The mystery of a time capsule dug up by workers in Gore Park has been revealed, and as expected, it contains a scroll listing the names of 1,800 Canadians who died in the First World War.

City workers unearthed a time capsule under the 91-year-old Gore Park cenotaph while doing construction work this summer.

The city’s first concern was making sure it didn’t harm the capsule, said Ian Kerr-Wilson, heritage resource manager. Then Brandi Lee MacDonald, a research associate in medical physics and applied radiation sciences at McMaster University, offered to help.

MacDonald and Joshua Vederstelt of NRAY Services Inc. did neutron radiograph imaging on the capsule. The process created a picture of the tube’s interior, revealing an inner glass tube with a cork stopper and paper tied with string.

The research confirmed what historians already believed — shortly after it was found, Margaret Houghton, a library archivist, came across an article from May 1923 that talks about the scroll and what’s on it.

In the next couple of weeks, Kerr-Wilson said, the city will put a small exhibit in city hall that includes the capsule and a reproduction of the list of names.

“It is also our intent — upon completion of the construction work at Gore Park — to place the capsule back inside the cenotaph with some additional information on this discussion,” he said.