Somerton Man. Proof that miniature writing and use of Iodine were established techniques.

In a recent post it was suggested that iodine may have been used by the SA Police to reveal the indentations found on the back of the Omar book.

The image below is an example of Iodine, being used to reveal secret writing on a handkerchief handed over by a German Submarine Commander, the U234 I beilieve when he and his crew surrendered to the Americans in 1945. There is another case from 1942 when a German spy, George Dasch, surrendered to the FBI and amongst his possessions was a handkerchief with invisible ink writing on it that gave a list of contacts. Iodine vapour was used to reveal the information.

This next image shows US agents examining postal items using iodine and other chemicals in their search for secret writings:

This image shows the use of UV light by US censors:

First some history on this and just why this post is important. Almost 2 years ago on a site dedicated to finding out who the Somerton Man was, what he did and how he died, I put forward some findings I had made related to the existence of miniature writing as in very small, microscopic letters and numbers found both on the free spaces on the so called 'Code' page and interestingly also found beneath the 'letters' of the code. I didn't get the response I expected, the idea and even the images were met with derision and outrage.

I later found that this is quite a common occurrence when people who have dedicated much time and effort in the pursuit of a theory which would be destroyed should this new idea be accepted. It is a classic example of resistance to change and is to be expected. If you are ever faced with this, you simply need to have faith in yourself and pursue your ideas until eventually the idea becomes the truth and is accepted. If you know you are right, that is what will happen. Be understanding of those whose ideas have been sidelined, in my case I believe that their contribution has been massive and is not be derided.

Worthy of note is the fact that I had no idea that there was such a thing as miniature writing at the time, it was a surprise for me as well as anyone else. Neither did I have any real idea of the techniques used to reveal 'secret' writings whether done in ink or as miniature writings or, as it turns out, as both.

About two weeks ago, whilst doing some research I came across an article from a US newspaper dated 1936. You can read the full text via the link but for the purpose of this post, I can tell you that miniature writing and Iodine as a detection method are both mentioned in the article. Here's the link:

http://blog.modernmechanix.com/trapping-enemy-spies/1/#mmGal

What this does is to prove that the use of miniature writing was a known technique around the time, it was in the public domain as our legal eagles might say. In fact, so was the use of Iodine to detect secret writing and used to to an extent that totally surprised me. The image earlier in this post describes the US Censors work in examining letters and postal items for secret messages. In the example they were using chemicals to highlight their findings not just UV light.

The point and how it relates to the Somerton Man case is this. The use of both miniature writing and iodine were widely known techniques. It would not be hard to accept that the US and Australian agencies cooperated in this field even before the 2nd World War, it was peacetime in 1936. How much more would they have cooperated in 1948 at the outset of the Cold War?

The SA Police would have been well aware of these techniques especially having just been through WW2.

This newspaper article and the earlier posts covering the way the case was investigated really do support the view that there was very probably some kind of cover up happening in the Somerton Man case. The Police must have known of the techniques, they would have examined the Omar book thoroughly, they knew how it was done, and would have found what has been found since, miniature writing. The larger 'letters' of the code were not real, they were a feint to make others think that they weren't on the track.

What appears on the 'code' page is a series of indentations and markings picked up by the use of Iodine, some of those markings were 'joined' by the Police for whatever reason. An actual copy of the code page is below, you are very welcome to download it and examine it for yourself. Remember that the 'letters' were put there by the Police.

Examine it carefully, you are looking for miniature letters and numbers that vary in size between .2mm and .4mm in height, some are in the open spaces between and around the 'letters' of the code and some are actually found beneath the markings made by the Police.