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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: cyclotic

And I just looked up his bio. He and I share a birthday


41 posted on 03/02/2021 5:17:31 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: BenLurkin

Cool.


42 posted on 03/02/2021 5:22:54 PM PST by sauropod (#ImpeachMcConnell. #Resist. #NotMyPresident.)
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To: jerod

“Eateh and repast at Joe’s’’.


43 posted on 03/02/2021 5:22:58 PM PST by jmacusa (Liberals. Too stupid to be idiots.)
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To: PAR35

NEWMAN!!


44 posted on 03/02/2021 5:26:58 PM PST by 21twelve (Ever Vigilant. Never Fearful!)
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To: BenLurkin

They have “Dental Research” in London?

Who Knew?


45 posted on 03/02/2021 5:37:33 PM PST by left that other site (If you do not stand firm in your faith, you will not stand at all. (Isaiah 7:9))
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To: All

Dear Michaelangelo,

About that statue ... umm, how to put this, ... umm, drop by my office when you have a chance.

— Your buddy, the Pope


46 posted on 03/02/2021 5:47:44 PM PST by Peter ODonnell (Pray for health, economic recovery, and justice.)
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To: BenLurkin

That’s some fancy computer work.


47 posted on 03/02/2021 5:49:13 PM PST by TChad (The MSM, having nuked its own credibility, is now bombing the rubble.)
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To: Peter ODonnell

Mick, follow-up, did they not wear like, a tunic, back then? Or a longer shirt? Work with me here.


48 posted on 03/02/2021 5:49:31 PM PST by Peter ODonnell (Pray for health, economic recovery, and justice.)
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To: BenLurkin

“Please come home soon. Your father, uncle, brother, sister, grandfather and grandmother have all died from the plague.”


49 posted on 03/02/2021 5:57:58 PM PST by Rebelbase
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To: Rebelbase

Ouch.


50 posted on 03/02/2021 5:59:05 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: Peter ODonnell

51 posted on 03/02/2021 6:00:54 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: jmacusa

no one guessed, “your wagon warranty is about to expire”.


52 posted on 03/02/2021 6:09:27 PM PST by bdfromlv (Leavenworth hard time)
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To: bdfromlv

LOL!


53 posted on 03/02/2021 6:10:35 PM PST by jmacusa (Liberals. Too stupid to be idiots.)
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To: BenLurkin
Le Pers did receive Sennacques' letter, but after using his decoder ring, he found the message to read,
"Drink your Ovaltine."

At that point Le Pers decided to cease any further communication...

54 posted on 03/02/2021 6:35:40 PM PST by Thommas (The snout of the camel is in the tent.)
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To: windcliff

Ping


55 posted on 03/02/2021 6:43:06 PM PST by stylecouncilor ("When tyranny becomes law, rebellion becomes duty." -Thomas Jefferson)
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To: BenLurkin

Send more Elvis.


56 posted on 03/02/2021 6:43:07 PM PST by Professional Engineer (Looks like I'll have to buy the White Album again.)
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To: MHGinTN

I think canvases were often re-used by artists similarly; and they’ve found paintings under paintings...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palimpsest


57 posted on 03/02/2021 6:57:14 PM PST by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: BenLurkin

Know what I thought when I read the article?

Nothing’s changed about postal carriers in nearly a millenia.


58 posted on 03/02/2021 6:57:39 PM PST by logi_cal869 (-cynicus the "concern troll" a/o 10/03/2018 /!i!! &@$%&*(@ -)
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To: aimhigh

According to the article, they have figured out what one letter was - a request for documentation, probably over a legal concern.

(Have patience. This isn’t exactly as easy as baking a cake.)


59 posted on 03/02/2021 7:02:14 PM PST by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
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To: Georgia Girl 2

Penned on “July 31, 1697,”

7 311 6 97 = 17.

;-)


60 posted on 03/02/2021 7:13:18 PM PST by CJ Wolf (wwg1wga Godwins; what is scarier than offensive words? Not being able to say them.. )
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