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Full American National Manufacturing 7 Inch Oxford Softside Waterbed Mattress

The Oxford soft side waterbed mattress by American National Manufacturing is a top quality softside waterbed that is 100% Made in the U.S.A., assuring consistency in quality and availability. This softside waterbed consists of a 7" high reinforced concave foam cavity with a "V" style Duvet pillow top that gives the mattress an overall 15" in height. The Oxford top is built to be paired with 1 of 7 different 7" water mattresses or water tube kits that fit inside the foam cavity. Together, they create a softside waterbed mattress with unparalleled, personalized luxury and comfort.The Patented Technology-American National's reversible top cover helps to alleviate body impressions caused by uneven wear. The dry cleanable 4-way stretch cover allows for the mattress to contour to your body's individual shape and size. This combined with Summer/Winter reversible duvet pillow top allows a comfort level that must be felt to be believed. Cover may be dry cleaned to prevent the harboring of harmful germs and micro-organisms. This cover combined with the visco foam comfort layer enables a contouring comfort level that must be felt to be believed. American National's patented "Perfect Perimeter" construction allows for an expanded sleeping surface for greater comfort. The convoluted foam comfort layer is removable and reversible to promote even wear, and the 20 year limited warranty is your assurance of lasting quality. This softside waterbed mattress comes in standard sizing which eliminates the need for special bedding or furniture.This set includes the 7" Oxford Top and the 7" Free Flow Tube Kit, if you are interested in a different waterbed mattress that fits your unique needs you can choose from 1 of 7 different 7" softside waterbed mattress or tube kit options:7" Free Flow Tube Kit INCLUDED (If you do not want this mattress, you can deselect this option and you can opt for a different mattress by selecting one of the options listed below)7" Waveless Tube Kit7" Free Flow Ma

Over the week-end I joined Riverkeepers to go on a tour of Nuclear Reactor B at Hanford in the state of Washington. President Clinton created a National Monument changing the worlds first Nuclear Reactor into a historical site that one could visit. Not until 2008 has the reactor been ready for the general public to visit on tours. The reactor was originally built in 1944 as part of the Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb. The US government in top secrecy built this reactor and two others on the Hanford site. It hired 51,000 workers and housed them on site, creating barracks, recreational facilities, a dining complex, recreational facilities, banks, and various shops for the workers. The Hanford site occupied 500 square miles of land and was built in 11 months. It was a huge effort by the government to build nuclear reactors in order to manufacture plutonium which was necessary for creating the atomic bombs and much of the cold war nuclear devices. The first reactor (the B reactor) was built in 9 months and two more were finished within 11 months. Ultimately the Hanford site contained 9 nuclear reactors and were used for plutonium production. Today this site is the worlds most polluted place on earth. It is contaminated with tons of nuclear waste which were never stored securely. Often nuclear waste products were dumped directly into the river, or buried in unlined trenches. Much of the liquid waste was put in barrels and left to decay and leak upon the site, or buried in single lined tanks which have now reached their life span and are leaking into the ground water aquifers. Plumes of nuclear by products are now making their way to the river or are alread upwelling into the river. Originally the people who lived on this land in the towns of Hanford and White Bluff were told to leave in 1944. The government gave them one month to move, before taking control of the land. Some old structures from that time period still exist on the Hanford site today. Because the land was never really peopled in all this time the Hanford reach or this stretch of river the goverment occupied is the most undisturbed and natural ecology that exists along the Columbia River in the United States. It has the best salmon spawning grounds on the river. Unfortunately this pristine unpeopled section of the river is now becoming the greatest source of radioactive contamination. The Hanford site now employs many people who are trying to solve the great pollution problem and wresting with ideas and strategies for dealing with nuclear wastes. The government contracted to build a vitrification plant which is now way over budget and numerous changes have delayed its completion until a projected time of 2019. Meanwhile the wastes still remain on site in new tanks and containers. 17 miles of the Columbia River (the Hanford reach) which borders the site became off limits to all people. The government had guard towers to make sure no one traveled on these waters or landed on the Hanford site. I kayaked down this stretch of water the next day and viewed the reactors on this site which you can see quite clearly from the river. Huge water intakes are also to be found, as the reactors used Columbia River water to cool the reactors' cores. Basically 45 degree water was pumped to the reactors and in seconds the water was turned into 180 degree water heated by the nuclear reactions inside the core. The water was held for a short time outside the plant and then returned to the river, thus raising the temperature of the river considerably. Between 1944 and 1987 there were 9 reactors built and operated on this large site. The reactors today are all decomissioned. All but the B reactor are being cocooned, or encased in concrete for 75 years. This is the amount of time the government thinks is needed to reduce the radioactive contamination to a point where the reactors can be further dismantled. As you look across the land from the river these former reactors look like huge silent monoliths under the sun.

1994 onwards Millennium Angel Design and Sponsorship
THE ORIGINAL SCULPTURE

In the early 1990’s I began to express my ideas on philosophy and religion in sculpture. The “Zoroastrian Icarus” was inspired by my meeting Zoroastrians (whose religion influenced that of the Jews when they were in exile in Persian Babylon in the 5th Century BCE) and by my conservation of an Assyrian Alabaster Slab at Manchester Museum in 1993 – the Assyrian style was the same as that of the ancient Persians.

The work based on the Cherubim, the protective angels that guarded the Ark of the Covenant in the Jewish scriptures, and on the Greek myth of Icarus, a man whose wings melted when he flew too close to the sun.

It is both Jewish, Monotheistic faith and the rationality of the Greek Philosophers that formed a basis for Christian thought and Western society. The sculpture is an expression of my search for meaning.

The work looks to the future with optimism but warns that we must not be like Icarus and try to fly too close to the sun.

Similarly it represents the idea of trying to hold a concept of God that is too large to grasp.

The sculpture began in 1994, with a block of Portland limestone. I cut the stone to an initial, though still unclear, idea of a figure straining to hold a concept of God. At that point I made a sketch.

The sculpture represented the attempt to transcend our animal selves (the ox, the lion) via the wings to a mystical consciousness (the bearded head).

I then made detailed drawings for use as templates for carving.

Uncertain how to finish the rear, lion’s leg, I was inspired by the leg of a Gillow furniture bench at Storey Institute, Lancaster, where I was working as a computer illustrator for the Lancaster University Archaeological Unit.

The Portland limestone is made of tiny shells and was very difficult to carve with fine detail.

The final sculpture is 30 cm high and has marble wings.

SPONSORSHIP

In 1997 I visited a computer manufacturing trade show at the National Exhibition Centre, Birmingham, to see the technologies that could be used in the scanning of archaeological artefacts. After this I decided to try to create a computer manufactured sculpture. The idea lay dormant until I had an internship with the Historic American Buildings Survey in Washington DC in the summer of 1998. There I met a sculptor who was also planning to work with these technologies so, encouraged by this, I began a project for the Millennium on my return to England that Autumn.

First I had to work out how big I wanted the sculpture to be and decided on x6 the scale, enlarging it from 30cm high to over 2 metres high.

Then I needed a location and Williamson Park, Lancaster, initially agreed to be hosts. With their help I would approach the National Lottery and the Arts Council for funding to help with the bronze casting and installation of the Millennium Angel.

The minimum quote to do manufacturing for the project, using the simplest technologies, was ?30,000 but to use all the different technologies would be around ?150,000 and to complete the project I would need to co-ordinate the scanners, the programmers and the manufacturers.

To realise the project I would need sponsorship-in-kind and so began to approach companies to show them the benefits that they would receive for their sponsorship.

Out of the 100 North West based Aerospace companies that I approached only Inmans (who had a machine large enough to make the wings) agreed to help. So I widened the search to national companies – most of which were based in the Midlands.

However, before any manufacturing could be done the sculpture needed scanning. To do this I had to cut a copy of my sculpture into sections, so that probes and lasers could scan any areas hidden behind other bits of the sculpture.

The Salerno soft side waterbed mattress by American National Manufacturing is a premium quality softside waterbed that is 100% Made in the U.S.A., assuring consistency in quality and availability. This softside waterbed is 7" high concave foam cavity that is built to be paired with 1 of 7 different 7" water mattresses or water tube kits that are put together to create a high profile, 14" waterbed mattress. The Salerno reversible top cover (patented by American National Mfg) helps to alleviate body impressions caused by uneven wear. The Solerno's removable Damask top can be flipped for even wear of the Damask cover and it's filling materials, this Damask cover may be dry cleaned to prevent the harboring of harmful germs and micro-organisms. This cover combined with the visco foam comfort layer enables a contouring comfort level that must be felt to be believed. American National's patented "Perfect Perimeter" construction allows for an expanded sleeping surface for greater comfort. The convoluted foam comfort layer is removable and reversible to promote even wear, and the 20 year limited warranty is your assurance of lasting quality. This softside waterbed mattress comes in standard sizing which eliminates the need for special bedding or furniture.This set includes the 7" Salerno Top and the 7" Free Flow Tube Kit, if you are interested in a different waterbed mattress that fits your unique needs you can choose from 1 of 7 different 7" softside waterbed mattress or tube kit options:7" Free Flow Tube Kit INCLUDED (If you do not want this mattress, you can deselect this option and you can opt for a different mattress by selecting one of the options listed below)7" Waveless Tube Kit7" Free Flow Mattress7" Wave Reduced Mattress7" Dual Wave Reduced Matts7" Waveless Mattress7" Waveless Dual MattressAmerican National Manufacturing 7" Salerno Softside Waterbed Mattress Features:100% Made in the U.S.A., assuring consistency in quality and availabilityAmerican National's rever