From:         "Henry B. Crawford" <[log in to unmask]>
Subject:      Re: Blizzard artifacts

>
>My father's family lived in Brooklyn for many years, and
>weathered the blizzard of 1888.  My great-grandfather took
>some of the snow that had piled up outside his home, melted
>it down, and sealed it in a bottle (I think he used parrafin
>and foil), labelling it as carefully as if it were a museum
>object.  The bottle still exists; it is still sealed rather
>well, but fully half of the quart of snowmelt originally
>contained there has evaporated away.  That it took more than
>a century to lose half the volume of the snowmelt seems
>remarkable to me.
>
>My question is this:  what is the best way to preserve this
>particular artifact?  I wouldn't be the least bit surprised
>to discover, via this listserv, that there is a Museum of
>Blizzards out there--Should this bottle be bequeathed to
>such a museum?  Is there any interest in the chemical composition
>of 19th century snowmelt?

If your great-grandfather filled the bottle with packed snow and
sealed it, then it is possible that the half full bottle is the final result

of the melting.  Could he have tried to keep it in the ice box for some
time?

From recent experience with melting packed snow (to flush the toilet
when the well pump blew up on us over New Year's), packed snow melts to
yield about half the volume in water.   The seal may be working very well
indeed.

Judith A. Fournier
Canadian Museum of Nature.