Invisible Ink

Elegyrl likes to send me fun letters, so I was not surprised to open a letter this week and find two mostly blank pages. The top of the first page had my name, and the bottom of the second had her closing.

My first thought was that she had used invisible ink. But then I started thinking. I know elegryl, and she likes to play jokes. There was a possibility they might actually be nothing more than two blank pages. But more likely I thought it would be invisible ink.

Not recalling much about invisible ink, I refreshed my knowledge online, and determined that of the various liquids used (see list here), elegyrl would have picked lemon juice. I don't know why, but it seems most common.

Many invisible inks are revealed by heat, so I set up the iron and ironed the letter. I ironed and ironed. Nothing happened. I wondered if I had the iron on too low or maybe even too high. Either way, it didn't work.

I read the wikipedia page again, to see if there was another way to reveal invisible ink. I wanted to be absolutely certain I couldn't figure it out before sending a text to elegyrl to ask her what was up with the blank pages. But the other methods of revealing that they mentioned (red cabbage water, sodium sulfide, silver nitrate, etc.) were not easily accessible options, so I gave up and sent a text to elegyrl.

I can't remember how the conversation went, but she played around a little with me before revealing that she had, in fact, sent me two blank sheets of paper (no invisible ink).

Thank you, elegyrl. It was a good trick. :o)