a milky way
There were a lot of home remedies during the Civil War (for example, blackberry brandy). The South might have been getting shorter and shorter on supplies, but if someone could spare some milk a letter from a loved one at the front could apparently become more permanent. Some of the information gleaned from Northern publications and presented 150 years ago this week. From the Richmond Daily Dispatch February 4, 1865:
How to make pencil-writing indelible.
–A correspondent of an agricultural paper gives the following information, which may be of service to some of our readers:
“A great many valuable letters and other writings are written in pencil. This is particularly the case with the letters our brave soldiers send home from the army. The following simple process will make lead-pencil writing or drawing as indelible as if done with ink: Lay the writing in a shallow dish and pure skimmed milk upon it. Any spots not wet at first may have the milk placed upon them lightly with a feather. When the paper is wet all over with the milk, take it up and let the milk drain off, and whip off with a feather the drops which collect on the lower edge. Dry it carefully, and it will be found to be perfectly indelible. It cannot be removed even with India rubber. It is an old recipe, and a good one.”
