Papers Found Upon A Man Drowned In Thames

[How Brown]

The reader will notice the second story ( a non-Spitalfields story) which mentions a note found upon a person who was pulled from the Thames for at least a month.
The note was legible as it contains a date...exactly one calendar month from the time the body was fished out.
I remember wanting to conduct an experiment to see how the paper found on M.J.Druitt could have been legible after being immersed in water for a few weeks....but this story shows me (IMHO) that it was possible...very possible.

Lloyd's Weekly Newspaper
February 26, 1888
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[Robert Linford]

Of course it's possible, How. This business about "the papers on Druitt could not have been legible" is another one of those old favourites that bedevil the case - same as "people didn't cry 'oh murder' when they were being murdered." But they did.

[How Brown]

Bob:

What satisfies my curiosity ( because I used to feel that there was something fishy about paper being legible after being found on a person who was said to have been in river water for three weeks or so ) is that this story has a definite period of time which exceeds three weeks.

[Robert Linford]

Hi How

Joe Chetcuti found the story of a balloonist whose craft ditched in Lake Michigan around July 15th, and whose body was found washed up around August 25th, letters etc intact.

[SirRobertAnderson]

I remember wanting to conduct an experiment to see how the paper found on M.J.Druitt could have been legible after being immersed in water for a few weeks....but this story shows me (IMHO) that it was possible...very possible

Was that the time you called me after you and Nina quarreled and you wanted to dump her in a lake with some notes you'd scrawled to see if they could be read after a month or so? And I talked you out of it?

I would imagine that the colder the water the better for this experiment. Oxygen content might matter as well.

[How Brown]

Yes,that was the time...I forgot she could swim.
The water was cold at the time of the discovery of Druitt's body and this fellow in the Lloyd's article...which is good in its way since the question of water temperature isn't much of an issue.

[SirRobertAnderson]

Yes,that was the time...I forgot she could swim.

Rocks, dude, rocks.

The water was cold at the time of the discovery of Druitt's body and this fellow in the Lloyd's article...which is good in its way since the question of water temperature isn't much of an issue.

And polluted, too. My guess would be the lower the oxygen content, the better shot you have of preserving writing.

But you will need to do that "test" for us to have conclusive evidence.

[String]

Ink and paper is different now so any modern experiment would be difficult, although interesting.
Wether the papers are folded and or on an envelope might also have a bearing.