The Island — Book 1: From Bare Hands to Steam and Electricity

A manual for starting civilization from bare hands.

765 achievements, each built on earlier ones. The whole path in order, from the first hammerstone to the power grid.

Year

Population: 24

Milestone: Fire, shelter and stone tools

Year 020406080Year 100

Twenty-four people land on an empty world with nothing but the clothes they wear. This is the record of how they went from bare hands to steam, electricity and the first antibiotic: what they made, in what order, from what, and how.

Achievements	765
Phases	23
Threads	7
Written procedures	52
Sketches drawn	60 of 141
Settlers	24

The path, in twenty-three phases

Each phase is a stage of the journey. Inside a phase the entries are in the order they can be made.

PhaseYear 020406080Year 100EntriesProcedures

01First days: water, fire, shelterYear 1 (days 1–7)2724 02Stone, bone, wood and fibre toolkitYear 1 (weeks 2–6)3028 03Food security and the first campYear 1450 04Clay, kilns, charcoal and limeYears 1–2320 05Copper and bronzeYears 2–3290 06Iron and steelYears 3–5310 07Carpentry, the village, measures and writingYears 4–9530 08Farming, cloth, leather and household industryYears 6–18480 09Water, wind and mechanical powerYears 14–22290 10Blast furnace, coal, cast iron and rollingYears 20–26300 11Glass, chemistry, petroleum, rubber and cementYears 24–32730 12Precision and machine toolsYears 30–36460 13Steam powerYears 34–40320 14Electricity, generators, motors and batteriesYears 38–45460 15Railways, steam and electric cars, the power gridYears 43–50460

Act IIYears 50 to 100

16The builder's tools: spanners, pneumatic hammer and construction craneYears 51–58150 17The gasoline engine and the forkliftYears 51–64200 18High-voltage lines, transmission towers and the multimeterYears 52–64190 19Roads, bridges, flyovers and tall buildingsYears 55–100230 20Epoxy and the materials for tape and screenYears 56–90170 21Microphone, speaker, magnetic tape and the telephone exchangeYears 58–85220 22The propeller airplaneYears 62–80210 23Logic gates, ferrite core memory and the valve computerYears 72–100310

The bars lie on the same hundred years as the film above

Seven threads

Every achievement belongs to one thread. The threads run side by side through all the phases and feed each other.

482MakingTools, materials, power and machines 58FoodHunting, fishing, farming, food and drink 60HealthRemedies, painkillers, anaesthetics, surgery, instruments and the first antibiotic 54HomeShelter, housing, water, light, heat and sanitation 29ClothFibre, leather, spinning, weaving, clothing and the first man-made fibre 60KnowledgeThe Record, measures, maps, the calendar, the school, signals and printing 22SocietySettlements, the common ground, the council and its rules, the store, trade and money

One entry, start to finish

Every entry says what it is for, what it is built on and what it leads to. 52 of them have the whole procedure, step by step.

**Fig. 01.07-a**The four parts of the set, labelled: bow with cord, drill, hearth board with the black hole and pie-slice notch, and socket.diagram

Adam kneeling with his foot on the board and his wrist locked to his shin, holding the socket, while Kofi works the bow; smoke rising.

Close view of the glowing dust heap being tipped from the leaf into the tinder nest.

01.07 · Making · Year 1

Bow-drill fire set

There is no fire on the island until someone makes one. The bow drill turns arm strength into heat by spinning a wooden drill against a wooden board until the wood dust itself begins to glow.

Raw materials: soft dry wood (willow, cedar), bent branch, smooth stone
Built on: 01.03 Sharp stone flake
01.05 Twisted plant-fibre cord
Leads to: 01.08 First fire and stone hearth
02.22 Pump drill with stone bit
Time: two hours to make the set; then one to ten minutes for an ember when everything is right

Drill: straight, thumb-thick, a hand-span long. Round the bottom end bluntly. Shape the top end to a blunt point.
Hearth board: thumb-thick, three fingers wide, flat on the underside so it does not rock.
Bow: tie the cord to both ends, just slack enough to take one turn round the drill.
Cut a shallow dimple in the board, a drill's half-width in from the edge.

All 11 steps of entry 01.07 →