Prisoners, Lovers, and Spies: The Story of Invisible Ink from Herodotus to al-Qaeda

392 Pages·2014·2.75 MB·English

by  Kristie Macrakis

Prisoners, Lovers, and Spies

Prisoners,
THE STORY OF INVISIBLE
Lovers,
INK FROM HERODOTUS
& Spies
TO AL-QAEDA
KRISTIE MACRAKIS
New Haven & London
Published with assistance from the foundation established in
memory of Calvin Chapin of the Class of 1788, Yale College.
Copyright © 2014 by Kristie Macrakis.
All rights reserved.
This book may not be reproduced, in whole or in part,
including illustrations, in any form (beyond that copying
permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the U.S. Copyright
Law and except by reviewers for the public press), with-
out written permission from the publishers.
Yale University Press books may be purchased in quan-
tity for educational, business, or promotional use. For
information, please e-mail [email protected] (U.S.
office) or [email protected] (U.K. office).
Set in Stempel Garamond and Futura types
by Integrated Publishing Solutions.
Printed in the United States of America.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Macrakis, Kristie.
Prisoners, lovers, and spies : the story of invisible ink from Herodotus
to al-Qaeda / Kristie Macrakis.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-0-300-17925-5 (cloth : alk. paper) 1. Writing, Invisible—History.
2. Invisible inks—History. 3. Confidential communications—History. 4.
Espionage—Equipment and supplies—History. I. Title.
Z104.5.M33 2014
652—dc23
2013032344
A catalogue record for this book is available from the
British Library.
This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/NISO
Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For
David Kahn

CONTENTS
Preface ix
1 The Art of Love and War 1
2 Intrigue and Inquisition 19
3 Confessing Secrets 46
4 Invisible Landscapes 69
5 Revolutionary Ink 84
6 Magic 104
7 The Secret-Ink War 125
8 The United States Enters the Secret-Ink War 153
9 Visible Nazis 174
10 The Mystery of the Microdot 198
11 Invisible Spy Catchers 222
12 Out in the Cold 251
13 Hiding in Porn Sites 284
vii
viii Contents
Epilogue 296
Appendix:
Fun Kitchen Chemistry Experiments (with Jason Lye) 303
Notes 315
Primary Sources 351
Credits 353
Acknowledgments 355
Index 359
PREFACE
This book grew out of my discovery of a top-secret invisible ink
formula and method. Never before in the history of espionage
had any government spy agency released or published a classi-
fied secret-writing formula and method.
It was the summer of 2006, and I was in Berlin. I had been
submitting request after request to the Stasi archive for mate-
rial relating to methods for secret writing, or SW, for my earlier
book on methods used by the East German intelligence agency,
commonly known as the Stasi. In return, I had been receiving
file after file of detailed material on how to apply secret writing
to a piece of paper and how to detect secret writing by the Stasi’s
mortal enemies, the CIA and the BND (West German Intelli-
gence Agency), but despite frequent pleas, no secret formula or
method for creating an effective secret ink had surfaced from the
miles and miles of Stasi files. It was frustrating and disappoint-
ing. I was ready to give up.
Then on that summer day, the archivist handed me a thin file
hidden underneath a pile of useless files. When I peered inside
my mouth dropped open. Right before my eyes I saw a docu-
ment stamped with the German equivalent of “Top Secret,” and
it had a formula written on the first page. My heart started
pumping as if I were a kid who had just stolen a candy bar. My
face flushed. I felt alive and awake. After skimming the file I
knew enough to gauge its significance. My mind started racing:
ix