Sim D. on@request wrote:
Lo all,

Doing a bit of minor outside work and it presents the perfect
opportunity to bury a time capsule. Something I've always wanted to do
since seeing Blue Peter's abortive efforts as a kid in the 70s.

I've a pretty good idea what I want to put in it [see below], but I'm
much less sure about how to preserve the integrity of whatever box I
put it in, and how long the contents will last even if the box stays
leakproof.

I'd go with nice old-fashioned stuff.
Lead roofing sheet box, welded seams, dipped in pitch, and several layers.
Put in a polyproplylene bucket, filled with wax.

Ian Stirling wrote:

Sim D. on@request wrote:
Lo all,

Doing a bit of minor outside work and it presents the perfect
opportunity to bury a time capsule. Something I've always wanted to do
since seeing Blue Peter's abortive efforts as a kid in the 70s.

I've a pretty good idea what I want to put in it [see below], but I'm
much less sure about how to preserve the integrity of whatever box I
put it in, and how long the contents will last even if the box stays
leakproof.

I'd go with nice old-fashioned stuff.
Lead roofing sheet box, welded seams, dipped in pitch, and several layers.
Put in a polyproplylene bucket, filled with wax.

The only suggestion so far for an outer casing that IMHO stands any
chance of lasting!


--

On Sat, 15 Oct 2005 11:18:58 +0100, Matt
wrote:

Ian Stirling wrote:

Sim D. on@request wrote:
Lo all,

Doing a bit of minor outside work and it presents the perfect
opportunity to bury a time capsule. Something I've always wanted to do
since seeing Blue Peter's abortive efforts as a kid in the 70s.

I've a pretty good idea what I want to put in it [see below], but I'm
much less sure about how to preserve the integrity of whatever box I
put it in, and how long the contents will last even if the box stays
leakproof.

I'd go with nice old-fashioned stuff.
Lead roofing sheet box, welded seams, dipped in pitch, and several layers.
Put in a polyproplylene bucket, filled with wax.

The only suggestion so far for an outer casing that IMHO stands any
chance of lasting!

What about filling the box with a gas to remove the oxygen and prevent
oxidisation of the contents?

If it were pressurised it'd also discourage the ingress of water, for
a period of time at least.

sponix

--s-p-o-n-i-x-- wrote:

If it were pressurised it'd also discourage the ingress of water, for
a period of time at least.

and use archival quality acid free paper for any that goes in there...


--
Cheers,

John.

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On Sat, 15 Oct 2005 21:41:32 +0100, John Rumm
wrote:

and use archival quality acid free paper for any that goes in there...

Almost all paper is acid free - when they make it. If you want it to
last, then it needs to be buffered (i.e. an excess of an alkaline filler
added) to ensure that it doesn't become acid in the future. It should
also be made from the right sort of fibre (i.e. not lignin-rich wood
fibre and not produced by an acid rich process). If you take the "pulp"
paper as used for cheap paerbacks and filled it with chalk, the stuff
would still be brittle and acidic a few decades hence.

"Acid free" paper labelled as such is by and large garbage and won't
last a decade. If you want to trust it, then get it from a reputable
maker (and that doesn't include the impressively packaged "Crimson &
Blake" tat sold in the poundshop bookshops, no matter how convincing it
looks). It will also be labelled as "archival" or "buffered", not just
"acid free".

OTOH, avoid buffered materials if you're working with colour
photographs, as they don't like alkalis any more than acids.

--
Cats have nine lives, which is why they rarely post to Usenet.