340 cipher dimensions

[smithy Profile]

Zab - no need to apologise, since I thought you might have hit upon something and wasn't aware of the Woolworth explanation. All good; without an hypothesis or two there can be no conclusion eh?

[Zabagliona Profile]

Thank you for putting up with me, smithy...I don't have your brains and intellect, but I still try my best...LOL

Maybe Z shopped here for his cards, stamps, pens, etc.....old, weird, small family drugstore that also sold other things....I think it is closed now...It would be interesting if someone could find and talk to a store manager from the late sixties, to see if he/she remembers any "interesting" regular customers...



Looks like the Long's Drugstores were all bought out by CVS, and this one in Vallejo has also become a CVS. Seriously, though, I would love to find the store manager from the late '60's and talk to him/her...There were two in Vallejo, and a few in San Fran as well...

[doranchak Profile Website]

I'm pretty sure the paper is from Woolworth's. Woolworth's sold "Fifth Avenue Linen" stationery... the brand name was also used on cheap pens and various other items to imply that they were "higher end" (and they weren't). Every once in a while, you can find "vintage" packs of the stationery on eBay - with the Fifth Aveneue watermark. A recent seller claimed the dimensions were "7 x 5.5 folded", which I assume means they are about 7" x 11". These dimensions, however, do not exactly correspond to the "ruler" pasted to the 340 matting. If you assume each major tick mark on the ruler is 1/2", I get about 7 1/4" x 10 1/2".

You can check out a recent auction at http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:I9fdcMCWKyAJ:cgi.ebay.com.sg/Vintage-Linen-Finish-Stationery-Fifth-Ave-Woolworth-Co-/190505670968+%22fifth+avenue+linen%22+%2Bstationery&cd=2&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us&source=www.google.com. The picture is unfortunately no longer available.
-A

This old Woolworth's ad from a September 29, 1960 newspaper confirms that a 7 1/4" x 10 1/2" stationery size was available:

[doranchak Profile Website]

"Fifth Avenue linen" stationery may also have been used for the random letters in the Charles Lindbergh baby kidnapping crime:

Source 1
Source 2

Dunno how credible those sources are though.

[smithy Profile]

Interesting.
D., did you post this to show how pervasive the use of this Woolworth's stationery is, or to draw some other parallel....?

I didn't know that the Lindbergh notes were signed "with a symbol" until now. I should get out more, I know.
http://www.lindberghkidnappinghoax.com/ransom.html

Are you intimating that Z., the "student of crime", was aware of the Lindbergh case details and derived some ideas from them? Or am I just off on one.

[doranchak Profile Website]

Interesting.
D., did you post this to show how pervasive the use of this Woolworth's stationery is, or to draw some other parallel....? Are you intimating that Z., the "student of crime", was aware of the Lindbergh case details and derived some ideas from them? Or am I just off on one.

I cannot make any of those conclusions. I'm just presenting what I found. Maybe someone wil try to find Lindbergh's name all over the ciphers.

The best bit, to me, is the confirmation of the stationery dimensions which match our estimate based on the forensic ruler.

[Zabagliona Profile]

I have no idea whether this site is nutz or not, but they had a decent photographic representation of the symbols on the Lindbergh Baby ransom notes...


http://www.lindberghkidnappinghoax.com/ransom.html

Also, thank you, thank you, Doranchak....I knew I had posted something similar on Z's shopping habits, etc., in the past, but could not find it....Alzheimer's moment, I guess...LOL

[_pi Profile]

That forensic ruler seems to use the decimal inch unit of measure. With such a ruler, every inch is separated in tenths of inches. In the picture of the z340, the tape ruler would be 3 inches long.

As an example, in the picture linked below, the 6" ruler on top uses the decimal inch unit of measure:

http://www.woodrow.net/images/photos/productphoto36.jpg

[traveller1st Profile]

I placed the 340 on a Photoshop page sized to 7 1/4" x 10 1/2". Scales perfectly.

Untitled-11.jpg [ 220.01 KiB | Viewed 533 times ]

[smithy Profile]

Yes it does Trav. That's got to please the designer in you, nuh?

That forensic ruler seems to use the decimal inch unit of measure.....

Praise the believer! (Whoops, I almost got that wrong...).
Yes, it seems the forensic scale is divided into tenths of an inch - which surprised me for something used in 1969, but W(TF)DIK?!