Before passwords - ribbons and seals for document security (2021)
prologue.blogs.archives.gov
prologue.blogs.archives.gov
So in order to test couriers credibility and trustworthyness to deliver wax sealed parchments, a courier would be required to collect and deliver said parchment in a controlled experiment. So the route would be lined with spies in on the test who could report back anything untoward. The wax seal would be laced with Atropa Belladonna[1] which when inhaled from melted wax would cause the pupils to dilate and the delivery point would be dark. So when the courier handed over the parchment a lantern would be held up to the couriers face to see if the pupils constricted in the light. If the courier had melted the wax laced with belladonna, their pupils would look like saucers and the recipient would know the wax seal had been melted & vapours inhaled. It was a measure to protect against counterfeiting wax seals.
I dont think this knowledge made it to the US, but it was very common in Europe.
Loyalty & trustworthy tests still go on today, but they have evolved somewhat with the times, but you may not even realise you have been tested!
[1] https://www.historyandwomen.com/2012/07/fatal-beauty.html#:~....
Speculatively:
There could simply be an ass whoopin' dished out, theft is a sin, or a threat to credit. From my understanding the vast majority of people never travelled very far, the estimate I heard was about 30mi being the known world to most folks. So having a bad reputation is a pretty good disincentive. It's also my understanding that debt, rather than barter, was the predominate mode of exchange (a la Graeber), but that would've been trusted neighbors and necessities in communal self-interest; so bad credit and the consequent marred reputation could spell disaster. I don't imagine that most documents recorded on tally sticks were Josiah giving neighbor Jebediah five carrots for future remuneration of seven; rather strange gentry arranging commercial exchanges, and the state issuing and recording taxes. I'm not an expert, though.
This is a fascinating aside that I'd never considered before (and I did not know that the signatories were kept secret for some time). Thanks for the link.
I wonder if keeping the signatories secret was done to temporarily give the appearance of unanimity, since some congressmen refused to sign.
The handwriting in historical letters, while still often beautiful, was not perfect and had errors.
Electronic signatures don't have this property.
In Japan, Hanko or Inkan:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seal_(East_Asia)#Japanese_usag...
Well, the European usage is to call them seals in a European or Near Eastern context. For some reason, exactly the same thing in an Asian context is often called a "chop" in European usage.
Cryptographic signatures don't provide evidence that someone looked at the "document" in transit. For that we use a separate sort of thing called encryption and prevent the problem entirely. The two things work together to provide the equivalent of a sealed envelope or securely folded paper document.
Even more tangentially related: if you've seen the Rick and Morty episode "Morty's Mind Blowers," do you know the name of the red container that Summer snapped open to reveal emergency recovery instructions? You also see them in old Atomic Age movies. I don't know if they've had any practical application in the last 20-30 years, but they are pretty cool and maybe useful for protecting the secrets mentioned above.
As with much else in the technological built landscape, what I'd not realised before that time was how much of the structure was devoted to, and determined by mechanism. Moving a switch control in the tower itself activated a relay which moved a lever arm, which through mechanical coupling moved the actual rail points.
(This is no longer always the case, but for older infrastructure, and this dated to at least the 1930s, it's quite common.)
The operater interfaces were themselves secured and sealed. The operator rather delightedly showed how the seals could be readily removed without any apparent sign of having done so....
Times, locations, and personnel left intentionally vague, though few of those involved are likely still alive.