Operation Megalithic Lift - The Stones and the Stars: Building Scotland's Newest Megalith - page 222

He may not have been proud of the circle, but I was proud
enough for both of us.
Next day the blizzards returned, and operations were confined
to the recovery of the nets. The delay gave time for the completion of
the time capsule, which contained also the press coverage of the event
itself. My idea had been that if some latter-day Gerald Hawkins ran
the alignments through his computer, when the origin of the circle
was forgotten, the two dates for Rigel would alert him. If he probed
the ground, the concrete foundations would tell him which date was
correct; and if he noticed that the foundation of the central stone
was elongated, scanning it would reveal the time capsule, where the
topics would tell him what we knew about the ancient sites and their
builders. But there was no budget to fill the capsule with nitrogen, or
for calcium chloride crystals to absorb moisture, nor were the topics
and newspapers special editions on acid-free paper. They were simply
sealed in plastic bags and the capsule was sealed shut by its maker,
David Sneddon of the S.T.E.P. Biogas project; it's unlikely that any-
thing survives by now.
On the 22nd Gavin supervised the erection of the helicopter
stones, joined for the last few by John Braithwaite and myself; the
capsule was ceremonially buried, the working photographs were
signed by the Sportsworks and Astronomy Project teams, and at
its first stage of construction, the circle was complete. The late Ian
Downie had now joined the project, and in the following weeks
he and the official photographer, John Gilmour, completed major
photographic studies of the circle in its freshly completed form
(Figs. 7.26 , 7.27 , and 7.28 ).
The story made the first page of The Scotsman , and was cov-
ered with photographs by the Glasgow Herald , the Daily Record
and others, also nationally without pictures by the Daily Mail
and Daily Telegraph . We didn't realize that the publicity was
attracting unwelcome attention in the new Conservative govern-
ment, until our denunciation in the House of Commons. Until
then, with the project fully manned with genuinely unemployed,
including two registered disabled and one a single mother, we
thought we were fulfilling the objectives pretty well, and in addi-
tion to the success of the helicopter operation, our work in schools
was now in great demand and that alone justified our existence.
Or so we thought.