When my mother first told me what a time capsule was I wasn’t very excited. I was even less excited to find out that she wanted me to put one together. I mean come on I am fifteen years old and collecting a box of important things and burying it didn’t sound like anything other than digging work. Then I got to thinking. People of the future are going to find all of these things that are important or that have made some kind of impact on my life. This may be the only way they would ever know what my life was like. So I set forth to find things that are important to my time. I havent been around very long and I only wanted to include things that could be associated with the time I have been alive. I was born at the beginning of an age of modernity. New things are being thought up all the time. In fact there are so many different things that have been invented and so many important events that have occurred my first major task was to determine which of these that I feel are more significant to my time. It took me a while and after a week or so I had finally made my decision. I also decided to include this letter with my time capsule. By including this letter I hope that I can better explain what each item is and why it is significant.
It took me a long time to decide what to include I had to find things that I felt were going to make a difference in the future. The first thing I decided to include was a copy of Max Planck’s book that describes energy in terms of quanta.
My next item that I selected is also scientific writings, but this time they are by Einstein. Einstein is a very interesting man, with a plethora of great ideas. The writings that I chose to include are of Einstein’s discovery of what he calls the relativity of space and time. In his writing he explains through science and mathematical procedure why space and time are absolute.
I decided that I needed to put examples of our leisure reading material. With this in mind I had to find a couple of examples of what we read. I chose War and Peace by Tolstoy and Crime and Punishment by Dostoevsky. War and Peace is about . I think that this
Crime and Punishment shows
After I put so many different writings in my time capsule I decided that I needed some physical examples of our technology. Over the past several years many wonderful things have been invented. In fact, so many things have been invented that I had to think hard about what were the most ? influential? items of my time. Keeping abreast of new discoveries is one of my pastimes, so I decided to include a sample of a substance that was discovered by a man named Kipping. Kipping discovered it a few years ago in 1904. He calls it silicone. Silicone strikes me as a substance that is going to have many different uses and I feel that the importance of silicone will increase substantially in the future. Kipping is not sure what the different uses of silicone may be, but he has hypothesized some uses.
The development of the tungsten filament lightbulb in 1906 is another major scientific discovery.
The development of this lightbulb allows people to afford the convenience of light in their homes or businesses. I think that the development of the lightbulb will eventually replace the use of candles and lamps as the primary source of light. The tungsten filament lightbulb was chosen to go into the time capsule not only because of the way it has changed our lives but also because of the effects I believe it will have on the future of our society.
Around 1901, before the lightbulb and the discovery of silicone, there was a man named Marconi. Marconi successfully transmitted the first wireless telegraphic signal across the Atlantic. His success has already led to many new forms of communication and it will probably continue to be a major part of wireless communication.
A few years later in 1908 the Model T went on sale. I have enclosed a picture since I obviously cannot include the Ford. The Model T has had a large impact on our every day life. The Model T has changed travel forever. Although I am sure that the automobile will not become extinct, I do feel that the idea behind the Model T may be lost or forgotten in time.
I wanted to include a cascade tuning radio since it is also a very important part of our society and lives, but they are expensive and most familys can only afford to have one, if any at all. Since my mother objected to me burying our radio I have to also include a picture. The radio is a major part of our lives. We sit around after dinner and listen to the nightly stories that are broadcast over the air. The stories are usually fun and exciting but sometimes the are a little scary.
A severe tragedy occurred in 1912 and I have included a copy of the newspaper that my family received. On April 15, 1912 the Titanic sank Killing more than 1,500 people. This amazed many because the Titanic was supposed to be one of the finest examples of our technology, and was also said to be unsinkable. This was on of the greatest tragedies of my time.
A heat resistance glass called Pyrex was developed in 1915. Although this is not something that I find necessarily exciting but my mother insisted that I include it. She said that the development of a heat resistance glass is a major discovery. The new glass made by the Corning Company can be cooked in unlike other types of glassware.
The preceding items were all hand picked by me for the reasons I have already stated. They are all very important parts of our daily life or have had sort of impact on our life. The next few things that I decided to include do not necessarily have an effect on me and my family but they do illustrate the style of my time.
The first items that I decided upon were paintings by both Van Gogh and Picasso. Picasso paints in the cubist style and uses geometrical shapes instead of the previous softer lines. Van Gogh on the other hand uses short brush strokes and paints in the impressionistic style. Van Gogh pictures have a softer pillow like look to me.
Going along with my artistic frame of mind I have decided to include some sheet music written by Stravinsky. Stravinsky writes music that no one before him has ever written. He innovated a style of music referred to as orchestral.
I hope that the person or persons that find this time capsule will be able to better understand what the world was like while I was alive. I also hope that by including this letter I have lessened any confusion there might be about what exactly what each item is or what it is for. I also hope that at the time that this is found that there is as much happiness in you r home as there is in mine. Happy History hunting and Ill see you in the future.
