Watermarking In The Nineteenth Century

Watermarking is defined as the action of hiding a message, text, logo or signature into an image, audio file, video or any or other work of media. These practices have existed for quite a long time, actually for several centuries. The field of digital watermarking is relatively young and gained popularity as a research topic in the latter half of the 1990s. Watermarking can be visible, such as the images are printed on money notes, or invisible, for which the watermark is hidden inside the media. Watermarking can be applied to physical objects, examples include: fabrics, garment labels, and product packaging that can be watermarked using special invisible dyes and inks, or as electronic signals. Examples of electronic representations of audios,

It all started by adding a thin wire to the paper mould which was introduced a transparent mark within the paper (making the paper identifiable or to be used as trademark). The meaning and purpose of the earliest watermarks are unsure. They have been used for suitable functions such as identifying the moulds on which sheets of papers were prepared, or as trademarks to recognize the paper maker. They may have represented magical signs, or simply have served as honour. In the eighteenth century, the watermark on paper had become functional in Europe and America. They were used as trademarks, to record the date that the paper was manufactured and to indicate the originality. At that time the word watermark began to be used to identify the antifraud measures on money and other documents. The word watermark was first used at the end of the eighteenth century. In 1779, the first bank note forgery was attempted by John Mathison. Counterfeiting prompted advances in watermarking expertise. William Congreve, an Englishman, invented a technique for making colour watermarks by inserting dyed material into the middle of the paper during papermaking. The consequential marks must have been very complicated to forge, because the Bank of England itself declined to use them on the grounds that they were too difficult to make. A new practical knowledge was invented by one more Englishman, William Henry Smith. This is replaced the fine wire patterns used to make earlier marks with a sort of shallow relief sculpture, pressed into the paper pattern. The resulting variation on the surface of the pattern produced beautiful watermarks with varying shades of grey. This is the basic technique used today for the face of President Jackson on the $20 paper note. The word watermark may have been acquired from the German term wassermarke, which means watermark in English. The interpretation of the word watermark is probably a reference to the