Edinburgh time capsule found after 119 years uncovers history of King's Theatre

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A 119-year-old bottle was discovered in an Edinburgh theatre with a note inside that specialists had to prise open.With work underway at the iconic King's Theatre in the city, the unusual time capsule was found behind the stage's features.

After months of painstaking effort, experts managed to extract the note from inside the bottle and found a list of the people who built the theatre back in 1906.

Mike Hume, 48, discovered the bottle while he was on scaffolding above the stage. He said it was curiosity which pushed him to reach behind the ornate crown decoration where he found it, reports Edinburgh Live."It really was like a scene out of Indiana Jones," he said."It was a bit damp and there was all this crumbly plaster and stuff in there - then my hand stumbled on this solid object and I pulled out this glass bottle." The top of the bottle had been dipped in plaster, though Mike could see a note lying inside.

Theatre bosses were unable to open the bottle on December 6, so it was sent off to experts.The bottle become glued together with age, with special techniques and chemicals used to get it apart.BBC Scotland News asked a genealogy service to uncover the stories of the men who built the theatre and left the note.