Scientists read 300-year-old letters without opening them

Unopened letters more than 300 years old that were folded using mysterious techniques have now been read for the first time without opening them, a new study finds. For centuries, before mass-produced envelopes started proliferating in the 1830s, most letters across the globe were sent using letterlocking, a method of folding letters to become their own envelopes. These intricate techniques also often served to help recipients detect if mail had been tampered with.

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