The use of furniture polish on the Goldman Sachs letters has not been determined. The writer claims that is the case — as does the Daily News, but my understanding from the FBI (via journalist Rocco) is that analysts have not yet determined if such polish was used. (I presume it was).
Googling forensics and “furniture polish” and “wipe fingerprints” turns up a New Scientist article from 10 years ago where the Detectives entered the perp’s room and commented on the “smell of pledge” — noting it was used to destroy the incriminating evidence. Is your thought it works on things like computer disks rather than paper? “Furniture polish” and “wipe fingerprints”, when googled, comes up with it being frequently advertised without regard to material. Why wouldn’t it work on paper?
I use my fingerprints to get discounts at the grocery store — my wife only wishes she entered the perp’s room to discovery the smell of pledge more often. :0)
But, like you, I do the letter — and the possibility a silicone based furniture polish was used — fascinating.
BTW, I spend a lot of time in libraries and only know Gale Directory of Publications to be the likely source of addresses.
Your thinking is sometimes so bizarre that I find it difficult to believe anyone would actually think that way.
Does anyone use furniture polish on computer disks? I certainly wouldn't. If my computer disks were covered with fingerprints, I'd use a clean, DRY cloth to remove the prints. Or I might splurge and go out and buy some alcohol-based disk cleaner -- something that would totally evaporate after cleaning. The last thing I'd do would be to use something that leaves a WAX COATING on the disks. I have no idea what that would do to the ability of the laser to read the disks, but it can't help. And I'd worry that the wax would scrape off onto machine parts and cause problems.
And using furniture polish to remove fingerprints from paper is even more crazy. This morning, I tried spraying "Favor" furniture polish on some paper. The polish soaked right into the paper. It took awhile to dry. And, when dry, the paper was saturated with wax. The wax coating probably gave it special properties for picking up new prints or glove fibers and for collecting the skin cells which constantly flake off a person.
While one could probably remove fingerprints from paper by wiping the paper down with furniture polish, it would seem easier to just flush the paper down the toilet or to burn it. Who would spray a copy of the New York Times with furniture polish to remove fingerprints? Why not just throw out the newspaper?
If you're going to try to remove fingerprints, you're generally going to do it with things you cannot remove and take with you -- like furniture and light switches.
If you are going to remove prints from a letter you are going to send to the police, why put fingerprints on the paper in the first place? Fingerprints are generally only left behind when people don't think about it. If they think about it, they don't leave prints behind.
Will wiping down a sheet of paper with furniture polish remove prints? Actually, I don't know. It's possible that the right chemical analysis would be able to distinguish the body oils soaked into the paper from the wax applied to the surface. But, even if using furniture polish for that purpose works, it's still a totally bizarre thing to do.