Page 242 - The Lost Ways

❖ Small bowl or any container
❖ Spoon
❖ Any kind of paper that you can write on
❖ Q-tips/toothpick/inkless pen/paintbrush

❖ A lamp with a hot lightbulb or a candle

The procedure is as follows:

❖ Squeeze the lemon in your container.

❖ Add the water, and stir thoroughly.
❖ Dip your Q-tip (or whatever you’re using to write) into the mixture.
❖ Write your message on a piece of paper. You could write a decoy message first using
a pencil or a pen to make it fun.
❖ Let it dry. Your message will become colorless once it dries.
❖ To reveal the message, hold the paper over the lightbulb or a flame. (Be careful not
to burn the paper or yourself.)

An alternative that can be used is milk. All you need is to dip your Q-tip into the milk, write

the message on your paper, and let it dry for at least 30 minutes. Your message will appear
if you expose it to heat.

If, however, you don’t have lemons or milk in your home, you can still make an invisible
message by using two sheets of paper with one of them preferably blank. Place the blank
paper under the one you’re going to write on. Using a pen or pencil or anything that could
put pressure, write your message on the top paper.

The recipient of your message only needs to gently shade over the bottom paper to view
the content.

Mask Letters

A more complicated type of hidden message is the mask letter. It was mostly the British

that utilized this technique during the Revolutionary War. It was known to them as the
Cardan system, named after Geronimo Caradano, who was one of the most famous code-
makers at that time. The mask letters required a lot of skill, patience, and intelligence.

Because it was meant to be read through a mask or a shaped, cutout template, the writer
had to compose a decoy message around the secret message. Another necessary step
that the British took when they used the mask letters was to send the letter through a
different route than the mask.

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