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==Question: What were the characteristics of the rings which held the gold plates together?== | ==Question: What were the characteristics of the rings which held the gold plates together?== | ||
+ | ===The plates were fastened together by three D-shaped rings=== | ||
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*"[T]hey were fastened with rings thus [a sketch shows a ring in the shape of a capital D with six lines drawn through the straight side of the letter to represent the leaves of the record]."<ref>David Whitmer interview, Edward Stevenson diary, 22–23 December 1877, Historical Department Archives, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Original capitalization and punctuation have been modernized. In Stevenson's interview, Whitmer recounted his mother's description of the rings. </ref> —David Whitmer | *"[T]hey were fastened with rings thus [a sketch shows a ring in the shape of a capital D with six lines drawn through the straight side of the letter to represent the leaves of the record]."<ref>David Whitmer interview, Edward Stevenson diary, 22–23 December 1877, Historical Department Archives, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Original capitalization and punctuation have been modernized. In Stevenson's interview, Whitmer recounted his mother's description of the rings. </ref> —David Whitmer | ||
*"bound together like the leaves of a book by massive rings passing through the back edges"<ref> David Whitmer interview, ''Kansas City Journal'', 5 June 1881, 1. </ref> —David Whitmer | *"bound together like the leaves of a book by massive rings passing through the back edges"<ref> David Whitmer interview, ''Kansas City Journal'', 5 June 1881, 1. </ref> —David Whitmer |
It should be noted that the "D" shape here described is the most efficient way to pack pages with rings. It is a common design in modern three-ring binders, but was not invented until recently (the two-ring binder did not exist prior to 1854 and were first advertised in 1899. The critics would apparently have us believe that Joseph Smith and/or the witnesses just happened upon the most efficient binding design more than a century before anyone else! Such a pattern also matches a collection of gold plates found in Bavaria dating from 600 B.C.[13]
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