X-Message-Number: 4966
Date: Wed, 11 Oct 1995 20:12:43 -0400
From: "Keith F. Lynch" <>
Subject: Re: more heavy metal madness

Doug Skrecky <> writes:
> Titanium is the only affordible metal with which one could build a
> secure time capsule which could reliably survive the millenia.

I have read of lead coffins from the 1600s that were soldered shut and
are still airtight.  These would probably last for thousands of years,
since lead sewer pipes from ancient Roman times are still in use.

However, the people inside those lead coffins from the 1600s were
still dead, even though the caskets were completely airtight.  What
went wrong?  Maybe they'd be alive and well if titanium or some other
space age metal had been used instead. :-)

Cryonic storage requires very low temperatures.  If you have those low
temperatures, the container doesn't matter, except to help minimize
cooling costs.  An old cardboard box would work.  But without the low
temperatures, even a million dollar nose-cone from an interplanetary
probe wouldn't work.
--
Keith Lynch, 
http://www.access.digex.net/~kfl/


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