This is a discovery, sharing and learning blog and like many of the posts we put here, this post happens to be another first. No one had apparently considered the torn piece as being other than a piece of paper found on the Somerton Man and which later matched a copy of the Rubaiyat which in turn contained the 'code' page and led to the finding of a link between Jestyn and Alf Boxall. This is not to say that others were lacking in any way, lots of good people driven by the need to investigate and discover have put in huge amounts of effort without any sign of self serving comments or inflated opinions of their own abilities.
This first post in this series looks at the first letter on the piece, T, you can see the outline of handwritten numbers across the top bar of the T, you can just make out markings in the upright and also in the first letter 'a' from the phrase.
Images of the upright section, this time I think it's a little clearer with a number of letters and numbers in view.
In the images above of the T, the characters are quite straight and appear to be almost machine done. It could be that the numbers in this case are type face numbers. Sometimes but not always by any means, individual letters were numbered. If that's not the case and we have a machine stamped number within the letter T, then it could have relevance to the issue number of what may be a one time pad. More research to go on that topic but it is interesting and I will update this when additional information comes to hand.
Update: According to a specialist printer, the words TAMAM SHUD were made from lead type and whilst the makers would place ID marks on the shafts of type they would never place them on the print face. The conclusion is that these numbers were stamped on after the book was printed.
Update: According to a specialist printer, the words TAMAM SHUD were made from lead type and whilst the makers would place ID marks on the shafts of type they would never place them on the print face. The conclusion is that these numbers were stamped on after the book was printed.
The links are there for all to see. What does it all mean? Time will tell and now that we have these links we can really start to make some progress.
More images of the torn piece letters will be published over the coming days.
Vertical T, right arm: 263/B
ReplyDeleteHorizontal T: 1225
Interesting isn't it? But wait! There's more tomorrow :)
DeleteI wasn't quite sure where to ask this so I thought I would just ask it here.
ReplyDeleteHas there ever been a comparison done of the writing styles of the man who claimed he found the book in his car and the code page? Is this even possible? Do we know the identity of the 'book finder'?
Thank you for any help you are able to give.
Hello, Firstly many thanks for your comment, it's a very pertinent one and there is an explanation.
DeletePlease bear with me whilst I tun through the influencing factors as a background. The 'Code' page is in fact a negative image of the back of the Tamam Shud book:
1. The Police were able to see indentations in the back of the book using possibly UV light or similar.
2. The book itself was white in colour although to some informed accounts it actually had a slip cover to protect it.
3. The original indentations came about as a result of the marks being impressed on a page that was either attached to the book, i.e the slip cover, or from another piece of paper laid on to and using the book as a rest.
4. The colour of the book being white, then the indentations would also show up as white under a strong light.
5. There are a number of ways that indentations can be enhanced so as to reveal their true shape and nature. One way is to use strong light at an oblique angle and it could be supplemented by lightly shading over the page with a small graphite type block, in this case that appears to be the method chosen.
6. From discussions with a forensic person, the light may have come from a light box or the camera may have had an enclosed light. There is a video clip of such a camera in use in the 1948 period which is on this blog but I will port it again on this page. Whichever methods were used, the negative image would show up the white indentations as black in colour.
7. The Police then traced over these indentations with a black marker of some sort, maybe an early laundry marker (contrary to popular belief, such markers were around from the early 1900s).
8. Here's the critical bit, when you now look at the code page and its traced markings using an oblique light, you will see that the indentations on each letter shape are in fact a number of small indentations that together make the shape of the larger letter. Under really close examination those smaller indentations turn out to be letters and numbers. Thus we have a code within a 'code'
9. Now, to your question, because of the way these letters were formed and then traced over, there can be no precise recognisable handwriting style per se to compare. Having said that, if you look at Jestyn's Verse 70, you will see the particular shape of the letter R she uses is reasonably close to the shape of the R found on line 1 of the code page.
I hope this helps, if you could use a user name for this blog it would be very helpful. I get many messages from 'annonymous' and it can be problematical as you can imagine.
Thanks again for your comment.
Addendum to last message:
ReplyDeleteI find it interesting that the two people who's names were suppressed are the man who found the book and 'Jestyn' (I am aware we now know Jestyn's identity).
Is there anyway that:
-The book could have belonged to the man who said he 'found' it?
-That he, in fact, wrote on the front page and tore it out before giving it to the police?
-That he and Jestyn knew each other?
Thank you, again, for any help you are able to give.
Thanks for your comment. I think the best person to answer this question would be Gerry Feltus, he is the ex Detective Sergeant who had this case on his desk for a number of years. Gerry is also the author of The Unknown Man book which deals in great detail with this case. http://www.theunknownman.com.au/ He is an old school detective and a good man who really knows and understands the details of this case more than any other. I think you'll find that there was no connection established between the two but it's best to put the question to Gerry.
DeleteThanks again for your comments.
TAMAM SHUD. It's interesting to note that very few have actually researched the various meanings and usage of the phrase.
ReplyDeleteEveryone has no doubt seen and become used to an interpretation that states that it means 'It is ended' or 'finished'.
But how many are aware that another interpretation is 'completed'? And that according to one source, the phrase was commonly used at the end of a book. A minor difference perhaps but enough to take the focus away from the notion of a suicide.
Consider what would have happened to the discourse if in 1949, the word 'completed' had been used in the inquest or the press.
Not a word about the high tide in the inquest documents. Clelands comments about how things would have been different if the body was put there by someone.
ReplyDeleteSomeone was covering the bases methinks.