Student: Brenda Melisa Espinoza Castorena Teacher: Antonio Medina

R.N: #9

Time capsule investigation

Team name: Timmers Team mates: Amanda, Samantha, Miguel, Nataly

Date: January 14 2014

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Choose a duration for your time capsule. One way to do this is to consider who you would like your audience to be. Would you like to open the time capsule yourself? Would you like to share it with your own children or grandchildren? Would you like your message to last long into the future?

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Decide where you will store your time capsule. Burial may not be the best choice, for several reasons. It is very likely to be forgotten or lost, and it is much more susceptible to damage from moisture.

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Select a container. How much stuff do you want to preserve for the future? Think about how long this collection must last and where it will go. If you will store it inside, at home, a shoebox, bin, or old suitcase might be quite adequate. If you plan to place the time capsule outdoors or bury the time capsule, you will have to choose a container that is highly weatherproof. Consider using desiccant "gel bags" such as those included in the packaging of electronic goods and in bottles of vitamin C tablets. These help to absorb any moisture that may have been present at the time of encapsulation or that may ingress in the future. They are also "oxygen-scavengers" that help to kill microbes that may make some of your items perish.

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Consider an above ground option. One interesting alternative is to store your time capsule items in a stainless steel vacuum food jar (you could even try Space-bags) and then hide this inside a camouflaged polyurethane hollow rock or log. These above ground time capsules are called Geocapsules and can provide a further level of adventure to the time capsule experience.

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Collect the objects to go in your time capsule. Who will open your time capsule, and what would you like to tell them? Have fun with this step! Objects for time capsules need not be of high monetary value. Rather, choose things that reflect the spirit of the present. What is unique about today? Anything that captures the spirit of the present is a candidate, but you might want to consider things like these: Popular toys or tools. Labels or packaging of favorite foods or other products. Include price tags, if you can. Newspapers or magazines showing current events or current trends. Photographs. Filled Journals. Letters Currency Favorite things. Clothes and fashion items of the current time Personal messages to and from others Indicators of high technology. Even if nobody can read the contents of a DVD in 50 or 100 years, you might still enclose one to demonstrate the state of the art.

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If you wish, write and enclose your own description of what it is like to live right now. Tell your future audience about daily life. Talk about ordinary day-to-day activities; current fads, fashions, attitudes, and trends; how much everyday objects usually cost; and anything else that you would like to say.

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Do something to remind yourself or others of the location of the time capsule and the date you intend it to be opened. If you keep a calendar, write at the end of it each year when your time capsule should be opened. Place a plaque or marker if you have hidden or buried the time capsule, indicating where it can be found. Record the date and whereabouts in a journal or scrapbook. If the time capsule is for personal use, choose an opening date with personal significance, such as your birthday, a child's birthday, or a major holiday in the chosen year. Or, record its whereabouts in your will, along with any special instructions. According to the International Time Capsule Society, most time capsules are "lost due to thievery, secrecy or poor planning". If your time capsule is intended for retrieval years or decades after its original placement, make doubly sure that several people know of its exact location and surroundings. If placed outside, above or underground, take photographs of your placement, identify GPS coordinates, and write down all data important for relocating the precise location. Send multiple copies of the location data to those you can trust and ask them to hold the information for safe keeping. You can even schedule a future email to be sent to you as a retrieval reminder.

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Seal the time capsule to your satisfaction and store it for the selected amount of time. Remember that a personal time capsule does not need to be of great duration or durability. Even five years from now, the world will have changed and the artifacts of today will stir memories.

Use an aluminum or stainless steel capsule housing. Various manufacturers and distributors make and sell these, including Future Archaeology (http://www.futurearchaeology.com) in New York City, University Products Inc. (http://www.universityproducts.com) in Holyoke, Mass.

Seal the lid and end caps. This is done best with a high quality two-part epoxy, which can be removed by cold methods such as mechanical reduction and solvents. (Do not weld or solder, because heat can damage the capsule and its contents during opening and closing.)

 Seal the capsule inside a 6-mil (0.006 inch) polyethylene bag or wrapping to further protect against water infiltration. If buried, the capsule should be at least three feet below the surface to protect against wide fluctuations in temperature.

Figure 5. Cross section of a metal container with screw lid and O-ring seal. By far the best modern material for burial is stainless steal. It is relatively inexpensive and easily fabricated, and its stability in adverse conditions is excellent. A container with a threaded end cap and an O-ring seal will be easy to open; however, such a container is extremely expensive to make and the materials in the Oring might degrade over a long period of time.

Figure 5. Cross section of a metal container with screw lid and O-ring seal. By far the best modern material for burial is stainless steal. It is relatively inexpensive and easily fabricated, and its stability in adverse conditions is excellent. A container with a threaded end cap and an O-ring seal will be easy to open; however, such a container is extremely expensive to make and the materials in the Oring might degrade over a long period of time.

Figure 7. Cutaway diagram of a stainless steel time capsule showing the weld line at the top, glass fibre insulation, a silica gel bag, and contents. Another less expensive option is to make the box of sheet metal and to weld it shut once it has been filled. This will be more difficult to open but has the advantage of excellent sealing, provided that the welding is done well.

Bibliography: Canadian conservation institute,(2013), time capsule, Canadian conservation institute, January 14 2014, http://www.cci-icc.gc.ca/publications/notes/1-6-eng.aspx [dato no encontrado], (2013), how to create a time capsule, wikihow, January 14 2014, http://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-Time-Capsule [dato no encontrado], (2013) , building a time capsule, Minesota Historycal society, january 14 2014, http://www.mnhs.org/preserve/conservation/reports/timecapsule.pdf