How to seal a milk bottle time capsule?

How to seal a milk bottle time capsule?

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dhutch

Original Poster:

14,198 posts

196 months

Tuesday 7th July 2020
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The other day I found a old glass milk bottle, maybe 1930s, intact about three foot down in the front garden.

I now have a plan to bury a current glass (we get milk delivered) for someone else to find in the future as part of finishing the job.

If you're burying intentionally, why not include a bit of a message, laser printed on to the slight posh paper I have borrowed from my previous employer.

So now I need a way to seal the bottle, which will last for 100 years. My current thinking is paper cap, build up a good layer of wax over it, careful place the bottle upside down, with the paper held away from the bottom.

However any other plans for durable, and ideally quicker/simpler options welcome.


Daniel

Tango13

8,395 posts

175 months

Tuesday 7th July 2020
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Cork bung then dip in hot wax?

Andy RV

303 posts

129 months

Tuesday 7th July 2020
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Rubber bung?

vaud

50,282 posts

154 months

Tuesday 7th July 2020
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Add a couple of sachets of silica gel into the bottle? Multiple layers of wax would probably do it.

CubanPete

3,630 posts

187 months

Tuesday 7th July 2020
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Put the message in a zip lock bag with some of those dessicant crystals that come with electronic products.

I'd then look for a silicone rubber bung.

dhutch

Original Poster:

14,198 posts

196 months

Tuesday 7th July 2020
quotequote all
Yeah, obviously all about keeping it dry! A bung is a good shout, and cork is likely as durable as anything else if then wax sealed.

No harm in a ziplock bag or silica gel either.

Silicone rubber presumably because it's more stable than natural rubber, and proberbly most rubberised plastics?

Good thoughts, keep them coming.

Daniel

Sil

Simpo Two

85,147 posts

264 months

Tuesday 7th July 2020
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A cork and a good dollop of Araldite over it.

boyse7en

6,671 posts

164 months

Tuesday 7th July 2020
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A cork will shrink as it dries out so it won't keep the seal over a period of years.
I'd go for a synthetic bung and then dipped.in wax.
Is the paper you are using an acid paper? I don't know much about archival papers, but I know that they make acid-free photo paper for pictures that need to last a long time. I assume that "normal" paper will gradually fade.

AndrewCrown

2,280 posts

113 months

Tuesday 7th July 2020
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Dhutch

For this to be truly effective you will need think about a few components here.

1. Consider using archival paper, and write with archival ink ... you will probably need a fountain pen for that.
2. The milk bottle should be absolutely sterile, .. look up jam making techniques for this.
3. Sealing the bottle: You may need to source a laboratory to assist.. Dowse the bottle and contents with argon gas or any other inert gas e.g Nitrogen or Neon. snd seal with glass under flame...
3a Or place bottle in a larger ampoule of glass.. dowse with inert gas, place silicone seal in milk bottle and seal outer ampoule with glass.
4. Source a 3x larger container in stainless steel or titanium with a fine threaded top with a hex pattern, place your sealed bottle in that container and fill with fine dry sand. the reason for this outer container is to resist shifts in the movement of the earth.
5. Laser etch on the metal container... Time Capsule buried in 2020 etc... in English, Mandarin and French.. .
6. Note exactly the co-ordinates with some app or other and pop a note to that effect in your will.
7. Bury at least 4ft down, liberally cover in a contrasting sand to to the surrounding earth..

dhutch

Original Poster:

14,198 posts

196 months

Tuesday 7th July 2020
quotequote all
Ah, good call about chalk shrinking, hence wine stored on its side..

Google suggested most modern paper is acid free, the stuff I have is 100gsm HP colour choice, and states it's ISO9706 permanent paper.

As far as I can see using a laser printer, thermally bonded pigment based Tomar, should last 100 years.

Good call on ensuring the bottle is reasonably sterile. However, while I'm assuming it was tongue in cheek, there will be no lab sealing!

Contrasting, or atleast sand, isn't a bad call either. Although the first location is with a neatly cut 2ft square hole in the bedrock about 18" deep and two foot under the drive, where the old gate post was, so sand rather than sandstone will be a fair contrast!

The bottle I found was just loose, and part filled with dirt with no stopper or message as far as I could see, and made my week. So even if it doesn't last, it's a chance at it lasting!

I'm going to stick a few in various places.

Daniel

NMNeil

5,860 posts

49 months

dhutch

Original Poster:

14,198 posts

196 months

Wednesday 8th July 2020
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Those heat shrink ends do look good.

It would me great to think it was fully waterproof and airtight, and that has to be best. But if the paper is in a ziplock bag, bottle upside down, that's also better than nothing. We are on a ridge here, sandstone a said, which is coarse and low density, so I can imagine the water table ever get anywhere near it.

I've found newspaper under the floorboards that's obviously been around a long time, 50 years just from the typeface, if sadly without a date on it. Bit yellow and crisp, ripped and screwed into a ball, but perfectly ledgible once opened out.

Daniel

oblio

5,395 posts

226 months

Wednesday 8th July 2020
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Out of interest can I ask what are you planning to say in your letter in the time capsule?

smile

pquinn

7,167 posts

45 months

Wednesday 8th July 2020
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Sealing wax works pretty well funnily enough. Silicone rubber for the bung.

I'd put the bottle inside a plastic or metal box - the box doesn't really matter too much, it's sacrificial, it's just easier to spot as a 'thing with stuff inside' and less likely to have a spade go through it. Biscuit or chocolate tin would do.

Halmyre

11,147 posts

138 months

Wednesday 8th July 2020
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dhutch said:
Those heat shrink ends do look good.

It would me great to think it was fully waterproof and airtight, and that has to be best. But if the paper is in a ziplock bag, bottle upside down, that's also better than nothing. We are on a ridge here, sandstone a said, which is coarse and low density, so I can imagine the water table ever get anywhere near it.

I've found newspaper under the floorboards that's obviously been around a long time, 50 years just from the typeface, if sadly without a date on it. Bit yellow and crisp, ripped and screwed into a ball, but perfectly ledgible once opened out.

Daniel
I was watching an episode of Escape to the Chateau last night and they found newspapers from 1880 lining the walls of a cupboard. I think it had been pasted to the wall so no way of rescuing it unfortunately.

dingg

3,974 posts

218 months

Wednesday 8th July 2020
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Use an empty plastic coke bottle, screw cap, lasts for millions of years according to these save the planet types.


CAPP0

19,530 posts

202 months

Wednesday 8th July 2020
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Can just imagine some archaeologist/scientist finding that much later, many hundreds of years later, and pondering over the meaning of the silica gel:

"Do you think this may have been their food back then? Or perhaps some sacrificial offering to the gods of that time?" hehe

Simpo Two

85,147 posts

264 months

Wednesday 8th July 2020
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dhutch said:
As far as I can see using a laser printer, thermally bonded pigment based Tomar, should last 100 years.
How about etched on thin metal sheet which can then be rolled up? (something that won't corrode).

Idea from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pioneer_plaque

Then if the bottle is glass, heat the top to orange heat and pinch it shut.

dhutch

Original Poster:

14,198 posts

196 months

Wednesday 8th July 2020
quotequote all
dingg said:
Use an empty plastic coke bottle, screw cap, lasts for millions of years according to these save the planet types.
Yeah, there is a lot to be said for that, although the rubber seal might go, it might not, and you could alway wax over the top.

What about self amalgamating tape? Bound over the top with a decent 3M branded PVC insulation tape?

Certainly the more I think about it a sacrificial outer casing makes sense too, just almost anything as you say, even a 2l squash bottle, bit of loose sand or even bubble wrap it, just to take the spade strike impact. I have no idea how I managed to no break the bottle I found, it was good and deep, sandstoney soil, going at it with a big spade, not a scratch. Mind you, the wall thickness is twice that of a modern bottle!

dhutch

Original Poster:

14,198 posts

196 months

Wednesday 8th July 2020
quotequote all
oblio said:
Out of interest can I ask what are you planning to say in your letter in the time capsule?
It is a very good question.

Not a great deal I think, certainly one sheet will be fairly large (durable) text just saying words to the effect of 'this bottle was buried here in Jul 2020 by me and my partner who lived in the house from 2018 onwards.

Maybe in the gatepost one a photo of me with my corona-caveman beard and uncut hair standing by the post. One in black and white on the laser, one in colour on the inkjet?

I have some timelines for the house, date of planning, who lived in it when, but its likely the archives I have found the info on will survive elsewhere better so only maybe very key dates. It hasn't changed hand many times in the last 118 year, only four owners before us, one a Liberal PM and the son of the first owner.

In the other I might get my partner to write half a side of A4 with me about life and times. No plans yet.


Daniel