Couple finds message in a bottle that NOAA scientists sent in the early '60s

[malaise]

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/02/15/us/noaa-message-in-a-bottle-trnd/index.html

During their regular walks on the Gulf Coast, Jim and Candy Duke often find treasures, including bottles of various colors and sizes which they post on their backyard fence.

This week, while walking on the National Seashore near Corpus Christi, the couple found a bottle with a special message.
It was one of 7,863 tossed into the ocean in 1962 by US government scientists at a lab in Galveston, Texas.
Inside was a note with large letter: "BREAK BOTTLE."
But the Dukes wanted to open the corked bottle with a wine opener. In a video broadcast on Facebook Live, Candy filmed her husband straining for several minutes against the cork that had been lodged into the bottle for half a century.

more at lnk

[rickford66]

1. A good read about the history and science of this

Flotsametrics and the Floating World: How One Man's Obsession with Runaway Sneakers and Rubber Ducks Revolutionized Ocean Science Paperback – June 22, 2010
by Curtis Ebbesmeyer (Author), Eric Scigliano (Contributor)


Pioneering oceanographer Curtis Ebbesmeyer seized the world's imagination when he and his worldwide network of beachcomber volunteers traced ocean currents using thousands of sneakers and plastic bath toys spilled from storm-tossed freighters. Now, for the first time, Ebbesmeyer tells the story of his lifelong quest to solve the sea's mysteries. He recounts how flotsam has changed the course of history. He reveals the rhythmic and harmonic order in the vast oceanic currents and uncovers the astonishing story of flotsam, altering the world's view of trash, the ocean, and our global environment.

[malaise]

4. Thanks

[MineralMan]

2. Back in 1960, when I was 15 years old,

I found a radiosonde transmitter from a weather balloon, while hiking in the hills around my home town. It had instructions to call a phone number. So, I took the thing home for inspection. I opened it up to find the little transmitter and various sensors inside. The frequency it transmitted on was printed on the circuit board. so, I tuned into that frequency on my short-wave radio, but heard nothing. So, I replaced the batteries in the unit and tried again. Success.

I tried a number of things to see how the telemetry signal would change, like heating up the unit with a hair dryer, etc. After exhausting the things I could amuse myself with, I called the phone number. A nice man in a navy uniform showed up at my house a couple of days later, looked at the radiosonde and told me, "We stopped using that model a few years ago. You can keep it if you like."

He did want me to show him on a topographical map where I had found it, though. I did. I had that thing on my bedroom headboard for several years. It disappeared after I had left home. I suppose my mother tossed it in the garbage while cleaning out my old room.

[malaise]

5. What a cool story

[panader0]

3. When I was a kid on Oahu back in the sixties, we'd walk the

beaches in the morning. I found several glass balls, used as fishing floats
by Japanese fishermen. One is as big as a basketball with the netting still intact.
I still have them--conversation pieces.

[malaise]

6. I love these stories

[MineralMan]

7. That's exciting!

[panader0]

8. Exciting? not really. I have four that are melon sized and one large ball.

They're cool, greenish glass, thick and funky. What'll I do with them?
The kids will probably throw them away when I croak.

[MineralMan]

9. They sell for quite a bit.

Some are worth more than others, but I know little about their value.


https://www.glassbottlemarks.com/glass-fishing-net-floats/