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Renaissance-era letter sealed for centuries just virtually unfolded and read for the first time
Live Science ^ | 03/02/2021 | By Mindy Weisberger -

Posted on 03/02/2021 4:04:54 PM PST by BenLurkin

More than 600 years ago, someone intricately folded, sealed and posted a letter that was never delivered. Now, scientists have digitally "unfolded" this and other similarly locked letters found in a 17th-century trunk in The Hague, using X-rays.

For centuries prior to the invention of sealed envelopes, sensitive correspondence was protected from prying eyes through complex folding techniques called "letterlocking," which transformed a letter into its own secure envelope. However, locked letters that survive to the present are fragile and can be opened physically only by slicing them to pieces.

The new X-ray method offers researchers a non-invasive alternative, maintaining a letterpacket's original folded shape. For the first time, scientists applied this method to "locked" letters from the Renaissance period, kept in a trunk that had been in the collection of the Dutch postal museum in The Hague, The Netherlands, since 1926.

Locked letters used different mechanisms to stay securely closed, including folds and rolls; slits and holes; tucks and adhesives; and a variety of cleverly constructed locks, according to a study published online March 2 in the journal Nature Communications.

To penetrate the layers of folded paper, the study authors used an X‐ray microtomography scanner engineered in the dental research labs at Queen Mary University of London (QMU). Researchers designed the scanner to be exceptionally sensitive so that it could map the mineral content of teeth, "which is invaluable in dental research," study co-author Graham Davis, a QMU professor of 3D X-ray imaging, said in a statement.

(Excerpt) Read more at livescience.com ...


TOPICS: Computers/Internet; History; Science
KEYWORDS: dental; envelopes; epigraphyandlanguage; espionage; godsgravesglyphs; health; history; letter; letters; microtomography; middleages; renaissance; scanner; scanners; sealed; snooping; spying; xrays
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To: Jamestown1630
Isn't it though! Isn't as similar technique used with palimpsest (sp?), where a previous message is disappeared using something like urine, then a new message was written on the reclaimed paper or papyrus.
21 posted on 03/02/2021 4:31:25 PM PST by MHGinTN (A dispensation perspective is a powerful tool for discernment)
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To: BenLurkin

Dear Dad, send money quick. Studying hard, as always.


22 posted on 03/02/2021 4:34:18 PM PST by RoosterRedux
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To: aimhigh

can’t tell you that
it’s classified
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6O1KTMOOFcA


23 posted on 03/02/2021 4:39:32 PM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire. Or both.)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

FYI. Buffalo Bill Cody called his 50-70 trapdoor Springfield that he killed thousands of Buffalo with, Lucretia Borgia.


24 posted on 03/02/2021 4:42:48 PM PST by Vaquero ( Don't pick a fight with an old guy. If he is too old to fight, he'll just kill you. )
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To: Jolla

That was kinda funny.


25 posted on 03/02/2021 4:44:32 PM PST by Mr. Lucky
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To: BenLurkin; StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1ofmanyfree; 21twelve; 24Karet; ...
Thanks BenLurkin.

26 posted on 03/02/2021 4:45:42 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Imagine an imaginary menagerie manager imagining managing an imaginary menagerie.)
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To: PAR35

At that time, the postage was paid by the receiving party. So they apparently did not get paid!
Unlike the lazy postmen now!


27 posted on 03/02/2021 4:45:45 PM PST by AZJeep (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0AHQkryIIs)
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To: knarf

Since there is no death certificate, he can still vote!


28 posted on 03/02/2021 4:48:39 PM PST by AZJeep (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0AHQkryIIs)
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To: BenLurkin

They really knew how to make paper back then ,LOL


29 posted on 03/02/2021 4:49:58 PM PST by butlerweave
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To: BenLurkin

Wow! Fantastic technology. Apparently this was developed for dental uses...I guess you never know where your idea is going to end up!


30 posted on 03/02/2021 4:51:19 PM PST by livius
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To: BenLurkin

Here’s proof that the Feds can read your snail mail without steaming it open.


31 posted on 03/02/2021 4:51:40 PM PST by Spirochete
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To: BenLurkin

Come to think of it now, they Dems can tell which mail-in ballots need to be discarded without opening them.


32 posted on 03/02/2021 4:53:26 PM PST by Spirochete
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To: BenLurkin
used an X‐ray microtomography scanner engineered in the dental research labs at Queen Mary University of London

Meanwhile dental care in UK is non existent

Best seller at UK 7/11 style stores is a do it yourself dental kit.

And in Spain the English are referred to as:

Tall sun burnt people with bad teeth.

33 posted on 03/02/2021 4:55:45 PM PST by spokeshave (White Confederate statue kills black man......Another month of protests.... (HT to seawolf101))
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To: Spirochete
Researchers designed the scanner to be exceptionally sensitive so that it could map the mineral content of teeth, "which is invaluable in dental research," study co-author Graham

It's just for "dental research" doncha know?

34 posted on 03/02/2021 4:56:50 PM PST by BenLurkin (The above is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion, or satire. Or both.)
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To: livius
Wow! Fantastic technology. Apparently this was developed for dental uses..

No more idealistic tech optimism for me anymore. The only potential I see in new inventions is juvenile misuse and growth of the police-state.

35 posted on 03/02/2021 4:57:54 PM PST by Spirochete
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To: BenLurkin

D-R-I-N-K-M-O-R-E-O-V-A-L-T-I-N-E


36 posted on 03/02/2021 4:58:42 PM PST by Kickass Conservative (Don't blame me, I Voted for the guy who actually Won the 2020 Presidential Election...)
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To: Vaquero

Cool bit of trivia that I didn’t know. Thanks!

BTW, we needed a name for our new puppy last year. My wife likes sports starts, but not me. We settled on “Cody” - for her it was for Cody Ross of the SF Giants. For me it was for Buffalo Bill Cody.


37 posted on 03/02/2021 5:04:19 PM PST by ProtectOurFreedom (The Weak Never Started, The Cowards fail along the way, Only the Strong Survive)
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To: ProtectOurFreedom

Some old relative of my wife’s was apparently very close friends with Buffalo Bill Cody. Great great grandfather or something.


38 posted on 03/02/2021 5:14:09 PM PST by cyclotic (Live your life in such a way that they hate you as much as they hated Rush Limbaugh)
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To: Spirochete

yikes


39 posted on 03/02/2021 5:17:08 PM PST by piasa (Attitude adjustments offered here free of charge)
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To: BenLurkin

“You may already be a winner....”


40 posted on 03/02/2021 5:17:27 PM PST by GreenHornet
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