The English Department Website

Time Capsule Unit

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Every student in Year 7 is going to prepare his own time capsule which will tell a future time about him/her and our society.

Imagine if you were digging in your back garden and came across an old chest hidden 50,100 or 200 years ago. It might not contain treasure but it could be as valuable as gold to a historian, especially if buried by a child. Let's imagine it was full of personal objects like a diary, pictures, toys, small objects from the home, songs, books and jewelry. We could learn so much about the owner, his family and the life they all lead.

Now is your chance to leave your time capsule which will be buried deep in Archives and opened by whatever walks the earth in May 2008

Task 1

Read the text below - A Brief History of Time Capsules - and answer the questions below

Task 2

In groups, agree on the key items to include in the capsule above that will reflect equally:

Task 3

Interview as many members of you family as you can and try to reach agreement about what your family would preserve in a container the size of a shoebox

Justify each item

Task 4

The class will listen to your family report & judge which are the most common items and which choices were most original

Task 5

Each person will now actually make their own time capsule which will be put in a large envelope in Archives

It should contain:

Task 6 - MASTER PIECE to be kept in Masterpiece folder

Write an extract from a play or a complete story about students in 50 years time finding a time capsule buried now. Which objects will they be baffled by? Will they be able to play CD's? What will they think of your lives? Will school be much the same? Will France and the world? Try to give them their own slang & show them trying to understand yours.

They may be able to contact one of you or the people who buried it, aged about 60

More details here

Task 1

answer all questions in full sentences in your English book

1. How are cave paintings like time capsules?
2. What is the oral tradition?
3. What is collective memory?
4. Replace the word 'posterity' in paragraph 5 with a word or phrase which means the same
5. How are pyramids like time capsules?
6. What 2 problems are encountered today in making time capsules?
7. What were the 2 practical problems that concerned Westinghouse Electric?
8. Did Einstein think the world was going to improve or deteriorate? How do you know? What do you think about your future world,
9. Look at the contents of the 2 time capsules for 1939 and 1964. which objects seem to you the best choices? Why?
10. Which are the most surprising? Why?
11. What do the contents tell you about how people then viewed their own age?
12. Which objects are you surprised were not included? Why?
13. Look at the pictures below of the time capsule being buried in 1977 and then dug up in 2002. After discussion with your parents, try to guess some of the objects the students might have buried there 25 years ago.
14. Try to guess how they thought then (1977) that life was going to be different in 25 years time (i.e. now). What things would they be surprised to see have NOT changed? What changes would most surprise them?

A Brief History Of Time Capsules By Jeremy Olshan

taken from www.queenstribune.com/archives/anniversaryarchive/ anniversary98/tb_an_capsules.html

The practice of making time capsules may be as old as time itself.

Cave paintings are perhaps the first time capsules. They depicted who we were, what mammoths we killed, and what mammoths killed us.

The oral tradition, and storytelling are a kind of time capsule, they preserve the collective memory over generations.

In a similar way, writing – when it was first invented – was a time capsule. Writing was created for the purpose of taxation and bookkeeping — a way of settling my–word–against–yours–type arguments. "You owe me three cows."

However, these are all gestures of the moment, a record for the present. The cavemen were probably not thinking about posterity’s interest in their society, nor were the prehistoric taxmen.

This notion of preserving one’s time and place for the future really begins with the Egyptians. While the pyramids were created as vessels to the afterlife, they are also vessels to the future.

Esarhaddon, king of Babylonia, Assyria and Egypt, buried cuneiform inscriptions of not only his own conquests, but his entire civilization. Were it not for efforts like these on the part of the Egyptians we would know a great deal less about their culture and way of life.

Preserving Our Heritage

The modern time capsule took this idea a step further. It is an editorial exercise: How do we fit our entire civilization into a container the size of a shoebox? And furthermore: How do we ensure that the contents of the capsule remain intact across the centuries?

For the 1939 World’s Fair, Westinghouse Electric wanted to create a time capsule that would preserve its contents for 5,000 years. This presented many problems, and they put their best minds to the task. After some research and much debate, Westinghouse created a new alloy of copper, called Cupaloy. They wanted to combine the durability of steel with the ability of copper to prevent corrosion. Cupaloy, they believed, was up to the task.

The crypt into which the time capsule would be lowered, also had to be designed to ensure that corrosive elements would be kept out. This was achieved through a combination of Pyrex glass, and water-repellent and preservative gases.

Will Anyone Find Them?

The next great stumbling block was how to tell the people of the 80th century that they should go to Flushing Meadows and dig up the capsule. The answer to this problem was found in a book, called simply, "The Book of Record." Printed on archival paper, and given to libraries all over the world, the "Book of Record" details where the time capsule is, what is in it, and even a modern version of the Rosetta stone in case the English language no longer exists.

Next, a committee of historians, archeologists and scientists decided what objects should be placed inside the capsule. They chose many everyday objects that reflected life as it was in the 1930s.

At noon on Sept. 23, 1938, the exact moment of the autumnal equinox, the time capsule was lowered into the immortal well.

A second time capsule was created for the 1964 World’s Fair, and its contents reflected the dramatic technological and social changes that had occurred since 1939.

While these time capsules were on one hand optimistic endeavors, they were done with an awareness of the tragedy and failure of our civilization.

"I trust that posterity will read these statements with a feeling of proud and justified superiority," wrote Albert Einstein in the "Book of Record".

The 1939 World’s Fair Time Capsule, designed by Westinghouse Electric.

Tuesday, November 27, 2001 Vol 96, No. 23 

Back to the future

FHSU looks back to 1977 with opening of time capsule

taken from www.fhsu.edu/leader/2001/112701/newsdex.html

FHSU took a step back from the "high-tech, high-touch" world to relive the past as President Edward H. Hammond opened a time capsule which had been buried for nearly 25 years last night in Sheridan Hall.

June 23, 1977, then-Gov. Robert Bennett, members of the state legislature, relatives of past presidents, members of the Kansas Board of Regents and retired faculty were in attendance for the day-long celebration.

After then-president Gerald W. Tomanek dedicated the D. Andrew Riegel Animal Science Building, the motorcade returned to campus and stopped at Forsyth Library for the next event, the burying of the time capsule with its many mementos of the period.