Time Capsule
What is a time capsule? A time capsule is a container that holds items, until it is opened by people at some time in the future to reveal what is inside. A time capsule is intended to allow people to learn about the way people lived or what things were like in times past. Time capsules can serve as messages or links between people who will likely never meet because they lived in different times.
How is a time capsule made? A good container for a time capsule is a five-gallon heavy-duty plastic bucket with a handle and a lid, similar to the one shown in the picture above. New, empty, clean ones are available from stores and online retailers such as www.Amazon.com. Some businesses buy these types of buckets with lard, laundry detergent, or other bulk material in them, and once they have used the contents, they throw the buckets and lids away, so you might try asking around to find if any local businesses such as restaurants or commercial laundries have empty ones they possibly might give to you at little or no cost. However, keep in mind that if a bucket contained pickles or other ingredients with a strong odor, it may be impossible to remove the odor completely, and it will taint anything you put into the bucket, and of course, you would not want to re-use a bucket that once contained a possibly hazardous substance such as a degreasing agent used by an auto repair shop.
Be sure everything you place inside the time capsule container is absolutely dry, because even a very tiny amount of moisture would migrate around inside it and damage or destroy all of the contents. A desiccant, which is a material that absorbs water, would be a good thing to include inside a time capsule. Although you might be tempted to include canned food or a bottle of wine or something else containing liquid, keep in mind that if the contents of a can rusts through or the cork or cap of a bottle fails with the passage of time, the entire contents of the time capsule will be destroyed. Do not place batteries or devices with batteries in them inside the time capsule; batteries can leak as they age, and the acid in them is very corrosive to metals and will damage other materials.
If you want to include information for posterity, remember that what you record it on could be obsolete by the time the capsule is opened - just think of cassette tapes, floppy disks, 8-track tape cassettes, VHS tapes, and so forth - although these things were once common, almost no one now has machines that can read or display what is recorded on them. Your best bet might be to go with good old-fashioned ink on paper and photographs printed on photo-quality paper.
You could purchase inexpensive books with blank pages or lined notebooks such as Composition Notebooks. You might take a notebook and go around asking people a question, such as, “What is the purpose of life?” or “What is your typical day like?” or “What is important to you?” or “What message would you like to send into the future?” or something else, and write their answers, their names, age or date of birth, and the date you asked the question, in the book, and include this in your time capsule for people to read in the future. A pair of men’s shoes and a pair of women’s shoes and some other articles of clothing would be great to include. How about a t-shirt with the logo of your school sport team printed on it? How about a few coins or some paper money? How about a few small children’s toys?
You could make a time capsule all by yourself, or you could ask each person you know to donate an item to the time capsule. Common, ordinary, everyday things might actually be better to fill a time capsule with than expensive or unusual objects.
Include information from your interests and the interests of other people; for example, if you like to cook, write down a few of your favorite recipes to include; if you like to make things by hand such as crafts or jewelry or fishing lures, include a few examples of your best work. Photographs are very important because people and places and things change dramatically over time; take photographs of your home, the street you live on, the main streets and attractions of your community, parks, schools you attended and places where you worked, your church or temple or synagogue, your pets, your vehicle, individuals and groups of people, and people doing things such as playing or picnicking or working. Each photograph should have complete information about it: date taken, names of people in it, location, and anything else that might be important to people seeing it in the future.
Place the lid on the container, and use a rubber mallet to completely tamp down the lid onto the container for a good, tight seal. If you do not have a rubber mallet, hold a piece of scrap wood on the lid and gently but firmly hit the wood with a regular hammer. Visually examine the lid and bucket closely to make sure the lid is on tightly and evenly.
A time capsule can be buried in the ground - preferably ‘high ground’ that does not flood or become completely saturated with water, but one could also be placed inside the wall of a building, inside the base of a statue, inside a stone or brick or concrete wall outside, under pavement such as a driveway or sidewalk, in an attic or crawl space, in the space under some stairs, or in a seldom-accessed storage area. You might even put your time capsule in a cave, buried in the cave floor or behind a pile of rocks.
Now here’s something to consider carefully: Suppose you place a time capsule somewhere, and everyone who knows about it dies or moves away or forgets about it - how are you going to make a record of its location so that someone, perhaps someone who will never know or meet you, can know of its existence? Perhaps you might simply count on someone in the future stumbling upon your time capsule by chance.
You do not have to limit yourself to one time capsule. You could make a new one each year or every two years, or every five or ten years. As a school project, each graduating class of a school every year could make its own separate time capsule, or a scout troop could make a time capsule. A family reunion or a class reunion could be a good event at which to put together a time capsule.
What is a time capsule? A time capsule is a container that holds items, until it is opened by people at some time in the future to reveal what is inside. A time capsule is intended to allow people to learn about the way people lived or what things were like in times past. Time capsules can serve as messages or links between people who will likely never meet because they lived in different times.
How is a time capsule made? A good container for a time capsule is a five-gallon heavy-duty plastic bucket with a handle and a lid, similar to the one shown in the picture above. New, empty, clean ones are available from stores and online retailers such as www.Amazon.com. Some businesses buy these types of buckets with lard, laundry detergent, or other bulk material in them, and once they have used the contents, they throw the buckets and lids away, so you might try asking around to find if any local businesses such as restaurants or commercial laundries have empty ones they possibly might give to you at little or no cost. However, keep in mind that if a bucket contained pickles or other ingredients with a strong odor, it may be impossible to remove the odor completely, and it will taint anything you put into the bucket, and of course, you would not want to re-use a bucket that once contained a possibly hazardous substance such as a degreasing agent used by an auto repair shop.
Be sure everything you place inside the time capsule container is absolutely dry, because even a very tiny amount of moisture would migrate around inside it and damage or destroy all of the contents. A desiccant, which is a material that absorbs water, would be a good thing to include inside a time capsule. Although you might be tempted to include canned food or a bottle of wine or something else containing liquid, keep in mind that if the contents of a can rusts through or the cork or cap of a bottle fails with the passage of time, the entire contents of the time capsule will be destroyed. Do not place batteries or devices with batteries in them inside the time capsule; batteries can leak as they age, and the acid in them is very corrosive to metals and will damage other materials.
If you want to include information for posterity, remember that what you record it on could be obsolete by the time the capsule is opened - just think of cassette tapes, floppy disks, 8-track tape cassettes, VHS tapes, and so forth - although these things were once common, almost no one now has machines that can read or display what is recorded on them. Your best bet might be to go with good old-fashioned ink on paper and photographs printed on photo-quality paper.
You could purchase inexpensive books with blank pages or lined notebooks such as Composition Notebooks. You might take a notebook and go around asking people a question, such as, “What is the purpose of life?” or “What is your typical day like?” or “What is important to you?” or “What message would you like to send into the future?” or something else, and write their answers, their names, age or date of birth, and the date you asked the question, in the book, and include this in your time capsule for people to read in the future. A pair of men’s shoes and a pair of women’s shoes and some other articles of clothing would be great to include. How about a t-shirt with the logo of your school sport team printed on it? How about a few coins or some paper money? How about a few small children’s toys?
You could make a time capsule all by yourself, or you could ask each person you know to donate an item to the time capsule. Common, ordinary, everyday things might actually be better to fill a time capsule with than expensive or unusual objects.
Include information from your interests and the interests of other people; for example, if you like to cook, write down a few of your favorite recipes to include; if you like to make things by hand such as crafts or jewelry or fishing lures, include a few examples of your best work. Photographs are very important because people and places and things change dramatically over time; take photographs of your home, the street you live on, the main streets and attractions of your community, parks, schools you attended and places where you worked, your church or temple or synagogue, your pets, your vehicle, individuals and groups of people, and people doing things such as playing or picnicking or working. Each photograph should have complete information about it: date taken, names of people in it, location, and anything else that might be important to people seeing it in the future.
Place the lid on the container, and use a rubber mallet to completely tamp down the lid onto the container for a good, tight seal. If you do not have a rubber mallet, hold a piece of scrap wood on the lid and gently but firmly hit the wood with a regular hammer. Visually examine the lid and bucket closely to make sure the lid is on tightly and evenly.
A time capsule can be buried in the ground - preferably ‘high ground’ that does not flood or become completely saturated with water, but one could also be placed inside the wall of a building, inside the base of a statue, inside a stone or brick or concrete wall outside, under pavement such as a driveway or sidewalk, in an attic or crawl space, in the space under some stairs, or in a seldom-accessed storage area. You might even put your time capsule in a cave, buried in the cave floor or behind a pile of rocks.
Now here’s something to consider carefully: Suppose you place a time capsule somewhere, and everyone who knows about it dies or moves away or forgets about it - how are you going to make a record of its location so that someone, perhaps someone who will never know or meet you, can know of its existence? Perhaps you might simply count on someone in the future stumbling upon your time capsule by chance.
You do not have to limit yourself to one time capsule. You could make a new one each year or every two years, or every five or ten years. As a school project, each graduating class of a school every year could make its own separate time capsule, or a scout troop could make a time capsule. A family reunion or a class reunion could be a good event at which to put together a time capsule.
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