不开封也能读信？
An unopened letter that was mailed back in 1697 but never delivered has been read by researchers who have developed a way to virtually "unfold" sealed letter packets without having to actually break the seal.
1697年一封寄回但从未送达的未开封信件经研究人员研读，他们发明了一种不需要拆开封条就能“解读”密封信件的方法。
The new technique, described in the journal Nature Communications, should allow historians to learn more about "letterlocking," the practice of using elaborate slits, folds, creases and tucks to turn a flat sheet of paper with a written message into a tamper-resistant package.
这项刊登在《自然通讯》杂志上的新技术，将使历史学家们对“字母锁”术有更多了解，字母锁是一种使用精细的缝隙、褶皱、折痕和褶缝，将带有文字信息的平纸变成防篡改的包装。
Such security measures were an everyday part of life for centuries. "The envelope as we know it, the gummed envelope, wasn't invented until the 1830s," says Jana Dambrogio, a conservator with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Libraries in Cambridge, Mass.
几个世纪以来，这种安全措施一直是日常生活的一部分，马萨诸塞州剑桥市麻省理工学院图书馆管理员詹那·丹布瑞桥说:“我们后来所知道的信封，这种胶黏信封，直到19世纪30年代才被发明出来。
"And so before then, everyone letterlocked."
“而在那之前呢，人人都在用字母锁术。”
Letterlocking technologies varied greatly, with people folding and sealing their messages in hundreds of different ways.
字母锁的技术变化很大，人们折叠和密封信息的方式有数百种。
"They can make it look like it's less secure and have security hidden on the inside," says Dambrogio.
丹布瑞乔说:“他们可以让它看起来似乎不那么安全，并把安全措施藏在里面。”
"Or they can make something look very secure, but it actually isn't that secure on the inside, when you open the letter packet."
“或者，他们可以让某些东西看起来很安全，但当你打开信件包裹时，它的内部实际上并不安全。”
Many, many unopened letters await further study, including hundreds in the Prize Papers, a collection of mail and other materials confiscated from enemy ships by Britain from the 17th to the 19th centuries.
许多未开封的信件有待进一步研究，其中包括数百封获奖论文、一批信件和其他17至19世纪被英国从敌舰上没收的材料。
Howard Hotson, a historian with the University of Oxford, believes that studying unopened letters and others that were once locked could perhaps "reveal patterns of trans-cultural, potentially global technological exchange, as sophisticated letterlocking techniques are passed from one country, sphere of activity, or continent to another during the long period in which these techniques were in use."
霍华德·休斯顿与牛津大学的历史学家,认为研究未启封的字母和其他曾经锁定可能“揭示这种跨文化模式,和潜在的全球技术交流,从一个国家传递到其他国家的复杂的字母锁技术,活动范围,或者大陆另一个长时期中,这些技术是如何使用的。”
问题
文中提到的信封发明之前，人们使用的技术叫什么名字？
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