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Time Capsules: Lost, Found, And (Now) Virtual

Judging from our Web traffic, our contemporary readers are just as fascinated by the idea of time capsules as people from previous millennia. The story that Yahoo is beaming a digital time capsule into space by projecting it onto an ancient pyramid in Mexico has been our most popular story since the piece debuted earlier this week.

A time capsule, to quote Dictionary.com, is "a receptacle containing documents or objects typical of the current period, placed in the earth or in a cornerstone for discovery in the future."

I personally became interested in time capsules when my daughter's fourth-grade class did a research project on them and subsequently buried one containing its memorabilia from the academic year in the corner of the schoolyard. Although the aims of these 10-year-olds were modest--the capsule is scheduled to be dug up in five years--many time capsules have already been buried for hundreds, if not thousands, of years. Or, as in the case of Yahoo's project, intended to communicate contemporary life on earth ad infinitum.

Although the name "time capsule" was coined in 1937--the original term suggested was "time bomb"--the concept of time capsules goes back more than 5,000 years. The Epic of Gilgamesh, currently the earliest literary work created by man, begins with instructions on how to find a box of copper inside a foundation stone in the walls of what was then a major city.

There are any number of famous time capsules "buried" in recent years. NASA has sent snapshots of earthling culture on interstellar probes out into space. An international consortium is in the middle of placing time capsules under the surface of Antarctica--which, of course, leads one to think alarmingly about a time when the polar caps will be history themselves--and plans to do the same on, yes, the moon. And the artist Andy Warhol completed more than 600 capsules, which are preserved among the archives of the Andy Warhol Museum.

One of the more interesting projects related to time capsules is one sponsored by The International Time Capsule Society, headquartered at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta. Established in 1990, the ITCS is the most systematic and rigorous ongoing study of time capsules, with the goal of documenting all kinds of time capsules no matter where they're located in the world--or what materials they consist of. The Yahoo project will obviously be of prime interest to this effort.

The ITCS is currently setting up a registry of time capsules, of which it estimates there are tens of thousands already in existence. Since the vast majority of these have already been lost or destroyed, the ITCS hopes to prevent any new ones from falling victim to the same fate. Anyone who knows of any time capsules--and personal ones are definitely included--is encouraged to contact the ITCS with the relevant data.

One of the most amusing features of the ITCS site is its list of Nine "Most Wanted" Lost Time Capsules. These include the MIT Cyclotron Time Capsule, buried in 1939, that was supposed to be opened in 50 years, but which the university has since "misplaced." Then there was the Gramophone Company Time Capsule, buried in 1907 in Middlesex, England, which included early sound recordings on disc. Stored behind the foundation store of the Gramaphone Company (now known as EMI), the capsule was accidentally excavated in the 1960s during a construction project, but as someone took the opportunity to stroll away with it, the priceless collection has never resurfaced. My favorite story of unique ways of attempting to locate a missing capsule took place in the town of Blackpool, England, which used a clairvoyant to try and locate a deposit from the late 19th century. Needless to say, she failed.

Interested in creating your own time capsule? So popular has the activity become that special containers designed to protect against all the various dangers of water, air, and soil can be purchased from Target, Amazon.com, or a host of specialized retailers. The most prominent are Heritage Time Capsules and Applied History, should you want to check this option out for yourself.

Of course, online services that promise to electronically archive essential materials for posterity abound. The ones billing themselves specifically as virtual time capsules are little more than your standard remote data storage services, but the big question in my mind is, what happens if you stop paying your monthly fees? Does the service kiss your archive good-bye? I can't find the answer on Web sites like Electronic Time Capsule, which charges a very reasonable $14.99 annual fee for an initial 50 Mbytes of storage, which increases by another 50 Mbytes for every year of membership.

What do you think? How useful are time capsules--virtual and otherwise? What would you archive if you were to put one together yourself? Let me know by responding below.

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