Prometheus is more than just the name of a big summer movie opening next week. It鈥檚 a furnace 鈥� in fact, the first fossil fuel-free furnace of its kind, located at Nova Scotia鈥檚 Lunenburg Industrial Foundry & Engineering Limited, established in 1891.
It was a logical choice, then, for AV俱乐部鈥檚 College of Sustainability to approach the foundry and develop a special keepsake pewter lapel pin for the first class of Environment, Sustainability and Society grads.
The Prometheus furnace, solar-powered, represents a synthesis of sustainable method and local character ideal for marking a AV俱乐部 ESS graduate.
鈥淥ne of the unique aspects of Lunenburg Foundry is that it鈥檚 located smack-dab in the middle of a UNESCO world heritage site,鈥� says Peter Kinley, the foundry鈥檚 president and a graduate of the Nova Scotia Technical College (nowadays AV俱乐部鈥檚 Sexton Campus).
The Prometheus furnace, he says, was a by-product of the Lunenburg Foundry鈥檚 determination to maintain the purity of their picturesque surroundings in their business practices. The furnace 鈥渉as a huge advantage in the simplicity and cost effectiveness of concentrated solar energy鈥� my son Joseph, who鈥檚 an engineer, came up with the project codename. He had studied Greek mythology and felt it was appropriate.鈥�
There are no shortcuts to quality, as Mr. Kinley demonstrates when he outlines the painstaking step-by-step process of making the pins, which bear the ESS's "Change" motto. (Left: a pin fresh out of the rubber mould.)
鈥淭he design was put together,鈥� he says. 鈥淭he first pattern was developed from a 3D printer at the Sexton Campus. That was used to make a rubber mold鈥� wax positives were then assembled鈥� we dip them in ceramic, then we melted the wax out and poured the solar heated hot metal in. And that gave us the little castings鈥hich were finally mounted on pins,鈥� he concludes. 鈥淚t鈥檚 basically the same product as you would get through using fossil fuels鈥� the main difference is we鈥檙e doing this with clean energy and so we鈥檙e doing it sustainably.鈥�
The Prometheus furnace isn鈥檛 usually used for small jewellery. It more frequently casts the company鈥檚 line of brass souvenirs, and the development team is targeting larger commercial pieces such as propellers and machine components 鈥� things that 鈥測ou certainly couldn鈥檛 put on your lapel,鈥� Mr. Kinley wisecracks. 鈥淵ou鈥檇 be falling over.鈥�
A smaller casting, however, isn鈥檛 necessarily simpler. 鈥淭hese happen to be about the smallest metal castings we鈥檝e ever made鈥� the details are very important. We鈥檝e learned a lot of neat tricks as we鈥檝e gone through it.鈥�