Winning coal at 78° North : mining, contingency and the Chaîne Opératoire in old Longyear City

The purpose of this thesis is to analyze the evolution of an early 20th century mining system in Spitsbergen as applied by Boston-based Arctic Coal Company (ACC). This analysis will address the following questions: Did the system evolve in a linear, technological-based fashion? Or was the progression more a product of interactions and negotiations with the natural and human landscapes present during the time of occupation? Answers to these questions will be sought through review of historical records and material residues identified during the 2008 field examination on Spitsbergen. The Arctic Coal Company’s flagship mine, ACC Mine No. 1, will serve as the focus for this analysis. The mine was the company’s largest undertaking during its occupation of Longyear Valley and today exhibits a large collection of related features and artifacts. The study will emphasize on the material record within an analysis of technical, environmental and social influences that guided the course of the mining system. The intent of this thesis is a better understanding of how a particular resource extraction industry took root in the Arctic.

USE OF AN ELECTRICAL IMPEDANCE TOMOGRAPHY METHOD TO DETECT AND TRACK FRACTURES IN A GELATIN MEDIUM

Electrical impedance tomography is applied to the problem of detecting, locating, and tracking fractures in ballistics gelatin. The hardware developed is intended to be physically robust and based on off-the-shelf hardware. Fractures were created in two separate ways: by shooting a .22 caliber bullet into the gelatin and by injecting saline solution into the gelatin. The .22 caliber bullet created an air gap, which was seen as an increase in resistivity. The saline solution created a fluid filled gap, which was seen as a decrease in resistivity. A double linear array was used to take data for each of the fracture mechanisms and a two dimensional cross section was inverted from the data. The results were validated by visually inspecting the samples during the fracture event. It was found that although there were reconstruction errors present, it was possible to reconstruct a representation of the resistive cross section. Simulations were performed to better understand the reconstructed cross-sections and to demonstrate the ability of a ring array, which was not experimentally tested.