Spy Gadgets in World War II: Microdots

Microdots are pictures of text that are shrunk down to tiny sizes to hide them - they can only be read using a microscope. They can be as small as a full stop at the end of a sentence! German spies used them in many different ways - hidden in letters, on the face of watches and even on spotted ties! Here's an example:

Photograph of a microdot watch

An ordinary watch? Not quite - look at the dot on the front of it, next to the "7" (we've drawn a red circle around it so that you can spot it)...

enlarged photograph of a microdot watch

This looks very suspicious. Let's see what it looks like under a microscope...

Photograph of a micro dot close up

Yes, there's text there, but we can't read it yet. We'll take a closer look.

Photograph of a microdot on a letter

There it is - a secret message written in German!

Microdots are created using special cameras like this one.

Photograph of a microdot Camera

Who did this belong to?

 

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