MAY 2018
by JOHN R.
I have been in the Chase for two years now. Like everyone else I have my own ideas on how to solve the poem and retrieve the chest. I have been working on Forrests’ statement on the Key Word.
The full statement is:
It is interesting to know that a great number of people are out there searching. Many are giving serious thought to the clues in my poem, but only a few are in tight focus with a word that is key. The treasure may be discovered sooner than I anticipated.
The word that I think is Key is HEARTH. Please bear with me.
I will work with Tight Focus.
If you look up the definition of focus there are many definitions, but the one we shall look at is:
A point at which rays of light or other radiation converge or from which they appear to diverge, as after refraction or reflection in an optical system.
This is the effect when you have a magnifying glass outside in the sun. If you aim the magnifying glass at a piece of paper, the suns rays enter the glass and are concentrated into a focal point, or Tight Focus, onto the paper which burns when its ignition temperature is reached.
The origin of the word focus is interesting. It originates in the 1640’s from Latin focus, meaning Hearth or fireplace. This also referred to home or family, as in years gone by the fireplace,( or hearth) was a focal point of the home where people gathered.
Hearth can also refer to a slab of concrete or stone in front of a fireplace, or the bottom part of a furnace in which the molten metal is produced or contained. Forrest would have been familiar with this term during his Bronze casting days. Don’t forget the various times that Forrest has mentioned sitting by his fireplace, and the importance Forrest places on family.
Not convinced yet that Hearth is the key word? Try this.
On Jenny Kiles site on the 23rd June 2015, Forrest was asked how he went about melding bronze to iron. He replied that it was done using a Heliarc, which uses an inert gas to keep the oxygen away, allowing the 2 metals to meld together. Now this is where it gets interesting. Heliarc welding is done using Helium or Argon gas as these are inert gases. So now we split the word Hearth up and use the Periodic Table.
He = Helium
Ar = Argon
Th= Thorium
Thorium Oxide is used as a stabiliser in tungsten electrodes in Heliarc or TIG welding. Remember Forrest referring to Thor? Thorium is named after Thor, the Norse God of thunder. Thorium is also the 90th element on the periodic table. Lines up with all the references to the number 90. Maybe that is why the section on Jennys site was called Periodic Words from Forrest?
Still not convinced? Try this:
In Forrests books and blogs there are many photographs and references to hats, and in particular womens hats. Annabelles hat, Mildew and Bella Abzug come to mind as well as the painting shown on page 186 of TFTW.
He
Ar
Th
Take the 3 letters in the first line. They spell HAT. Take the 3 letters in the second line and rearrange them They spell HER. HER HAT.
If you don’t think anagrams are part of the solve, then I guess you will not think that Hearth is the key word.
In my opinion I believe that Hearth is the key word that Forrest is looking for, but who knows until the chest is found. I would appreciate your thoughts.
-John R.
