Mummified pastries discovered in Chicago time capsule

Chicago Tribune

A time capsule that was sealed in 1928 and then re-sealed again in 1955 was discovered recently during renovations at the Steuben Club building in Chicago.

It's not uncommon for people, once they've discovered a time capsule, to contribute something new and reseal it. The time capsule included a 48-star American flag (Hawaii and Alaska wouldn't become states until 1959), newspapers from 1928 and 1955, and curiously some "mummified pastries."

From the Chicago Tribune:

Among the items in the battered copper box were newspapers such as the Chicago Daily Tribune, the Chicago American and Chicago Daily News dated from the Sept. 17, 1928, ground breaking, and congratulatory letters from architect Karl Vitzhum and other dignitaries. Construction finished 18 months later, just months after the October 1929 stock market crash launched the Great Depression.

Also inside: a tattered, 48-star American flag; a copy of the Steuben Club yearbook, featuring the local German-American community leaders who financed the construction; and tiny glass keepsakes from the opening gala, with mummified pastries still inside. Newspapers from 1955, when the building underwent a major remodeling, also were inside, but when the time capsule was replaced, no marker was installed to remind future generations it was there.

You can read more at NBC Chicago and the Chicago Tribune.

GE unearths 1912 time capsule with light bulb (and it still works!)

General Electric has unsealed a 1912 time capsule in Ohio that, naturally, contained a light bulb. The press release appears below:

One hundred years ago--March 25, 1912 to be exact--executives and employees gathered at GE Lighting’s newly forming Nela Park campus to bury a sealed time capsule packed with a daily newspaper, pamphlets, pins, photos and some GE light bulbs representing available and emerging incandescent technologies of the era.

The collection of treasures inside the capsule was placed inside a cornerstone of Marketing Building #307 where it was intended to speak to future generations about the state of lighting technology and the transformational growth that GE was experiencing in 1912.

GE Lighting employees reminisce, look to future at unearthing of time capsule

Hundreds of GE Lighting employees and retirees gathered yesterday at the base of Building #307 for a real-time, once-in-a-lifetime history lesson. The time capsule was unearthed and its contents were carefully and lovingly removed and put on display before being moved to a secure temperature- and light-controlled space across the Nela Park campus, near GE’s current multi-million dollar LED reliability and testing labs and clean room.

In a remarkable testament to the craftsmanship and quality of GE products and solutions at work for customers then and now, one of the tungsten filament lamps buried for 100 years showed signs of life. It was cleaned, screwed into a socket near the time capsule site and slowly powered up to the point of emitting light.

“It’s fitting that this time capsule was meant to be unearthed when significant changes in the incandescent light bulb occurred,” commented GE Lighting’s President & CEO Maryrose Sylvester. “We’re celebrating innovation at a time when GE scientists and engineers at Nela Park and around the world are developing advanced lighting solutions that are transforming not only the application of lighting, but also the business of lighting.”

GE’s energy-efficient lighting solutions are enabling millions of dollars in energy and maintenance cost savings for some of the world’s biggest and best-known brands, and municipality roadway projects of every size.

“When GE customers such as Marriott, Walmart and cities big and small--from Sydney, Australia to Stamford, Connecticut--can save money with energy-efficient lighting that costs less to operate and lasts as long as a decade,” added Sylvester, “they can put the savings toward new or expanded growth initiatives. We’ve always been a company that offers solutions that make the world work better. Just ask our customers.”

In April 2013, the company will bring Nela Park employees together for a ceremonial burying of a new time capsule, which is expected to include a GE Energy Smart® 60-watt LED bulb that lasts over 22 years when operated 3 hours a day, new more informative consumer light bulb packaging debuting in 2012, marketing materials and an employee photo.

1962 time capsule includes tape recorder, pink princess telephone

Les Stukenberg/ The Daily CourierTime capsules are often no larger than a shoebox and sometimes contain just a few newspapers and a bible. So, it's a special treat when a time capsule is unearthed that contains over 40 items, including technology of the time. 

A public library in Prescott, Arizona is putting its 1962 time capsule on display next week. A reception will take place March 20th at the Prescott Public Library, starting at 5:30pm.

From an article in the Daily Courier:

With the solid copper container as centerpiece, the display features the capsule's 46 items. Among them: technological advances of the time, such as a tape recorder, an intercom system, a transistor radio and a Norelco "Floating Heads" Supershaver.

The display also includes cultural mementos, such as a Chubby Checker album, a pink princess telephone, and a set of miniature toy canned foods.

Local items include a 16-inch-by-20-inch color photo of the Yavapai County Courthouse Christmas lights, several issues of the Prescott Evening Courier from 1962, and photographs of the demolition of the historic Howey's Hall building to make way for the new city hall.

Read more at the Daily Courier

Beer bottle found in children's time capsule from 1981

Photo by Erin Roll (northjersey.com)A time capsule from 1981 went on display at a New Jersey library on Wednesday. As sometimes happens, an age-inappropriate item made its way into the capsule. It appears a prankster inserted a beer bottle into the time capsule, which was prepared by children.

Gene Simmons' tongue still wagged from the KISS trading cards. And the TV Guide - with the cast of "Hart to Hart" on the cover - was still very much legible.

The blue mesh baseball cap and the issue of Time magazine didn't fare so well, though, and a cassette tape of 1981's Top 10 hits will play no more.

And the question that was on everyone's minds: How did a beer bottle get into a time capsule that was assembled and buried by school children?

In 1981, a group of middle school students in Glen Ridge buried a time capsule in front of the Glen Ridge Public Library, not to be dug up until 30 years later. The capsule's contents - which were finally unearthed in July - went on public display for the first time in 31 years in a special reception at the library Wednesday evening.

It was also a chance for the students who buried the capsule - many of whom had not seen each other in a long time - to get to see each other again.

Read more at NorthJersey.com

12-year-old Utah girl receives $1,000 from time capsule sealed in 1959

A time capsule sealed at a Utah bank in 1959 included newspapers, photos, and predictions about life in the year 2000 from prominent residents of Salt Lake City. It also contained a $50 savings account passbook, which was to be awarded to the first baby born in Utah in the year 2000.

That time capsule was discovered in a wall last month when the old bank building (the bank moved out in the 1980s) was undergoing renovations. The local TV news station tracked down 12-year-old Brinlee Millenia Shepard, the first Utahn born in 2000 and Brinlee received the savings account (now worth about $1,000) even though the bank no longer had a record of it.

From KSL.com:

The time capsule also contained a First Federal savings account passbook with $50 in it to be given to the first baby born in Utah in the year 2000. Today, that's $50, plus more than 50 years of interest.

We tracked down the first baby born in 2000: Her name is Brinlee Millenia Shepard, and is 12 years old now. She and her family came to the Crandall Building to check out the hole in the wall where the time capsule was hidden all those years

Inside, they got to see the contents of the capsule, and received that savings account passbook.

But the big question is whether or not the savings account is still open.

KSL did some research and learned that Washington Federal Savings, based in Seattle, and with offices in Salt Lake City, acquired First Federal Savings in 1993.

Though, Washington Federal couldn't trace the original account number on the passbook in its files, the company willingly honored it. Several employees from the Salt Lake branch, including some who worked at the old First Federal, wanted to meet Brinlee and her family and, give her the surprise.

Jonathan Oettli with Washington Federal Savings presented her with the account, now worth about $1000 dollars, and welcomed her to the Washington Federal family.

Photos from KSL.com

Time capsule to be opened at the L. Ron Hubbard Achievement Awards

On April 15, 2012 a 25-year-old time capsule will be opened, which contains predictions from science fiction authors and scientists about the year 2012. The time capsule will be opened as part of a ceremony in Los Angeles for the L. Ron Hubbard Achievement Awards and will be streaming online.

The press release:

The L. Ron Hubbard Achievement Awards ceremony, celebrating its 28th anniversary of the internationally-acclaimed Writers of the Future Contest and its companion Illustrators of the Future Contest, will be broadcast on Sunday, April 15th, 6:30 pm (Pacific), to a worldwide audience via Internet, it was announced today. See video invite. Streaming will be live from http://www.writersofthefuture.com where a special link will be set up.

“This annual ceremony for new writers and illustrators of science fiction and fantasy is such a moving experience that we wanted all speculative fiction fans everywhere and the friends and families of this year’s winners to witness it,” said Joni Labaqui, the Contests’ director.

The evening ceremony will be held before a packed hall of invited guests, celebrities, and many of speculative fiction’s most popular writers and illustrators at the renowned Wilshire Ebell Theater in Los Angeles.

In addition to the annual winner’s of the writer and illustrator contests being broadcast, this year will see the opening of a time capsule, sealed 25 years ago, which has predictions from such notable science fiction writers as Isaac Asimov, Algis Budrys, Orson Scott Card, Larry Niven, Frederik Pohl, Jerry Pournelle, Tim Powers, Robert Silverberg, Jack Williamson, Gene Wolfe and Roger Zelazny, along with newcomer Dave Wolverton, that year’s grand prize winning writer. Top scientists with their look into the future include Nobel Prize winner in Physics, Sheldon Glaskow, and Columbia University physicist, Gerald Feinberg.

As the top names in the science fiction and fantasy world, Contest judges will be on hand to present the annual awards to this year’s writer and illustrator winners as well as the grand prize winner for each contest. Writer judges who will be attending include: Kevin J. Anderson, Gregory Benford, Eric Flint, Nina Kiriki Hoffman, Dr. Yoji Kondo, Rebecca Moesta, Larry Niven, Jerry Pournelle, Tim Powers, Mike Resnick, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Robert J, Sawyer, Dean Wesley Smith, Sean Williams and Dave Wolverton. Illustrator judges will include: Robert Castillo, Stephen Hickman, Ron Lindahn, Val Lakey Lindahn, Gary Meyer and Cliff Nielsen.

Every quarter, three writers and three illustrators are selected by a panel of leading authors and artists of science fiction and fantasy. With no entry fee and judging done on an anonymous basis, the criterion is strictly merit. Beside first time publication, benefits include over $30,000 in cash prizes and royalties, a week-long workshop with top professionals of the genre as well as book signings, radio and TV interviews organized by the contest administrators to assist the winners in launching their careers.

For more information, on the Contests, go to http://www.writersofthefuture.com. You can see last year’s awards ceremony at http://www.youtube.com/writersofthefuture and click on “2011 Awards Ceremony-Vol XXVII.” 
Please note, this is a live broadcast, so check your time zone for when it will show in your location.

Forgotten time capsule from 1959 contains predictions for year 2000

A time capsule sealed in 1959 was recently discovered in a wall of the Crandall Building in Salt Lake City, Utah. The time capsule contains predictions from the people of 1959 about the year 2000.

SALT LAKE CITY — In 1959, the microchip was introduced to the world and in October of that year the Soviet Union launched Luna 3, the first spacecraft to circle the moon.

A month later a group of Salt Lake City leaders gathered on a corner of downtown Salt Lake City and wrote down their vision of what life would be like in Utah when the century turned, predicting floating cars, moving sidewalks and climate controlled clothes.

The predictions, a few newspapers and one very special promise were slipped into a container and sealed into a wall of the Crandall Building, forgotten until renovations brought the unlikely discovery 52 years later.

"I noticed a box and I thought it was a circuit breaker, but there were no pipes," said building engineer Le Vongsayo, who came upon the time capsule while working to restore the facade of the building on Salt Lake City's Main Street and 100 South several weeks ago.

The time capsule was meant to be opened in 2000 and was placed in the outside wall of  the former First Federal Savings Bank at 78 S. Main. Building owner Robert Crandall said the bank closed the branch's doors in the 1970s, and First Federal was acquired by Washington Federal Savings in 1993. The box was forgotten.

British woman needs help finding her 1952 time capsule

A terminally ill British woman is asking the public for help in finding a time capsule that she helped bury in 1952:

In 1952 Mrs Beer and her classmates at the school in Worcester Park buried the capsule to celebrate the Queen's accession to the throne.

"It was a big deal at the time and I can't understand why nobody else has remembered," said Mrs Beer who was given six months to live after being diagnosed with cancer in October.

"It was supposed to be dug up at the millennium but everyone forgot about it."

A recent attempt to find the capsule using a metal detector failed and Mrs Beer has called for former pupils and teachers who know where it is buried to help her.

Mrs Beer said she came up with the bucket list as it gave her "something to aim for".

1987 time capsule with predictions for 2012 to be opened

A time capsule from 1987 containing the predictions of prominent science fiction authors and scientists, will be opened next month in Los Angeles.

It was 25 years ago, April 1987, at the Writers of the Future Awards event held in New York City that a time capsule was sealed with predictions from several of science fiction’s top writers and America’s top science minds, all answering the question, “What will life be like in the year 2012?”. In the introduction to his epic Science Fiction novel Battlefield Earth, L. Ron Hubbard stated, “Science fiction does not come after the fact of a scientific discovery or development. It is the herald of possibility. It is a plea that someone should work on the future.” So it was only fitting that it would be at a Writers of the Future Awards event that science fiction writers and scientists would come together and offer their vision of what the future would bring.

Metropolitan AME Church buries time capsule

The Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C. buried a time capsule this week.

The Metropolitan AME Church’s spirited “homecoming” service Sunday concluded with the D.C. congregation’s children placing items important to the church’s 173-year history into a time capsule that will be opened in more than 100 years.

Church members put hymn books and church records into a silver vault, along with photographs from President Bill Clinton’s inaugural prayer service, Rosa Parks’s funeral and the day President Obama and his family came t

“It is so important in the history of African America that we not only preserve our history, but we lift up our future,” said the Rev. Ronald E. Braxton, the church’s pastor. “This time capsule talks about the 173 years that we have been in this city, and we have made a tremendous contribution.”