The Nation: Club-Soda Time Capsule

Great events produce newspapers and magazines that people instinctively preserve for their historic import. But most Americans today who have set aside issues of the recent momentous weeks to relive the tumult with their children and grandchildren will, 50 years hence, confront what today's grandparent usually finds on a trip to the attic — crumbling, yellowed newspapers inexorably turning to dust. A few years ago an assistant professor of librarianship at the University of Washington named Richard Smith devised a simple formula for ensuring the survival of history-making newsprint. His innovation is ripe for use now. The recipe, which is...