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The clever folds that kept letters secret
- smiley1437 5y agoThat's a lot of faith in the strength of a small strip of paper, I'd probably rip the thing several times just trying to make it like the video Did they have stronger paper back then?
- bombcar 5y agoI assume they did but costs were associated - considering they were avoiding envelopes.
- sbradford26 5y agoMaking paper was a lot harder back then and they didn't have the machinery to create the uniform thin paper we have now. So you ended up with a thicker paper with more variance.
- trabant00 5y agoAfter watching the video I do not understand what prevents anybody from reversing the strip through the hole after drying it.
- bombcar 5y agoIt doesn’t prevent observation - it provides evidence that it was observed. Likely with a ton of effort and careful application of steam, etc you could defeat it - but it’s more designed to prevent casual snooping. So don’t think PGP encrypted but think a URL that records who views it.
- BrandoElFollito 5y agoWhy is it difficult to undo, then redo? Obviously one need to be careful (twice) but that's all
- bombcar 5y agoThe key is the adhesive which means you have to tear or otherwise undo it before you can unfold it. I suspect that much of it was simply “how can we fold the letter” taken to extremes as a form of individual expression.
- devenson 5y agoPerhaps wetting and mashing it down changes its shape and strength so it's too delicate to reverse.
- ksaj 5y agoI picture it like being more complex than re-folding a street map. It seems a good lot of people mess that up, and it's easy to tell it's happened because some of the folds go the wrong way, and sometimes there are new folds and "puffy" edges that don't belong there. Just like ironing, where sometimes you see an erroneous V-shaped pleat running down the front of an otherwise impeccable pair of dress pants.
- hoppyhoppy2 5y agoPreviously on HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26532134 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26532134 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26555153 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26555153 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18420924 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18420924 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26338673 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26338673 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26327888 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26327888