Amongst the collection of typically odd time capsule items (including photographs of the good looking English women of the day, a box of hairpins (why?), tobacco pipes, a set of weights, a baby's bottle (why?!!), some toys, a razor, coins, a picture of Queen Victoria, a history of the strange tale of the monument, a translation of its inscriptions, a map of London and various daily newspapers), Bonomi included a vial of his blood and possibly and rather gruesomely, a piece of his flesh in a cigar box together with magical instructions written on vellum. It didn't save him - in fact, the reputed curse of the needle may have precipitated his untimely end almost immediately afterwards but he firmly believed that beings would exist in the future who would be able to re-incarnate him from his tissue. This may seem ludicrous but many people who are not blessed with longevity are still doing this sort of thing. You can visit the Cryonics society here.
I like the needle - it is one of those London features that we pass many times without noticing. I recently visited its twin in New York's Central Park. When people talk about the special relationship between the USA and the UK, they rarely realise that if this exists, it is entirely because of the symbiosis between these two monuments. There is a third - erected in Paris in order to foster further harmony - but in fact it does not match - which perhaps explains the odd, slightly antagonistic relationship between our countries and France. Of course all three were plundered from Alexandria where they had been buried in the sand for thousands of years. The story of their transport is remarkable - the plaque on the London needle records the names of the six men whose lives the curse claimed on its journey here. Bonomi's Clerkenwell colleague the psychic engineer Samuel Warner may also have been involved in the journey and the amazing mysterious means of movement of theses giant objects.
