Brooklyn/NYC Drop Letter

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Permalink Reply by Acidfingers on July 22, 2009 at 9:50pm

I did some experimenting and found a way to extract the writing from under the obliterations, assuming the writing is a sharpie marker and the obliteration ink is dry erase marker.

Extracting the writing from the obliterated sections:
1. Place the letter flat on a blank piece of paper. You may want a stack of blank paper so you don't get any messes anywhere.
2. Prepare another stack of blank paper and a large flat heavy object (like a book) to be placed on top of the letter after the next step.
3. Use a paint brush to apply a coating of the rubbing alcohol over the entire marked out section.
4. Place the stack of paper plus the book flat on top of the letter.
5. Wait a few minutes.
6. Carefully lift the book and stack of papers off the letter. Keep the sheet that was in contact with the letter safe.
7. Carefully lift the letter from the sheet of paper and keep the sheet of paper that the letter was directly on top of.
8. The sheet of paper directly below the letter should now have a copy of the writing from the letter.

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Permalink Reply by panda on July 22, 2009 at 9:52pm

cooool acid -- we should do this for all the blacked-out letters then, yes?

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Permalink Reply by Acidfingers on July 22, 2009 at 10:00pm

That's my guess, but I want to just try it on one first to see if it actually works. Remember, this is all assuming it's the correct pen and ink combination...

panda said:

cooool acid -- we should do this for all the blacked-out letters then, yes?

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Permalink Reply by silverblue on July 22, 2009 at 10:06pm

Acid, you're fantastic.

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Permalink Reply by QtheC on July 23, 2009 at 8:55am

Great job grabbing the drop Kmurr & Grace!

From chat last night, Grace was trying to apply a little rubbing alcohol with a q-tip.

She said she was going to make a high-res scan at kinko's today and then try some more alcohol on the page.

Grace, could you check your flickr account settings? I was unable to reach high-res images here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/grace289/sets/72157621660404687/
(I see the photos in the set, but they are low resolution)

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Permalink Reply by grace2_89 on July 23, 2009 at 12:19pm

Hey Q,

Yeah! It was my photo settings...!

You should all be able to get to them now.

Let me know, and I'll be trekking to kinko's here in a little bit.

Also, the second attempt at alcohol did not work. Heat didn't, either. There appears to be no lemon juice message on this one. It's odd.

QtheC said:

Great job grabbing the drop Kmurr & Grace!

From chat last night, Grace was trying to apply a little rubbing alcohol with a q-tip.

She said she was going to make a high-res scan at kinko's today and then try some more alcohol on the page.

Grace, could you check your flickr account settings? I was unable to reach high-res images here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/grace289/sets/72157621660404687/
(I see the photos in the set, but they are low resolution)

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Permalink Reply by Kelly on July 23, 2009 at 12:37pm

told you so >_>

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Permalink Reply by Angela Crouch on July 23, 2009 at 1:01pm

just being curious. what was the code used to crack the postcard?

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Permalink Reply by QtheC on July 23, 2009 at 1:14pm

Thanks Grace, nice pictures, and the option to see all sizes is there now!

Taking a quick look, you can almost make out the words from the back of the letter.

In chat yesterday you mentioned there was one word you were sure you could read under the black covering ink. After Kinko's, I'd suggest cutting that word out with scissors and dunking it in alcohol - let it soak a see what happens.

If alchohol works at all, it may take a lot of wetting and blotting to get enough of the ink off to read the text below. Baking the letter might make it harder to remove any of the ink.

grace2_89 said:

Hey Q,

Yeah! It was my photo settings...!

You should all be able to get to them now.

Let me know, and I'll be trekking to kinko's here in a little bit.

Also, the second attempt at alcohol did not work. Heat didn't, either. There appears to be no lemon juice message on this one. It's odd.

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Permalink Reply by QtheC on July 23, 2009 at 1:17pm

see http://www.maddisonatkins.com/forum/topics/new-york-post-card

Angela Crouch said:

just being curious. what was the code used to crack the postcard?

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Permalink Reply by Angela Crouch on July 23, 2009 at 1:34pm

ok...thanks

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Permalink Reply by grace2_89 on July 23, 2009 at 1:48pm

I agree, so I'll try to get to kinko's very soon. I want to hang out and talk to maddison while she's around, so I'll probably go right after that, and then upload the pics.

Glad they are working for you now.

QtheC said:

Thanks Grace, nice pictures, and the option to see all sizes is there now!

Taking a quick look, you can almost make out the words from the back of the letter.

In chat yesterday you mentioned there was one word you were sure you could read under the black covering ink. After Kinko's, I'd suggest cutting that word out with scissors and dunking it in alcohol - let it soak a see what happens.

If alchohol works at all, it may take a lot of wetting and blotting to get enough of the ink off to read the text below. Baking the letter might make it harder to remove any of the ink.

grace2_89 said:

Hey Q,

Yeah! It was my photo settings...!

You should all be able to get to them now.

Let me know, and I'll be trekking to kinko's here in a little bit.

Also, the second attempt at alcohol did not work. Heat didn't, either. There appears to be no lemon juice message on this one. It's odd.

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