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To the lighthouse diaries
Far from shy
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Mike Bullivant's diary about the challenge for the To the Lighthouse programme, from the BBC/OU series Rough Science 5
After a one-day break, it's back to Chuini. This time Kate has set me the challenge of improving the illumination of a lighthouse that we're going to build on Bawe Island, one of the coral islets a few miles due west of Stonetown. As Ellen's planning to use oil lamps for the lighthouse's light source, the easiest way I can think of to improve their brightness is to devise some way of increasing the oxygen levels in the atmosphere surrounding the lamps. I can easily produce oxygen by passing an electric current through water containing a few drops of car-battery acid. It's a process called electrolysis, and what's more, I've actually been given some graphite electrodes to build the electrochemical cell.
I try the system out on a small scale, and sure enough, pure oxygen comes off at one electrode, and pure hydrogen at the other. I'm not interested in the hydrogen though; for this challenge I just want the oxygen. All I have to do for the rest of today and tomorrow is scale up the process, to produce the gas in sufficient quantities. Again, this is a comparatively easy challenge for me. The four of us will need to work together closely though, to ensure that each of our individual contributions to the challenge can be brought together on Day 3.
By now, I've formed a few friends among the nine-strong team of security guards and drivers based at Chuini. We have a great laugh together, and their company is a welcome break from the intensity of filming. 'Dullah is into music and borrows my portable juke box every day, Tino enjoys an opportunity to polish his English, which is already very good - much, much better than my Swahili. Mao, Zaccariah and Armani are still reticent, but we're warming to each other. For this second challenge it's another guard, Ali, who offers me his help. It's gratefully received, and besides, it's important to involve these guys as much as possible, not only to satisfy their interest, but also to help them feel more widely involved in the overall project.
The time has flown today, and by late afternoon, all I've done is a short piece to camera explaining the electrolysis process. I'm going to have to get my skates on, as one of the Directors tells me that the local tides dictate that we'll have to leave for Bawe Island at 11.45 in the morning of Day 3. That's a whole half-day 'lost'. I can appreciate that life on Zanzibar is predicated on the tides, but it comes as a shock to hear that my contribution to this challenge will effectively have to be completed in little more than two days - even less time than I had in Programme 1.
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Content last updated: 26/01/2005
