The Black Chamber: Opening Europe’s Post
In the febrile political climate of early modern Europe, letters – and the information they contained – were dangerous. Notorious ‘black chambers’ turned postmasters into spies.
It is night in a small room behind a post office in late 18th-century Paris. Six clerks work by candlelight, each moving with practised speed, first pressing letter seals into small balls of quicksilver to make an impression, then holding the letters themselves over cups of hot water. The heat and humidity melt the wax seals and open the letters. The clerks copy the contents of each letter and replicate the original seals using the quicksilver impressions, then return the resealed letters to the postbag. The copies are sent to the postmaster general, who delivers them each Sunday to the king at Versailles to read at his leisure.
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