Crypt of Civilization
The Crypt of Civilization is a special airtight room at Oglethorpe University in Atlanta , Georgia . It contains objects from the first half of the 20th century that are being preserved for civilization from the year 8113, the planned opening date. The 1990 version of the Guinness Book of Records describes the crypt as the first successful attempt to bury a record of this culture for all future residents or visitors to planet earth.
Beginnings
Thornwell Jacobs (1877–1956), also known as the “father of the modern time capsule ”, is the first person who had the idea of consciously preserving artifacts for posterity by stowing them in sealed containers. The idea was inspired by the openings in the Egyptian pyramids and tombs in the 1920s, and he was amazed at the scarcity of historical information about these ancient civilizations.
Jacobs wanted to create a "continuous history" of the manners and customs of mankind up to the pop culture of the 1930s. He wanted to keep much of the accumulated knowledge of mankind alive up to modern times, rather than lose much of it as happened to ancient civilizations. This idea occurred to him in 1936 exactly 6177 years after the invention of the Egyptian calendar in 4241 BC. Chr.
So he then suggested the date 8113 for the opening of the crypt, based on this number. Most historians agreed that with the establishment of the Egyptian calendar in 4241 B.C. The first recorded date in history occurred. Jacobs wanted to provide historians of the distant future with the Crypt a free representation of the center of human history.
Jacob's idea of the Crypt of Civilization fascinated America and was copied by others. In the mid-1930s, George Edward Pendray, a PR manager for the Westinghouse Electrical Company , was commissioned by its president to organize a promotional event for the 1939 New York World's Fair . Pendray, who was also an admirer of rocket science, had the idea of digging a deep hole in the ground and sinking a "time capsule" that was supposed to be in the shape of a rocket. The container was made from a special metal alloy called cupal . The Westinghouse time capsule was a two-meter-long rocket-shaped cylinder, inside which was an inner cylinder made of plexiglass. Pendray's project was originally called a "time bomb" but was later renamed the time capsule.
construction
Preparations and construction of the crypt began in 1937. The crypt is in the basement of Oglethorpe University and is the university's former swimming pool. The door of the 6 × 3 m, watertight room is made of stainless steel . The floor was raised with concrete and provided with a moisture barrier. The National Bureau of Standards in Washington, DC advised the construction. It recommended storage in sealed stainless steel and glass containers. The containers were filled with the inert gas nitrogen, the gas is supposed to reduce the oxidation. There is a memorial plaque on the door, made of stainless steel, as is the door.
The construction of the crypt was overseen by the inventor and photographer Thomas Kimmwood Peters, who was also appointed archivist of the crypt. The crypt was sealed in 1940.
content
The crypt is filled with things of Western culture like glasses, toasters, sewing machines, and beer cans. It contains 640,000 pages of microfilmed material, hundreds of newsreels and recordings, a set of Lincoln Logs , a Donald Duck doll, and thousands of other items, many from everyday life. There is also a guide to the English language. These things are meant to help teach future civilizations about the past.
After sealing
National media organizations have checked the crypt every ten years since it was sealed in 1940. In 1970, however, it was almost forgotten. In 1990, on the 50th anniversary of the sealing of the Crypt of Civilization, the International Time Capsule Society was founded at Oglethorpe University . It documents the large number of time capsules worldwide.
The future of the crypt after a fictional disappearance of mankind is dealt with in episode 3 of the second season of the documentary fiction series Future Without People (“The Cradle of Civilization”, USA 2010).
Web links
- Official website (English)
- complete list of inventory (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Description of the structure ( memento of the original dated May 9, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English)
- ↑ Message to the future . In: Berliner Zeitung , December 13, 1999
- ^ Pictures of the Crypt of Civilization at Oglethorpe University. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on May 11, 2011 ; accessed on May 30, 2011 (English). Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ a b The New Georgia Encyclopedia (English)
