If I were a collier but then again no

DID YOU KNOW? Upon Warren G. Harding's death, E. E. Cummings remarked, "The only man, woman or child who wrote a simple declarative sentence with seven grammatical errors is dead."

Sam's Mom and I went to the historic Cornwall Iron Furnace today. It was the seventh iron furnace put into operation in the state of Pennsylvania. We saw a bunch of cannons and cannonballs dating from 1776 and almost got killed by a snake. Also I learned that James Buchanan was a heterosexual.

Most interestingly we got to watch a video filmed at Hopewell Iron Furnace. I think I actually watched this video at MIT when I took STS.001: Roe v. Technology. The first section of the video showed us how charcoal was made in the 18th century.

First, you chop down a cord of wood. You take some thin pieces and make a chimney out of them, and then you build a huge two-story pile around it with all the other pieces. The video didn't mention it, but throughout this chopping process you are also on the lookout for brown recluse spiders. You cover the pile with a foot of dry leaves from the forest floor and then a foot of dirt. Then you jump up on the pile, drop some hot coals down the chimney and cover it up with a big chunk of wood.

You let it burn for two weeks. But every day you have to make sure that there aren't any air pockets, because that's dangerous. The pile could collapse or something. So you walk up on top of this flaming mound that is spewing noxious gas out of every pore and to get rid of any air bubbles and prevent it from collapsing, you jump up and down. You stomp it down. Because it might be structurally unsound. Then after two weeks you start digging out the coals with a shovel. Unless they're still on fire. Then you have to seal the pile back up and stomp on it some more and let it sit there until the fire goes out.

It struck me watching this video that colliery is actually first-generation biofuels research c. 1750. You're taking plants and instead of just straight-up burning them, you're making them into a fuel that's easier to transport, has a higher energy density, and burns better. Just instead of enzymes and fermentation you're using a gigantic flaming pile of wood for two weeks.

So, yo, if biofuels researchers 250 years ago were stomping on unstable flaming piles of dirt in the name of their craft, complaining about qualifying exams seems a little overdone.