Creation of the 2019 Pole Marker

Steele Diggles shows off the Pole marker to the 2018 winterovers
Steele Diggles with the newly created Pole marker, displayed temporarily at the Ceremonial Pole near the end of the 2018 winter.

So...Steele submitted his design for the 2019 Pole marker in part because he was a bit worried that there would not be any decent design submissions. It turned out that he needn't have worried, as there were some other excellent ones...but his won out. I'll let his words describe the design and construction:

"There are two main elements to my design, the snowflake and the telescope. The snowflake because, well, because there's a lot of them here, and because I find their geometry fascinating. Many of the previous markers have featured scientific instrumentation (the sextant, armillary sphere, ~ compass) and I think that old school brass and glass is beautiful. I also see the telescope as a reference to the non-optical telescopes peering through the darkness here at South Pole.

"Construction wise I was a bit taken aback when my design won, I designed something that I thought might look good--but I hadn't given a hell of a lot of thought to how I'd make it. I just figured I'd work it out if it came to that... I should also stress that the vast majority of the time that I spent working on this marker was my own time--nights, and Sundays. It was a bit complicated, the base is made from a single piece of aluminium joined to a single piece of brass. The large snowflake was machined through the brass to reveal the aluminium snowflake--all done manually in a dividing head on the Bridgeport mill. I counted them, 360 individual cuts, stuff one up and..." (continued at the bottom of this page).

the raw material, brass and aluminum



The raw materials--6" diameter
brass and
aluminum.
milling the aluminum base
Milling the aluminum base...
milling the aluminum base
...another view.
 the base in the Bridgeport mill



The base in the Bridgeport mill.
the brass and aluminum base pieces





Two views of the brass and aluminum base sections.
the brass and aluminum base sections
milling the snowflake
Milling the snowflake.
the partially milled snowflake
Looking at the partially milled snowflake.
engraving the base
Engraving the base.
engraving the base
Another look at the engraving of 40 snowflakes.
a close look at the base engraving
A close look at the engraved base.
final machining of the base
Final machining of the base.
the finished markerContinuing Steele's description: "In order to create a frosted effect the snowflake was then sand blasted and the brass surround polished. There are also a number of small "snowflakes" engraved around the outside of the hexagonal base, each representing a 2018 winterover. The words 'FROM THE ICE TO THE STARS... ...AND BEYOND' just seemed nice... Of course the other obligatory text also appears. As does LGN on the front of the telescope mount. I contemplated making the telescope moveable and making the optics transparent but decided that this would likely lead to damage and possibly frost bitten eye sockets and sun burnt retinas--so I opted for polished aluminium lenses to simulate glass. So basically, the telescope is one piece of brass with a knurled brass cap that screws on at each end to capture each aluminium 'lens,' these are permanently fixed in position. The telescope is riveted to the mount with hand made invisible brass rivets and attached to the base so as to be non-removable.

"The sleeve on the pole beneath the marker proper bears the name of each of the 2018 winterovers stamped in a helix. As you noticed it also says 'HAPPY PIZZA'. Happy Pizza became something of a catchphrase for that winter--words loved by many, and not by some. If I remember rightly it was a throwaway line at the end of an All Hands meeting meaning something to the effect of 'meeting over, dinner time, it's pizza, enjoy'. It wasn't deep and meaningful, but it stuck, and was FREQUENTLY repeated--and I think made into t-shirts."

All photos courtesy Steele Diggles.