RICHARD FREEMAN WRITES: Hi JonCan you put this on the blog and see if anyone knows what it is?
HE ENCLOSED THIS NOTE FROM DIPU MAREK:
A friend of mine has got hold of this weird looking contraption. People in Garo Hills are gripped by a fever hunting for this "Treasure". Some say this contains Uranium or Iridium. The bottle contains unknown liquid. The base plate has few connecting points af for some (-ve) and (+ve) battery terminals.
Some say this is very expensive and few have already been sold for over UK Pound 2 Million !!!
Can you please look into the East India Company 1818 and dig out what does it contain ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_India_Company
ReplyDeleteThe nearest East India Company Ship sailing to Bengal around 1818 was the Kent, which sank near to Bengal. Looking at the cargo listed from various sources, the bottle most likely contains indigo coloured dye or writing ink.
ReplyDeleteJust a guess, but keeping a bottle upright on ship would be fairly hard, i imagine, so the base plate may be attached to the bottle to keep it stable.
Just a guess.
I would conjecture that they held mercury.
ReplyDeletehttp://in.answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110130064846AAlzGrd
Mercury is stored in iron bottles for two reasons. 1) It forms an amalgam with most other metals. 2) It is denser than glass so, unlike water or beer, or whiskey, mercury stresses the glass.
Why would they need mercury? Again, a supposition, but they were doing a lot of building and surveying. Mercury was used in 'levels' or what they called 'artificial horizons.'
Sorry for conjectures but I could find nothing on those specific bottles and I thought the information I did find was at least leading.