Check
out these
oddities
and
curiosities
from
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the world!
The OldesT Message in a BOTTle
an australian family found a
bottle on a beach in Western
australia that turned out to have
been tossed into the ocean. It
turned out to be 131 years and
223 days between jettison into the
ocean and recovery on that beach.
Tonya Illman was walking along
the sand dunes on Wedge Island
when she spotted the bottle
sticking out of the sand. It was
obviously old and she thought
it would look good on her
bookcase. When the damp sand
was tipped out, she discovered a
rolled up piece of
paper, tied with
a string. The
Illmans took
the bottle
and paper
home and
put the paper in the oven for five
minutes to take out the moisture.
The paper contained printing
in German and some faint
handwriting. They took it to Dr.
ross anderson, the assistant
curator of maritime archeology at
the Western australian museum.
after some research, he was
able to confirm that the date on
the paper of June 12, 1886 was
authentic.
archival research in Germany
actually had a record of this
bottle being thrown overboard
into the Indian Ocean from the
German ship, Paula, which at the
time was travelling from Wales
to Indonesia. It was apparently
part of a 69-year experiment
in which thousands of bottles
were thrown into oceans in
order to trace ocean currents
and help mariners find faster
shipping routes. Each message
marked the ship's coordinates and
requested that the finder contact
the German consulate with the
information on where it was
found.
It was estimated that the bottle
was probably a year at sea before
landing on the Wedge Island
beach. Shifting sands probably
buried the bottle for a time and
kept it damp which would have
preserved the paper inside.
Of the thousands of bottles and
messages thrown into oceans
for this experiment, 662 or the
originals have been found and
the German authorities notified.
But this particular one is now
considered the oldest message in
a bottle.
Slowly spinning in a counter-
clockwise direction, there's a
rare natural phenomenon is
maine. It is a gigantic ice disk
measuring approximately 298
Ft (90m) across and it is sitting
in the Presumpscot river in the
maine town of Westbrook.
as it slowly rotates, its edges
grind against the shore so that
from the air, you can see a
perfect ice circle.
This rare phenomenon occurs
where there is slow moving
water in areas of very cold
temperatures. Ice forms on top
of the water and it grows and
collects more ice. It slowly keeps
in motion as the current in the
water moves it along very gently.
sPinning iCe disC
visit OfficialKidsMag.com
to watch this gigantic
ice disk in action!
46 • Off icialKidsMag.com •march 2019
Source: Western australian museum
Photos courtesy of ©Kymillman.com – for more information go to Kymillman.com
