The Danger of Edwardian Quicklime Kilns

During the early 20th century during the Edwardian period, poverty was quite rampant in England and those who were homeless would often seek out quicklime kilns burning throughout the countryside in an attempt to stay warm during the night. Quicklime was produced to create mortar for buildings and is designed to neutralize the acidity of the bedrock within farming soil. Quicklime is created by mixing limestone with coal to produce and sustain a constant temperature of 900 degrees Celsius. Quicklime kilns produce carbon monoxide as a by-product among other caustic chemical vapors because of the burning limestone and those who slept beside the kilns would often be rendered unconscious while sleeping because of the carbon monoxide produced, sometimes causing them to shift or roll, and fall into the kiln which was typically few meters both in diameter and depth. These unfortunate victims would be cooked alive, only to be found days later when those producing the quicklime returned to check on their work

The Protoplanet Theia Creating the Earth’s Moon

The protoplanet which hit the Earth and created the moon is referred to as “Theia”. When Theia hit the Earth, its core fused with the Earth’s core sending enormous amounts of liquid rock into orbit. Because this liquid rock was in a magma like state, it was very easy for it to coalesce and from the moon. The collision changed Earth’s trajectory as a planet because metals like iron were released from the planets core, resetting Earth’s basic chemistry. Gasses like methane, carbon monoxide, and hydrogen, seeped into Earth’s atmosphere, gasses which were the building blocks of life. During the 1950’s, American chemist Stanley Miller carried out a classic experiment which included creating a cocktail of these gasses and simulating life on Earth by introducing electricity. What emerged was a film of brown slime, full of amino acids, the raw material of proteins, created by nothing but the very gasses already present on Earth. During the cooldown of the Earth after the collision, water vapor condensed to form oceans, oceans which were tidal by nature due to the moons gravitational pull. Chemicals found within the early oceans were aided by the moon as the moon pulled upon the Earth creating low tides which in turn were introduced to ultraviolet radiation from the sun as the sun’s heat evaporated the remaining water within those tidal pools. This constant wetting and drying of these tidal pools was the catalyst which created ribonucleic acid, complex molecules created by very simple materials under very simple conditions