SCIENCE.-SUPPLEMENT. 



FRIDAY, OCTOBER 15, 1886. 



WASHINGTON'S SIGNATURE. 



Dr. Persifor Frazer recently published in the 

 Proceedings of the American philosophical society 

 a paper on composite photography as applied to 

 handwriting. One of the most interesting results 

 is that he obtained with tlie signature of Washing- 

 ton, the facsimiles of which we here reproduce. 

 The difficulties of the process, and the pecuUarities 

 of composite signatures, were pointed out in Science 

 of Jan. 22. 



George Washington's signature was one of the 

 first to suggest itself for the purpose, because many 

 persons were familiar with it, and there are 

 numerous well-authenticated documents in exist- 

 ence which bear it : but it has proved to possess 

 other advantages wliich were not known when it 

 was selected. As in every thing else, Washing- 

 ton was deliberate, painstaking, and uniform in 

 his method of writing his signature, and the con- 

 sequence is that it makes an excellent composite 

 for illustration. 



In writing his signature, Washington put pen 

 to the paper five times. First he wrote the G W 

 in one connected line. Second, he raised his hand 

 and made the small o between the upper parts of 

 the G and W, and the two dots wliich appear in 

 all but signature No. 7. Third, his hand and arm 

 were placed in position to write ashing, these six 

 letters occupying a breadth of almost exactly If 

 inches in every signature except the third, when 

 they are extended to l^f inches. This is about as 

 much of the arc of a circle (of which the centre is 

 the elbow pivoted on the table) as one with a fore- 

 arm of average length can cause to coincide with 

 the tangent, or the straight line across the paper 

 which the lower parts of the letters follow, unless 

 unusual effort be made, and a great deal more 

 movement be given to the fingers. The g ends in 

 a curved flourish, of which the convex side is 

 turned upwards below the right centre of the 

 name. The lower loop of the g in all the signa- 

 tures and in the composite was cut off in prepar- 

 ing the plate. Fourth, he wrote the final ton. 

 Fifth, he added the very pecuUar flourish above 

 the right centre of the name, with the object of 

 dotting the i and crossing the t at the same stroke. 



In examining the composite, the effect of these 

 various separate movements becomes manifest in 

 its strengthened portions. It is hardly possible 



that any one, during the period of sixteen years 

 which these signatures represent, or from 1776 to 

 1792, should have so schooled his hand to wi-ite a 

 long name that the fii'fet inch or so of the writing 

 should always occupy the same relative position to 

 the body of the signature. It would take at least 

 that much action for the hand and arm and pen 

 to be brought into normal signature-writing con- 

 dition ; and especially is this so when this part of 

 the writing is accompanied by flourishes, as it is 

 in the case we are considering. The G W, and the 

 little o, and the dots at the top, were the prelude, 

 after which the arm was moved into position to 

 write the mam body of the signature, or the ashing. 

 Of coiu-se, from the manner of making the dots, 

 and the extremely small space they cover, their 

 re-enforcement of each other in the composite was 

 almost impossible, and, in fact, like other subordi- 

 nate characters, they disappear almost completely. 

 This latter is the part of the name which one 

 would have expected to exhibit the greatest amount 

 of uniformity, as in point of fact it does, with the 

 exception of its terminal g, which shows more 

 variation than any of the other letters, because 

 at this point the limit of coincidence between the 

 tangent line of the writing and the curve, of which 

 the right fore-arm was the radius, had been passed, 

 and a freer movement of the fingers was compen- 

 sating for the increasing divergence. It is likely 

 that Washington sometimes raised the hand be- 

 tween the end of the long s and the beginning of 

 h, but he does not appear to have moved the elbow. 

 All but the second signature are consistent with 

 this view, and in the first, third, and fifth it is 

 plainly indicated. In the others, as in the flourish 

 above the sixth signature, the pen may not have 

 marked. The fourth separate act of the penman 

 was the formation of the ton after a movement of 

 the arm. The breadth of the space occupied by 

 these three letters is from f to |^ of an inch, or con- 

 siderably within the range of coincidence of the 

 curve and straight line before referred to ; and 

 owing to this fact there is only a moderate degree 

 of re-enforcement of the letters in the composite, 

 because these letters might fall into the first or 

 last parts of the 2-inch space which was the limit 

 of movement with a fixed elbow. It is worthy of 

 note that even in this case the middle letter of the 

 three is darker in the composite than either of the 

 outside letters. The fifth and last movement was 

 the flourish which dots the i and crosses the t by 

 one stroke. This was done in the freest of free 



