THE BOXALL RUBAIYAT CODE
THE TUNIC
The above image from the Alf Boxall Rubaiyat, or to be more precise, the copy of the Rubaiyat that the nurse Jestyn gave to Alf in 1945, contains as you can see concealed codes. In and of itself I am sure there are those who have, shall we say, a fanciful imagination, who would make light of this find. BUT, and it is a really big 'BUT', this code is not only to be found in the Boxall Rubaiyat. It is also to be found on the Somerton Man 'Code page', the Torn Slip of paper with the words TAMAM SHUD printed on it, and one more place yet to be revealed. The techniques used to recover microcode. vary depending on the nature of the concealment. In this case, I used Sodium Hypochlorite, (BLEACH) at 10% concentration. That is quite a strong solution and the liquid is very fast-acting so you need to make sure that you have the camera and lighting set up and ready. I diluted the liquid a little to obtain the results you see on this page.
Happy reading! And a question, DID ALF SIGN HIS WORK?
Here are the rest of the images fully marked up for you to see:
What you see above shows the code within the sleeve cuff decoration, the sash around the midriff, and of course within the ring on the little finger of the left hand...
The full image on the Inscription page is in fact entirely constructed using microcode letters and numbers. That means all of the outlines and all of the details of the clothing, the hands, the face, and the Fez, all of it with no exceptions. It is stunning work, having studied various concealment techniques for more than 10 years, I am qualified to say that.
2. THE FEZ
On the left is the FEZ and face part of the inscription page illustration. Even without marking or highlighting various parts of this image, you can clear;y see the presence of microcode throughout the FEZ.
In the image at the base of this page, you will see that the FEZ is coloured completely black. How then is it possible to recover the concealed codes as we obviously have here?
To capture this information the first thing you need to do is to take some good quality images, I used the Lumix 20-megapixel camera and camera from my Samsung S9 smartphone and as you can see the method provides some very good results. Next, I printed the images from my Lumix out at high DPI resolution and placed them on a decent backlit panel. Finally, I took images of the backlit photographs and used the simple Flash on the Samsung to bring out the best light I could.
In the image at the base of this page, you will see that the FEZ is coloured completely black. How then is it possible to recover the concealed codes as we obviously have here?
To capture this information the first thing you need to do is to take some good quality images, I used the Lumix 20-megapixel camera and camera from my Samsung S9 smartphone and as you can see the method provides some very good results. Next, I printed the images from my Lumix out at high DPI resolution and placed them on a decent backlit panel. Finally, I took images of the backlit photographs and used the simple Flash on the Samsung to bring out the best light I could.
But, there is far more to this image as you will see in the one below. I have highlighted the image to show additional extremely interesting examples of concealment. The tassels on the FEZ and which extend into the body of the FEZ, then the curl which shows next to the right cheek and perhaps the most interesting examples are to be found in the construction of both the left and right eyes and eyebrows.
3. THE TITLE PAGE
4. THE GRAPES
I have shown the image of the illustration of the grapes containing microcode on a number of occasions, earlier images whilst quite good lacked the finer details that I have been able to achieve now. I put it down to practice and learning new techniques, a never-ending task.
In this image we answer the question: DID ALF SIGN HIS WORK?
AND...
I have other images from these pages and they do contain clearer examples of concealed code as we have shown here.
Make no mistake, this is clearly clandestine communications, the techniques used in the field by undercover and illegal agents of all sides. Given the other circumstances of the Somerton Man case, my belief is that Alf and Jestyn were working for Australian Military intelligence and that she, Jestyn, had infiltrated the Australian Communist Party whilst she lived and worked in Sydney
Make no mistake, this is clearly clandestine communications, the techniques used in the field by undercover and illegal agents of all sides. Given the other circumstances of the Somerton Man case, my belief is that Alf and Jestyn were working for Australian Military intelligence and that she, Jestyn, had infiltrated the Australian Communist Party whilst she lived and worked in Sydney
The most stunning find is yet to be revealed, I hope to have that ready shortly.
How did they know they weren't overwriting other letters? They would be writing on black presumably with ink or pencil so they wouldn't be able to see where they were writing? And the other point is if the codes were all covered in black ink or whatever how would anyone be able to read them? Jason
ReplyDeleteThose are really good questions. It may not seem possible but there are answers.
ReplyDelete1. Overwriting and whether they could see where they were writing. When you look at the two Boxall Rubaiyat you can detect the colour blue in some images, I think that much of this was done in ink but the micro code in the inscription may have been in pencil. In the images above, in my view, they were definitely done in a blue ink, it might be that the ink itself was able to be seen until it was dried out in which case the person writing could see where the last elements of the code were written so they were able to place their writing accordingly.
2. Being able to see the writing after it had dried is another issue. Here are my thoughts on that. Starting from the fact that we are using high resolution images for this work and my answer would be different if we were working with the original book (Which still exists but I am not sure that we will be given access to it).If we had the original, I would be fairly certain that you would be able to use, amongst other things, the 'infrared luminescence' technique to recover the obscured writing.
' Although infrared luminescence has been accepted as a valid method to differentiate among inks since at least 1963, the effect of household chemicals or body fluids on infrared luminescence properties has not been evaluated. Many ink formulations contain one or more components that luminesce under infrared irradiation. In about 50% of all ink formulations, these components cannot be seen under luminescence. This masking effect was diminished in one of these inks by treating the ink line with body oil, perspiration, acetone, acetic acid, hand lotion, milk, water, Windex $#X00AE; and twelve other solutions found in a household, allowing the luminescent properties not previously visible to be readily discerned. This phenomenon casts doubt on the reliability of using solely infrared luminescence to differentiate among inks.' Read more on this here: https://www.astm.org/DIGITAL_LIBRARY/JOURNALS/FORENSIC/PAGES/JFS11465J.htm
You will notice that the linked article also suggests the use of various household fluids to 'develop' the hidden or obscured writings.
However, in this case, that was apparently not done as the household items would have destroyed the original piece. However if you were an agent in the field and had no access to infrared equipment, then the use of household chemicals, BLEACH in our case, would have been the solution. That tells us something about the way in which the Boxall book was used, will comment further on that later.