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 ...
Dear Dad, send money quick. Studying hard, as always.
can’t tell you that
it’s classified
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6O1KTMOOFcA
FYI. Buffalo Bill Cody called his 50-70 trapdoor Springfield that he killed thousands of Buffalo with, Lucretia Borgia.
That was kinda funny.
Thanks BenLurkin.
At that time, the postage was paid by the receiving party. So they apparently did not get paid!
Unlike the lazy postmen now!
Since there is no death certificate, he can still vote!
They really knew how to make paper back then ,LOL
Wow! Fantastic technology. Apparently this was developed for dental uses...I guess you never know where your idea is going to end up!
Here’s proof that the Feds can read your snail mail without steaming it open.
Come to think of it now, they Dems can tell which mail-in ballots need to be discarded without opening them.
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.
It's just for "dental research" doncha know?
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.
D-R-I-N-K-M-O-R-E-O-V-A-L-T-I-N-E
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.
Some old relative of my wife’s was apparently very close friends with Buffalo Bill Cody. Great great grandfather or something.
yikes
“You may already be a winner....”
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