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Richard Taylor richard@jujumedia.com Apple UK Old Post Bags: The Story of the Sending of a Letter in Ancient and Modern Times, brought to our attention by the Dead Media Project.

In those days, "franking" was the name of the game, meaning the transmission of information by way of sophisticated encryptions on the outside of an envelope. The trick was to take advantage of the pre-Penny Black system of cash-on-delivery, where postmen demanded exorbitant fees from recipients. Outwitting the Post Office involved gleaning important information from, say, the way the address was written, then refusing the letter on the grounds that it was too expensive.

The poet Coleridge tells the story of the most rudimentary sort of frank, witnessed at an inn in the north of England. A postman offered a letter to the barmaid and demanded a shilling. Sighing melodramatically, she gave back the letter, protesting that she was too poor to pay for it. Coleridge, ever the gentleman, insisted on forking out the shilling, only to be shown afterwards that the envelope was empty. The letter's message was in fact contained in a number of subtle hieroglyphics alongside the address.

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The Post Office cottoned on to such shenanigans, but proof of fraudulent activity was next to impossible. They did, however, crack a number of basic codes, and administered fines accordingly. Secret messages embedded within apparent instructions to the postman, such as "With speed" or "Postman, be you honest and true" were well known, as was the practice of highlighting certain words on a newspaper (newspapers were delivered free of charge) to convey a simple idea. Underlining the name of a Whig politician commonly meant "I am well", while doing the same thing with a Tory meant the opposite.

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