Posted on 06/25/2021 8:08:02 PM PDT by MAGA2017
Yeah, it's called a pencil.
We have letters from a World War One soldier in our family. The paper is fragile and browning, but the pencil writing still holds up!
It's not "whene", it's "where"—tell where you found it. here is a hole in the paper there. "Where" would be a more relevant piece of info than when, since the date of communication would be an indicator.
Also, the dot over the "e" does not mean it was meant to be an "i", since the loop of the "e" is perfectly formed. The dot could be a piece of debris.
What interested me was the cursive style of the times. We have letters in our family in which the capital "N" on November looks like that.
It's almost definitely a pencil script, and therefore waterproof, since graphite leads were manufactured as a very slightly oily metal, with the oil perhaps leached out of the wood shaft of the pencil.
The things that age paper are exposure to light and to air. Neither of which is greatly available in a bottle under the water.
I must have been thinking of this thread when I stood outside of a store today, waiting for my husband. There was a little pencil on the ground, and I snagged it.
I need me one of those ‘Carpenter’s Pencils’.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GAsSOnU0jqk
Cool video! Thanks for posting that. Never knew all the ramifications of a carpenter’s pencil.
I never knew there was such a thing :-) but I guess people in all of the trades have special tricks and ‘stuff’ to help them. I’ve found ‘See Jane Drill’ to be a very informative YouTube channel.
Back in the 90s when we first got cable, there was a show with an older Black man who went around to people who had household problems and showed how to do repairs. I really liked that show, but can’t recall who he was. (Somehow, I seem to recall ‘Henry’ as part of his name...)
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