Centuries before encrypted texts and secure video conferencing, people relied on physical engineering to keep their written messages sturdy, sealed, and secure against eavesdroppers. In a new book, ...
In a steady, stately script, an anonymous Dutch writer living around 1700 wrote a letter: “I never thought you’d be such a miserable dog,” it went. “If you’ve got something to say, just say it to my ...
Hundreds of years ago, people developed ingenious methods to secure their letters from prying eyes – and they did it with only paper, adhesive and folds. Late at night on 8 February 1587, an ...
Recent research highlights the use of letterlocking techniques by Queen Elizabeth, Catherine de’ Medici and Mary Queen of Scots. By William J. Broad To safeguard the most important royal ...
An Unlocking History Research Group team member holds a rare unopened example of a letterpacket with a paper lock. (Unlocking History Research Group) Hundreds of years ago, before the invention of ...
In 1697, a man named Jacques Sennacque wrote a letter to his cousin, a French merchant named Pierre Le Pers, requesting a certified death certificate for another man named Daniel Le Pers (presumably ...
On the eve of her execution in 1587, Mary, Queen of Scots wrote what is thought to be her very last letter. She had been imprisoned for nearly 20 years for the perceived threat she represented to ...
A MODERN CORRESPONDENT wanting to communicate privately can use computerised encryption. Three hundred years ago, origami would have been a better bet. Before gummed envelopes became common in the ...
Some results have been hidden because they may be inaccessible to you
Show inaccessible results
Feedback