Engineers found a message in a bottle over 132 years old from the wall of an old lighthouse in Scotland. This rare incident happened when Ross Russell, a Northern Lighthouse Board mechanical engineer spotted the message in a bottle during an inspection of the Corsewall Lighthouse.
Dr. Barry Miller, retaining Lighthouse Keeper opened the bottle to reveal the message, which was written in 1892 and mentions the engineers who installed a lantern on the lighthouse and the lighthouse keepers of the time. Dr. Miller shared with BBC how he felt when he opened the bottle,
It was so exciting, it was like meeting our colleagues from the past. It was actually like them being there. It was like touching them. Like them being part of our team instead of just four of us being there, we were all there sharing what they had written because it was tangible and you could see the style of their handwriting. You knew what they had done. You knew they had hidden it in such a place it wouldn't be found for a long, long time.
Message in a bottle found in a lighthouse was dated September 1892
According to BBC, engineer Ross Russell spotted the message in a bottle deep inside the lighthouse wall while removing a wooden panel for inspection. Because the bottle was deep inside, the team including Russell's colleagues Neil Armstrong and Morgan Dennison made a device with rope and a broom handle to retrieve it.
After retrieving the message in a bottle, they waited for Dr. Barry Miller to open it. According to a BBC report, the bottle is 20 inches tall, made of coarse glass, and filled with air bubbles. Its unusual convex base made it impossible to keep upright. Dr. Miller had to drill the cork out, as it expanded and was stuck in the bottle and made a cable out of wires to take the letter out.
According to the website of the Northern Lighthouse Board, the message written with Quill and ink reads as follows,
Corsewall Light & Fog Signal Station, Sept 4th 1892.
This lantern was erected by James Wells Engineer, John Westwood Millwright, James Brodie Engineer, David Scott Labourer, of the firm of James Milne & Son Engineers, Milton House Works, Edinburgh, during the months from May to September and relighted on Thursday night 15th Sept 1892.
The following being keepers at the station at this time, John Wilson Principal, John B Henderson 1st assistant, John Lockhart 2nd assistant.
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The lens and machine being supplied by James Dove &Co Engineers Greenside Edinburgh and erected by William Burness, John Harrower, James Dods. Engineers with the above firm.
The message in a bottle is at the headquarters of the Northern Lighthouse Board in Edinburgh.
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