From March through October 1973, Steve Baer serialized a book on solar energy in the Tribal Messenger, a small local newsletter. Each issue carried a chapter, and the companion tribal-notes pages contain the technical figures, calculations, and diagrams that accompanied the text. Together, the 49 files form the earliest extended writing in the archive.
Baer introduced the project in the March 26, 1973 issue with a "Dear readers" letter. Skip, the editor, had asked if someone at Zomeworks — perhaps Gary Chahroudi — would write a technical piece. Baer volunteered and immediately saw a bigger scheme: serialize a solar energy book, one chapter per issue, as "an informal first draft" that could later be revised and published.
I don't have the time, ability or the patience to write really good books. I offer as evidence the two books I have written — Dome Cookbook and Zome Primer. But still who wouldn't like to think of himself as an author? Besides — look at the kind of stuff people read. So why not? Skip is for it, and he is the editor. And if the pieces I write are not for you — well, it isn't as if we sold you a roof that leaked or a car with a bad transmission.
The first technical chapter was promised for the next issue: "Acquaintance with energy units."
| Date | Messenger topic | Notes pages |
|---|---|---|
| 1973-03-12 | Cover page (image scan) | — |
| 1973-03-26 | Introduction — solar book announcement | pg5, pg5a–pg5e |
| 1973-04-02 | Energy in a car crash — kinetic vs thermal energy | — |
| 1973-04-13 | Government grants, sun radiation, orbit | pg6 |
| 1973-04-30 | Day Chahrohdi contribution | pg9, pg10, pg11 |
| 1973-05-14 | Heat exchangers — junkyards as classroom | pg12, pg13 |
| 1973-05-28 | Liquid-liquid heat exchangers, counterflow | pg14, pg15, pg16 |
| 1973-06-13 | Temperature fluctuation, thermostat critique, mammals vs reptiles | pg17, pg18 |
| 1973-07-24 | Flat plate collectors — non-focusing heat collectors | pg19, pg20 |
| 1973-08-08 | Heat conduction, collector morning warmup, gap losses | pg21, pg22, pg23 |
| 1973-08-22 | Free view — Drop City anecdote, Fisher's Peak | pg24, pg26 |
| 1973-09-05 | Rock storage bins — air circulation, shallow vs deep bins | pg25 |
| 1973-09-26 | (image-only scan) | pg27, pg28 |
| 1973-10-10 | Bubble pumps, immiscible liquids, condensers, solar cells | pg29 |
| 1973-10-31 | Bubble wheel, A.D. Little orbital satellite critique | pg30 |
accessible writing + junkyard education + first-principles physics = archive seedbed
The serialization is where most of the archive's later ideas first appear in rough form. Flat plate collectors, rock storage, heat exchangers, bubble engines, and the suspicion of institutional solar programs all start here. The tone — informal, opinionated, rooted in physical objects — sets the style for every later Baer document in the archive.
Many of the tribal-notes pages are image-only scans containing hand-drawn figures and calculations. Visual inspection would recover additional technical detail.