Post Card

[Garron]

Hi guys

heres a postcard that was mixed in with another load of photos from my attic its dated 30/3/18

i assume theres are really common, but i thought i would show you pals as i am having a hard time reading the back as the hand writting itsnt that clear.

Front

Back

Cheers pals

Garron

[redbarchetta]

Garron,

The card ain't worth a fat lot in that condition I'm afraid - pound or so. The message on the back seems to say:

Dear Bro & Sister

You can see where I am till Saturday waiting for the boat for Dover. It's a sight to see the thousands and thousands of soldiers all over the place. Well I am sorry that I did not have a chance to ..... home before going over to France. Hoping that Sarah will see Gertie and cheer her up. It's hard lines.... ....love Jack

[Garron]

Thanks, i know theres a sarah in my family(great aunty),

[J T Gray]

Was there a run on black ink or something in 1917-18? Just that several of my grandad's postcards seem to be written in the same purple ink...

Adrian

[squirrel]

Is it purple ink or could it be indelible pencil? Just a thought.

[Garron]

your probably right, it looks like pencil to me,

[J T Gray]

Obviously I am too young to have experienced an indelible pencil - can anyone enlighten me?

Adrian

[Clive Maier]

Indelible pencils contained the usual graphite and clay but also included a water-soluble dye, generally an aniline type. The original intention was that you could take a copy or two by pressing damp tissue paper on the handwriting that initially looked like normal graphite pencil. The aniline dye leached into the contact side of the damp tissue and you could read it from the other side. A perhaps unintended consequence was that indelible pencil writing could not easily be erased like normal graphite pencil writing. So the indelible pencil had the permanence of pen and ink but none of its inconvenience in the field. I believe they were used in vast quantities during the Great War.

[marina]

Indelible pencils contained the usual graphite and clay but also included a water-soluble dye, generally an aniline type. The original intention was that you could take a copy or two by pressing damp tissue paper on the handwriting that initially looked like normal graphite pencil. The aniline dye leached into the contact side of the damp tissue and you could read it from the other side. A perhaps unintended consequence was that indelible pencil writing could not easily be erased like normal graphite pencil writing. So the indelible pencil had the permanence of pen and ink but none of its inconvenience in the field. I believe they were used in vast quantities during the Great War.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Is that the same kind of pencil that butchers used to write on greaseproof paper with, Clive?

Marina

[Clive Maier]

Very likely. Indelible pencils were around when I was a lad. I seem to remember milkmen and bakers using them to write up their books when doing their rounds. Those were the days of door-to-door deliveries. Necessary because things did not keep and feasible because there was always someone at home. Indelible pencils were much prized by children. When you licked one, your tongue would take on a very satisfactory shade of mauve. Never got me off school though.

[marina]

When you licked one, your tongue would take on a very satisfactory shade of mauve. Never got me off school though.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Marina

[truthergw]

Never got me off school though.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

It could, however, get you a fairly sore ear. Ah the good old days, when just about every adult had a licence to ' gie you a skelp'.

[J T Gray]

Thank you folks - obviously I am just too young for my own good! Aniline woukld explain the purple, too, if I remember my chemistry right.

Adrian