Donna buys an antique dress and finds a secret message

A woman's secret message discovered in an old nineteenth-century dress. She managed to decipher it after almost ten years

This story has gone viral on social networks in recent days. Tell about one woman named Sara Rivers-Cofield who bought a well-preserved Victorian-era dress and made an incredible discovery in a secret pocket.

The woman bought what apparently looked like an ordinary Victorian-era dress from an antique dealer in Maine. An archeology enthusiast and collector, she examined that dress and discovered something incredible in one hidden pocket. In her skirt was a ball of crumpled paper, made up of two tickets written in an incomprehensible way. A coded message?

For decipher that messageit took the woman almost 10 years.

The woman's incredible story

It was hidden in a secret pocket sewn into a hard-to-reach place on the skirt, which could only be accessed through an inconspicuous opening in the overskirt. The pocket opening is completely hidden by the overskirt, meaning you have to lift the draped silk and reveal the cotton underskirt to get to the pocket. The dress dates back to the second half of the nineteenth century and in the lining of the bodice there is a paper label with the name Bennet handwritten on it.

Thanks to the help of various code experts and professionals, she managed to translate that message, written on May 27, 1888.

The messages were written in a telegraph code used in the late 19th century by the US Army Signal Service to communicate weather forecasts for a number of American and Canadian stations in the most concise way possible. Bismark represented the name of the station, Dakota Territory. Omit, the air temperature 56°F. Leafage, dew point 32°F, observation time 10:00 pm. Buck, clear weather condition, no precipitation, wind direction north. Buck, wind speed 12mph, clear sunset.

One of the experts managed to translate the message, however they are still there many question marks. Who was Mrs. Bennet and why did she wear that dress? And above all, why did she have that meteorological message hidden in a secret pocket of her dress?

At the time there was a Miss Mary C. Bennet employed as a volunteer weather observer of Fulton County. She could therefore have been the mysterious owner of the dress. The date of the weather observations in the coded message was recorded on Mary Bennett's birthday. A coincidence?