This article tells how to load and label a message bottle to go through the mail. Kids fill a water bottle with a message and small gifts for a special friend.
Have you ever imagined the excitement of walking along a beach and finding a bottle with a message? Imagine uncorking the bottle and reading a message begging for help from a person stranded on a desert island.
In the 16th century messages were actually sent this way. Queen Elizabeth I of England had an official "Uncorker of Ocean Bottles," and she made it a capital crime for anyone else to open found bottles. Floating bottle messages were sent to her from the British fleet and the queen wanted to protect the messages from spies or enemies.
Benjamin Franklin, while he was the postmaster general,used a method of dropping bottles into the Gulf Stream and when they were returned by the people who found them, he was able to make up a chart of the ocean currents.
You won't be sending your bottle message by ocean
currents. You can send it by Franklin's postal service.
This is what you will need:
plastic water bottle, address labels, paper for writing the message, a pencil, glue, stapler,
ribbon, shredded paper or Easter basket grass,
clear packing tape,and small toys or objects and wrapped candies.
Wash the bottle and allow it to dry.
Alternately fill the botte with the shredded paper or basket grass and the small surprises. Choose light things like stickers, beads, small shells, balloons, bubble gum. Be sure you leave space at the top for the message.
Write your letter then attach the ribbon to the paper with a staple. Roll the paper up tightly and carefully slide it into the bottle.
Glue the other end of the ribbon to the inside of the bottle cap. Screw on the cap and secure the lid to the bottle with packaging tape.
Address the label,including your return address and attach to the side of the bottle.
Now you take your bottle to the post office and have it weighed and pay the postage.
What fun it will be to send such a surprise message to a friend, a relative, a pen pal or someone else you love!
