A Box of Postcards

 By MJ Malleck// Update: Mystery Solved Thanks to an anonymous friend, the mystery of the secret code is revealed. Here's what the postcard writer wrote: "Well, what do you know all the way from New Orleans and in semaphore. We are fine and hope you are too."  The key to unlocking the code came from his knowledge that, in English, the only double letters at the end of words are ll or ss. Seemed likely that the 3-letter word (sixth word in) must be ill or all. The symbol used for the second letter in the first word is used twice as much as any other symbol, so almost certainly an E, the most common English letter. (My friend plays Scrabble too.) Making the first word, Well.  After an hour, he had it. For those who don't know what semaphore means (I did not) it is a method of visual signaling, using flags or lights. The Chappe-Code I mention in the original post, was an kind of signaling using towers with moveable arms. The Boy Scouts used to teach the two-flag system...

by MJ Malleck// Today I’ve pulled a blank souvenir postcard depicting the town of Lucerne and Mount Pilatus in the distance. The town of Lucerne sits on the fourth largest lake in Switzerland, near to Mt. Pilatus, where legend says a dragon once lived. Perhaps the visitors took the 4,618-meter-long cogwheel railway from Alpnachstad (a village close to Lucerne by train) to the mountain peak. With a gradient of 48% (meaning it gains 48 feet in elevation for every 100 feet forward, disregarding the incline) it is the steepest cogwheel railway in the world. When engineer Eduard Locher suggested putting a railway on Mount Pilatus he was mocked, but his masterpiece was exhibited at the 1889 World Fair in Paris and is still in use today. He cleverly devised his system using two horizontally rotating cogwheels. Most of these systems (also called rack railway, or rack-and-pinion) put the toothed rail underneath the train, between the running rails. On flat surfaces, friction is enough.   ...

 MJ Malleck // Two postcards today, because they were taped together. Never mailed, just saved. They are from Washington, D.C. One shows the White House and one the State Capital building.  The serendipity always amazes me. This week even in Canada our eyes are on Washington. Roe vs. Wade, a precedent guaranteeing a woman’s right to abortion, was overturned by the US Supreme Court. And we are watching the House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capital building!  The United States Capital sits in spacious grounds on the crest of a hill, dominating the entire city of Washington, D.C. It was designed by Dr. William Thornton who was the winner in a prize competition. Thornton, who had been born in the British West Indies in 1759 became an American citizen in 1787. His design for the U.S. Capital was chosen by President George Washington in 1793 and he received $500 and a building lot in the city. He moved to Washington in 1794 and was appointed a...