for attracting bugs into a traps and for spotting fungus, bacteria, urine and other biologicals. It can also be used to find bugs at night. For example scorpions will glow when a UV light is on them. It can be used to detect problems with skin. Green can be used for signaling that all is ok.

Does this answer you questions on this subject?

Q: Whats makes a LED (light emitting diode) superior? What about other lightbulbs, and what to do when they wear out! Perhaps by that time, we will have good old sunlight around in full force, and it won't be so much of an issue. Found a comparison done on the Troubled Times pages that talks about LED's as being superior.

I have attempted to formulate an apples to apples comparison between three different light sources showing the relative cost, efficiency and durability. One is what I consider to be a best case conventional light source, the high pressure sodium vapor lamp (HPS).

One I consider a worst case conventional light source, automobile headlamps. These lamps have a very short 300 hour lifespan and are not very efficient. However, since there will be many abandoned vehicles around you might even be able to get these for free.


And a new hybrid light source which is composed of light emitting diodes (LEDs) and a blue luminous tube. This last one, I think, represents our best hope as a light source for use in growing plants without sunlight. The LED component has a lifespan of several decades, 100,000 hours plus, and it is also very efficient.

For this example a 23 year time span was chosen.

High Pressure Sodium Vapor Lamp
Light Power Output: 36 lightwatts
Power Requirement: 250 Watts
Cost: $137
23 Year Supply: 5 lamps
Total Cost: $685

Automobile Headlamps. Using 60 lamps simultaneously
Light Power Output: 72 lightwatts
Power Requirement: 1440 Watts
Cost: $5
23 Year Supply: 40,296 lamps
Total Cost: $201,480

LED
Light Power Output: 36 lightwatts
Power Requirement: 192 Watts
Cost: $493
23 Year Supply: 1 (with the ability to rebuild the tube)
Total Cost: $493

The conclusion I hope you draw from this is that the LED/tube light source is superior. The LEDs will not all fail at once if they are not abused. They will fail one at a time after many years giving gradually reduced output, and are very tolerant to mechanical shock.

Yes, I agree if one can afford LEDs, they are more cost effective than other lighting over a 23 year time frame. Sodium lighting is a close second. I doubt many will be able to afford much more than LED task lighting.

To complicate the issue I have found that these things need to be designed to run at no more than half rated power to get anything close to rated life time. A lot of bulb manufacturers today don't know this. I see a lot of problems with current tail light and house bulbs that one can purchase from ebay.com. If one buys a 115 volt or 12 volt rendition and tests it, one will find out it doesn't last very long before the light drops way down. Knowing this one can modify the tail light bulbs by adding resistance to bring it down to half power and a decent life time. Typically I have found this to be in the order of 50 or more ohms for tail light bulbs. 115 Volt units are not easily modifiable. Better to make your own. I will be sending more details to TT-Forum in the near future on this.

Does this answer you questions on this subject?

Q: I understand LED's can be rebuilt, where the incandescent light bulb, or neon tube, or other such lamps are tricky to make. Here's something you posted in past years, on Troubled Times, Mike.

Current thoughts on how we might make our own gas filled light bulbs in the future.

* Blow glass tubes.
* Build in a electrode at each end.
* Evacuate by using several old refrigeration compressors in series. I have tested refrigeration compressors as vacuum pumps. They pull a pretty good vacuum.
* Fill with sodium, mercury, or other substance yet to be determined.
* Seal at a given low pressure.
* Apply high voltage to start and a lower voltage to run. The longer the tube, and the higher the pressure, the greater the voltage of operation.

The part that burns out in a LED can be replaced or rebuilt, right?

LED's are a very current technology. Super bright LED are a thing of the past 5-10 years. It takes the civilization a while to get up to this level before they start to be able to build these things efficiently. Two things can happen to a LED it can burn out and not produce any light or it can fade out and produce very little light for the amount of power input. If a LED is over driven then burn out is more likely.

The bottom line is there is no way that I know of to rebuild these things. Low pressure lighting would be far more likely to be able to repair. For one thing one could boost the voltage to existing tubes and get a bit more life out of them.

Does this answer you questions on this subject?

Q: I've been enamored of the idea of carbon arc lamps, as I read an article about the streets of London being as light as day, by these lamps. They do not have breakable parts, just carbon or graphite points together, with a tiny space between them which creates an arc. Pencil leads, I'm thinking, are prevalent. Carbon arc lamps were also used in the early days for movie making, and the actors got sunburn, which is one of their cautions. Of course, what one of the benefits is, they could GROW PLANTS!

Encyclopedia Britannica gives the historical background on carbon arc lamps:
The incandescent lamp was not the first electric lamp; lighting devices employing an electric arc struck between electrodes of carbon had been developed and were in use earlier. Used for street lighting, arc lamps had advantages, including reasonable reliability, high efficiency, and above all, a pleasant color, closely approximating natural sunlight.

The light of the arc lamp was particularly kind to the color of the human complexion and the stone of historic buildings. Partly for this reason, these devices were retained in dignified city settings - for example, in the City of London - long after more modern light sources had come into wide use.

A device for producing light by maintaining an electric arc across a gap between two conductors; light comes from the heated ends of the conductors (usually carbon rods) as well as from the arc itself. Arc lamps are used in applications requiring great brightness, as in searchlights, large film projectors, and floodlights.

Sir Humphry Davy constructed the first arc lamp (1807), using a battery of 2,000 cells to create a 4-inch (100 millimeter) arc between two charcoal sticks. When suitable electric generators became available in the late 1870's, practical use of arc lamps began. The Yablockhkov candle, an arc lamp invented by the Russian engineer Paul Yablochkov, was used for street lighting in Paris and other European cities from 1878.

Using hard graphite carbon rods (made like pencil leads) and a voltage of 45 to 60 volts with about 2 to 10 amps DC in a Simi closed environment (behind glass, with controlled air flow) consumes the least amount of carbon rod. DC work best but AC can be used. Current is limited by use of resistor (DC) or Inductance (Ac). This is necessary because of the negative resistance characteristic of the arc.

The electrodes when in use need to be in a slow continuous motion toward each other in order to maintain a given arc length and to compensate for the carbon burned up. All kinds of electro-mechanical setups are possible. Hissing of the arc indicates electrodes are too close or too much current.

Carbon electrodes are classified as molded carbons and forced carbons depending on how they are manufactured. Forced carbons are higher quality then molded carbons. Good electrodes of average size average about .15 ohm/foot. Positive electrode is consumed twice as fast as the negative.

Electrodes can be made from other types of carbon (petroleum coke, charcoal, certain types of coal, lampblack and carbon black from oil or natural gas) but it is not easy or likely in a primitive environment. Self-baking electrodes are used a lot in electric furnaces used to refined metals. The technique has promise if it can be setup see patents on this subject.

I promised Nancy a few years ago I would look into this subject. Every time I picked up the subject up to research I ran into a brick wall of complexity with much development done in the past that had dived out of site and was not readily available.

Finally after much looking... I realized this was not going to be something the normal primitive survival person would be able to accomplish. In other words it took until nearly modern times to develop the processes and techniques to make these electrodes.

It is as much an art as it is an engineering effort at extremely high temperatures and currents. I tried several experiments at making electrodes from ground up charcoal to no avail. They would not conduct electricity. I couldn't get them hot enough and compacted enough in a no air environment to make a graphitized conducting electrode.

I think if one has naturally occurring graphite available then it might be possible using the pencil making technique. This would be to fine grind the graphite and 5-10% clay and water, then heated to fuse clay making an electrode. If one can find big enough graphite chunks use them as-is for electrodes.

For human health, as we need sunlight to manufacture Vitamin D and often to keep from getting sad, depressed, our light needs to be full spectrum.
Plants need this also, to grow indoors or in a sheltered environment.
What does the term, full spectrum light, really mean?

It used to be that 'full spectrum' lighting meant lights which produced both ultraviolet B, ultraviolet A and the full visible spectrum as well infrared heat. Once incandescent manufacturers figured out that people were being told to look for 'full spectrum' lighting, they started to market their wide spectrum lights with 'full spectrum' in the ads and on packaging.

In fact, incandescents are just producing, if they are putting out bright white light, only the visible spectrum. Fluorescent light manufacturers weren't slow to get on this bandwagon, either - unfortunately, not all fluorescents produce UVB wavelengths, either.

Our regular incandescent bulbs don't cut it, unless they are sunlamp bulbs.
LEDS, those little light emitting diodes, also do not cut it unless they include, in the array, expensive blue light LEDS.
NASA studied this problem for the space station, where fresh vegetables are grown for the astronauts.

According to the summary published by NASA in conjunction with several universities, blue is essential to plant growth. Recommendation from that study is from 1% to 20% blue LED depending on plant and growth requirements. Blue LED's are out because they are very costly.

Please note that NASA used blue fluorescent lights as the supplementary blue light source. This is why I recommend the use of neon lights. The neon is the only routinely rebuildable light source I am aware of, and is long lasting at that (5 to 10 years).

True a certain web of technologies must be maintained to support neon tubes and you must be willing to deal with a modest amount of toxic mercury. I know of no other alternative for blue light. The luminous tube will also be able to supply needed ultraviolet light for disinfecting and vitamin D production.

Ugh. One more reason to go with carbon arc light.
Toxic mercury at the survival camp? Brain damage, here we come!
Flourescent bulbs, as with neon, also contain mercury vapor.
But, they are more efficient, in consumption of precious electricity.

From: How Things Work
By: Professor of Physics, The University of Virginia
The hot filament of an incandescent bulb delivers only about 10% of its electric power as visible light. In contrast, a florescent tube delivers about 25% of its electric power as visible light and some gas discharge bulbs (particularly low-pressure sodium vapor) deliver as much as 50% of their electric powers as visible light.

Q: How much life is consumed each time you turn on a fluorescent lamp?
A typical fluorescent tube will last about 50,000 hours if left on continuously but only 20,000 hours if it's turned on for just 3 hours at a time.

Q: how do they work?
A fluorescent tube uses an electric discharge in mercury vapor to produce ultraviolet light, which is then transformed into visible light by fluorescent phosphors on the inner surface of the tube.

Q: What is the composition of the phosphors used in fluorescent light bulbs?
The exact composition depends on the color type of the bulb, with the most common color types being cool white, warm white, deluxe cool white, and deluxe warm white. In each case, the phosphors are a mixture of crystals that may include: calcium halophosphate, calcium silicate, strontium magnesium phosphate, calcium strontium phosphate, and magnesium fluorogermanate. These crystals contain impurities that allow them to fluoresce visible light. These impurities include: antimony, manganese, tin, and lead.

Q: Do regular fluorescent lights emit ultraviolet light? If so, how does the ultraviolet level compare to what we would receive if we were outside?

Virtually all of this ultraviolet light is absorbed by the tube's internal phosphor coating and glass envelope. As a result, a fluorescent lamp emits relatively little ultraviolet light, far less than that of outdoor sunlight.
 
All these drawbacks.
The issues seem to be, when comparing these light bulbs and gas tubes,
1. ability to replicate full spectrum sunlight,
2. efficient use of electricity,
3. toxic components
4. ability to rebuild the bulb

How do we stack up?
INCANDESCENT light bulbs do not produce full spectrum light, and break, and require delicate filaments, glass blowing equipment, and a vacuum production, in order to manufacture.

LEDS only produce full spectrum if expensive blue LEDS are included, cannot be rebuilt in survival camps, and are not all that bright so one must have many, an expense.

NEON or FLOURESCENT have poisonous gasses in them, can and do produce full spectrum light, but to replace in a survival camp risks mercury and/or lead poisoning.

HALIDE bulbs are full spectrum, but to be rebuilt include the problems with incandescent bulb manufacture, with the addition of special gasses, sodium halide and the like.

CARBON ARC produces full spectrum and very bright light at the level of sunlight, requires only graphite points which are pencil leads, for replacement, but does require a strong direct current push in order to operate, therefore, the least efficient use of precious electricity.

So there it is.
Looking at the hour where we described 12V electricity,
DC vs AC,
power generating methods such as bike gen and wind and water mills,
the recharging and rebuilding our battery packs,
as well as this past hour discussing how to translate electricity to light, and what to do when the lightbulbs are all gone,

For those not thrilled about pumping up their batteries on bike racks, rebuilding their batteries by scrounging for metal parts and making fluid out of wood ash wash, and fussing with pencil lead points for a bit of full spectrum sunlight,
The alternatives are grim.

Getting light from fuels, oil or gas or coal or even wood, may not be that likely either.
Trees, the forests, will die before being reborn, and after awhile will be rotted or burned for fuel.

ZetaTalk: Rebirth, written prior to July 15, 1995
Trees will in the main die, as they do not have stores of energy that can be tapped, and rely on annual sunlight to maintain those portions of themselves that are live. Then how do trees survive, shift after shift? Seedlings, in fact, survive better, and many seeds do not sprout until years later.

It only takes a few sprouting seeds to perpetrate the species. Seedlings are tiny compared to the giant parent, and thus can move along with fewer nutrients. In fact, it is the seedling trees, growing a few years after the shift, that should be nurtured, not the dying parents. Just as after a forest fire, these are the trees of the future!

Natural gas will be dangerous, most refineries will explode, and any stores of gasoline or propane likely to prove murderous during the pole shift itself.

ZetaTalk: Storing Fuel, written Nov 30, 2002
We have stated that fossil fuels will soon run out, so should not be relied upon by survivors for the long term. We have also stated that refineries and storage tanks of oil and natural gas and gasoline will be broken and set afire during the shift, creating a holocaust for all nearby.

Likewise gasoline stations, fuel pumps, and even tightly sealed tanks may rupture and leak, also a continuing danger for any nearby. Natural gaslines in streets will run fire along the street, setting houses ablaze where they would otherwise not be in such danger.

Natural gas in lines under cities will cause explosions, setting the cities on fire and burning many trapped citizens in a painful death. We would advise all to do what Nancy did, which is to turn off the natural gas lines in the house, turn off at the street, and avoid gas cans or anything that can explode.

What do you gain by a few cans of gas? A few hours of heat or light? And what do you stand to risk in exchange? Your life? A painful death to others? Since you are going to have to adjust to life without these explosive fuels in any case, and soon, learn to get along without them!

If one does not have electricity, and is going the utterly crude route, there is always burning oil or animal fat.
This is similar to a wax candle.

A very efficient lamp for light and low heat can be made in the most primitive situations if one has the carcass of an animal. Even the leanest will have some body fat stored - sometimes under the skin - but most always some can be found around the internal organs, especially in the kidney area.

Ball up whatever you can, up to say about fist size. This basically will be your candle. A wick can be made from any plant fiber string or twisted from a strip of garment(cotton). Cordage can be made from many barks, grasses, or plant fibers. Wick diameter can be as one desires. Larger wicks burn brighter, but faster.

Melt a small quantity of fat (in a depression in a rock next to a fire) and soak the wick thoroughly. Form the ball firmly around the wick and you're set. It's best to place the "candle" in a fireproof container such as a hollow rock to catch the fats as it melts.

As it burns and melts it will "render" itself, the cracklings settling, the pure fat rising. The wick will eventually drown in the oil. Try to keep the burning portion out of the pool of oil.

It seems to be quite a struggle.
Any advice from ZetaTalk?

ZetaTalk: Generating Electricity, written Dec, 2002
Modern man is much dependent upon electricity, though only having arrived there within the last hundred years or so. In primitive countries, communities work hard during the day, sleep at dusk, rise at dawn, and have little need of lights except for the occasional lamp or campfire.

In pre-industrial days, this was likewise the mode, even the interiors of castles and palaces lit only by lamps, and then dimly. Modern man expects labor saving devices, entertainment, communication with the world, all at the press of a button.


Modern man will have to do a mega-mindshift after the shift if he thinks this will continue, as his life will be less than communities a century ago, for the following reasons:

1. Where in the past, sunlight even on gloomy days could be anticipated, after the shift for most parts of the world the light available will seem like going from dawn to dusk, skipping the mid-daylight entirely.
2. Oils and materials to burn, for light, will be scarce or water soaked, what with continuous drizzle in much of the world, so fires will be a treasured occurrence from carefully dried materials.
3. Batteries and generators will wear out within months, after continuous use by the desperate, with the shock of what has descended only coming late to these, not avoided.
4. Petro fuels, or fuels from vegetation such as corn or wood gas, will run out without the means to pump, refine, or grow in the gloom.
5. The lack of parts for mechanical repair, lack of skills in those isolated, and lack of success with crops, will doom all plans for fuels to be burned in the Aftertime.
6. Skills to build generators collecting power from wind and water will be spotty, and the missing link theory applied endlessly such that a single link, like battery storage, dooms the plans.

In light of all this, what can mankind expect? Nancy has been practicing, walking about her house for months now, in the dark such that she must grope to steady herself, and use touch, not sight, as a guide. Lights are used only when absolutely necessary.

Practice this, and see how little you need light to walk through your day! Story telling, group singing, eating and washing, enjoying the sounds and smells of the evening, none of this requires more than light enough to make out dim shapes.

Those who are used to electric lights, and in groups where the lack of this has plunged the group into depression, have avenues to generate this. Exercise is one of the great depression lifters, and racks of old bicycles, with the complainers pumping away, is not only a means of generating lights during the session, it is a group activity!

Group therapy, thus, becomes an exercise session where the 12V batteries are replenished. And perhaps the children would like to put on a play, practiced in the dark when they are put to bed and should be sleeping, whispered plans to surprise the adults.

The bike gen's can provide a flood light for their stage! Thus, it is not so much a loss, as a challenge, an opportunity to be resourceful, as all of life is.