SECRET INKS AND MICRO WRITING: First published in July 2014, updated

To clarify an issue, it seems that one blogger has suddenly discovered that we are dealing with an Espionage case. Well Hooray!

He proudly announced that the CIA had released a document on Secret Inks but 'overlooked' the fact that the same document described micro writing in reasonable detail as you will read below.

Under the post title of  'This could be a bit of a breakthrough,' he also announced the story of the socks and the secret ink they contained.

Sadly as you will read, both stories had previously been posted years ago here or on our sister site, An Empty Glass which continues to attract good numbers of visitors:

CIA Manual on Secret Writing (July 19th. 2014)

No image at this time but you can read about ways in which Microwriting was used by CIA operatives in a recently released CIA manual which you will find here on this blog.

Amongst other things it discusses how micro writing can be used across the face of a postage stamp and concealed by virtue of the colour of ink used, in the case quoted it was an orange postage stamp and red ink writing which could only be seen using a rose-tinted lens. Other examples include writing within a column divider on a printed page or even in an advert as well as other secret writing methods. View here..  You can download the documents from this link.

AND let's not forget the socks!:

https://anemptyglass.fandom.com/wiki/BLACK_WOOLLEN_SOCKS An unusual WW1 case study of the use of invisible inks cunningly contained in a pair of socks! Maybe that's why the Somerton Man had only 1 pair of socks? Copied from An Empty Glass

Nothing describes the use of secret inks better than a real case study.

He was to travel to Rotterdam in Holland, a country that was, in fact, neutral in WW1.and he was to be paid the princely sum in those days of 25 British Pounds a week.What follows is the case of WW1 spy, George Vaux Bacon. Although he was an American, George spied for the Germans in 1916. He received his orders from his handlers, Albert O. Sander and Charles Wunnenberg.

Bacon was very concerned about how he would communicate with his new employers to whom he expressed his fears. Sander calmed him down and showed him how it would be done. He asked Bacon if he had a pair of black woollen socks and bacon dutifully handed a pair over. He watched in amazement as Sander produced a toothpaste tube from which he squeezed a dark brown paste and spread it over the tops of the socks. All Bacon had to do was to soak the socks in water which would release the brown paste from the tube and the resultant mixture produced the invisible ink solution.

And that was in WW1, imagine what they were doing by WW2. There will be more case studies on this topic to follow.

I own up to being the author of the above.

The existence of micro writing and whether or not it could be written small enough to be 'concealed' within larger letters has been a question often asked by readers of this blog. In this post you'll find a number of examples of Micro Writing going back more than 2500 years.

Cuneiform Writing on Clay Tablets

Possibly the first known example of micro or miniature writing used in Mesopotamia and as you can see it is quite small even by todays standards. It was used mainly for letter writing and contracts. The British Museum has many examples and to date more than 2 million of these Cuneiform tablets have been discovered with a relative handfull having been translated. You can read more about these tablets and their various uses here

Hebrew Micrography

There are thosuands of examples of Micrography to be found in Jewish culture. Extraordinarily finely done and presenting as amazingly detailed works of art. Every aspect of the images above has been done using the written word, every flower, crown, facial detail, hair on the head of a subject, clothing everything created using micro or miniature writing. Other religions also used a simlar approach to the creation of works of art. There are some fine examples here

Chinese Examples of Miniature Writing

Created by Chinese artist Zhou Changxing and his daughter Zhou Liju, these incredibly detailed mico words were hand carved into the surface of the stones that you see in the image above are housed in their museum of miniatures which you can find in Qibao Old Street in Shanghai, no website that I can find at this time but you can Google the museum and artist and you'l find hundreds of examples of fine miniature works.

Japanese Miniature Writing on Pottery

Astounding skill would be required to not only write in miniature on porcelain but to do within a cup or a bowl. This art form is known by a few names but perhaps GUIYO is the better known. The images above show a number of very fine examples, bear in mind that many of these characters were done with brush and not always pen.

Rice Writing

A well known type of miniature writing, believed to have originated in Ancient Turkey and India. Whilst it is indeed small, about .5mm in height, it is not the smallest handwritten example as this video might suggest. It is quite common to see this kind of writing being sold in markets but there are also some very skilled proponents an example of which is shown here and is to be found in TopKapi Palace in Istanbul.

Miniature Writing Machine

Peters Miniature writing machine as the first known attempt to automate or greatly reduce in size normal handwriting. The machine was quite a complex affair that had the ability to reproduce handwriting at a scale of 1:6250. Mr.Peters, the inventor, was in fact a banker, absolute proof of bankers having invented a way to create even smaller print. You can find more on this form of writing here:
http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/smallworlds/exhibition/writingmachine.php

For interest, there is a modern day example, an electronic pantagraph machine also pictured.

18th Century English Miniature Writing

In these images you can see the works of a person who it is believed was one of three illustrators for Oliver Goldmsiths Novels. Three of the works show excerpts from one of Goldsmiths works, The Bishop of Wakefield, written into and shaped into rural scenes. These examples were found by Don Shelton of New Zealand, you'll find his blog here with many fine examples of miniature portraits

Prison Gangs and Micro Writing

Above you can see an example of Prison Gang use of micro writing, in many cases it is used to set out rules by which new inmates must abide. New gang members are taught how to write and then conceal these messages and documents some of which contained instructions for a prison 'hit'. This particular example is from Phoenix, Arizona.

Modern Day Examples

Whilst not that many people still practice the art of micro writing there are some very calligraphers that have superb skills as shown in the image above, whilst not the smallest writing it is still fine work and some of the letters in lower case are of the .6 mm range, similar to those found on the SM code page.

CIA Manual on Secret Writing

No image at this time but you can read about ways in which Microwriting was used by CIA operatives in a recently released CIA manual which you will find here on this blog.

Amongst other things it discusses how micro writing can be used across the face of a postage stamp and concealed by virtue of the colour of ink used, in the case quoted it was an orange postage stamp and red ink writing which could only be seen using a rose-tinted lens. Other examples include writing within a column divider on a printed page or even in an advert as well as other secret writing methods. View here..

Carrier Pigeon Messages/Miniature Writing

1942 example of a micro written clandestine message sent by carrier pigeon to MI 14 by a Belgian resistance group. Most carrier pigeon messages were in small writing due of course to the nature of the capsule and the weight limitations:

 This image was found by Gordon Corera, BBC Security correspondent and features in his book 'Operation Columba'.

Still to come, images and information about:

Ksivy From Concentration Camps

Nelson Mandella and Micro Writing

James W Zaharee

Public Miniature Writing Competitions