Westinghouse Time Capsules

Westinghouse Time Capsules

Cupaloy is both the name for the material used to construct the 1939 New York World's Fair time capsule, as well as the name given by Westinghouse of the time capsule itself that was part of their pavilion exhibit. It is an alloy made of 99.4% copper, 0.5% chromium, and 0.1% silver. Westinghouse claims it has the same strength of mild steel and would very likely resist most corrosion over thousands of years.

Overview

The time capsule is bullet-shaped, measures 90 inches, and weights 800 pounds. The contents for the time capsule were sealed inside an insulated airtight glass envelope with a diameter of six and a half inches. Its contents were recorded in a Book of Record of the Time Capsule of Cupaloy deemed capable of resisting the effects of time for five thousand years, preserving an account of universal achievements, embedded in the grounds of the New York World's Fair 1939.

1939 Time Capsule Cupaloy

Among the contents put inside were copies of Life Magazine, a kewpie doll, a dollar in change, a pack of Camel cigarettes, a 15-minute RKO Pathe Pictures newsreel, and millions of pages of text put on microfilm rolls which included a Sears Roebuck catalog, a dictionary, and an almanac. The seeds contained in the time capsule (wheat, corn, oats, tobacco, cotton, flax, rice, soy beans, alfalfa, sugar beets, carrots and barley, all sealed in glass tubes) are probably the only ones on earth never exposed to radiation from nuclear explosions.

This first modern time capsule was followed in 1965 by an undated version at the same site. The second time capsule is located 10 feet to the north of the original 1939 time capsule. Both time capsules are buried 50 feet below Flushing Meadows Park. This was the site of both the 1939 World's Fair and 1965 World's Fairs. These cupaloy time capsules are meant to be opened at the same time in the year 6939 AD, some 5000 years in the fuure!

A visitor to the Westinghouse pavilion exhibit of the 1964 New York World's Fair was asked to sign a guest book which was photographed onto microfilm and put into the time capsule. The signer received a tin pin, about the size of a fifty-cent piece, that said, My name is in the Westinghouse Time Capsule for the next 5000 years. Their message in a bottle was then put into the Pyrex glass interior shell of the time capsule for posterity.

Cupaloy cut-away

The items that were selected to be put inside were based upon how well they chronicled 20th Century life. In packaging the contents under the direction of representatives of the United States Bureau of Standards each object was examined to determine whether it could be expected to last 5,000 years. The five main categories of the objects put into the time capsule were:

Cupaloy contents

Small Articles of Common Use

Textiles and Materials

Miscellaneous Items

Essay in Microfilm

Newsreel

Some of the actual 35 small everyday physical items placed inside the time capsule were a fountain pen and an alphabet block set. It also had 75 types of fabrics, metals, plastics and seeds. Modern literature, contemporary art, and news events of the twentieth century on microfilm were all placed inside. The hope is that in 5,000 years a person will stumble across a key to the time capsules. Maybe someone will find it in a museum, monastery, or library where a copy of the over 3000 copies of the "Book of Record" was placed worldwide in 1938. They were printed on permanent paper with special ink.

The latitude and longitude corordinaces of the capsule's burying place in New York was recorded in the Book of Record as 40°44′34.089″N 73°50′43.842″W. A small stone plaque marks the position where both these time capsules are buried at a depth of 50 feet below the surface with an electromatic signal emanating from it.

Messages

The Book of Record of the Time Capsule, of which a copy was microfilmed and put inside Cupaloy, contains written messages from three important men of the time:

Albert Einstein's message,

Our time is rich in inventive minds, the inventions of which could facilitate our lives considerably. We are crossing the seas by power and utilise power also in or der to relieve humanity from all tiring muscular work. We have learned to fly and we are able to send messages and news without any difficulty over the entire world through electric waves. However, the production and distribution of commodities is entirely unorganised so that everybody must live in fear of being eliminated from the economic cycle, in this way suffering for the want of everything. Further more, people living in different countries kill each other at irregular time intervals, so that also for this reason any one who thinks about the future must live in fear and terror. This is due to the fact that the intelligence and character of the masses are incomparably lower than the intelligence and character of the few who produce some thing valuable for the community. I trust that posterity will read these statements with a feeling of proud and justified superiority.

Robert Millikan's message,

At this moment, August 22, 1938, the principles of representative ballot government, such as are represent ed by the governments of the Anglo-Saxon, French, and Scandinavian countries, are in deadly conflict with the principles of despotism, which up to two centuries ago had controlled the destiny ofman throughout practically the whole of recorded history. If the rational, scientific, progressive principles win out in this struggle there is a possibility of a warless, golden age ahead for mankind. If the reactionary principles of despotism triumph now and in the future, the future history of mankind will repeat the sad story of war and oppression as in the past.

Thomas Mann's message,

We know now that the idea of the future as a "better world" was a fallacyofthe doctrine ofprogress. The hopes we center on you, citizens of the future, are in no way exaggerated. In broad outline, you will actually resemble us very much as we resemble those who lived a thousand, or five thousand, years ago. Among you too the spirit will fare badly it should never fare too well on this earth, otherwise men would need it no longer. That optimistic conception of the future is a projection into time of an endeavor which does not belong to the temporal world, the endeavor on the part ofman to approximate to his idea of himself, the humaniz;ation of man. What we, in this year of Our Lord 1938, understand by the term "culture" a notion held in small esteem today by certain nations ofthe western world is simply this endeavor. Whatwe call the spirit is identical with it, too. Brothers of the future, united with us in the spirit and in this endeavor, we send our greetings.

Future languages

The Book of Record of the Time Capsule requests that its contents be translated into new languages as they develop. It also contains an ingenious key devised by Dr. John P. Harrington of the Smithsonian Institution to help future archaeologists should knowledge of the English language be lost.

Footnotes

Cupaloy being lowered to final resting place

See also

• The New York World's Fair Community
• Encyclopedia of library and information science
• Time Capsules: A Cultural History By William E. Jarvis
• Complete Contents List of the 1939 and 1965 Time Capsule
• The Story of the Westinghouse Time Capsule - 1939 New York's World's Fair
• New York Times Movie of the 1964 New York World's Fair contents of Westinghouse Time Capsule

External Link Sources

• A message to the future
• The book of record of the time capsule of Cupaloy
• A Brief History Of Time Capsules By Jeremy Olshan
• The Story of the Westinghouse Time Capsule of Cupaloy - 1939 New York World's

Printed Material References

• William Jarvis (2002). Time Capsules: A Cultural History. ISBN 0786412615
• Official Souvenir Book. New York World's Fair 1964/1965. Time Life, Inc. 1964.
• Official Guide, New York World's Fair 1964/1965. Time-Life Books. Time Life, Inc. 1964.
• Official Guide, New York World's Fair 1965. All New for 1965. Time-Life Books. Time Life, Inc. 1965.
• Suzanne Hilton, Here Today and Gone Tomorrow. The Story of World's Fairs and Expositions. Westminster Press Books. 1978
• John Peabody Harrington, The Book of Record of the Time Capsule 1939, Manuscript 3494, Smithsonian Institution National Anthropological Archives.