Do It Yourself: The ark of the covenant

by Nathan Natas 30 Replies latest watchtower bible

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  Nathan Natas

  The ark of the covenant was a primitive (well, it was wood) leyden jar: a capacitor.

  The shekinah light was a coronal discharge between the two terminals, which were in the form of the cherubs.

  My proposal: a team of aposta-engineers work together to

  1. calculate the electrical properties of the ark of the covenant

  2. BUILD a replica ark and determine if it operates within the anticipated performance range

  I really don't think this is as wacky as it might first seem to be. We can do this! We will need to agree on the specs - given in archaic terms like "cubit", etc., but we can get around that. We will also be able to determine what specs were not given in the original Mosaic plan.

  We need people with metalworking skills, woodworking skills and physics/electronics skills.

  Imagine the look on their faces when a team of apostate techno-priests carries a functioning ark into a district convention! "Oops! don't touch that box!"
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  Inquisitor

  Were your ideas inspired by a recent periodical? Can't remember if it was the Skeptics Magazine. Anyone else know which one I'm talking about?

  INQ
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  LDH

  Imagine the look on their faces when a team of apostate techno-priests carries a functioning ark into a district convention! "Oops! don't touch that box!"

  You kill me.

  For effect, you should pretend to drop it, see who reaches out to catch it, and then bust a cap in their ass, which is what the Lord Jehuber did.

  Lisa

  Right on man!!! Class
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  Nathan Natas

  Lisa predicted,

  You kill me.

  Not me, the box! That darned box!

  For effect, you should pretend to drop it, see who reaches out to catch it, and then bust a cap in their ass, which is what the Lord Jehuber did.

  Ironic choice of words! Excellent!

  (slipping smoothly into boring pedantic mode)

  "Cap" of course, is an abbreviation of "capacitor" which is exactly what a Leyden Jar/ Ark of the Covenant really is. It is a device that stores an electrical charge. Although the voltage on such a device can reach impressive levels - as it must, to produce the corona effect, ionizing the air between the two cherubs, er, I mean terminals. But as they say about electricity, it isn't the voltage that kills you - it's the current (quantity of electrons flowing in a given period of time). a capacitor the size of the ark - roughly 3 feet by 2 feet by 2 feet - would probably be able to hold a charge large enough to kill a man.

  So "bust a cap" is totally appropriate! Right on, Lisa!

  I think the ark might have been mentioned recently in the Fortean Times, which got me thinking that UADNA needs its own working Ark of the Covenant. We challenge the Watchtower magicians to match our magic!
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  Inquisitor

  We challenge the Watchtower magicians to match our magic!

  Hahahahaa... Moses and Aaron vs Jannes and Jambres all over again. Wicked!

  INQ
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  gumby
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  Stephanus

  And the gold needed for this experiment is coming from...where, exactly?
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  Nathan Natas

  And the gold needed for this experiment is coming from...where, exactly?

  ...from brass, actually.

  Gold is one of the very few metals that is found in nature in its pure (non-oxidized) state. Thus, for the primitive Israelites who knew nothing about metalurgy, gold was the best bet as an electrical conductor. There is no special chemical property of gold that makes it a better choice.

  So we will use brass to line the inside and outsside of our acacia wood (cedar?) box.

  Another metal that is sometimes found in its pure state is Hydragyrum - "liquid Silver" - Mercury.

  A chest filled with mercury would probably hold an even greater electrical charge, but 12 cubic feet of mercury would weigh an awful lot - about 5 tons.
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  Stephanus

  Brass is nowhere near as good a conductor of electricity as gold. If we were going to go after a cheaper but comparable substitute, I'd recommend silver.

  I bags any turning/milling operations! When I was an apprentice at the steel works, I watched a piece of silver being machined to make an electrical contact for use somewhere out in the plant. A security guard oversaw the operation to make sure all the metal scrap was accounted for. Ever since that day, I've wanted to see what it's like to machine large pieces of precious metal.
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  Jim_TX

  RE: Which metals to use...
  Well... in lieu of using Gold or Silver... one might also consider using copper or aluminum.
  Copper is a better conductor than aluminum... but in some cases aluminum might be easier to use.
  I just got a brain-flash. If one were to build a scale model box out of wood... one might be able to easily line it with aluminum foil.
  A leyden jar. I hadn't thought of that one.
  I wonder what other devices are described in the bible that are 'common' today.
  Regards,
  
  Jim TX