1939 Time Capsule exhibition Stereoview (03/18/2011)

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1939 Time Capsule exhibition Stereoview

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1939 Time Capsule exhibition Stereoview

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Sold Date: 03/18/2011
Channel: Online Auction
Source: eBay
Category: Fraternal, Political, Organizations

Stereoview of the exhibition of the contents of the 1939 Time Capsule on the World Fair. Excellent condition.

I amauctioning my small but fine Time Capsule collection in the next weeks, including an excellent special copy of The Book of Record. I keep these items in my European house, so postal charges are a bit higher. For this item: airmail $ 8,-; insured $ 21,-

From Wikipedia: The *Westinghouse Time Capsules* are two time capsules prepared by the Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company : "Time Capsule I", created for the 1939 New York World's Fair ; and "Time Capsule II", created for the 1964 New York World's Fair . Both are buried 50 feet below Flushing Meadows Park , the site of both world's fairs, the 1965 capsule 10 feet north of the 1938 one. Both are to be opened at the same time in the year 6939, five thousand years after the first capsule was sealed. The two time capsules are bullet-shaped, measure 90 inches (2.29 m) in length, and have an exterior casing of about eight and three-eighths inches (21.1 cm) in diameter.

Time Capsule I weighs about 800 pounds (363 kg), while Time Capsule II weighs about half that. Time Capsule I was made of a non-ferrous alloy called Cupaloy, created especially for this project. Designed to resist corrosion for 5,000 years, the alloy was made of 99.4% copper , 0.5% chromium , and 0.1% silver. Westinghouse claims it has the same strength as steel, yet will resist most corrosion over thousands of years like copper, because it becomes an anode in electrolytic reactions, receiving deposits instead of wasting away like most iron-bearing metals.

Time Capsule II was made of a stainless steel metal called "Kromarc", supplied by U.S. Steel. Westinghouse Research Laboratories determined with extensive chemical testing that this new super stainless steel alloy would resist corrosion much like the alloy that was used for Time Capsule I. Kromarc 55 Stainless Steel is composed of 52.60% iron , 21.24% nickel , 15.43% chromium, 8.20% manganese , 2.15% molybdenum , 0.22% silicon , 0.05% carbon , 0.013% phosphorus , and 0.012% sulfur .

The contents for the time capsules were sealed inside an insulated airtight glass envelope with an interior diameter of six and a half inches (16.5 cm) and a length of about 81 inches (2 m). The interior of the glass envelope of Capsule I was filled with the inert gas nitrogen. The interior of the glass envelope of Capsule II was filled with the inert gas argon. The term "time capsule" was coined by George Edward Pendray for the New York 1939 World's Fair Westinghouse exhibit.

Among the 35 small, everyday, physical items placed inside Time Capsule I were a fountain pen and an alphabet block set. Time Capsule I also contained 75 types of fabrics, metals, plastics, and seeds. Modern literature, contemporary art, and news events of the twentieth century were recorded on a microfilm "Micro-File" for placement in Time Capsule I; the "Micro-File" has over ten million words and a thousand pictures and came with a small microscope for viewing. There are also instructions included on how to make both a large microfilm viewer and a motion picture projector for the newsreels . Also included were copies of Life magazine, a kewpie doll , one dollar in change, a pack of Camel cigarettes , a 15-minute RKO Pathe Pictures newsreel, and millions of words of text put on microfilm rolls which included a Sears Roebuck catalog, a dictionary , and an almanac. Seeds placed in the time capsule included wheat, corn, oats, tobacco, cotton, flax, rice, soy beans, alfalfa, sugar beets, carrots, and barley, all sealed in glass tubes. The items that were selected to be put inside were based upon how well they chronicled 20th-century life in the United States. During packaging of the contents under the direction of representatives of the United States National Bureau of Standards , each object was examined to determine whether it could be expected to last 5,000 years. There were five main categories of objects to be put inside: * Sm...