"Your first task is to send a message to BP introducing yourself."
greeted me as I completed my subscription to this list.

I've read through a few odds & ends in the archive and decided to
subscribe anyway.

I own the Thompson Conservation Laboratory (also Istor Productions, which
produces videotapes, and the Caber Press, which publishes things that
interest me) in Portland, Oregon, USA.

The lab opened for business in 1976 and is a reflection of my interests
in olde stuff.  Medieval books are my main interest because they represent
a number of technologies.  Wood, metal, skins, dyes, tools, chemistry, and
technology.

In the lab, I have the regular stuff: microscopes, gas chromatograph, UV-VIS
spectrophotometer, 4,000+ volume research library, etc.

At my place in Idaho (off the grid; nice and quiet) I have another laboratory,
of sorts.  There, I've been teaching an annual workshop about the technology
of the medieval book and have built a three-hammer stampmill operated by
a 4 ft. dia. overshot waterwheel.

Taking some time off right now to have a large pond dug out to supply the
power for a larger stampmill/papermill (nine hammers; 8 ft. dia. overshot
waterwheel.

Some of the dirt coming out of the pond site will level out an area where
I will be building some wattle & daub hovels for workshop participants to
live during the workshops.

A layer of nice red clay is being clumped together to provide material for
a kiln to produce bricks, tiles, and the odd plate.

A layer of blue clay is being held in reserve in case the pond develops
a hole....

Near Portland is the site of a red pigment mine which I am mining (now
that the paint company is no longer using it) to gather material for
turning into wrought iron using a Catalan-style forge.  The iron will
be used in the new papermill.

That's about it.

Jack

Jack C. Thompson
Thompson Conservation Laboratory
Portland, Oregon
USA

503/735-3942  (voice/fax)

http://www.teleport.com/~tcl