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The Ark Of The Covenant: A Battery?

S

Shoegazer

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207: Ark of the Covenant

I really enjoyed the article but thought it was a bit "way out there" and the evidence was thin. What did other people think of this one? I expect more than a few letters about it in the next few issues.

Emp edit: The article is here:
forteantimes.com/articles/207_ark1.shtml
Link is dead. The MIA webpage can be accessed via the Wayback Machine:
https://web.archive.org/web/20060613083302/http://www.forteantimes.com/articles/207_ark1.shtml

The article is segmented into 4 parts. Just follow the links to see all four.
 
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Not a lot in the article that I hadn't heard before. Mostly the discussion of the role of the tabernacle was new to me. Seemed like another, "I've got a book coming out, here's a teaser" type articles. That said, the article seemed like a good overview of the subject and could stand on its own two feet.
 
If there was a prize for 'Most Generic Article of the Year', then Re-engineering the Ark would walk it. It's little better than a rehash of Von Daniken's theories minus the aliens. Even the poor old Baghdad Battery gets dragged into it.

I suppose next month Messrs Blackburn and Bennett will be presenting us with their startling new theory that the Nazca lines were designed to be seen from the air.
 
Well it was fairly generic (even Arthur C Clarke's saying got dragged out) and while I enjoyed it really left me wanting more. I agree I had heard (although not in any significant detail) about the Ark in this way before but not the Tabernacle.

But where was the motive or origen behinmd this ancient tech?
 
Reminded me of odd stuff I read twenty years ago - the manna machine and all that.

I prefer FT when it is examining weird stuff rather than proposing it. :?
 
Old news.

Easy to prove though. Why don't they just build one?
 
I still think the 'Baghdad batteries' were a German museum keeper's idea of a joke. The use of contemporary lead/tin solder's a bit of a giveaway.
 
I found the article to be quite interesting. Next I would like to see a working model made, just to prove what they were saying. Shouldn't be too hard.
 
Didn't Mythbusters try to build one, but the charge wasn't big enough. Although they did only coat the angels with gold rather than make them solid.
 
The Mythbusters had an episode where they tried to find out what the Bagdad batteries could have been used for, so they built a replica of the arc to see if the batteries could be used to create an impression of divine presence. With a whole bunch of batteries they had a charge of a couple of volts. Then, for some reason, they connected the arc to a car battery and zapped Adam, and concluded that you could have used the arc and the batteries to create a divine experience, without actually having tried it...if I remember correctly.
 
It wasn't a car battery. It was the transformer from an electric fence they had used for the "Peeing on the fence" myth.

This was because they'd decided that there wasn't enough Ooomph in the Baghdad Batteries.
 
graylien said:
I suppose next month Messrs Blackburn and Bennett will be presenting us with their startling new theory that the Nazca lines were designed to be seen from the air.
Click to expand...

That's certainly one theory, but if you've ever flown over them, they are bloody hard to see, and most of them are tiny! Plus, only about half of the ones you see seem to be "genuine" - the rest are modern, made to attract the tourists, especially the "alien/spaceman", which is probably the most easily seen!

And there's a very good chance you'll feel horrendous on the flight - bumpy doesn't do it justice, and you're constantly flying on one wing-tip, then the other one so everyone gets a chance to see the markings.
 
I was amazed that something this silly got in. Or was it intended to be another one like the Sender theory?

"Easy to prove"

No, impossible to prove, easy to disprove, but they wouldn't want that.
Approximately how many people get killed by static electricity buildup per year? The amount of charge is waaaaay too low.

This really is just rehashed Von Daniken. FT deserves a lot better.
 
Tabernacle!

Sorry, you'd have to be Canadian to get the joke - Tabernacle, pronounced Tabernak, is a swear word.....

It's difficult to make sense of the article - features that just aren't mentioned in the bible, like a chain and gaps in the gold plating have to be added to make the box a capacitor, there's no explanation of how the interior of the box came to have a differential charge in the first place - capacitors don't "produce" electricity, they store it, and if no one could touch the ark without dying by electrocution, how come men could carry it around by poles covered in gold, a very good conductor?
Also, Michael Blackburn does not appear in the IMDB.com credits for the movie "The Last Emperor".
 
Ark of the covenant: battery

Interesting article on site about the ark, however, it begs the question;
Why would god the creator need a power pack?
 
Re: Ark of the covenant: battery

smokinggun1 said:
Interesting article on site about the ark, however, it begs the question;
Why would god the creator need a power pack?
Click to expand...

Perhaps God is a robot or computer? 8)
 
God didn't need a battery, but the Hebrews were wandering around with one. So what did they need it for?

Ohhh darn, now my recollection of the arc stories is all muddled with Indiana Jones stuff. I shall go do some sensible reading.
 
Has an actual working model of an 'ark of the covenant' battery been built, or is this still just speculation?
 
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Im as willing to believe its as feasible that God is a robot or super computor as i am he is a supreme all powerful being that created the universe... :)

And maybe the Hebrews carried a battery around with them for the same reason we do... to power our personnel cd players/ torches/ etc ;)

Also, I heard somewhere that the ark was kept in certain places with high electromagnetism (dont know if the ark builders knew it was electromagnetism at the time) where it concerntrated, built up and stored the electrical/ electromagnetic energy, which is what supplied it with its charge...

Maybe it never did produce a large enough charge to kill anyone, but did produce enough to give a person or people a nasty shock... which, along with a little exaggeration, could still impress and keep in line the masses they encountered on their travels
 
Ive just thought, is the Mt Sinai area known for its gold??

...Because they (the builders) are slaves who have just escaped from their masters (the pharoahs) and are now wandering in the wilderness... where did they get the gold to produce the ark??

Unless it was in great supply in the Mt Sinai area ready to be mined... which is reasonable i suppose as the other materials used were supposedly readily available in the area...

Just wondered if the area is, or was once, rich in gold deposits...??
 
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