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Hit 15 years in the trade and found a 1920s newspaper in a flue in Portland last week.
It was perfectly preserved behind a brick that had shifted, and seeing that date really drove home how many stories these old chimneys hold beyond just the soot.
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margaret_lane2mo ago
Guess they were really into flue-tube journalism.
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green.mason2mo ago
Flue-tube journalism makes me wonder if they were trying to hide messages in plain sight. Like printing secret codes in the shipping news or stock tables that only insiders would read. You could pass a whole plan in the boiler specs of a steamship ad. That kind of thing would look totally normal to a censor but mean something else to your contact.
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michaelcoleman4d ago
Huh, never thought of that angle, but @green.mason might be onto something with the hidden messages.
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