Preliminary Coal Ball Scan
The above is a test embedded image using www.seadragon.com
Click on the Image to zoom and drag to pan.
link to full resolution image: http://www.flickr.com/photos/13756686@N05/4400942531/sizes/o/
A scan of three acetate / acetone peels that the paleo-botany department does on coal balls. Coal balls are the not quite coal cast off when coal mining on the fringes of a seam. This is a preliminary test scan for a future body of work inspired by: Thom Atkinson’s photographs of rock samples from Ernest Shackleton’s Antarctic expedition of 1908.
Big Muskie: King of the Giants

I just received a scanned copy of an article about Big Muskie!
citation:
Coal Age, 1969, Big Muskie; King of the Giants: v. 74, no. 12, p. 50-60
from:
Anne M. Huber, M.L.S.
Library and Public Information
Office of the Director
ILLINOIS STATE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN
Phone: 217-333-5110
E-mail: huber@isgs.illinois.edu
Coal collecting and Mine Tour
Last week I drove to New Lexington Ohio to find a large piece of coal on the word of the old man that sells antiques in Shawnee. I talked my way into a tour of the Strip Mine / Landfill with Bill Glass the foreman of the landfill side of the operation. I did not take a camera but my phone did the job.
View Larger Map
Archive Coal Cut-out
The following image is a test for a series of work in which I remove the image from a scanned archival image then rescan the image with coal in place of the original image.

Appalachian Carboniferous Map
Below is a simple map of Appalachian states. The black line on the map denotes the outer borders of the carboniferous, meaning coal-bearing, portion of this region.

Big Muskie First Person
This is a video exploration of the monument to Big Muskie from my point of view.
Big Muskie was the Second Largest piece of land moving equipment ever made.
Here are some of the Dimensions I found on the following site: http://www.worsleyschool.net/science/files/extreme/muskie.html
Weight:
12 million kilograms (12,000 tonnes)
27 million lbs. (13,500 tons)
Bucket Capacity:
165 cubic m (220 cubic yards)
295 tonnes (325 tons)
Height: 68 m (222 ft)
Length of the boom: 95 m (310 feet)
Total length with boom: 149 m (488 ft)
Width: 46 m (152 ft)
Empty bucket weight: 209 tonnes (230 tons)
Power cable diameter: 12.7 cm (5 in)
Electrically powered: 13,800 volts
Big Muskie moved, as do most large mobile drag lines, on two huge hydraulically driven walking feet.
Big Muskie First Person POV from Jeff Lovett on Vimeo.
A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash
This movie is a major inspiration for my recent body of work. The impending oil crash is in many ways analogous with the coal crash in south east Ohio, specifically Shawnee.
Downloadable resources from the film's Website







