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The

original of this

book

is in

the Cornell University Library.

There are no known copyright

restrictions in
text.

the United States on the use of the

http://www.archive.org/cletails/cu31924074296256

3 1924 074 296 256

In compliance with current copyright law, Cornell University Library produced this replacement volume on paper that meets the ANSI Standard 239.48-1984 to replace the irreparably deteriorated original.

1992

CRYPTOGRAPHY
OR

THE HISTORY,

PRINCIPLES,

AND PRACTICE OF

CIPHER-WRITING

CRYPTOGRAPHY
OR

The

History, Principles, and Practice

OF

CIPHER-WRITING

BY
F.

EDWARD HULME,

F.L.S.,

F.S.A

AUTHOR OF "familiar WILD FLOWERS," "mVTHLAND," " NATURAL HISTORY LORE AND LEGEND," **THE BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF
ORNAMENT,'* " WAYSIDE SKETCHES," ETC

**

Here's noiu mystery

and hierogIyJ>h Ben Jonson The Alchemyst.

LONDON

WARD, LOCK AND

CO,

LIMITED
E.C

WARWICK HOUSE, SALISBURY SQUARE,

new YORK AND MELBOURNE

led

33!

so

"

CONTENTS
CHAPTER
Meaning
of cryptography

"

Objectious-_to studyIts legitimate use and value Historic examples of employment Delight in the mysterious Many other ways of conveying secret inf ormation^Symbolism of action The spoken word imprisoned and dispatched matter not necessarily secret because one cannot Egyptian hieroglyphics Chinese tiuderstand characters Indian mutiny Greek Ancient Biblical cryptogram Sheshach of Jeremiah Sir Henry Rawliuson thereon Statements for and against Julius Caesar's secret code The waxed tablet of Demaratus Difference between hidden and secret writing The shaven head a writing tablet Charlemagne and Alfred the Great as cryptographic experts Medlasval authorities Trithemius the Benedictine " Steganographia " Dabbling in the black art Dr. Dee Batista Porta's book on '"Natural Majick Invisible writing Chemical methods by alum, Writing on glass or crystalPapal Inquisition Disappearing writing Messages wrapped round rollers Two methods A slave's back the writing surface Chemical methods of no great rakie ordinarily Disadvantages of use Action of light and heat Chloride of cobalt, sulphate of copper, Often impossible to procure the materials
its

PAGE

its

:A.

it

vitriol,

etc.

etc.
.

11

CONTENTS
CHAPTER
II

PAGE

Ancient use of arbitrary symbols Tyronian abbreviations Early Tvorks on shorthand Excessive abbreviation of inscriptions on coins, etc. Telegram-English Mason-marks Eise of cipher-writing in England Clarendon's " History of the Rebellion " Battle of Naseby Royal correspondence captured and deciphered Published by Parliament Weighted naval

signal-codes

graphy

cal ciphers

Use of uulles or non -significants NumeriMediaeval inscription without vowels

Charles

I.

a great expert in crypto-

Ciphers of Queen Henrietta and Sir Ralph Verney

Great use of cipher at troublous periods of history " Century of Inventions '' of the Marquis of Worcester Birth of the steam-engiue Dedication of his labours to the nation His numerous suggestions for cryptograms The "disk" cryptogram Principle modified to sliding strip Bead alphabet Heraldic representation of colours in black and white The " string " cipher Bacon a cryptographic enthusiast His essentials of a good cipher His highest perfection of a cipher ^His plan cumbrous Trithemiau and unsatisfactory example Elizabethan arbitrary mark ciphers No real mystery

The

in

them

61

CHAPTER
Is

III

an undecipherable cryptogram possible?

deciphering

Keys

The

art of

for the analysis of a

cryptogram

Patient

Oft

recui'ring letters

perseverance Papers on the subject in Gentleman's Magazine of 1742 Value of general

Great

repetition of vowels

knowledge Conrad's rules The letter E "Noughts and crosses " cryptogram Its construction Ciphers from agony columns of Standard and Times Prying

busybodies

Alternate

letters significant

Ciphers


CONTENTS
based on divers shiftings of the letters Cryptogram in Cocker's " Arithmetick " Inventor in 1761 of supposed absolutely secret system His topes and fears thereon Illegal to publish Parliamentary debates Evasion of the law Poe's use of cryptogram in story Secret marks made by tramps and vagrants Shop ciphers for marking prices on goods Ci-yptogrammic trade advertisements Examples of cipher construction The "grill" cipher The "revolving grill" ^The " slip-card " Forms of numeri7

PAGE

cal cipher

cipher " Newark

"Mirabeau" Communication by use

The

Count
"The

Grousfield's

of a dictionary

Tlie
103

"The

" Clock-hands

" two-word "

cipher

Conclusion

ILLUSTRATIONS
Tia.
1.

PAGE

Message wrapped eoond a Ruler

.46
48
48

2.
3.

Ditto Illegible through Use of "Weokg Rulkr

Message Unwrapped from Roller

4.
5.

Divided to show TACiLiTr for Detection

49
50

Better Method of Roller Foeji of Message

Message of No. 5 Unrolled
]Sason- marks

6.
7.

...
.

51
.

from Ancient Buildings

"

66

8.
9.

The " Revolving Disk

Cipher

.88
.

Modification of Fig. 8 for Straight Edge

91 98

10.
11.

The "Bead" Cipher

The "String" Cipher

...
.

.100
.

12.
13.

Elizabethan Arbitrart Symbols for Letters

105

The "Noughts and Crosses" Cipher

124
126
1-54

14.
15. 16. 17. 18.

The "Noughts and Crosses": Key Changed

The
" Grille " " Grille "
:

Pierced Card

....

The

Message Read through Openings 156

as

The "Grille": Message The

" Revolving Grille "

Sent off

158
160

Form of Cipher

lO

ILL US TRA TIONS

Total
made

19.

of Openings

by Revolotion

of

Grille
20. 21.

161 163 165

The Message by "Revolving Gkille" The "Slip-card" Ciphee

.

22. Inscription 23. 24.

from Church in Spain

174
175 177
181 183

Numerical Form of Cipher

The "Newark" Cipher The

25. 26.

" Clock- hands " Cipher

The "Two-word" Cipher.

CHAPTER
Meaning

of cryptography Objections to its study Its legitimate use and value Historic examples of its employment Delight in the mysterious Many other ways of conveying secret information Symbolism of actioii The spoken word imprisoned and dispatched A matter not necessarily secret because one cannot understand it Egyptian hieroglyphics Chinese characters Indian mutiny Greek Ancient Biblical cryptogram Sheshach of Jeremiah Sir Henry Rawlinson thereon Statements

and against Julius Coesar's secret code The waxed tablet of Demaratus Difference between hidden and secret writing The shaven head a writing tablet Charlemagne and Alfred the Great as cryptographic
for

" Steganographia " Dabbling in the black art Dr. DeeBatista Porta's book on "Natural Majick" Invisible writing Chemical methods by vitriol, alum,
dictine
etc.

experts

Mediaeval

authorities Tritlieraius the Bene-

Writing on glass or crystal Papal Inquisition Disappearing writing Messages wrapped round rollers Two methods A slave's back the writing surface Chemical methods of no great value ordinarily Disadvantages of use Action of light and heat Chloride Often impossible to of cobalt, sulphate of copper, etc. procure the materials.

f~riHE word Cryptography

is

derived from

-^
the

the two Greek words Icn/ptos and gvapho,

first

signifying

that

which

is

concealed

12

CRYPTOGRAPHY

or hidden, and the second meaning to write or describe, and

in
it is

in brief the

conveying

secret

manner

of

any intelligence we

may
It

desire to communicate.

may

at once occur to our readers as

an

objection to the study of

it is

cryptography that

an art that
evil

may

palpably be very readily

adapted to
anything to
a

purpose, and that in doing

facilitate its

study

we

are placing

weapon
is

in the

hands of

the ill-disposed.

This

an argument, however, that applies

equally to

many

studies that nevertheless are

of great value.

Astronomy may

in evil

hands
them-

become astrology, and the glorious

selves

stars

mere counters

for

the

fortune-teller

while from the researches of chemistry

may

be

derived

the

valuable

dye,

the

healing
it,

medicine, or other beneficent discovery, or

equally readily,

may

be perverted to supply
subtle

the arsenal of the dynamitard or the

potion of the secret poisoner.

if

Moreover, even

we regard cryptography

as affording

means

OR CIPHER-WRIT] NO

13

for clandestine or treasonable communications,

it is

clearly

a
its

double-edged

sword,

and a

knowledge of

principles and practice

may

at least equally well be used to

unmask
skein

deceit.
tlie

and

to

unravel

the

tangled

of

traitor.

It

is

sufficiently evident",

on a moment's

re-

flection,, that this

art of cryptography has a in the world.

most legitimate use

There are

times of stress and danger in the history of

a nation when

it

is

absolutely impossible that

vital operations in the field could

be conducted

to a successful issue

if all

the world at their

inception had to be taken into confidence, and-

every step became at once a matter of

common

knowledge and discussion.

In the same way

the labours' of the diplomatist could scarcely

fructify to the national benefit or turn aside a

national danger

if

every step had to be laid

bare to the eye and the well-meant or acri-

monious criticism of friend or

foe,

and become

at once the property of every tattler

who

could

14

CRYPTOGRAPHY
who could copy

read a letter or any traitor

a dispatch.

During the stormy closing years of the reign

of Charles
I.,

we

find this art of secret writing

assiduously cultivated both

by Royalist and

Parliamentarian, as the multitudinous records

j^reserved
in

the

British

Museum and

our

other

national

archives
this,

abundantly
stirring

testify.

Previously to

in the

times of
of

Queen Elizabeth much use had been made

it,

and during the troublous days of the Prencli

Revolution,
fluence

when no man
safe

of

any mark

(5r

in-

was

any hour from denunciation,

this cipher-writing,

we

find

an immense use of
at

when treachery was

its

deadly work, or

when

the love that was stronger than death

sought to shield the victim from theimpending

blow, and give the warning that might yet
secure safety

by timely
is

flight.

That which

secret

and mysterious,

calling

for acute intelligence to penetrate its meaning,

has always exercised a great fascination on

OR CIPHER-WRITING
the

human mind.
we have

Hence at one end

of the

scale

the denunciations of the

Hebrew

prophets clothed in mystic language or figured

in strange symbolic action,^

and

at the other
its

the delight in puzzledom that finds

in missing- word competitions,

pabulum

conundrums, and

such-like
reader.

stimulants to the ingenuity of the

This

love

of

the

mysterious, this

delight in setting one's wits to

work

to excel
is

others or to save oneself from checkmate,

one great influence the more in the fascination

that

cipher-writing

has

undoubtedly at

all

times possessed.

Secrecy of
take

communication

may

of course

many

forms.

The

scarcely

perceptible

movement
finite
^

of the eye

may convey

a very de-

warning, or the talking on the fingers,

influence

This symbolism, has always exercised a very marked amongst Eastern peoples. Our readers will

recall, as

an example, the sending of a bird, mouse, frog,

to the Persians, as a gentle

and arrow by the Scythians

hint to

them that unless they could escape as a bird by flight, could swim as frogs, or conceal themselves as
mice, they were hastening to swift destruction.

l6

CRYPTOGRAPHY

learnedly called dactylology or cheirology,

sei-ve as

may
Tlie

a means of conveying a message.

flowers

significance of

may make
of

a ,boiiquet

eloquent, or the gift

initials

a ring may, in the

it,

of the stones that enrich

spelL out

words of sympathy and tender

feeling.

The;

Romans

had. a code.of CQmmunication based;

of,

on touching various parts

the person j thus

the finger to the forehead meant F, -while the

touching of the beard signified B.

fires,

..

Watch-,

waving
have

torches, flashing, mirrors, jangling

bells,

all

been utilized; but

to
is

.all

these are
since

mentioned
present

but

dismiss
to

them,

our

purpose

deal only, with such

as

methods of communication
by means
so
of writing.

are

possible
.

Before, however, doing

reference
to

we cannot

forbear
Ave

a quaint
in

suggestion

that

encountered

an old

authority on the subject, whereby the

voice
sion.

human

was

made

the

medium

of

transmis-

The person

desiring to send the meshis

sage was gravely instructed to breathe

OR CIPHER-WRITING
words slowly and
that

I7

distinctly into a long tube

was

carefully

and

securely

closed

at

the other end.

all

So soon as he had finished

he had to say, the end into which he

had spoken was

the

promptly fastened up, and

then
dispatched
to

message
This

was

the

receiver.

latter,

on obtaining possession
it

of the tube,

was

careful to open

at the

end

last sealed, as of course it

was

of great import-

ance that the words should come out distinctly

and in the order spoken.

the

If

by inadvertence

wrong end were opened, the operator was

in

warned that the message would come out

inverted order.
idea
tions

On

thinking out this valuable

we cannot

help deciding that the direclead to

just

given would

the

result

deprecated.

If we, for instance,

plugged up

the farther end of a railway tunnel, ran a train

into
it,

and then fastened up the near end,

we

should, on presently re-opening this end,

find that the train

would come out backw^irds.

However,

this is a

mere

detail,

and a very
B

little

18

CRYP TOGRA PH Y
wliicli

experience would soon decide

end of the

tube

it

was best
to

to open.

Baron Munchausen
hit

seems

have

quite

accidentally

upon

another curious property of sound,

melodies that he
in

when the

had apparently hopelessly

hard frost endeavoured to get out of his

it

bugle flowed from

of themselves quite easily

when

the instrument was brought into a wellat his journey's end.

warmed room

A matter is
just
to

not necessarily secret, of course,

because

we
it.

or

some other people

fail

understand

This seems the barest of

stated, but
it

truisms

when once

needs enun-

ciation nevertheless.

People, for instance, con-

stantly speak of the Egyptian hieroglyphics, as

Ben Jonson

does on our title-page, as though

they had some reserved and occult significance,

whereas they were but the recognised symbols

for conveying ideas, recording history,
forth,

and so
of

of

the

whole educated

caste

the

nation.

In the days not so very long ago

Avhen three-fourths of the people of England

OR CIPHER-WRITING
could neither read nor write,
tlie epistles

tHat

passed between the " quality," and written in

legible

enough characters

for those

who were

sufficiently

" scoUerds " to

read them, could

crypto-

scarcely be

considered

examples of

graphy.

The queer characters on a Chinese

of

tea-chest are to most

us

"Western people

merely meaningless lines and dabs of colour,

but the sole reason of their being put there

was

that

they

might
or

convey

meaning.
painted

The Cantonese

Amoy man who

them was adding information, and had no

thought or intention of bewildering the outer
.

barbarian whose Eugby,

Harrow, or board-

school training had in this matter failed him.

The outward form

very
little

of the communication has

it,

to

do with

but the intention

it.

has almost everything to do with

for
instance,

If we,

from a laudable
talk
;

desire to keep
in
if

up our French, often

circle, that is
ifc

it

the family

one thing

but

Ave

drop into

because, the servant

is

in the room,

and

it

20
is

CRYPTOGRAPHY
not quite convenient that the details of our
dis-

approaching bankruptcy should also be.

cussed ten minutes afterwards in the kitchen,

that
is

quite another.

If

an English
little

officer at

Alder shot chose to write out any

to

message

a brother

officer

in

English words, but

with Greek characters, he would be considered

eccentric

or silly

but such communications

passed in hundreds

between British

officers

during the Indian Mutiny.

An

intercepted

message written in English could have been

read
easily

enough

in

every camp

of

the

mutineers, and they would thus have become

possessed

of

valuable

military

information;

but this cryptogamic use of the Greek letters

rendered such communications entirely valueless to

them.

It has
ties

been freely stated by divers authorithe

earliest

that

examples

of

cipher-

writing

may

be seen in the use of the word

Sheshach by Jeremiah.

He

is

the only writer

who

uses

it,

and while a Hebrew scholar

OR CIPHER-WRITING
assures us that
itself, it is
tlie

21

term

is

meaningless in

undoubtedly made up by reversing

the letters that spell the

Hebrew word

for

Babylon.

If

a modern writer denouncing the

it

wickedness of London tbought

refer to
it

prudent to

as Nodnol, those

who

detected the

transposition of

the

letters

would have no

doubt of the meaning.

feeling

Yet one cannot help

in

little

hesitation

accepting

the

Sheshach as an
authority
liave

archaic

cryptogram.

One

we

questioned said that there might

been a good reason for disguising the

;

name

but on going to the fountain-head and

itself

reading the verse

that the prophet Avrote

over six hundred years before the Christian

era,

we
is

find,

"How

is

Sheshach taken! and

how

the praise of the whole earth surprised

is

How
among

Babylon
!

become
"

an

astonishment
little

the nations

There seems but

first

reason for any concealment in the

of the verse

half

when
Sir

the second half effectually

lays all open.

Henry Rawlinson, no mean

22

CRYPTOGRAPHY

authority, does not feel the accepted explanation so entirely satisfactory as to render

any

other superfluous.
of

He

states that ITr, the city in one of

Abraham, " might have been read

the ancient dialects of Babylon as Shisbaki,"

and

if

this be so the

transposition of letters
coincidence.

becomes

merely

remarkable
for

Sheshach then
capital,

stands

Ur,

the

ancient

and Babel or Babylon for the then

one,

modern

and the prophet may thus be

life

taken as referring to the whole national

from

its

birth in lowly

Ur

of the Chaldees to

the day

when he wrote
his

of the great city of

Babylon

words

of

warning and reproof

but here again on going to the fountain head,

we

find

the

whole

reference

to

be in the
tells

present tense.

Rawlinson, too, only

of

what "might have been," and we

seem
to

cei-tainly

need a firmer foundation than this

possibility.

The two

alternatives

before

us

are

equally perplexing.
so

Would any
one

writer

be

cautious

and

reticent

moment,

OR CIPHER- WRITING
SO plainly outspoken tlie
all

23
if

next,

his

object
of

through was
?

prudent suppression
if

name

On
two

the other hand,

the two

names
as, for
it

I'efer to

entirely different places

example, Winchester and London a

is

not
the

most

extraordinary

coincidence

that

letters in the

name

of each city are precisely

the same, and that while the one has them

in

one

order,
?

the

other has

them exactly

reversed

What

proportion, according to the

law of chances, of millions to one would be

necessary to express the likelihood of such a
transposition

occurring?

It

was absolutely

necessary to refer to this Sheshach question,

since, as

we have

stated, this passage in the

Bible
Ipgists

is

claimed by some enthusiastic crypto-

and

commentators

as

the

earliest

example of a cipher, and now, perforce, we

can but leave
benefit
it

to the reader to deriye such as

and comfort from the matter

he

may.
This
simple
reversal
of

the alphabet,

24

CRYPTOGRAPHY

representing Z,
etc.,
is

being the equivalent of Y,

far too

evident to have any crypto-

grammic
letters
is

value, as the

changed value of the

very quickly perceived.

tells

The

his-

torian
in

Suetonius

us that Julius Osesar,

forwarding

his

dispatches,

changed
places,

the

positions of the letters

by four
so

making
this,

stand for A,

for

M, and
was

on

but
the

though

trifle

better,

still

most

elementary work.
ring to
it,

Scaliger,

we

see, in refer;

styles it a "

pure absurdity"

yet

one repeatedly finds in the " agony column "

communications based on this or some equally

simple shifting on of the letters.

Polybius
collected

tells

us that JEneas Tacitus had

different

together twenty

kinds of
in

secret writing,

some

of

them having been

use before his time, while others he devised

himself.

Herodotus
a

mentions
of

that
.the

one

Demaratus,

commander

forces,

wrote his communications on wooden tablets,

and

then

had

them smoothly coated

over

OR CIPHER-WRITING

25

with wax, as though they were merely blank

surfaces for the stylus.

Those who received

them, and
this

who were
But

in the secret,

removed

upper coating, and the message stood

this,
it

revealed.

will

be

noted,

was
a

scarcely
letter

secret

writing,

any more

than

fastened

down

in

an envelope to-day

becomes
is

secret writing

by the process.

It

but hidden writing, and when the

tablet

wax
of

of

the

or

the covering

surface

the
all

envelope are removed the writing has lost

its secrecy.

Most

of

the ancient methods of

secret

communication

were of

this

nature.

One plan gravely commended was

slave's head,

to shave a
it

and then

to write

upon

any
the

message one might wish to send.

hair

When
conceal

was

sufficiently

grown

to

the

matter, the

man was
it

dispatched to the person

to

with

whom

was desired

communicate,
off

and he in turn shaved the victim and read

the message.

In these days when

fifty

miles

an hour

is

considered far too slow for business,

26

CRYPTOGRAPHY
at breakfast in
tlie

and wlieu we read

paper
the

our newsthat

details' of

insurrection

broke out yesterday in Central Africa, such a

method

of

communication would be voted

dilatory,
is

al-

together
feeling

too

and we

cannot

help

such

the force of nineteenth-century

times,

habit

that even in those good old

to be at all

when

nobody seemed

in a hurry, the

message that could afford to wait while a new

crop of hair was growing could not have been
of

any great

urgency, or they would surely

less

have found a
ing
it.

leisurely

way

of

dispatch-

Charlemagne kept, up a private correspondence in cipher- writing, and the secret alphabet used by Alfred
the Great

may

still

be

seen in the Bodleian Library.

We

also,

dur-

ing the

fifth

century,

find

Pharamond and

other reigning princes utilising various more

or less satisfactory systems of cryptography,

but in those early days those

who

could either

write or read with any ease were but few in

OR CIPHER-WRITING
number.

27

When we come

to tlie

Middle Ages
Europe,, and

a perfect epidemic
cryptographia, or, as

ran round
it

was sometimes termed,

its

polygraphia

or steganographia, had

en-

thusiastic votaries in every land.

Those who

care for the archaeological side of the subject

may

refer to the writings of Palatine, dating

1540, of Bellaso in 1553, and of Glanburg in

1560.

Should

this

not have damped

their

ardour, they

may next

take a course of Porta,

Bibliander,

Trithemius,
Schottus,
Caspi,

Cardanus, Walchius,

Selenus,

Herman Hugo,
La
Fin,

Niceron,

Tridenci, Comiers,

Dalgarno,

Buxtorff, "Wolfgang, and Falconer.

if

Even

then,
writ-

they so wish
of
Eidel,

it,

are open to

them the

ings

Soro,

Amman,

Breitkampt,

Conradus,

De

Vaines, Lucatello, Kircher, and

;

not a few others

while for those

who do

not

care to dig their knowledge out of such dusty

worm-eaten tome^ William Blair

thing,

is

the very

though we would fain hope that ere we,

reach
the last of
these

and

they,

present

28

CRYPTOGRAPHY
Avill

pages they
thence as

feel

that they have derived

as they need.

much enlightenment
of these

As many

medieval authors had a

great knack of conveying, with scant or no

acknowledgment, the labour of

their

others
little

into
profit
;

own

store, there

would be
to their

in referring at

any length

works

we

will therefore select

but two, Trithemius and

Porta, for any comment.

Trithemius, the
old
writers,

first in

time of these two

was an able Benedictine.

of

He

was
first

Abbot
really

Spanheim, and
treatise

his

was the

elaborate

on cryptogram-

mic writing.

The

first

printed edition was

published in Frankfort in the year 1606, and

a copy of this
is

preserved in the Bodleian

Library

a second edition was issued from the

later.
is

same press two years

the

Its

title

is

of

elaborate character that

of

characteristic
:

of books

that period.

" SteganograpMa

hoc est ars per occvUam Scriptvram animi svi

voluntatem absentibvs aperiendi certa

avthore

OR CIPHER-WRITING
reverendissimo
et

29

clarissimo

vivo
et

Joanne

Tri-

themio, Abbate Spanheimensl

alis

Magioe Natur-

Magistro perfedissimo."
curious
one,

His method was

as

somewhat

he

compiled

many

folios full of

devout sentences through

the use of which quite other

and mundane

matters could be conveyed.

The

result

was

a vast mass of misdirected energy,

tuna,tely, to these

TJnfor-

he added a number of extra-

ordinary characters, which he designated spiritus diurni

and

spiritus nocturni,

the

result

being that he was accused of dabbling in the

black arb and holding converse with demons.

He was

therefore brought to trial for these

magical incantations, and had a very narrow

escape of being burnt.

He had

also the misfor-

tune

to

incur

the lavish abuse of

Jerome

Cardan, himself the author of a system of

cryptography, and

was

by him

relentlessly

attacked and hounded down.

Dr. Dee,

who was

himself under the ban

as a follower of divers

uncanny

arts that

were

30

CRYPTOGRAPHY
bring liim
tlian
into- closer

-supposed to
witli

relation
all justi-

demons

was held

to

be at
of

^fiable,

was a great admirer

the

work

of

Trithemius.

He was

often

sent abroad

on

more or

less secret service

by tbe Ministers of

Queen Elizabeth, and we

find

him writing from

Antwerp on -February

16, .1563, to Sir William

Cecil for permission to extend his stay in that

city,;;

He was
of

mainly desirous of doing

so,

as he

was arranging for the publication

at

Antwerp

a book of his own, the Monas

issued in

Hiero'ghjphica,

the following

year

but as

his

private

affairs

were

scarcely

sufficiently

good

reason

why he

should

be

maintained there at the expense of the State,

he adds that he

is

there able to gather

much

together that would be of gain to the nation.^

Amongst other reasons

writes
:

for

staying

on,

he
one

" Allready
for

have

purchased

boke,
'

wch

Thowsand Crownes have

anduiii

lu reference to this appeal of Dr. Dee, Cecil's iiiemoris extant stating that the applicant's time beyond

the sea

had been

well spent.

OR CIPHER-WRITING
been bj others offred and yet could
obteyned.
hoiJ

31

be

boke for wKicli many a lerned

man hath
seeke
:

long sowght and dayley yet doth

use
:

Whose
is

is

greater than the fame

therof to you
is

therof

spred

The name The

title
is

not unknowne:

on

this
:

Wise

Steganographia Joannis Tritemij

wherof in

both the editions of his Polygraphia mention

is

made, and in

-his
:

epistles,

and in sundry

other

mens bokes

boke for your honor,

or a Prince, so meet, so needfull and

dious, as in

commo-

humayne knowledge none can be

more behopefull.
Of
this

meeter

or

boke

the one half, Avith contynuall Labor and watch the most part of

X dayes

have I copyed oute

And now
man
of

T stand at the

Courtesye of a noble-

Hungarie for writing furth the rest

leave therto after he

who hath promised me

shall percey ve

that I
the

may remayne by him

'

longer
pleasure
as
at

(with

leave

of

my

prmce)

to

him

also with such

points of Science

my

hands he requireth.

Thys boke.

32

CRYPTOGRAPHY
now
liave yt, or hereafter
p'fit (yf it

eyther as I

shall

have

yt, fully

whole and

pleas

you

to accept as the

my

present) I give unto your honor

juell that I

most precyous

have yet of

other

mens

travailes recovered."
is

The account

not quite a clear one, as he

declares that he has bought the book, though

he does not say that he himself gave a thousand crowns for

it,

and yet he appears

to

have copied

it

by the courtesy
it,

of the noble-

man

possessing

and who certainly does

it

not seem to have sold

price
it

to
it

him.
is

From

the

Dee puts on the book,

evident that

was a manuscript copy.

The book was

long kept from the knowledge of the general

public, the first printed

copy not being issued

after
this
letter

until

forty-three
to
Cecil.

years

of

Dee

The

direct

gift

to

Cecil

we
in
al-

may
lowed

perhaps,

without
as

being

wanting

charity, regard
to

a gentle bribe to be

stay

on at Antwerp for the ad-

vancement of

his private business ends.

OR CIPHER-WRITING
Batista
piled
five

33

Porta,

a Neapolitan writer, com*

books

on

ciphers,

"

lies

Notes
in

occultes

des

lettres,"

that were published

Strasbourg in

the

year 1606, and

he also

devotes one of the " Bookes " of his " Natural

Majick " to the art of

edition before us as

invisible writing.

The

we

write
that

is

dated 1658,

the

title

page stating

the

book was

"printed

by Thomas
are
at to

Young and
sold

Samuel
Three
Paul's

Speed, and
Pigeons,

be

at
in

the
St.

and

the
this

Angel

Churchyard."

In

volume, divided into

calls

twenty sections, or books as he

are " set forth
all

them,

the Riches and Delights of

the Natural

Sciences,"

and the
His
first

result is

strange medley indeed.

book deals

with " the Causes of

sufiiciently

Wonderful things," a
subject
in
itself

extensive

and

including " the Nature of Magick," the influ-

ence of the stars, and so forth.

tions deal

Other sec-

with the transmutation of metals,

the
load-stone,

the

wonders of

the beauti-

34
f-ying of

CRYPTOGRAPHY
women,
with
etc.,

and

tlie

sixteenth con-

cerns
last

itself
is

"invisible writing.'.'

His
find

book

" of the Chaos," and here matter

that

we

promiscuous mass of
fit

either

would not

in happily in

any of the other

books, or which

he happened to have overfuller

looked, or

upon which he had gained

than

information
original

when
This

dealt

with

in

its

position.

chaotic

section
to

in-

cludes such diverse matters as

foul

how
to

make
it

water drinkable, and

air,

how

distil

from the

the art of altering one's face so

that one's friends are deceived,

stones

how
to

to

make

grow

of themselves,

how

make an

instrument whereby
a
great distance,

we may
to
else

hear sounds at
frauds
in
less

how

detect
of

impostors,

and

much

more or

chaotic interest and value.

The sixteenth book, " wherein are handled

secrets

and undiscovered notes," commences

with the statement that " there are two sorts

of

secret marks,

which

they

vulgarly

call

OR CIPHER-WRITING
syfers
:

35
is

one of visible marks, and

itself
;

worthy

of

a treatise by

another of secret marks,

whereof I have attempted to say something in

this present

Volume, and what are the con'

sequents thereof, for the use of great

Men

and

Princes, that take care for things absent, and

write to some
I shall set

man

that

knows the

invention.

down some examples

plainly: but
of

these things

and the consequences

them

must be

faithfully concealed, lest

by growing

common amongst
respected."

ordinary people they be disclearly felt

Our old author here

the difficulty of the position he had got himself

into
;

on the one hand thinking to impart

curious and useful knowledge, and on

much

the other hand in the act of doing so feeling

its

publication a contradiction vitiating

all his

labour.

Even Natural Magick

frank

fails

to

show

how

the

exposition and

the

careful

concealment of secret matters can be simultaneously accomplished.

This doubtless, too,

folios of Tri-

was one potent reason why the

36

CRYPTOGRAPHY
manuscript

themius remained in
years.

some

fifty

Porta's division of

liis

subject into visible

and secret marks looks

puzzling,
for

at first siglit a little

unless

visible

marks

carry a

secret significance they are in this connexion

valueless.

We

soon

find,

however, on reading
visible

his book, that

is

what he means by

marks

the use of letters, figures, or other signs are

that

evident

enough

to
is

all

beholders

though
these, as

their

significance

unknown,

and

he says, are worthy of a treatise to In the present work he deals

themselves.

almost entirely with communications that are

secret through
their
invisibility,

imtil

some

chemical application, the action of heat or of

light,

or other external cause, bring

them

to

view.

He, in
:

fact,

begins his

first

chapter

with the words

infinite

" There are

many and almost

ways

to write things of necessity, that

the Characters shall not be seen, unless you

dip

them

into waters, or put

them near the

OR CIPHER- WRITING
fire,

37

or rub

them with

dust, or smear

them

over."

His
It is to

first

recipe

is

a double-barrelled one.
if

be employed "

you

desire that letters

not seen

may

be read, or such as are seen

is

may

be hid."
to

This

a very artful state of things

bring about.

The enemy

or other

un-

authorized person into whose hands the paper

fell

would be put

off

the scent by reading a

sig-

communication that was of no value or

nificance to them,
it

whUe

the person to

whom
to

was

really sent

would take steps and then

first

remove the

visible writing,

to

make

a second communication, written between the

lines of

the

first,

teU out

its

story

by the ap-

plication of a second preparation.

The pro-

cedure

is

as

follows

" Let Vitriol soak in

it is

Boyling water:
so long
till

when

dissolved, strain it

the water

grow
:

clear

with that
are dry

liquor write

upon paper

when they

they are not seen.

straw with Vinegar
:

Moreover, grinde burnt

and what you

will write

38
in tlie spaces scribe

CRYPTOGRAPHY
between the former
lines,

dein

at. large.

Then boyl sowre

Galls
:

white "Wine, wet a spunge in the liquor

and

when you have

gently,

need, wipe

it

upon the paper

and wet the

letters so long until the

native black colour disappear, but the former

colour, that

was not
I
will

seen,

may
in

be made ap-

parent.

Now
As

show

what

liquors

paper must be soaked to make letters to be

seen.

I said. Dissolve Vitriol in water

G-alls

then powder

finely,

and soak them

in

water
filtre

let

them stay there twenty -four hours

linen cloth, or something

them through a
that

else,

may make
send

the water clear, and

make

letters

upon the paper that you

:

desire to have

concealed

it

to

your Friend absent

appear, dip

when you would have them

in the first liquor,

them

and the

letters will presently

it

be seen."

The

materials,
:

may be

noted, are

fairly readily procurable

an important point

to consider.

Porta also suggests

that

we may

dissolve

OR CIPHER-WRITING
alum
and
is

39

in water

and write with

tliat

it

upon linen
this writing

tlie like,
it

declaring

when

dry

will

be

invisible.

"When you would

to soak

render

it

visible, it

will suffice

the

sheet or napkin in water.

The

fabric will

appear darker where

it

has not been touched

by the alum

solution, so that the

message

will

appear in letters of white.

prescriptions,

After divers other

in

which

litharge, citron- juice,

goat's fat, juniper,

and various other ingrefirst

dients

figure,

he winds up his

section,

On how a writing dip'd in divers Liquors may be read," by the assertion, "there are many such arts, too tedious to relate," and he
'

"

then proceeds to his next section,

how

letters

may

be

made

visible

by the action
tells us,

of heat.

" If you write," he

of
Citrons,

" with the juice

Oranges, Onyons, or almost any

if

sharp things,
their

you make
is

it

hot at the
discovered
:

fire,

acrimony

presently

for

they are undigested juices, whereas they are

detected by the heat of the
fire,

and then they

4o

CJi yp

TOGRAPH V

stow
if

fortli

those colours that they would show

ripe.

they were

If

you write with a sowre

^
:

Grape that would be black, or with Cervices

when you hold them

cocted,

to the fire they are con-

and

will

give the same

colour
tree,

they

Avould in due time give

upon the

when

they were ripe.

Juice of Cherries, added to

:

Calamus, will make a green

red
:

to

sowbread a

so divers juices of Fruits will

show

divers

colours

by the

fire.

By

these

means Maids

sending and receiving love-letters, escape from

those that have charge of them.

There
:

is

also

a kind of Salt called

Ammoniac

this

powdred
white

and mingled
letters,

with

water, will

write

and can hardly be distinguished from

the paper, but hold

will

them

to the

fire,

and they

shew black."
a
suggestion
for

Porta has also

making
until

communications
^

that

cannot

be

read

The

fruits of the Service-tree,

Pyrus tm-minalis, of a

greenish-brown colour, and of rough acid flavour until

they are mellowed by
frost.

OR CIPHER-WRITING
tlie

paper be burnt

upon whicli they

are

made.
fashion
:

He

arrives

at this in the following

" Take the sharpest Vinegar and the

white of an

Egg
:

in these steep Quick-silver

and

stir it

well

and with that mixture make

:

Letters
fire,

upon the paper

the
letters

burn the paper in the

and

wUl remain unburnt."

The

result of this will be that the paper will

letters
it

be black and the

white.

This sounds

better in theory than

would probably work

out in practice.
fact

We

are all familiar with the

letter written in or-

that even
is

when a

dinary ink
to read writing,

burnt,

we may

often

still

be able

on

its

charred surface portions of the

but

we know

also

that the act

of

burning twists and curls the paper up so that

much
break

of the writing
is

is

out of our sight, while

the whole thing

it

so brittle that a touch

may

up,

and any attempt

at straightening
futile.

out the sheet would be wholly

Porta has various ideas as to developing

visible writing

in-

by means of dust or soot; by

42

CRYPTOGRAPHY
wifcli

writing

vinegar,

gum

solution, tlie

milk of

the fig tree and various other ingredients, and

then rendering the message visible by rubbing

these substances upon
tree
it.

The milk

of the fig

was not readily

lines,

accessible as

we were

writ-

ing these

so

of its efficacy

we can

say
pro-

nothing, but a letter which

we forthwith

ceeded to write with vinegar at once became

clearly legible

when

soot

was rubbed gently

tells

over

its is

surface.
also an

Our author

us that

" there

Art that one would not imagine

;

to write

upon Chrystal

for being all transparof

it
it,

ent no

man

will

dream

and the

letters

may

lie

hid therein.

Do

thus.

Dissolve

Gum
it

Arabick in water, or

Gum

Tragacanth, that
well dissolved,

may
will

be cleer

and when

it is
if

it

not foul the Chrystal

you write upon

it

or upon a

Cup

or Glass, for

when

the letters are

it,

dry they are

if

invisible.

No man

will imagine

a cup be sent to one in prison, or a Glass full

:

of wine

when he would

see the letters, rub

it,

burnt straw or paper upon

and the

letters

OR CIPHER-WRITING
will presently

43

be seen."

This also we brought

to the test of experiment, writing

bottle

upon a glass

with

solution

of

gum-arabic.

The

writing

when dry was

absolutely invisible.

On

rubbing burnt paper over the writing we were

unable to get any satisfactory result, but on

wiping this

off

and using soot instead we

at

once got the wording very sharply defined in

black on the transparent glass, the experiment

being entirely successful.

At

the same time

;

there seem to be practical difficulties

one can

hardly imagine a prisoner saying, "

kindly oblige

Would you

me

with a pinch of soot or a

handful of
events

straw

and a match

? "

At

all

we can hardly imagine

his

getting

them.

curious side-light and reference to " the

" is

good old days

shown again

in Porta's in-

structions as to

how
of

secret messages
tells

may

be

sent by

means

eggs, for he

us that

" Eggs are not stopt by the Papal Inquisition,

and no fraud

is

suspected to be in them."

44

CRYPTOGRAPHY
receive eggs

Hence prisoners might perchance

from their friends, and with them messages

from the outside world.

it is

However

this

may

be,
al-

at least a pleasant picture.

One has

ways

so imagined the victims of the Inquisition

going melancholy
or

mad

in dripping dungeons,

shrieking at each turn of the rack and

thumb-screw, that the idea of the

man

sitting

down
laid

in peace to his lunch,

and having a new-

%^^ with

it,

comes as quite a welcome

surprise.

Porta

is

also great

on the subject of devis-

ing means whereby written characters, freely

legible at
first,

might presently disappear; but

one can scarcely imagine such a thing as being

of

any great
if

value.

It

might at times be an
the eve of an

advantage

promises

made on

election, the

former sentiments of recreant and

the fervent protesta-

turncoat politicians, or

tions of the lover lavishly

poured out ere the

breach of promise action had even been deemed

a possibility, could

somehow be forgotten and

;

OR CIPHER-WRITING
there might of course be occasions

45

when some
up
in

damning document might be

archives of the

laid

the

enemy
its

for use at

some

critical
all

moment, and when

production after

as a

blank sheet of paper might well be the

differ-

ence between a traitor's death and safe deliver-

ance from the noose, the firing party at ten

paces, or the convict hulk.
ever,

Ordinarily,

how-

when one has mastered

the meaning of a
safer
it

communication, there are

expeditious

many

and more

ways

of disposing of

than trust-

ing to the corroding or paling action of any

chemical

to

obliterate

its

secrets.

In

the

seclusion of the diplomatist's study the glowing

hearth, or in the bustle of the bivouac the

roaring

camp

fire,

will

expeditiously enough
fulfilled its

reduce to ashes any paper that has

purpose.

In

like spirit of

adverse criticism

we would

deal with the reverse of this, "that invisible

letters after

some time

shall

become

visible
if

and
one

show themselves."

We

are told that "

46

CRYPTOGRAPHY
of

write with juice

Citrons

or

Oranges on

Copper or Brass, and leave

days the
plaoe
;

this

on for twenty

letters will

appear green upon the

the same

may

be done

many

other ways,
in water,
will
is

namely, by dissolving Salt

Ammoniac

and writing with

it

upon Brass, the place

sooner appear of verdigreese colour."

suE&ciently evident that
it is

It

rarely indeed that

a delay of twenty or any other

is

number

of days,
to.

a desideratum.

One

ordinarily desires

Fig.

1.

know
sees

at once
to

any communication that any one

to us,

fit

make
if

and should especially

desire to do so

we knew that the secrecy and

to it

mystery attaching
grave importance.

was an indication of

its

The two

or three examples that Porta gives

" of letters on divers

things

which, though

OR CIPHER-WRITING

47

they be visible yet the Reader will be deceived

by

their secret device," are of of

no great value-

One

Ms

hints is to write on parchment, and

to the fire or candle,

then put

it

when

it

will

crumple up and in the contorted

state of the

parchment the written matter

about that
it

will be so twisted

will

be unreadable.

The harshit is

ness of the fire-tried material upon which

inscribed will resist any attempt at forcible

flattening
out, so that

even

if

we

detect the

presence of a communication
able.
let

it is

not get-at-

But " if one

lay
it

desires to read

what

is

in it
it

him

on moyst places or sprinkle

it will

gently with water, and

be dilated again
it

and

all

the wrinkles will be gone, and

it

will

appear as
letters

did at
it

first,

that you

may

read the

upon

without any hindrance."

Porta also refers to the ancient expedient,

ascribed
to

Archimedes

and

mentioned by

Plutarch and other ancient authors, of writing

on a

strip of

paper wrapped round a

stick.

Two

sticks of

equal diameters must be sup-

48
plied,

CRYPTOGRAPHY
one being held by the one correspondent
other.

and the second by the

strip of

long thin

paper must now be wrapped spirally

Tig.

2.

round one

of these cylinders so that the edges

its

are just in contact throughout

length,

and

on these edges, so that a portion of each

letter

rvorrT
comes on each
tion is written.

k/ r

cnnM
3.

Fig.

side, the

required communicais

The paper
to

then unrolled

and forwarded
stick,

the holder of the second

strip

and

he,

on rolling the

around

this,

Ok CIPHER-VVklTiNG
is

49

able to read the message with great facility.

is

The theory
notice

that no

one would take any

of these

marks on the edges of the

paper, but on putting the matter to the test of

experiment

we found no
we had
is

difficulty,

without

any wrapping round

the message that

stick or ruler, in reading

previously written.

Half of each letter

sufficient to serve

seen,

and that

is

quite

as

a clue.

If,any of our

readers like to test this statement for themselves,

they will readily find that

if

they place a

piece of blank paper along any of the lines of

[XPCCTMCS WN-,
Fig.
4.

this printed

page so that half of each

letter is

hidden the remaining half quite

identification.

suffices for its

The message we wrote was, "Expect me

soon."
Fig.
1

shows the

spirally

wrapped
D

50
strip
its

CRYPTOGRAPHY
of

paper and the message written on

Fig. 3 represents the strip

edges.

when

unrolled from

the

pencil

and flattened out

ready for dispatch; while Fig. 2 shows

the message would look
if

how

the receiver, not

to be

knowing that a pencil had

tried

employed,

wrapping

it

round a

ruler.

Fig. 3 has a

Fig.

5.

decidedly tell-tale appearance,

anyway
whose

but

if

any unauthorized person

this

into

hands

strip

came would

just take the trouble

to divide it in half lengthwise,

and

place, as

in

Fig.

4,

the
is

two lettered edges together,

at

the message

once

as

legible

as

any

orthodox

rewinding

round

pencil

could

make

it.

OR CIPHER-WRITING

A
write

veiy mucli better way of work-

ing this spiral

the

paper

method
not

is

to

message,
right

along
the

the

^V 7^
U\A
v^jV
-rvXN
.

edges,

but

across

strips
strip

themselves.
of paper

Haying wound our

ruler,
:

round our

we wrote
another

as

follows

upon same

it

" Get

roller the

size,

or you will not

be able to read this communication."

The appearance
staff

of our message-bearing

may

be

seen in

Fig.

5,

while
strip

Fig. 6 shows
as
it

a portion of the

looked

when unwound and ready

ofE to

for sending

our correspondent.

It will at once be seen

how

far

more

puzzling this
in Fig. 3.

is

than the strip shown

Some

of

the material

we

find

in

Porta' s chapters can scarcely be con-

-At

sidered to
of
-I

come within the category

writing"
at
all,
1
.

ITT the methods he

"invisible

since
Ji'^<=^-

adopts

-i

6.

are

akin to

52
tlie

CRYPTOGRAPHY
ordiuaiy letter put in an envelope that

vre

have already

cited.

He

tells,

for

in-

stance,

how a communication was once

loaf,

sent

within a

and

in

another case
\

in

the

interior of

a dead hare

how

others,

again,

have safely brought

girdles,

letters concealed in their

feet,

beneath the soles of their

;

or in

their scabbards or quivers

how

pigeons

may

be used as messengers,^ or intelligence shot

into

camp

or fortress

by arrows or guns.
of
this

He
of

quotes

numerous

instances
;

sort

thing from ancient writers

tus, Africanus,

from Theophras-

Herodotus, Ovid, Ca3sar, Pliny,

and others.

He
with
that

does not forget to refer to

the

slave

shaven
it

head, but

he

also

recognises

may

oftentimes be

desirable

that an

underling conveying a message should be in

ignorance of the fact that he

is

being thus

A great

use

was made

of pigeons as messengers during

the Franco-German war, and the pigeon-loft of to-daj is as much an item of War strength as a Maxim gun.

OR CIPHER-WRITING
employed.
possibly

53

Had

he this knowledge, he might

to

desert

the

enemy, or be
spirit at the

filled

with such exaltation of

import-

ance of his mission as to betray himself and

awaken
of the

suspicion.

If

he

fell into

the hands
fair

enemy, he might be tempted by

promises, or affrighted
his mission of
it,
;

by

threats, to

reveal

whereas,

if

he were unconscious

his

whole manner would be so frankly

guileless as to avert suspicion,

and he would

much more probably

lenged.
to

pass on his

way unchal-

He

was, therefore,

given no letter
to

conceal; nothing

was handed awaken

him

to

excite his interest or

his suspicions

but his food was drugged, and, while he was

under the influence of

an

opiate,

his

own
the
re-

broad back was the surface

sheet whereon to
inscribe

utilised

as

the

message

quired to be transmitted.
ferred to by Porta, but
it

This method

is re-

dates back far into

ancient history,
to
it.

Ovid,

for instance, alluding

54

CRYP TOGRAPH Y
Speaking
in

a general

way, but

at

the

same time
periment,

as the

outcome of considerable exinclined to say that

we should be

the various

compounds suggested by Porta

writers
as
inks,
invisible

and many other

until developed

by the action
of

of

light, or of

heat, or the
tion,

washing over

another soluvalue
;

are of no great

practical

while

the materials, though in most cases

common

enough,

may

not
of

always

be

forthcoming.

The commander
hostile land,

an advanced post in a
desirous
of
of

who was

communiwith

cating with the base

operations, or

the leader of a relief party, might be a thou-

sand

miles
of

from
cobalt,

the
for

nearest

place

where
pro-

chloride
curable.

example,

was

A
of

great practical

disadvantage in the use

as

such materials

is that,

they flow from

the 23en as clear and colourless as pure water,

it is

very

difficult to see

what one
dries,

is

writing;
it

and so soon as the writing

as

very

OR CIPHER-WRITING

55

quickly does, any clxance of correction or reconsideration

to at
is

gone, and one can only trust

memory
all.

as to

what was

really put

down

Such a message,
easily

too,

on

its

receipt,

might

be mislaid or torn up as a piece

of valueless paper; while,

on the other hand,

its

any

special

solicitude

for

preservation
suspicion.

would

at once excite

comment and

Any

person

who

entertained such suspicion

would probably be well aware that heat was

one of the most effectual means of rendering

secret

message

visible,

and

on

its

application

the

message would stand

forth

revealed to

quite

other eyes than those for

whom
may

it

was intended.
of these simple preparations

Some few
refer

we

to;

as

those

who

are

curious in

such mattex'S might, when once put on the

track, very naturally desire to test

them

for

themselves.
careful
to

Any one
use

so

doing

should

be
as

a clean

quill

pen;

and

some, at

least, of

the materials are poisonous.

56

CRYPTOGRAPHY
little discretion.

some

Any

one, for instance,

who

leaves

clear,

colourless

solution

in

teacup

or

tumbler for an hour or two in

kitchen or dining-room
called

may very

possibly be

upon by the coroner

to explain; while

attendance at the funeral would be another

grievous break in the time devoted to this
interesting study,

As a
affected
silver.

familiar

example

of

the

chemicals
nitrate of

by

light

we may mention

Any
as

communication made by a solu-

tion of this

would remain

invisible until

such
ex-

time

exposed to daylight.

On

this

posure, the writing would reveal itself in dark

chocolate-brown, and, once

made

visible,

re-

mains

so.

The writing
artificial light;

should, of course, be

done by

and we have found

that a proportion of one of nitrate to fifteen

of distilled

water makes about the most

If,

satis-

factory mixture.

instead

of

placing the
it

paper in
vessel

the

daylight

we hold

over

containing

sulphate of

ammonia the

OR CIPHER-WRITING

57

writing will appear with a metallic and silvery

brilliancy.

If
it

we make

a solution of cUoride of cobalt,

tint;

will

be of a pale pink in
is

but tbe

colour
fluid it

so slight that in writing with the

appears colourless on the paper, and

absolutely no trace
of anything to

there

is

be seen.

On warming
fire

the

paper before a

good strong

the characters appear of a

clear bluish-green; but they disappear again

as the

paper
so.

cools,

a matter of some

five

minutes or

The

effect can, of course,

be

reproduced as often as we choose to apply the

necessary heat.
instead, the
If

we

use acetate of cobalt

warming

of the paper brings out

the communication in a clear blue colour.

and beautiful

Equal parts

of sulphate of copper

and

sal-

ammoniac dissolved
of

in water give a solution

tint.

a beautiful
all

turquoise-blue
strongly,
dries

This,

if

applied at
of a pale

on the paper

greenish

colour,

a tint too

weak

58
to

CRYPTOGRAPHY
be legible, though, not
scrutiny.

too

weak

to

be
the

noticeable on a

On warming

paper on which any communication has been

made by

this

agency the writing appears of

a clear yellow, but on the cooling of the paper

it

disappears.

The

juice

from an onion that

has been macerated in a mortar will also pro-

duce the same

effect,

the characters written

first

by means of
afterwards
colour.
If

it

being at
legible

invisible,

but

clearly

and of

a yellow

we wish

to

have a message that will

remain indelible when once developed,

we have
oil

the materials ready to hand by dissolving

of vitriol in soft

water in the proportion of

a fluid ounce of the former to a pint of the

latter.

Strong chemical action

is

set up,

and

great heat evolved.

well stirred,
it is

The

solution
to

should be
cool,

and then allowed

and

then ready for use.

Anything written

by

this

agency

is

in

theory supposed to be
at the fire brings

quite invisible until

warming

OR CIPHER- WRITING
it

59

out a clear black, but in practice

we found,

with solutions of varying strengths, that the

writing, though at first invisible,

became on

drying quite perceptible, and looking as though

written with whitewash or Chinese white on
the paper.
it

On
it.

a very cursory examination

notice, but the slightest scru-

might escape

tiny reveals

The

difficulty is

that

if

we

use a strong solution the writing can be read

in

the

white
of

characters,
heat,

though

it,

on the
a
clear

application

develops into
;

and excellently

legible black

while

if

we

use

a solution so weak as to escape notice when

applied to the paper,
it

also develops a very-

weak

colour

on the application of

warmth.

The proportions we have given are perhaps

the best, but the result in any case
satisfactory
ject,
if

is

hardly

absolute invisibility is our obof

this
is

and

of course nothing short

worth anything.

Many

other

chemical methods

might
all

be

mentioned, but their value after

does not

6o

CR YP TOGRA PH Y

appear to be very great.

sonal investigation
finds over
is

Nothing but per-

of

any

real

use.

One

and over again things commended

by various writers that entirely break down

when brought
experiment.

to

the

vital

test

of

actual

CHAPTER

II

Ancient use of arbitrary symbols Tyronian abbreviations Early works on shorthand Excessive abbreviation of inscriptions on coins, etc. Telegi-am-English Masonmarks Eise of cipher-writing in England Clarendon's "History of the Rebellion" Battle of Nasoby Royal correspondence captured and deciphered Published by Parliament Weighted naval signal-codes Charles I. a great expert in cryptography Use of nulles or nonsignificants ^Numerical ciphers Mediaeval inscription without vowels Ciphers of Queen Henrietta and Sir Ralph Verney Great use of cipher at troublous periods of history The " Century of Inventions " of the Marquis of Worcester Birth of the steam-engine Dedication of his labours to the nation His numerous suggestions

for cryptograms The " disk " cryptogi'am Principle modified to sliding strip Bead alphabet Heraldic representation of colours in black and white The " string " cipher Bacon a cryptographic enthusiast

His essentials of a good cipher His highest perfecHis plan cumbrous and unsatisfaotoiy A Trithemian example Elizabethan arbitrary mark ciphei's No real mystery in them.
tion of a cipher

METHOD

adopted by the ancient writers

of representing words

by arbitrary marks by the

was

said to have been first introduced

Cl

62

CRYPTOGRAPHY
Maecenas, Cicero, Seneca
tlie

old poet Ennius.

elder,

Philargirus,

Tyro,

and

many

other

writers comnaended and employed these marks.

By

the time of Seneca thirteen thousand

of
or-

these characters were in use.

dinarily

They are

termed Tyronian.

Thousands

of these

Tyronian abbreviations and symbols

seen
in

may be
Probus,

the

writings

Valerius

Paulus Diaconus, Goltzius, and other authors.

So completely during the Middle Ages did they

answer the purpose of secret writing that an
old copy of a psalter found inscribed in these

characters

was ignorantly
;

entitled, " Psalterium

in Lingua Armenica "

and Pope Julius the

Second employed several learned men without

success
to

decipher

it.

This was originally

it

but a system of shorthand, and

into a
it

only grew

mystery when the key that unlocked

lost.

was

The

" Ars

Scribendi
is

character is"

written

about the year 1412, shorthand

extant,

the oldest system of

the
first

while

English

OR CIPHER-WRITING
book on
1688.
It
tlie

63

subject

did not appear until

Bx'iglit,

was written by one Timothy

" Oharacterie,
or
tlie

and

entitled

Art

of

Short,

Swift,

and

Secret
is

Writing."

The
title.

notion of cryptography
If

present in this

man employs
it is

a system of abbreviated
short or swift,
it is

writing because

to

him

but a matter of convenience and a gain of

time; but
if

he adopts

it

because

it is

secret,

an entirely different motive comes

in.

A man
adopts

who

writes

in

Pitman or any other widelyof

known system
any
of the

shorthand, or

who

modern telegraph code-books that

arbi-

compress a long sentence into a single

trary word,
therein
diary,
;

is if

no disciple of
he, like

cryptography
in his

but

Pepys

famous

adopts a secret code because on the

affairs private,

whole he prefers to keep his

his

shorthand

stands

on

quite

different

footing to that of the first man.

Such codes
one exposed,
all

have their dangers.

like

Not only

is

Pepys, to the risk of having

one's

64

CRYPTOGRAPHY
is

matters laid bare, but there

bability of

also the pro-

such a fiasco as occurred /within

his

our

own knowledge, where a man kept

memoranda by a

business and family

shortresult

hand system that he himself devised, the

being that at his death his
affairs

got at once

into a state of utter confusion that

rallied from,

they never
little

and there can be but

lost
it.

doubt

that

much property was

all

to

the family

from want of

clue to
of

An

ancient

form

writing

employed

amongst the Romans was the excessive abbreviation of words in inscriptions on statues,
coins,

and

so

forth

but this was not for

secrecy.

Any

one caring for examples of the

find

sort of thing will

abundant

illustrations

in such old tomes as the "Lexicon Biploma-

ticum" of Walther or the

" Siglarium
D.Gr.

Ro-

inanum

" of Gerrard.

In

fact, the

and

Fid. Def. on

our present money

supplies us

with a good example of the curtailment necessary where one desires to get a good deal of

OR CIPHER-WRITING
material in a very circumscribed space.
better
of

65

A still
such

example may be seen in the coinage

III.,

George

where

we may
as

find

concentrated

information

the

following

M
S
of

B F BT H EBX -F-D-B-BT-L-DThis suggests a sort B, I A T ET B

mince or hash of the alphabet, but with

due amplification and clothing of these bare

letters,
iiicB,

we

arrive at last at " Magnce

et

Britan-

Francice
et

Hibernice Bex, Fidei Defensor,

Brunnovici

Lunebergi Dux,
et

Sacri

Bomani

Imperii Aixhithesaurarius

Elector."

We may

say parenthetically

that

in

all

cryptogrammic

communications the

message

or other matter should be abbreviated as far

as
is

consistent

with

intelligibility.

One
style

should cultivate for this

of

purpose

the

telegram-English.
less

It

makes

less

labour

and

chance of error creeping in for the

less

sender,
ceiver,

time in unravelling for the reless

and

handle for any unauthorized

of.

reader to lay hold

This

last, as

we

shall

66
see

CR YPTOGRAPH V
wlien

we come

presently to consider the

is

decipherment of a mysterious message,

point of very considerable importance.

Fig.

7.

On
stones.

old

buildings
called

we may

-sometimes

see

what are
It

mason-marks cut upon the

been
a

has

suggested

that

these

had

originally

symbolic

meaning

known

OR CIPHER-WRITING

67

only to those initiated in the ancient craft of

freemasonry.

Some

authorities

tell

us that
race,

they are almost as

that

old as the

human

they

probably
is

had in
lost,

early times

meaning that

now

that they were long

regarded with a certain reverence, and that

an

essential

rule

for

their

formation

was

that they should contain at least one angle.

We

have reprinted in Fig. 7 divers examples

of these

marks from various ancient

no doubt that
angle
!

buildings.

There

is

all

of

them contain
prosaic ex-

at least one

The more
is

planation of these marks

to denote the

that they served

work of each mason employed

if

on any important building, that

the pay-

ment was by piecework

vented dispute, and that
if

such marking prethe work were badly

it

done or any error made

was at once seen

where blame should be imputed.

Each mason

had

his distinctive

mark, and many ancient

registers of these are extant.

The

enthusiasts
cult claim

who

see in these

marks some mystic

68

CRYPTOGRAPHY

as one proof that ttey

tlie

may be found even on

blocks of stone that complete the Pyra-

mids;

but the more prosaic student might

all
it

point out that this after

only indicates

very ancient usage, and that

was as neces-

sary in the time of Ohofo to detect careless

workmanship as

when Salisbury

or

Amiens

cathedrals were being erected.

Whatever may

be the exact truth, we

are,

we

think, at all

events justified in giving them a paragraph

and an
posal.
'''

illustration in

the

space

at our dis-

Cipher-writing scarcely makes any real ap-

pearance in English archives until the reign

of

Queen Elizabeth.

There had been divers

isolated examples, as, for instance, as far

as Alfred the

back
until

Great

but

it

was scarcely

the days of the Tudors that

in vogue.

we

find

it

really

Many examples

of this period are

preserved in the British Museum, and in the

troublous days of the
first

Charles

we

find

an immense use

of

it.

OR CIPHER.WRITING
Amidst the
historical

69

documents preserved in

the House of Lords, and brought to light by the

Royal Commission on

historical

MSS.,

is

the

correspondence of King Charles captured by

the Roundheads at Naseby
Avhich

correspondence

Dr. John Wallis, a

distinguished

mafin-

thematician of those days, analysed and

ally

deciphered, and

which

ultimately

cost

the defeated monarch his head.

In Lord Clarendon's " History of the Rebellion "

(Book IX.

vol.

ii.

p. 508)

we read
to quit
all

" In the end the the

field,

King was compelled

and

to leave Fairfax master of

his foot, cannons,

and baggage, amongst which

where
his

was

his

own

cabinet,

most secret

letters were,^

and

letters

between the Queen

One scarcely sees how, in the tarmoil of battle and the sudden realization of defeat, an incident so untoward could well be prevented. On board a man-of-war the code of signals is always kept in a leaden case, perforated with holes, so that when surrender is imperative the whole
'^

is dropped overboard, that it may not fall into the hands of the enemy. Even this, however, owing to the

thing

death of the responsible

oflBcer,

or other cause (for in the

70

CRYPTOGRAPHY
of wliicli tliey shortly
after

and him,

made

that barbarous use as

natures,
is,

was agreable
in

to their
:

and published them

of

print

that

so

much

them

as they thought

would

asperse either of their Majesties, and improve

the prejudice they had raised up against them;

and concealed other parts that would

vindicated them from

have

many

particulars with

which they had aspersed them."

of

The

battle

Naseby occurred on Saturday, June

14th,

1645.

On June 23rd

the House of

Commons

resolved " that the several letters and papers

taken at Naseby Field shovdd be referred \o

the Committee, to translate the French letters,

decipher those that are not deciphered,

to sort them."
letters

and

It

was

also resolved that these

and papers should be communicated Committee

of both

to the

Kingdoms, "

to the

man may lose his head, though to outward appearance without a scar), is not always an efficient safeguard. Within a mile of Charing Ci-oss, in the Royal
heat of action a

United Service Museum, may be seen the weighted signal code of the United States ship Gliesapealie, captured on
board that vessel by the British ship Shannon.

OR CIPHER-WRITING
intent tliat tliej
into Scotland

may

take copies to transmit

and

to foreign parts,
shall

and that
be put in

the said letters

and papers

a safe and public hand and place, to the end

that

such as desire

it

may

peruse the

ori-

ginals."

Some
receipt

sixty letters

were captured.

Many on

had been already deciphered

translation
of reading,

by the King or Queen, and the

appended to them for greater ease
Charles
I.

during the course of

ciphers,

the

war
some
cele-

composed a great many

of

and His

them

of very abstruse character.

brated letter to the Earl of Glamorgan,

in

which some very suspicious concessions

Catholic party in Ireland were

to the

mooted, was

composed
directions

entirely of short strokes in different

;

but

his

favourite idea

was

the

use of nvimbers, and the Naseby letters were

of this latter type.

A good

many

"

dummy "

numbers are introduced,

in addition to those

that stand for letters or words.

Such dum-

mies are of course intended to throw those

72

CRYPTOGRAPHY
are unauthorized to read the letters off
is

who

the scent, and some such arrangement

very

common
are

as a cryptographic expedient.

They

known

as nulles or non-significants also,

and we

shall

come across numerous examples

book
is finished.

of their use ere our

Various

people are also numbered, and the names of

places

that
is

are

likely to

frequently recur.
of

This

clearly

a great saving

time,

as

instead of having to spell out Prince Eupert

or

Oxford

in full a couple

of

numbers

will

at once express all

we want, and
is

of course

the

same principle

applied
as

to

such conregiment,
are

stantly

wanted words and the

artillery,

provisions,
of

like.

Where words
non-betrayal
;

more immaterial
are

and

chathus,
to the

racter, they

often written in full

find the

for instance,

we

Queen writing
Capell

King
voir

as

follows:

"Mr.
52 62

nous a fait

que cy

27 50

20

28
31

45 9
8

6G
q%ie

48 31

10

35

33
7

47

50
33

ce

34 8

27

28

23

10

p><i

tout

60

OR CIPHER-WRITING

73
'

62
2

cest

pour qumj

si

66

4 46 189 18

69

70 intantion de donner 62 40
letter of the

11

."

In one

sorely troubled

Queen

she writes that

her,

matters
siiis

have

so

harassed
tourmantee

" que
de

je

extremcment
fait

du mal
en
syfre
^

teete

qui

que

je

viesteray

par un autre qui

jovois

fait

moy

mesme."

The

trusted

new hand then comes

and

finishes

the letter in English.

We

give

the commencement, and place over the symbols

son

their

significance

" Theer beeing hear

a 47

35

39

74
letter

CRYPTOGRAPHY
goes on in the same manner, but

we

need not repeat the figuring.

tion

The

translafitt

of

it

is

that

" 260

thought
at his

to

speake to him to
for
to

solicit

KD

arriuall

to

dispatch of

6000

armes to be sent
to

to

arme the Scottch or

shall

imploy any

other

way 189

thinke good.

WM

be-

ing returned hath aduertised 260 that some

Englishe Catholiques in

haue layed their

purses together for supply of armes for 189.

260 doth

therefore

desire

189 to aduertise
sent.

"WM
189

of the place

where they are to be

may

write to

WM
in

in

the

cipher

189

hath with 260."

This was clearly a docucipher.

ment

to be

veiled

The

publica-

tion of these letters

by the Parliamentarians

caused great excitement, Ave are told

ter to be scarcely

a matwe can
189 and
care
to

wondered

at,

and

well

imagine

that

KD

and

WM,

260, would take

uncommonly good

keep the Channel between themselves and the

victorious Puritans.


OR CIPHER- WRITING
It will

75
notice
of

not

have

escaped

the

the careful reader that, while some of the

letters

in the

little

extract

we have given

are each time they occur represented by the

same number,
31,

^H, for instance,

being always

others
T
to

vary, so that
is

is

represented by

39 or 40,
This

45 or 46, and

is is

50 or 51.
frequently

changing of the symbol

in

resorted
patient

cryptography,
of

or

little

analysis

a communication would
it.

presently throw light upon

clue

First a small

would be gained, and then more and

follow.

more would

E, for instance,

is

the

letter that occurs

most commonly

in English;

therefore, unless the symbols are changed, the

one
1

that

occurs

oftenest

will

mean

E.^

curious old inscription over the decalogue in a

:

country church runs as follows

PRSVRTPRFCTMNVRKPTHSPRCPTSTN.
meaning of this was not discovered for but if oar readers will add to these "E" letters a suflficient sprinkling of one more letter they will have no difficulty in converting it into " Perever teep these precepts ten." severe, ye perfect men
It is said that the

two hundred

yeai-s

7^

CRYPTOGRAPHY

Double

is

common

final,

so

if

we

find

two

similar

symbols

recurring

at

ends of

words we

may
course

at

least

tbink tbem to be

LL.

Of

tbey

may

be

double SS,
if

another

common
for

termination; but

we

as-

sume
then

them

the time

being to be LL,

we may
little,

look up
it is

ELL.
at
all

That means
events some-

very

but

thing to build a theory on.

of
sell,

Then we think

well,

fell,

and

maybe add another

of

letter

to our

store.

All this

course
it is

is

very speculative and tentative, but

this

in

direction that

he

who would

decipher a

cryptogram must proceed.

As another
pher

illustration

of

the number

ci-

we may

instance

that

used
it

by

Sir

Kalph Verney.

An

example of

may

be

found in the " Notes of Proceedings of the

Long Parliament,"
valuable

that

may be
issued

seen in the

rejaroductions

by the Camfollow-

den Society.
ing note
:

The

editor

makes the

" The following numerals Avritten

OR CIPHER-WRITING
in pencil

77

by the hand

of

Sir

Ralph Verney
ci-

look like an attempt to take notes in a

pher.

The numbers range from

them here
in

1 to 28.

I
in-

add

the

hope that the

genuity of some

reader

may

discover their
entirely non-

meaning."

As they

evidently

plussed him, one hardly sees

why he
we

should

somewhat

slightingly

have called them "an

notes."
If

attempt " to

" take

come

across a slab in the British

Museum

covered
scarcely
in-

with

arrow-head
regard
or,

forms,
it

we

may

legitimately
difference,
tion,

with

supercilious

at best,

contemptuous

tolera-

as

the quaint

attempt of

some

poor

j^ssyrian

ignoramus to record something or

nor
should

other

we

lament

from

our

higher level the vainglorious conceit of some

Chinaman who evidently thinks that

characters

his queer

mean something.

A
to

Mr. Cooper, in the year 1853, succeeded

figures,

in deciphering the

and they proved

be

rough

notes

of

matters referred to

78
in

CRYPTOGRAPHY
Parliament.

Thougli there

can

be

no

doubt of the correctness of the key that has

unlocked their significance, the fact
that
Sir
is

patent
against

Ralph,

writing

probably

time and in the midst of

many
in

distractions,

was not
employed,

entirely at

home

the

cipher he
at

wrong characters being

times

introduced.

The following
used

are

examples of

the

cipher
his

by

Sir
:

Ealph Verney in

making
3

memoranda

" 28

17

15

22

817 220 3 85 176 1514 20 1316 285 7 16 87

14

10

15

5
'

15 15

17 17

18

18

15."
letters

This deciphers into

to

"

No

extracts of

be aloued in this House."

:

An

other one reads

" 5

1512

16
27

28
15

10
5

1516 828

17

710

17
16

1711

15

15

28

10

7,"

signifying

"

The

prince

is

noli

come

to

Grreenhich."

For the fourth word here we

read
sense
either

should

probably
in

now

or

not,

the difference

being

considerable,


OR CIPHER-WRITING
the direct
contrast
79
aflSrmative
is

between
"

an

and

negative.

Come

to "

in

the

cipher run together into "cometOj"

but this

was probably

carelessness rather than craft.

The ingenious and painstaking Mr. Cooper

presently determined that the same numeral

always stands for the same

is

letter,

and that

always a very helpful state of things for

the decipherer.

Of course
and
so

is

not
in

1,

and

2,

and C

3,

forth

regular

sequence, as that would be a great deal too

easy an arrangement, so that

find

it

remains to
has
that

out

what

arbitrary
analysis

arrangement
it
is

been made.
the letters
follows
:

On
are

found

represented

by numerals as

2=F

So

CRYPTOGRAPHY
In
the

memoranda

that

have

come

to

hght we find no use of

26, but

1, 19, 21, 23,

24 or

on the other hand we find that by

use in

chance Verney had no necessity to

anything he Avanted the
ployed
letters
fairly
J,

less-commonly emor
that

Q,

V,

we may
of

therefore

assume

four

the

missing

numbers would be the

equivalents

of the four missing letters.

For

facility

of

reading

anything already
given,

written,

the table
letters,

we have
is

numbers
;

and then
if

the

most useful

but

we

desired to write anything

ourselves, a

table having first letters

is

and then numbers

of

more
a good

service.
stiff

If

we want

to

trans-

late

piece of Russian,

we

turn

to the

Russian-English half of our dictionif

ary

but

we

desire

to

translate

our

own

tongue into Russian, then we seek help from

the

English-Russian

portion of

our
a

book.
crypto-

In the same way the sender of

gram

uses

" ordinary letter-cryptogrammic,"


OR CIPHER-WRITING
while
the
receiver
8x
translate
it

employs

to

the " cryptogrammio-ordinary

letter "

table.

For the purpose

of

the sender the Verney

:

table should be as follows

A = 14
B=6
C = 10

H=7

D = 13
E = 15 F=2

G = ll

82

CRYPTOGRAPHY

25

17
8

18

317
note

286

18

16

28

15

8,"

a remark that shows that while

he
that

felt

our

an intrusion, also
in

shows
the

we

had

succeeded

mastering

cipher he was employing.

We

also

find

great revival of cryptoits

logy during the stormy period that has

central point in the
flight

of

James

II.

and and
of

the landing of William III.,

counter-plot

when
in

plot

sought

safety

the

use

cryptograms.
of

The adherents
the

of

Mary Queen
of

Scots

and

followers
also

the

Pre-

tender were
in their use.

naturally

very

proficient

Edward Somerset, Marquis

published
called

of

Worcester,
little

in the

year
of

1633 a

book
This

the

" Century

Inventions."

nobleman was
pursuits,

greatly
at the

addicted to

scientific

and
a

same time was in combody

of

mand
Charles
to

of
I.

large

troops

under

He
of

afterwards
Charles

attached himself
II.

the

suite

in

exile

in

OR CIPHER-WRITING
France,

83

and
to

being

sent

over

by

liim

to

London

procure intelligence and supplies,

put under
lock
at

was speedily detected and

and key
liberty
leisure
leisure

in

tlie

Tower.
Restoration.

He was
His

set

at

the

enforced

in the
for

Tower

gave
his

him

abundant
as

study,
at
is

while
so

position

man

of

affairs
it

stormy

period ex-

plains

how

that amongst his

hundred

inventions not a few deal with the various

methods of secret communication.

It is to
it

of

course beside our present

mark
Suffice

deal with the book as a whole.

to

say that the

majority of

his

inven-

tions

are of an entirely practical character,

and the day in

germ
all its

of

the

steam engine of

to-

mighty force and

in
his

pervading

utility is

to

be found

observations.

The

closely fitting cover of a vessel in

which

he was preparing food in his apartment of

the

Tower was suddenly forced

off

by the

pressure of the confined steam, and he drew

84

CRYPTOGRAPHY
tliis

from

the suggestion

tliat

sucli

a force

miglit be turned to useful account.

That he himself believed,

in the

value

of

his -work is quaintly evident, for in the dedi-

cation of
cellent

his

book to the King's most explus

Majesty,
sensible

Lords and Commons,

of

on

the

principle
to
his

having

more

than
" The

one

string

bow,

he

writes

Treasures

buried under these heads,

both for War, Peace,

inexhaustible
so
:

and

Pleasure,
if

being-

beseech you pardon

I say

it

seems a Vanity
:

but comprehends

Truth

since

no good Spring

but becomes
it

the more plentiful by

how much more

to

is

drawn
is

and the Spinner

weave

his

web
The

never stinted, but further

inforc'd.

more then that you

vise

shall be pleased to

make

of

my

Inventions

the

more Inventive

shall
still

you

find

me, one Invention begetting

another, and
ability.

more and more improving

as to

my

And

my

heartiness therein

there

needs no addition, nor to

my

readi-

OR CIPHER-WRITING
jaess

85

and

spur.

Therefore

be

pleased

to

begin,
till

and desist not from commanding, me

I flag in

my

obedience and endeavours to

Serve

my King

and Country.

Before

For certainly you'l find me breathless first t'expire my hands grow weary, or my legs do tire."
list is

No. 1 on his

" Several Sorts of Seals,

others

some

shewing by

scrues,
all

by gages,

fastening or unfastening

the mai'ks at once.

Upon any
Accompts

of

these Seals a

man may keep

of Receipts

and Disbursements from

hundred
Millions.

one Farthing to

an

By

these Seals likewise any Letter, though written

but in English

may be
and

read and understood in

eight several languages, and in English itself

to clean contrary
to
different sense,

unknown
to be
it

any but the Correspondent, and not

if

read or understood either,

opened before

arrive unto him, so that neither Threats, nor

hopes of Reward, can make him reveal the

secret, the letter

having been intercepted by

the Enemy."

86

CRYPTOGRAPHY
No. 2
is

a further developmentj sliowing

how

ten thousand people

ful
seals
is

may

use these AYonderintact.

and yet keep their secrets

No. 3
trived,

"a Cypher

or

Character so con-

that one line, without returns or cirfor each

cumflexes, stands

and every of the

24

letters,

and as ready
the
other,"

to be

made
the

for one

letter

as

while

inventive
it

faculty in

him, growing, as he
use.

declared

would,
refined

by
and

No. 4

is

*'

this

Invention

so

abbreviated

that

point

onely showeth distinctly and significantly any

of

the

24

letters

and these very points to

so

be made with
will

two pens,
bub
as

that no

time
the

be

lost,

one

finger riseth

other

may make

the following letter, never

several figures for
of confusion
letter for

clogging the

memory with

words

which with ease and void

speedily

are thus
letter, set

and punctually,

down by naked and not

nothing can

multiplied

points.

And

be

less

than a

point."

One almost wonders

that he did not

OR CIPHER-WRITING
hit

87

upon the idea

of

dipping his fingers in

the ink and so making four or five points at

once instead of being content with two.

fifth

His

invention

is

"a

way by a

Circular motion

either along

Rule or Ring wise, to vary

the self-same the

any

Alphabet, so that
placed,

Point
ad-

individually
ditional

without

least

mark

or variation of place, shall stand

letters,

for all the

letter

24

and not for the same

:

twice in ten sheets writing

yet

as

easily

and certainly read and known as

if it

stood but for one and the self same letter

constantly signified."

We
labours

were
of

first

made acquainted with the

Marquis by
a
reference to

the

them
ferring
to

in

an
always,

educational

work,
all

but

pre-

where

at

practicable,
it

go to the

original,

we turned

up

in

the magnificent Library

dise

the

students'

Paranote
gives

at

the

British

Museum.
the

We

with

great

regret

that

author

no further clue to his inventions than such

88
sliorfc

CRYPtOGRAPHV
skebch
case
as of
Ave

have

already

quoted
This

in the
fifth

one or two of
his,

them.

invention of

the constant shifting

Fig.

8.

of significance of letters rule or ring-wise, is

very descriptive, however, of two methods, or

rather perhaps one method in two forms, that

was largely

in use in the middle ages.

Fig.

OR CIPHER-WRITING
8
is

89
circle

an

illustration.

We

draw a

on a
its

fairly stout piece of

cardboard and divide

circumference into twenty-six equal parts, and

in these divisions

we

place the letters of the

alphabet in the regular

ordinary usage.

ABC

sequence of

"We then cut out a somewhat

smaller circle from one card and divide the

edge of this also into twenty-six equal parts,

and

in these

we

place the alphabet letters in

any haphazard fashion we choose.

cut this out and place
first
it

We

next

in the centre of the

and drive a good strong pin through

the centre, the result being that the upper

card revolves freely on the under one, enabling

us to bring any letter of the one in a line

with any letter of the other.

with

The person

whom we
Fig.
8,

are corresponding has a similar

arrangement, and we arrange together that,

as in

shall

be

adjusted
out,

to

A.
true

We

then

spell

the

words

the

letters

being those of

the outer circle, but

If

representing them by those of the inner.

90

CR yPTOGRAPH Y

then we desire by means of this diagram to

write the
as

word February,

it

would come out

DZOXEJXT.
reads the

The sender reads from the

outer circle to the inner one, while the receiver

outer,

characters

from inner
circles

to

a glance at the two

showing

him that
on.
if

is

really F, that

is

E, and so
;

This

may be

used, as set, for a time

but

we want

to circumvent the ingenious

med-

dler

who

begins to think that he has got a

clue through our continuous use of the equivalents, all that

is

same
give
etc.,

necessary

is

to

the upper card a gentle push and A, B, 0,

are

now

represented on the inner circle by en-

tirely different letters,

and the too ingenious

off

onlooker

is at

once thi-own

the scent.

Our
this

correspondent must of course

know
turn,

of

and give

his

card a similar
It

but this
for
in-

may
by a
thus,

easily be arranged.

might,

stance,

be that two similar letters followed

different

one should convey the hint;

KKQ would

mean

that at this point Ave

OR CIPHER- WRITING
sliift

91

our inner alphabet

till

the letter within

like

A
to

should be

and

if

we

in the course of a

page or two
then
to

change

again,

BBX
spin

would convey the hint

the circle round until
the

X became

new

equivalent of A.

This combination of the fixed

and revolving
excellent one,

circles
its

is

a most

only drawback
little

being that
difficult

it is

perhaps a
the

to

read

radiating
is

letters, as

while only one

ab-

solutely straight

up the others

begin to lean away at gradually

increasing angles,
last
till

we

get at

to

one

that

is

absolutely
all,

upside-down.
ever,

After

howshould

little

practice
of

make the reading

them a

very easy matter; but to those

who

feel

difficulty

Fig.

92
shoiild

CRYPTOGRAPHY
come
the
for

as

boon

and

blessing
is

where
changed

" Ring-wise "

that " along that

arrangement
a
Rule."
the

"We

must
ness

confess
of

ourselves

compact-

No.

more

than

compensates to

our

mind

for

any topsy-turvydom, Fig. 9

being a long rambling sort of thing to keep

in one's desk, of being torn

and possessing great

possibilities

when turned over amongst

other
less

papers.

We

have only drawn a portion,

proportion in fact that
bears to

than half
the part

the

AK,
To
of

we have shown,

AZ.
strip

make

this

key a somewhat broad

card has twenty-six openings cut or punch-

ed in

it,

and opposite
are

to

these,

in
of at of

regular
the
al-

sequence,
phabet.

placed the letters

slit
is

A
and

then

cut
strip

top

and
is

bottom,

narrower
it

card

inserted so that

will

slip,

not too easily,

up and down.
distances

All along this, at the same

as

apart
strip,

the

openings
the

on

the
of

broader

are

placed

letters

OR CIPHER-WRITING
tte alphabet in any irregular order.

93

"When
a

the whole twenty-six letters have

resting
place,

found

the

strip

should

still

be so
first

long as to admit of the repetition of the

six or eight, as
letter to

what we want

is

not only a

appear opposite the A, B, 0, down to

little

the end, but also some

surplus, so that

the slip
to

can be moved up and down so as

in.

bring other combinations

Of course

the reader, on inspection of our figure, sees

that in principle
it is

identical with the circular

card

method

already

shown,

that

"head"

would be

XVRT,

and that we could at once

vary the equivalents by sliding the narrow

strip
it

upwards or downwards.
until

If

we
to

slipped

down

came opposite
no
longer be

A, then
but

''head"

would

XVRT,

BKDN.

Our correspondent must

clearly be

informed of any such shifting, and of course

any accidental

shifting
against.

of

the sliding

piece

must be guarded

The merest glance

is
still

that the proper key letter

opposite to

94

CRYPTOGRAPHY
to

A will suffice
lias

show wliether any movement

taken place.
revert

To

now

to our

ingenious Marquis.

After devoting the

first five of liis

"Century"
all

to

cryptography, he remembers that after

are other matters that

there

may

be dealt with too

but cryptography crops up again at No. 33,

and
42,

this

and Nos.

34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41,

and 43 are

all

devoted to suggestions for

secret

communication, though some of them

are of a very forced character and having no-

thing to do with writing at

instance, is to be

all.

Fig. 40, for

of smell,

worked by the sense

pegs of sandal-wood, cedar, rosewood, and so

forth being
so

arranged

and

grouped that

even in the dark a message could be composed

or discriminated
;

while another method trusts

to the taste, pegs being

aloes, etc.,

dipped in alum,

salt,

and distinguished by touching them

It is scarcely to be

with the tongue.

imagined

that even amongst the blind such a sensitiveness to smell or taste could be developed as

OR CIPHER- WRITING
would make
tliese fancies

95
realities.

workable

We

should imagine that some sixty or eighty

applications of the tongue

would end in a com-

plete dulling of the perception, while one could

scarcely imagine anything

much more nauseous

than a course of peg-tasting for half an hour of

alum, castor
liver
oil, oil,

saccharine, turpentine, codsalt,

lavender water,

and as many
as

more strongly flavoured ingredients

build
is

would

up an alphabet.
string,

One

of

his

methods
calls

by a knotted

and another he

a bracelet alphabet.

After No. 43 he devises

new

tinder

box, an artificial bird, and so

on; but at No.

52 we find him harping on

if

the old string again,

devising an alphabet

by

" the " jangling the Bells of any parish church

can be so termed, and at No. 75 we are

structed "

in-

how

a tape or ribbon weaver

may

set

down a whole
letter, or

discourse without knowing a

interweaving anything suspicious of

other secret than a new-fashioned ribbon."

It is

certainly very remarkable that

when

96

CRYPTOGRAPHY

the Marquis had the whole field of possible

inventions open to him, he should have devoted
so large a proportion of his

book to the thinkin this one

ing out of so

many schemes

narrow

field of investigation.

The

bracelet alphabet idea has been utilised,

and cryptographic messages may readily be

conveyed by means of any coloured objects
such as beads or precious stones.
for
If

we

take,

example, some red, green, yellow, black,

blue,

and white beads, we can so arrange them

in pairs, each pair representing one letter of

the alphabet, as

to

be able to spell out any

of

communication.

Such a bracelet or string

beads could be worn on the person, or sent

amongst other trinkets without exciting any

special

observation,

lieceiver

and

sender

would mutually arrange a scheme of lettering

by

this aid of colours,

and

if

at

any time
of

this

Avere

discovered

re-arrangement

the

colours

would alone be necessary for a fresh

departure, and these variations could be

made

OR CIlPHER-WRtTIKG
in

97

an immense number of ways.

By way

of a

start

we would
green

suggest

tlie

following key:-=

A=red and

N= white and red

= green and white P = black and green Q = white and green R = white and black
S=yelIow and white
T== white and yellow

B= yellow and green

C = red and yellow
D=yellow and black

E=red and

black

r=black and yellow

G-= green and black

H= yellow and red

J = green and yellow K= green and red L= black and red M=red and white
1

U V= green and green

W= black and white

X=redandred

Y= yellow and yellovv

2 = black and bladk
colour can be

Beads
to

of

turquoise blue

used

divide

words, or

tliey

may

be
If

inserted

anywbere as
themselves
of

non-significants.

tlie

beads
initials

are

not

available,
suflS.ce
;

the
if

the colours will

thus,

we

can-

not actually express

bead,

by a red and a green

we can by EG.
black,

As B

is

already re-

quired for
turquoise.

the blue

must be T for
it

Ignoring

wherever

comes,
it

the letters must always be read in pairs, as

takes two of'these to signify the real letters of

98

CRYPTOGRAPHY

the message, and, knowing this, any number of

accidental breaks,
as

misleaders,

may be

in-

troduced.

"Mind

see Cecil"

would therefore

read

EWaYWEYBYWRBTRBRYTRTBRYGYBRT or RWTGY WRYBT YWRB TRBRBT RTBRYa YBRTT, or any other

arbitrary breaking-up of these particular let-

ters into

sham words

to mislead

investigators

that

we

chose to make.

In Fig. 10 we have strung the actual beads,

marking

their colours

by the

signs
is

used in

heraldic work.^

Their message

the begin-

ning of " Mind see Cecil."

Should any of our readers not know these, they would them, as they come in very serviceably not only in finding from these signs the actual colours of arms engraved in illustrations, book plates, and the like, but they are also very useful as a shorthand
1

find it useful to learn

way of expressing colours

for

any purpose,

as, for

example,

OR CIPHER-WRITING

99

A
seen

curious
in

foi'm
11.

of

early

cipher
of
tlie

may be
persons
other

Fig.
of

Eacli

desirous

communicating

"witli

eacTi

was provided with a

or stout card.

similar

strip

of board
this

Along the top

either

of

was

placed the alphabet,

according to the

common

order of the letters or in any irregall

ular fashion, so long only as they

their appearance

made

somewhere

in the series.

knot was then tied at the end of a piece of

string,

and by

it,

through a hole made at the

its

top of the strip, the string was held in

place.

The

sides of the strip of

wood

or card-

board were notched, and the string was woxmd

round tightly and

ATas held in these teeth or

notches and secured at the bottom by being

inserted in a cut.

On

this string the

person

our beads.
silver or
series of

Gold or yellow are indicated by

left quite plain.

dots, -while

white are

Red

is

shown by a

black

is

known by being marked

downwards

upright lines and blue by horizontal ones, while in plaid by lines both

horizontally and vertically disposed.

Green

is

indicated

by

inclined lines

froin right to left.

loo

CRYPTOGRAPHY

sending the message made a mark with ink or

colour in a line with any desired letter.

The
was

message being thus spelt

out, the string

unfastened and then wrapped round a package

or in some such inconspicuous

way

got into the

its

hands

of
it

the

receiver.

He, on

receipt,

wound

round

his counterpart

board and was

Fio. 11.

enabled, readily enough, to read off the com-

munication.

Fig. 11 is only a small portion of

sufficient to indicate its
it

such a board, though

use.

"We have commenced upon

"First chance not
till

the mes-

sage

May," but our

space enables us to show but a very limited

portion of this.

The first

line gives us

FIRST,

OR CIPHER-WRITING
but the second line only gives OH, as the

loi

A we

want next comes before C and

H in the

alpha-

bet and must therefore come on the next row.

If

we marked

it

on the same row, we should get

is

AOH, and
that,

this
this

no use to
of

us.

The only
is

drawback to
unless

method

communication

each party stretches the string

all

with equal tension

through, the marks will

not in the second winding come in quite the

right places.

slip

along of only one letter

into

space would turn

FIRST

GrJSTU,

to the
this

great bewilderment of enigmatical message.

the receiver of

Lord Chancellor Bacon was an enthusiast

in

ciyptology.

He

laid

down

the

law in

quite Johnsonian style in this

and many other

of

matters.

The three

essentials

good

cipher, he very justly declared,

were

facility in

execution, difficulty in solution, clearness from

suspicion.

This latter item

is is

perhaps not
safety

very clearly put; his meaning

the decipherment of those for

from

whom

the com-

102

CRYPTO GRAPH V

munication "was not intended.

A method
our

that

he himself devised, he with calm assurance

introduced as

"a cypher

of

own which

has the highest perfection of a cypher, that

of signifying

omnia par omnia, anything by

This sounds
It
is

everything."

most convincing

and awe-inspiring.
people will accept a
valuation he sets

ordinarily said that

man

pretty

much

at the

on himself; but when one

presently re-reads this Baconian dictum, and

asks what

it

means, perhaps the truest answer

little."
is

would be " very

As a
and
it

cipher

it

not of any great merit,

.

sins grievously against his

own

first

rule, since it is

by no means
letters

facile in use.

He

employs only the

and B, and arranges

these in groups of five for the differenb letters.

If

then

we
it

desire to send a

message of
use

fifty

letters,

would

be

necessary to
It
is
if

two

hundred and

fifty.
;

therefore far too

slow in operation

even

one had the various

formula at one's

finger's ends, it

would involve

103

OR CIPHER-WRITING
five

times

the

labour

of

ordinary writing.

When we

once

know

that each group of five

it
.

stands for a single letter,

discovery, on the

is

as liaWe of

same

principles of decipher-

ment, as a simpler arrangement.

Of

course,

if

Bacon had not published

this clue, the task

difficult,

would have been immensely more

it is

and

only just to his method to frankly and

fully say so.

The cipher was composed

as follows:

A=AAAAA.

B=AAAAB C =AAABA D=AAABB E=AABAA

F

=AABAB

G=AABBA H = AABBB

=ABAAA K=ABAAB L =ABABA M=ABABB N=ABBAA =ABBAB P=ABBBA

I

=BAAAA =BAAAB T =BAABA U =BAABB

E,

W=BABAA
X =BABAB
T =BABBA Z =BABBB
cumbrous nature
to

Q = ABBBB
see the

We shall the better

of this cipher if

we endeavour
instance,

apply

it.

Such a word,

for

as

cryptogram

would become by

this code

AAABABAAAABABBAABBBABAABAABBAB AABBABAAAAAAAAAABABB

104

CRYPTOGRAPHY

In the same cumbrous fashion, and based

on the same
following,

lines

as that of Bacon,

is

the
old

which
:

Ave

extract

from

an

encjclopsedia

A=lllll

J =12112

S =21122

B =11112
C =11121
1)^11122

K= 12122
li

T =21211

=12211

=21212

M = 12212
1^

V =21221

==11211

= 12221

W = 12121
T-

F =11212

0=12222

G =11221 11 = 11222
J

P =21111 Q =21112
11=21121

=22212 =22221 Z -22122

=12111
intervals

The

between the words were to

If

be marked

by 333,

we wished

to

ask

our correspondent to " come soon now,"

we

should have to set forth the following unwieldy

arrangement

1112112222122121121133321122122221222212221
833122211222212121

Another
adopted

plan

that

has

been

sometimes

may

be illustrated by the following

cumbersome example from Trithemius, where

OR CIPHER^WRITJNG

105

only the second letter in each word counts, and

all

the rest

is

mere padding " Baldach abasar

:

lemai

clamech abrach
This, after
it

misach abrai
all,

disaria

athanas."
bibit,"

only signifies " Abel

and

has taken fifty-six letters to give

nine

rj^bqA>c4)ni-oc A Mi ^ O -Hf 8 4> 2-cjA:\ + 'M-1jJ+/X\

/Z.
riTio! 12.

In some of the Elizabethan ciphers neither

letters

nor figures are used; but in place of

"we find

them
those
this,

merely arbitrary forms, such as

represented in Fig. 12.
looks at
first

we have
it

But
mys-

though

sight very

terious,

has no more real element of

difficulty

in

it

than the use of the letters of the alphabet.

1 06

CR YPTOGRAPHY

It is really immaterial Tvhetlier

witli

we

spell

cat

a curved

line, (that

we have

learnt to call

0),

and two sloping

lines

coming to a point

and a horizontal

line across their centre (that

we have
made up

got used to as A), and a third symbol

of

an upright
its

line

and then a hori-

zontal line across

top (a form that

we

are

accustomed to
that

call

T), or

whether we decide

instead

shall

be made of two lines

crossing at their centres, while

shall

be a

thing

made up

of

two
If

circles, like

a figure 8

turned sideways.
tain

we

recognise that a cer-

form

is

the symbol of a certain letter,

we
see

soon learn to recognise this form when

it,

we

and

its

shape

is

a matter that

is

absolutely

indifferent to us.

If the letters of our present

alphabet had not been the shapes

we know
it

them, but something entirely different,

still

would

have been our alphabet, and

it

is

as easy

to write

dog

in

Greek or German

letters, or in

these grotesque forms of Fig. 12, as in the

letters in

which

this

page before us

is

printed.

OR CIPHER-WRITING

07

Why

should not the ten upper forms in Fig.

12 spell cryptogram just as well as

ORYPTOwe

GrRAM

does

In the one case we are used to

the forms employed,, and in the other case

are not.

That

is

really the only difference.

CHAPTER
Is

III

an undecipherable cryptogram possible ? The art of deciphering Keys for the analysis of a cryptoga-am Oft

recurring

letters

Magazine
rules

perseverance Papers on the subject in Gentleman's Conrad's of 1742 Value of general knowledge

Its construction-^Ciphers from agony columns of Standard and Times Prying busybodies ^Alternate letters significant Ciphers based on divers shiftings of the letters Cryptogram in Cocker's " Arithmetick " Inventor in 1761 of supposed absolutely secret system His hopes and fears thereon Illegal to publish Pai-liamentary debates Evasion of the law Poe's use of cryptogram in story Secret marks made by tramps and vagrants Shop ciphers for marking prices ou goods Cryptogrammic trade advertisements Examples of cipher construction The "grill " cipher The "revolving grill" The "slip-card" Eorms of numerical cipher The " Mirabeau " Count Grousfield's cipher Communication by use of a dictionary The "Newark" The " Clock-hands " Tlic " two- word " ciphers-Conclusion.

The letter E " Noughts and crosses " cryptogram

Great

repetition of Towels

Patient

r I

iHE

question as to whether a cipher has

all

ever been devised that could for

successfully

time
will

defy

patient

investigation

naturally occur to our readers.

Some would

have

it

that as

all

the advantages are in favour


CIPHER-WRITING
of tte ingenious cryptograpliist,
it

109

should not
of

be impossible to

build

up a monument

ingenuity that should be safe from

all assault,

and certainly
itself to

this is

an opinion that commends

Others

us as a very reasonable one.

would

tell

us that nothing that the wit of

is safe

man

could devise

from the wit of some other

man

to search out.

However

this

may

be,

and the point,

of course, can never be settled,

^we

must bear

in

mind that what

to

the

ordinary

man

is

hopeless

may

not prove so to

the deftly-trained ingenuity of the expert.

cryptogram in Paris that was deciphered some

few years ago for the French Grovernment took

accomphshed experts
bare,

just six

months

to lay

and the ordinary amateur would scarcely

attack any problem with such dogged deter-

mination as that.

In the art of deciphering

it

is

emjihatically

the case that " practice makes perfect."

There

are certain very definite rules, too, that prt)ve

of

immense

assistance

in

the analvsis of a

no
cryptogram.

CR YPTOGRAPHY

There

are

special

conditions,

however, for each language, "0," for example, being a

much more
Italia n

freely

used

letter

in

Spanish or

than in English.
is

In the

English language

"E"
is

the letter that occurs

with

the

greatest

frequency.

The

easiest

cipher to translate
in
it

that where each letter

always stands for some other individual

letter,

where K, for instance, always means F,

be. recognised
as

or
'

P may

all through.

AVhere too the symbols, puzzling though they

be, are

always arranged as in an ordinary com-

munication,

and broken

ujd

into

words.

A
diffi-

cipher at once becomes immensely more

cult
if

the letters change their significance, so

that, as in the revolving card

illustrated, E, for instance,

we have

already

may be sometimes
M, or X.
if

written as J, at others as S, or
at once

We
the

add

gl'eatly, too, to

the puzzle

words are
rily

all

joined into one, or are arbitra-

broken up.

Non-significants also add to

it is

the difficulties of analysis, and

a good plan

OR CIPHER-WRITING
to out out every " like

III
sucli

and " and " the " and

tliat

common words

can at

all

be spared.

The English tongue abounds

Of course the

in monosyllables.

letters that necessarily occur

most commonly are the vowels, and in words

of

two
is

letters,

such as am,

in, of,

or we, one of

them

necessarily a vowel.

is

not only the

commonest

letter in use in English,

;

but

it

also

very frequently occurs in couples

feet, sweet, agreed, speed, are

been, seen,

examples.

EA
ease,

and

OU are

the double vowels that most comas in pear, early,

monly go together,

and

or our, cloud, or rough.

single letter will

be A, or
is

I,

or 0.

Of

all

English words the

occurs,

"

the one that most

it

commonly
If,

and

" and " runs

very closely.

therefore,

we

have determined that the commonest symbol of

all
if

in our mysterious cryptogram

is

E, then

a very constantly recurring word of three

letters

ends with this same symbol, we

may
and

begin to hope that we have found out

T.

EE, 00, LL, SS,

are the doubled letters

112
of

CR YPTOGRAPHY

most

usual

occurrence

see,

feet,

tool,

shall,

well,

miss,

and

loss

are

illustrations.

A
as,

begins three very

common
begins

two-letters, an,
of,

and

at,

and

on,

or,

and

ends do, go, no,

so, to.

In by far the great

first

majority of words the

is

or second letter
IT

a vowel.

always has

after
I.

it.

No
on

English word

terminates with

It is

such bases as these, vague as some of them

may
is

seem, that the decipherer works.

;

There
disa-

no royal road

nothing but delicate

patience
will

crimination

and unlimited

chieve success.

When
may now
or

certain

equivalents are

determined,

they should at once be written down.

We

take any word in which any one

more

of

them

occur,

and substitute them

for the symbols standing for them, just put dots for the others until

and then

more

light

dawns.

Very often

this

proceeding at once
if

suggests the whole word, and

at

so

we have

once gainpd a knowledge of other charac-

OR CIPHER-WRITING
ters

13

and soon get a long way towards

If,

build-

ing up our key.

for instance,
tliat

we have

discovered by analysis
really A,
I,

X, L, and

are
tlie

and T, and we come across

words

FXLTNXO JPXPLBR,
as follows
:

we

set

tliem

down

AI

TATI

and

it

presently begins to

dawn upon us

tbat
fit

tlie

words "railway

station" would

just

in.

We
If

at

all

events

accept
liave

this

tentatively.

we

are riglit
for

we

added largely to
see

our

store,

we now

that

F must
"W,

really be E,
will be

T must
is

be L,

must be

Y, J N.

S,

must be 0, while
of three letIf

B, represents

Our knowledge

ters

has thus given us seven others.

we we

presently find in the cryptogram the group

of
letters

JQXTT, we remember
to

that

know
station

be really A,
has
led

and
to

our

railway
that
it

guess
S,

us

believe

is

really
if

and

is

L;
into

we
S

try

how

looks

we turn JQXTT

ALL.

This

suggests to us small,

stall,

and

shall, so
II

is

114

CR YPTOGRAPHY

either

or

not

stall,

H; we know because T we
One
will

tliat

tlie

Avord

is is

already

know

shown by P.
containing
shall read

or two endeavours at words

Q
it

determine for us whether

or H.

we

as

Z, the commonest

symbol of
E, and

all,

we have
often

decided at once to be

PQZ
so

recurs,

T E
there

is

evidently

THE,

is

not M,

for
is

is

no word

TMB,but

H.

JQXTT
analysis,
failure,

therefore

SHALL.

So by patient
sometimes by

sometimes by success,

sometimes by guessing

what
it

it

might

be,

sometimes by seeing what

could not be,

we

step
pull
start,

by step press

on.

The man who would

it

down a

wall finds

difficult to

make a

but when he has

first

once got his pick fairly into a joint the

brick
is

presently got out, and then

all

the

others follow, the

every

brick removed
first

making
of

work

easier.

The

insertion

the

quarryman's wedge wants considerable

skill;

blow after
fall

blow of
then

the

swinging hammers
it,

swiftly

upon

and

each

tells.

OR CIPHER-WRITING
until presently tlie great block of

II5

many

tons

in weight

is

riven in twain.

In the Gentleman's Magazine for the yeai

1742
will

be found an interesting series of

the art
of

papers

on

deciphering,

entitled

" GryptograpTiia denudata" the author being

David Arnold
introduction

Conradus.

After
proceeds,

general
curiously
to

he

first

enough,

in

an
the

English

magazine,

an

exposition of

Grerman

language, pointrecurrences
of

ing

out

the

characteristic

letters,

terminations of words, and so forth,

by
in

which
that

one

may

attack

cryptogram

language.

He
to

then

proceeds with
the

equal

thoroughness

analyse

Dutch
French,
of

language,
Italian,

then the
Grreek.

Latin,

English,
:

and

He

writes

"

The Art

Deciphering being an abstruse Subject I purpose

in
this

Attempt

to

explain

it

with

Accuracy and Perspicuity, and I doubt not

by

this

Undertaking both of gratifying the

Curiosity of the Inquisitive, and of convinc-

1 1

CR YPTOGRAPHY
tlie

ing those of

Certainty of
it.

tlie

Art wlio

have hitherto questioned

found
ready

There are to be
ai'e

Men
to

of

uncommon Capacity who

assert
is

with great Confidence that

be expected from Enquiries
uncertain in their Nature.

no Success
so

to

doubtful and

There are these whose Credulity and Superstition set

them almost below Mention, who

less

pronounce no

positively that

the Inter-

pretation of private Characters,

if it

ever can

be attained,

is

the effect of Magic.

is

The Art

of Deciphering

the Practice of interpreting

of

"Writings

composed

Secret Characters, so

that the true sense and' words of the Writer

shall

be exactly known.
it

This Art, however

diflBicult

may

appear, will be admired for

it

its

Simplicity and the Ease with which

it

may

be attained, when the Theory of

stood,

is

under-

which depends upon many certain and

a few probable Propositions.

of

The Usefulness

Arts by which suspected and dangerous

Correspondences

may

be detected cannot be

OR CIPHER-WRITING
denied, nor
is
it

17

a small Incitement to the

Study

of

it

that those

who

profess

it

are em-

ployed by Princes, in time of

War

particularly,

and rewarded with the utmost

"
to

Liberality.
is

He

that engages in this Study

supposed

be previously furnished with various kinds

of

Knowledge.

He must

be in the

first

Place

Master of Orthography, that we may know

what Letters

are required for each

Word.

He
fre-

should be acquainted with several Languages,

and

particularly

Latin,

which

is

most

quently

made use

of in secret Writings;

and

he

will

be a greater Master of this Art in prohis

portion as

Knowledge
for

of

Languages

is

more extensive;

the

Decipherer has to
is,

determine what the Language

secret Writing
is

in

which the

composed, whether Latin,

;

French, or any other

and by

this

Art are

to

be discovered the peculiar Characteristics of each Language.

"It

is

likewise necessary to understand at

least the

Elements of various Sciences, that

Il8
tlie

CRYPTOGRAPHY
Sense of any Passage

may be more

easily

discovered,
Explication,

and one word contribute

of

to

tlie

another.

Cryptography,

or

the Art of writing in Ciphers, must likewise

be understood, by which so
are
practiced,
so

many

Artifices

many

intricate

Alphabets
for Secrecy

formed, and so

many Expedients Upon

Learning

produced as requires the utmost Acuteness

to

detect and explain.

the whole as

Man

advances

in

he becomes

better qualified for a Decipherer.

"By

Accuracy

of

Method and a

just
is

Deour
cer-

duction of Particulars from Generals,

Art exalted into a Science, consisting of

tain

and indubitable Propositions, from whence

Avliich

the Rules are drawn,

are

to

be used

as Clues in the Labyrinth of Cryptography."

Truly our

author

magnifies
it

his

subject!

He who would
who
Primate of
all

shine in

would be a

man
or

might have

been Solicitor-General
not

England had he

chosen

the path of the cryptographic expert

OR CIPHER-WRITING

I19

His rules spring rather quaintly from his

propositions.

Thus the proposition

says.

"In

a Writing of any Length the same Letters

recur several
times."

Then the

rule

says

"Writings of Length are most easy to decipher, because there are

of
etc.,

more Opportunities
Frequency,

remarking
of

the

Combination,

the

Letters."

One

would

have

^thought the proposition sufficiently clear to a

man
what
old

of ordinary intelligence, without

is

need of
:

practically a repetition of

it

merely

matter

under
says

a
that

new name.
"

Another
are

proposition

The Vowels

four times outnumbered by the Consonants,

the Vowels must

quently."
as follows
:

therefore recur
is

most

freis

The
"

rule that

based on this

The Letters that recur most

fre-

quently are Vowels."

Some

of

his

suggestions

are

very good,

while others do not seem so very helpful after

all.

Thus

Ave are

gravely

told,

if

the writ-

ing be in Dutch any three-letter Avord must

120

CRYPTOGRAPHY

either be aal or aap, aan, aen, als, amt, arm,

arg,
ast,

bad,

baf,

bak,

bal,

ban,

bas, bed,

bef, belc, bel, ben, bes, bid, bik, bil, bit, bly,

bok, bol, bon,

bos,

bot,

bry,

bul,

bus,

dag,

dam, dan,
dik,
dis,

das,
dit,

dat, dek,

den, der,
dol,
elf,

des, die,

doe,
eer,

dog,
eet,

dop,
elk,

dor,

dun,
erf,

dur,

djk, een,

end,

eva, fyn, gal, gat, gek, git, plus one

hundred
throiigh^

and

eighty-two
till

more

right

away

the alphabet

we
of

pull
all

up

finally at zyn.

Whether
be at
all

this

list

three-letter

words

exhaustive, our ignorance of

Dutch

forbids us to say; but in the English section

he

roundly

declares

that

any

three-letter
all

word

in that language
list

must, at
of

events,

be one out of the

eight that he
list,

one hundred and

looking over this

gives.

On

however, one quickly notes

many

omis-

sions.

The

words, for

instance,

beginning

with

that he gives
;

are

mad, man, may,

at once

and men

but to these

we may

add

mar, mat, map, maw, met, mew, mid, mob.

OR CIPHER-WRITING
mop, mow,

121

mud,

and mug.

As we have

thus readily amplified his four words under

only one

initial

letter

into

sixteen,

it

will
all

readily be seen that the

same treatment

throiigh the alphabet would prodigiously increase his grand total of

eight.

one hundred and

His formula to be of practical use

therefore
of

should

be

extended
will

into

"Any
eight,

word

three

letters

be found to be

one of the following one hundred and

unless,

perchance,

it

may be

one out of the

many

scores of other three-letter words that

to include in our list."

we have omitted
sides, in

Be-

any

case, the hst is utterly useless.

If

it

were possible to say that any three-

letter

word must

necessarily

decipher

into

" and," or " the," or " but," the hint would be

a most valuable one ; but when one can go no

further than to say that
it is

either one of of

those three, or,

more probably, one out

list

of four or five

hundred other words,

all,

the

help

given

is,

after

not

of

great

122

CRYPTOGRAPHY
Setting up
as

value.

some

little

authority
to

on the

matter

ourselves,

we may add

these rules of
to

Conrad's one which he seems

:

have

overlooked

that

all

words

be-

ginning with

will be

found to be either

horse or hallelujah, or else one of the hun-

dreds of other words

that letter.

that

commence with

The

letter

is

the commonest in use of

all

the letters, not only in English but in all of

the European languages.

Statistical enthusi-

asts assert that out of every

thousand

letters

in

any ordinary page

of

prose, one
Aviil

hundred

and thirty-seven of them

this
letter.

in English be

This
are

is

matter

that

our

readers,

who
once

statistic

and
the

enthusiastic,

can

at
if,

check

from

page before
it

them,

indeed,

we may assume

to fulfil

the conditions named, and not sink beneath

even ordinary prose.

letter

In a Erench book the

about
per

should

occur
times

one hundred
thousand,

and

eighty-four

OR CIPHER-WRITING
mucTi
larger proportion
tlian

1 23

in

English;

"while the

German language runs

i;lre

French

very
eight
are
lish;

close,

being one hundred and seventythousand.

per

Spanish

and

Italian

about the same in this respect as Eng-

one hundred and thirty-one per thoubeing

the

sand

assigned
letter

to

Italian,

while

in

Spanish

occurs

one

hundred
all

and

forty-five

times.

Of

course,

these

numbers

are

necessarily

only

approximate.

The only

letters of

which more than ten per

N, and
at
;

cent, occur are the I,

the former

coming out in

Italian

about one hundred

and three per thousand, the

hundred and ten
in

at about one
at

German, and the

about one hundred and seven in each thou-

sand

letters

used

in

Italian

and

Spanish

writing and printing.

An

old

fellow

we once met, and who

prided himself on being rather clever at this

art or science
of decipherment, told

us

tliat

he had, for the fun of the thing, joined

in

124

CRYPTOGRAPHY
of the

some
in
of

" agony-column " advertisements

tlie

newspapers, to the great perplexity

original

the

correspondents,

and

he

CL

"

OR CIPHER-WRITING
endeavour to get hold of; and
tlie

1 25

final out-

come might be considered a

he was beaten

confession that

at
is
it

least,

he never replied to
of

our communication.

The form

cryptogram

we employed

rather a good one, and

we

have often used

on postcards,

etc.

Pro-

bably most of our readers in their school-

days

have

played
to

" noughts

and

crosses

when they ought

have been devoting their

time instead to one of the subjects set

in the curriculum.

down

Set out, then, two horilines,

zontal and two

vertical

as

shown

in

the upper part of Fig.

spaces

13,

and place

in the

made by them the

so

various letters of
far
it

the alphabet in pairs,

go.

as

they
use

Avill

As a matter
of

of

fact,

will

up

eighteen
lines

them.

Then

place
see,

two other
the right

X-wise, as
previous

we may

to

of

the

arrangement,
spaces
the
that

and in the
these

four
place,

intervening
also

make
eight

in

pairs,
letters

remaining
be

letters.

These

may

arranged in

126

CRYPTOGRAPHY
Should
it

any order.
that
trated

at

any lime appear

person has
pene-

some
the

unauthorized
mystery,
to
shift
it

would
letters

merely

be

necessary

the

and

start

happily again.

This

shifting

would

be ar-

PW

OR CIPHER-WRITING
is

127

evident that
the

if

we merely
formula,

sent our correas

spondent

new

IP
into

W2 FGr
whose
avoid

3KY, any unauthorized person

hands
this,
it

fell

might reconstruct

it.

To

we

should not place our figures in the

ordinary numerical order, and

others beyond the thirteen.
non-significants,

we

should use

These would be
letters

and

any

that

fol-

lowed them

we

should,

on

receipt,

merely
in

run our pens through.

We
for
it

have

the

upper part
bination,

of Fig.

14 given the new com-

and the formula

might run as

follows:
so
forth.

12r037CJ5LS910EA91M4UH, and

We

shoiald,

on getting

this,

draw

out
the

the

skeleton lines

and

lightly

number
construct

spaces,

and

then proceed

to

our key, putting

in

FO

in the twelfth space,

LS

the

fifth,

taking no notice of the CJ, as

it in.

we have no
To use

thirty-seventh space to put

this

cryptogram,

we must

note the

shapes the lines make.

the upper left-hand

The

central space in
is

diagram in Fig. 13

128

CRYPTOGRAPHY
space above would be
it it

clearly a square; the

a square, except
the

that

has no top
is

line

space to right of

also

threefor

line figure, the square

being
;

incomplete

want

of

the right-hand line

to

and the same

to

applies

the
all

space
round.

below,

the

left

and

so

on

The

X-like

figure

gives us a V-like form at top, a reversed

at base,

and two other

For the

Vs

that are turned

in

sideways.

first letter

each space

we. merely draw

square,

tliat

space; thus
letter

is

and the second

in

we

represent

by a dot
cross

the

space.

Below the X-like

forms
that are

we have

placed four

merely dummies for use

where we please
J,

and such
or

little-used

forms as those for

X,

Z may be

also thus

employed, as any one

receiving and reading off the message would

readily detect
their

non-essential
of Fig.

character.

In the lower half

sage
point

13

is

we send by
our

it

" On
sat

the
at

mesthis

arriving

Frank

down."

Below

the

"

OR,

CIPHER-WRITING
Fig.
14,
this

I29

second
other

combination,

we

place

an-

communication; but

our readers,
find
no,

with the
difficulty

key before
in

them, should
for

deciphering

themselves,

so

we

leave

it to

them.
is

The following

from an advertisement

in

one of the London daily papers, the Standard

of April. I4th,

1892:
H-

NA-DX. SN gzud
.

vhkk mns

rzjc

vgzs

li

sgntfgs,

Izx qhrd ttnrntfgs.

ptlisd rtqd,

He

Nq vgzs rvdds sghtnfr

h'c cqno

sghmj

h bntkc nnikx ad tonm sgd

ektqd
It is

!AKZQMDX.

of

very easy construction, each letter

being merely one forward in reality from the

one here given,; so that what

A, what
is is

is

is

really

is

really

"W,
of

and
one

so .on.. ..It

the

poetic

effusion

" Blarney

(AKZQMDX).

It read as follows

"I will not" say wtat I have thought, Or what sweet things may rise unsought.
If I could only be quite sure,
I-

think I'd drop upon the flure."

letters
I

In the following from the Times, two

I30

CRYPTOGRAPHY
:

ahead of the real one are used

" Ngv

og

mpqy aqw
and ease

cfcg

uchg cpf gcug oa vqtvwtgf

okpf," meaning, " Let

me know you

are safe,

my

tortured mind."

In another Times notice

for A,

F was

substituted

G for

B,

etc.

The

story involved

must

have been a very sad one, and much sickness

of

heart was evident in

its

appeal.

Three

days later appeared in the same cipher the

intimation, " I
of

know

you," evidently the

work

some

thii'd

person, and the correspondence

to

at once

came

an end.

That

this

penetra-

tion into

matters deemed secret must often

is

take place

evident from intimations

that

one not unfrequently sees that a certain advertisement referred to was not inserted
the person whose

by

name
be

or other sign

it

bore.

We may
that .the

perhaps

allowed to
of

say

here
Ave

illustrations

decipherment

have here given are published examples,^ that

1

From au American book

of the

" Cariosities

of

Literature " type.

OR,

CIPHER-WRITING

131

in the case of the third

we have foreborne

to

give the details, and that our strong feeling

is

that while those

it

who make

use of cryj)to-

graphy do
measure

at their

own

risk,

and in some

may

be thought to be issuing a chal-

lenge to busybodies,^ that nevertheless to pry

into

matters that do not concern one

is

base

and ungenerous thing

to

do

that to
for

decipher a communication not intended

ourselves
that
is

on a par with reading a

letter

may be

lying about, listening to a conor any

versation not intended for us,

other

such meanness.

Some advertisements
so

are so abbreviated, as

much

business or sentiment has to be got

into so

narrow a space, that they verge on

the cryptographic without any such intention

as, for

instance,

" so hpy in
fr

nw

hme, so

thnkf an mre hpfl

yr ftre."

wanting in accuracy, as used genewho have no proper work to busy themselves with, or who, having ifc, neglect it to attend

term a

little

rally to define those

to that of others.

132

CRYPTOGRAPHY

Several forms of cryptograpliic Avriting

readily be devised, not
letters

may

by changing the various

retaining
b,

into

others,
a,

but

them

as

they are, a being

b remaining

and simply
are

mixing them up with other

merely blinds.

letters that

Thus we may determine that

alternate letters, say the second, fourth, sixth,

and so on,

shall be the significants, the carriers

of the message.
to

For instance,

if

we

desire

send the following communication, " Get

at

away

once,"

it

woxild read as " Lgpestra

rwnapyi astro

eniciel."

We
thus

could break
letters

it

up
run

into
it

any arbitrary groups of

all

or

into

one

it

might

read,

Rgoentlavwxalyvaft Polnjcien.
all

In either case
it

we

should need to do to decipher

all

would

be to run our pen through

bers

the odd

numor

and

then

read

off

what was

left,

put, as done

here, a

dot under each letter

that
of

is

to count.

It just doubles the length

the

communication, a message of thirty

another thirty to conceal
it.

letters requiring

OR,

CIPHER-WRITING
"we

33

In substitution for this

first

may make
tlie

tlie

letter

of tlie

first

word,

second of

the second, and the third of the third, the

significant letters, beginning again at the first

of the next, then the second of the following

one,

and so

on.

" Get away at once " would

al

then read, "go pey rst

of

Iwn afa yon ta

sft

pn

loc

ei."

By

this

means we have to
non-signifiit

employ a considerable number of

cants.

This

is

certainly a

drawback, and
felt to

would in an especial degree be

if

be so
all

the message to be

conveyed were at
devices, however,

a lengthy one.

Such

have

the advantage that the letters employed to

spell out the

communication are the real letters.

substi-

There

is

no need to learn a code of

is

tuted characters, and one

also

spared the

chance of error that

of such a code.

may

spring from the use

In the far-famed Cocker's

1

" Decimal, Loga-

i.e., au accuracy of statement beyond question. The phrase occurs in a farce entirely called The Apprentice, and hit the popular fancy.

" According to Cocker,"

134
ritlimical,

CRYPTOGRAPHY
and Algebraical Arithmetick," pubyear 1684,

lished

in the

we

find,

following

the preface, a letter in cipher.

in
is

All the vowels

this

remain unchanged;

is
if

A, and

B, neither more nor less ; and

we

replace

B.C.D.F.a.H.K.L.M.N.P.R.S.T.W.X.Z. by

Z.X.W.T.S.R.P.N.M.L.K.H.G.F.D.C.B.
mere
reversal of

the ordinary arrangement

of the consonants,

we

shall find

no

dijBficulty

in reading the letter.

By

this code

Constan-

tinople

would be

XOLGFALFILOKNE.
from a

In the Gentleman's Magazine for 1761 we

find a rather interesting letter
flatters himself that

man who
that

he has devised an abso-

lutely

safe

cryptogram.

He

declares
to

"

when
a

the present

war was ready

not versed
to

break
secret

out,

gentleman,

in

alphabets, but chancing

subject,

think upon

the
of

happened
the

to

hit
of

upon

kind

cipher,

properties

which
to

appeared

very

extraordinary,

not

only

him

but

also to

some

of

his friends not

apt to

make

OR,

CIPHER-WRITING

35

rash
lay

conclusions.

He

tlierefore

without dein-

endeavoured to convey notice of his

;

vention to his late Majesty

judging

it

might

prove

advantageous to the Royal

critical

Measures
be waged
of

during a great and

at once in so

war

to

many and

so

removed parts

the world.

But

this attempt,

and likewise a

second, had no effect.

" In the meantime some of his friends,

tous to

solici-

know

the real merits of this cipher,

it

procured that different specimens of

together with a brief detail of
its

should,

properties,

be laid before his Majesty's chief decipherer

(esteemed the best in the world), requesting

that he would be pleased to let

them know
those

whether he

could or could not read

specimens, and begging his opinion upon the

whole
due

affair.

The candid
peruse

artist,

having taken

time

to

those

writings,

made
and

answer
that
if

that he

could not

read them,

they actually possessed the properties

to

ascribed

them there could be no doubt

136

CRYP TOGRA PH Y
art.

about the importance of such an

it
it.

But

was not Ms business

to

meddle further in

" It occurred to the author,

when he had

failed of makinof this art advantaofeous to the

British dominions,
it

that he

could easily

sell

upon the Continent; and, probably,

inferior to a large

for a

sum not

Parliamentary reit

Ward, to which

many thought

entitled.

But

upon consulting
no crowned head
to purchase

his principles be
of

found that

Europe was rich enough

from him an advantage over the

monarch

of his

own

country.

" Thus disappointed both at home and abroad,

and

reflecting that to

this

secret

may

happen,

by lying by,
himself to

be buried with him, he set

it,

consider what to do with

at length he thinks
of.

and

hath
best

now

hit

upon the
and
this

means
is,

making
it

it

useful,

method

to publish
later,

to all the world."

century

we may

parenthetically

presume that had the matter got so far as

OR,
this,

CIPHER-WRITING

137

he would have pocketed a handsome sum

in

promotion money, and been entitled to a

seat

on the directorate, while the rest of us

would haye been inundated with prospectuses

of

the

Universal

Cryptogram

Company,

Limited.

He
saw

goes

on

to

say

that

" at

first

he

several objections to this step, but they

disappeared as

soon

as

the

following
:

rea-

sons presented themselves, viz.

First,

that

the Supreme

Wisdom hath

locked up every
in
his

man's
breast.

secrets,

good and bad,

own

Secondly, that

human wisdom hath

inflicting

imitated the

Supreme, by

punish-

iment on those
secrets or letters.

who

unlawfully break

open

Thirdly, that after the pub-

lication of this art Grovernments

it

wUl

still

have

as

much

in their

power

as ever to suppress

all

suspected writings, while every man's busi-

ness and private concerns shall be no further

exposed in what he writes than he chuses.

And

this,

the inventor imagiues, will prove

138

CRYP TOGRA PH Y
singular

of

convenience

and

advantage

to

mankind, who daily suffer from the insidious

practice of intercepting

and counteracting not

only

private

instructions

upon lawful

busi-

ness, but even the

most important dispatches

of nations.^

" These are the principal reasons that deter-

mined the author

still

to

publish this

art

but,

diffident

of his

own judgment, he hath

observations,
viz.
:

made

the two
in

following
case

First, that

a true representation of

this cipher should speedily be laid before the

king; and that his Majesty should thereupon

be pleased to

command

the author to appear

and demonstrate the properties he attributes

to
it,

then will the author cheerfully obey, and

rejoice in the

honour of arming his Majesty's

advantageous a weapon.

hand with

so

And

he would much rather clmse thus to devote

this art to the particular service of his

country

' Surely in the breast of a patriot these two should be transposed, and the national interest placed first.

OR,

CIPHER-WRITING

139

than to that of
For, he
citizen
is

his fellow-creatures in general

not (as some style themselves) a

world, nor

of the

ever will be,

till

the world becomes one

city.
till

Again, he will he hath given

never publish this secret

six months' notice previously of his intention

to do so.

And,

if

during those six months

will

gentlemen of sense and knowledge

be so

good
evil

as to publish reasons proving that

more

than good

will result

from the publica-

tion of this secret, then will the author resolve

that

it

shall be

buried with him.

For

he

detests the thought of extending the catalogue

of
to

human
the
it

ills.

But,

if

no

sufficient reasons

contrary shall appear, he will

his

then

think
delay.

duty to publish

it

without further
evil

Query then, whether more

will

or

more good
tion ?

result

from such a publica-

"
it

The
can

properties of the said Cipher.

Firstly,

be

wrote

offhand
it

in

the

common

characters.

Secondly,

can be read at sight.

140

CRYPTOGRAPHY

Thirdly, the secrets both of writing and read-

ing

it

are so

simple that they can, in five

minutes' time, be so perfectly communicated

that the person instructed shall be able, "with-

out further

help or

any

previous

practice,

to "write offhand

and read

at sight as
all

above

set

forth.

Fourthly, though

the

uien in

the world were perfect masters of the art of

reading and "writing this cipher, yet could any

two

of

them, by

agreement u23on a
will),

small

"variation (to

be made at

correspond with

impenetrable secrecy, though their letters were

to

pass open through the hands of

Fifthly,
it

all

the

rest.

is

strictly impossible for all

the art of

man

to read it except the reader

be in confidence with the writer.

the author thinks
it

N.B.

That
that
it

may be demonstrated

there never hath been invented, and that

is

impossible

to invent, another
inferior to
this

cipher that

shall

not be

by

many

de-

grees.

"

An

invaluable advantage of this cipher, in

OR,

CIPHER-WRITING
is

141

the

hands of a prince,

that he

can with
letters

ease and expedition -write his

it,

own

in

with no necessity of exposing their con-

tents to ciphering

and deciphering
to

clerks, first

at home,

and next abroad; or

any person

whatever, except the individual to

writes.

whom

he

Another advantage
it,

is,

that a prince,

master of

can himself change his cipher

every day at

will,

and make, at the same time,

every variation a

new

cipher, absolutely

im-

penetrable even to those

this art,

who

are masters of

and

to all

human

sagacity.
of.

" This
these
to

art, if

judged useful to the crown

first

realms, should be
:

communicated
the sole,

the king only

it,

that he
so

may be
it

possessor of
to disperse
it

and

have

in his

power

to

such of his ministers abroad

only

as

his

Majesty shall have occasion to

intrust with his

tions.

most important communicait

And

the use of

ought

to be reserved

for such occasions, that it

may be communi-

cated to as few as possible, and so be kept

142

CRYPTOGRAPHY
an ai'camim imperii.
It sbould

for

be made

death and total confiscation for anj

man

to

betray this secret communicated to them by

the king
;

and to the author

after

also,
it

should he

betray

it

he hath given

up

to

his

Majesty.
"

The

toil

and

delays

attending the best

ciphers

hitherto

invented are an intolerable

clog upon the dispatches of Courts.

see,

And we

by most
it

of

the letters taken this war,

that

hath been resolved rather to pen them than to subject them to such
This cipher
delay.
is

in plain writing

ruinous delays.
all

exempt from

such

toil

and

The best ciphers

fit

hitherto invented

and found
best

for business

are held,

by

tlie

authorities
artist.

upon the

subject, legible

by an able

And

this

must be true

For, otherwise, princes

would

not, at a great expense,

keep able decipherers.

of
it,

This cipher

is,

in every variation

im-

j)ervious to all

human

penetration.

The author

hath never yet communicated the art of this

OR, CIPHER- WRITING

oiphei'

43

to

any mortal; nor indeed ever

tlie

will,

except to
general
;

king only, or to mankind in

sickness should

unless a dangerous

happen
friend,

to oblige in order

him
to

to reveal

them

to a select

prevent them being lost

for ever."

Whether
ment

this

were so

all

potent an instru-

as the inventor thought

must

for ever

remain a moot point, as the king evidently did

not respond to the advances made. Parliament
did not give the large reward hinted
at,

nor

was the Limited Company ever

started where-

by the

secret

should

be kept inviolate, as

he himself suggested,
being told
it.

by the whole world

dangerous sickto

Perhaps the
its

ness was too rapid in

the

progress

allow

summons

to the select friend, or in

all

view of
objects,

the realities of Eternity

mundane

even the great cipher

itself,

may have shrunk

into insignificance, or a sudden accident

may
all

have

befallen

him and
his

at

once

made

notification of

secret

a thing impossible.

144

CRYPTOGRAPHY
this

However
sufficient

may have
that
all

been,

we have

the

fact
is

clue to the

wondrous

cryptogram
It

for ever lost.

illegal to publish the debates

was long

of

Parliament.

In the various

series

of

the.

Gentleman's Magazine
in

we

find

" Proceedings

the

Senate of great Lilliput" running at

all

considerable length

through the volumes.

The names

of the speakers are veiled, but at

the end of the volume

of the

we have an " Analysis

of.

Names

of the Hurgoes, Climabs, etc.,

Lilliput," in

which both the assumed and real

given,

names
Climab

are
is

Hurgo
of the

is

a Lord,
of

and
;.

member

House

Commons

a debate therefore in which Hurgoes Castroflet,

Shoralug,
Toblat,
really

Adonbring, and Gruadrert

carried

spoke

was

on

by

Lords

Chesterfield, Cholmondeley, Talbot,

Abingdon,

and Cartaret.

One can only wonder that

such a very palpable evasion of the law should

have been thus winked

at.

Readers of the weird tales of Edgar Allen

OR,

CIPHER-WRITING

1 45

Pbe mil

recall the great use of

cryptography

in the story of "

The

G-old

Bug," where a Mr.

Legrand
of
art

of

South Carolina becomes possessed

treasiire
^

enormous

of

gold coins of

antique date, and great variety, one hundred

and ten exceedingly

fine

diamonds^ eighteen

rubies of remarkable brilliancy, three hundred

and ten emeralds, besides sapphires, opals uncountable, and

all

by means

of

an old parchthereon.

ment with some mysterious writing

Should any of our readers up to
applied the
this

this point

have

cm

bono argument to our book,

good fortune of Mr. Legrand should be a

convincing proof of the value of a knowledge

of

cryptography

The treasure
to

in

question

was

supposed

be a part of the plunderings of the notorpirate

Kidd.'

ious

Half

buried

in

the sea

sand, in close proximity to a wreck, a piece

1

"

We

estimated the entire contents of the chest at a

it

million and a half of dollars, and upon the subsequent dis-

posal of the trinkets and jewels

was found that we had

greatly undervalued the treasure."

146

CRYPTOGRAPHY
was found, and on
tliis

of parcliment

some few

mysterious

markings

were Boted.

On

the

application of lieat

this

parchment revealed
cryptogram, and

some three or four

lines of

the hero of the story sets himself to the task

of its decipherment. It proves to

be the clue

to the burial place of a treasure.

tions,

The

direc-

duly followed, bring Legrand and two

helpers to a particular tree in the tropic forest,

and then
from

at a certain distance

and direction

this conspicuous tree

a vigorous digging
the massive chest

presently brings to light

which

holds

this

ill-gotten
lost

wealth.

The

piratical vessel

was

and the scoundrels that

manned

it

drowned, and the

memorandum found
desolate shore
of

by a mere chance on the

Sullivan's Island

was the means

of bringing to

knowledge the hidden booty.

with
its
its

The

story

itself,

weird accompaniments of skeletons,

midnight delvings, and so forth, can be read

at length

by those who care

to
;

hunt
all

it

up

in

any

collection of

Poe's works

that

now


OR,

CIPHER-WRITING

47

concerns ns

is

the cryptograpli round which

the story turns.

This also we need not set

given in
it

out in detail, as
story.

it is

full
is

length in the
it is

The weak

point in

that

not

at all the sort of cipher that a pirate captain

would
literary

concoct,

while

it

is

exactly what

man, with an eye

to the possibilities

of

the

printing press, would

find the

put

together.

Thus we

dagger

(t) representing

D,

the asterisk (*) standing for N, the double

dagger
is

(J)

being 0.

The
(;)

parenthesis mark,
is

(,

R, and the semicolon

representative of

T.

The

interrogation

mark

(?),

the ^, and the

colon also appear.

in this fashion

The message commences

53Ut305))6*;4826)4+

The

decipherment of
is

this

abstruse

memor-

andum

very well worked out in the story.

still

That some people

believe in a present
is

and future for cryptography

seen in the fact

that so lately as the year 1860 was patented a

machiae for carrying on secret correspondence.

148

CRYPTOGRAPHY
all

Probably
on
tlieir

our readers must have noticed

or
door-steps
certain

gate-posts"

mysterious

clialk-marks,

tbe

cryptographic

symbols of the great begging fraternity, telling

their

successors

what

fate

their

appeal

for
soft-

alms

may

be likely to meet with.

The

hearted,

and

perhaps

little

soft-headed,

householder

who

dispenses liberally and with-

out enquiry to the bearers of every harrowing

tale

need never fear any

apjjlicants,

falling

off
little

in

the

stream of

since

the

white
to

mark on
brinig

his premises will

always

suffice

on a fresh iaundatiou, while the

finds (or puts) a square

man

who

mark on

his door
is

will be free, for it is

an intimation that he

regarded as an unfavourable subject.

circle

with a dot in the centre guarantees complete

immunity from these uninvited

visitors, the

immunity that naturally attaches

to

man

who

is

prepared to hand any sturdy vagrant

over to the police and follow this up Avith a

prosecution.

OR,

CIPHER-WRITING

1 49

Business

people often employ a kind

of

cipher for marking prices on their goods and

samples when for some occult and mysterious

reason
it

is

desirable that the customer should

be kept in the dark on the matter.

We

should

have thought that when a

to sell a
fit,

man was
fair price

prepared

proper

article at

and pronot

five shillings, for instance,

he would

feel
it

any

difficulty

whatever in legibly marking

five that

with a good wholesome

need not

be ashamed to look the whole world in the

face.

If for
is

some reason more or

less legiti-

mate, he
ful for

unable to do
is

this, all that is

need-

him

to

hunt up some ten-letter word

or combination, such as smoking-cap, in which

all

the

letters

are

different,

and then the

numerals

letters

seriatim will
0.

stand for the

123456789
we
us 27/6.

With

this

key before us
will cost

see that an article

marked MG/JST

We
man

occasionally find the

pushing business

breaking out as a follower of the crypto-

I50

CRYPTOGRAPHY

graphic art witli the idea of more effectually

calling attention to his goods.

An

energetic

dealer in potatoes largely circulated the foUoAV-

ing offer of a bag of the very best tubers to

all

who

could successfully read

sell

its

terms.

As

he was prepared to

the potatoes at the

same price
his

to all comers,

whether they read

cryptogram or

not, the generosity of the

offer is not quite so clear as

any one labouring

through his circular might have anticipated.

The

result

would probably amuse some and

;

irritate others

but any way

it

would

call at-

tention to the goods, and the dealer evidently

concluded that the balance of feeling would be

in his favour
:

" Eht otatop

iioy

nam

skniht retfa gnidaer

siht,

Uiw
si

leef taht sih

Hams

elzzup dna ytis-

oreneg

levon

fi

ton gnitseretni.

Ti sekat

emit dna ecneitap ot daer, yltneuqesnoc eht

stcaf

dluohs eb erom ylmrif detoor no ruoy

siht
si

yromem;
wef
senil.

eht tcejbo ni gnitirw eseht

Ew

hsiw uoy ot evah a gab fo ruo

OR,

CIPHER-WRITING
uoy yam wonk
elit

15

seotatop, OS taht
fo mehtj

eurt eulav
i

dna retfa ecno gniyrt

melit,

leef erus

Tioy lliw taeper

ruoy redro morf emit ot emit.

ei'a

Sa

wonk

eht seotatop

doog

evali

on

noitatiset ni gnittup erofeb

reffo
:

uoy

ym

suoreneg

yldnik drawrof xis

i

sgnillilis

dna ecnep"
! ! !

xis

dna

lliw ta ecno dnes fo

uoy eno derdnuh

dna evlewt sdnuop

It will
is

ym

tseb seotatop

be seen at a glance that this cipher

merely the ordinary words reversed in their

spelling,

and with a very

little

practice
it

of

reading the reverse

readily
this,
:

way one makes

out very

"

The potato man thinks

after reading

you

will feel that his small puzzle

is

and

generosity

novel

if

not interesting.

It takes

time and patience to read, consequently the

facts should

be more firmly rooted on your

object in writing these

memory
few

this is the

lines.

We

wish you to have a bag of our

potatoes, so that

you may know the true value

of

them, and after once trying them I feel

siire

you

will repeat

your order from time to

52

CR YPTOGRAPHY

time.

As

know

the potatoes are good, I

have no hesitation in putting before you

generous offer
:

my

kindly forward six shillings

will at

and sixpence, and I

once send you

one hundred and twelve pounds of

potatoes
"
!
!
!

my

best

We may

add parenthetically that the pota-

toes supplied are excellent in quality, that

we

had pleasant experience of them long before and

after the issue of this cryptogram,^

and that

they are well able to stand on their merits even

without any adventitious aid

and the same

remark may be made

fast paste,"

of the excellent " stickis

which nevertheless
as follows
:

advertised,

amongst other ways,

"

STI

CKPH
illus-

AST PAS T EST lOKS."

we may quote
"

As one more

tration of this commercial use of cryptography,

the following

advertisement

My

darling, K,of tobacco

og ot Nospmoht,

ytrof evifj Kcirederf Teerts,

^

Daetspmah Daor."

And
!

that

we

did not write or suggest this crypto-

gram

on,

CIPHER-WRITING
is

153

The process again

it

simple reversal, and from

if

the reader will readily learn where,

he be

a smoker, he
his

may

find

due replenishment of
of

pouch.

Such trade uses

the crypto-

gram

are naturally of the simplest nature, and

difficulty, as
it

present no

the great object

is

that

the person whose eye

catches should be able

to puzzle
in-

to readily read the advertisement;

and baulk him would frustrate the whole

tention of the thing.

We
turies

have now travelled throughout the cen-

from Julius Csesar and Herodotus

to the

vendors of potatoes and the makers of paste

in this present year of grace
;

from the victors

of Naseby, the fugitives of CuUoden, to the

shopkeeper of

the

Hampstead Road.

Our

rapid review of these hundreds of years has

not been,

we

trust,

without interest, and

it

will

at least have

shown that the subject has been

it

held of great importance, that

has taken

its

part in making history, and in the rise and

of great causes,

fall

and that

it is

something more

154

CRYPTOGRAPHY
shield to the

and better than a mei^e

knave or

the veiled appeal of the love-struck SAvain in

the columns of the newspaper.

A
F)

Vy

Fig. 15.

We
cation,

turn

now

to the practical consideration

of divers systems of cryptographic

communi-

and the

first

of these

is

that

known

as

OR,

CIPHER-WRITING
is

155

the "grille."

It

a very good method for

short communications.

The sender and

re-

ceiver are each in possession of a similar piece of cardboard, and this cardboard
is

pierced with

openings at irregular intervals.

The sender

then writes his message through these openings on to a piece of plain paper that
is

placed
fills

beneath.

He

then removes the grille/ and

up the

rest of the paper with

any other

letters

or words that occur to him as being calculated

to

throw any unauthorized third person

off

the scent.

The

receiver merely places on the

grille,

communication his duplicate

the message,
all

and reads

superfluous material being to

is

him no

distraction, since it

hidden by the

unpierced portion of his card.

essential
it

Sometimes the
to

message

is

veiled

by the addition
it

of

other words that transform

innocent-looking affair;

into an
is

entirely

but this

very
'

difficult to

do properly.
;

Any
in

indication

la France, Le

chassis or la grille

Germany, Neiz

or Gitten.

156

CRYPTOGRAPHY

of halting composition or the introduction of

any conspicuous word

.

at once attracts attention

fJ.

,
1

-^

COi...EEl....

01^,

CIPHER-WRITING

57
it

distribution,

with necessary ammunition,"

would require an enormous amount

uity to so

of ingen-

wrap round " rifles " and " ammunito

tion" with innocent padding as

make

the

message read as though

invitation

it

were merely an
tennis.

for lunch

and lawn

It

is,

therefore, better to face the fact boldly that

the message

is

undoubtedly of a secret nature,

and then leare the objectionable third person to get such comfort as he can out of
Fig. 15
uses,
it.

shows the pierced card that the sender

of

and

which the receiver holds an exact

Fig.

duplicate.

16

represents the

message,

"

Come
it

as soon as

you possibly can

to Louth,"
grille is
it

as

appears to the receiver when the

it;

placed upon

while Fig. 17

is

hovF

looks

when

dispatched, and

how

it

reads to any un-

authorized and grille-less person.

lines

The dotted

on Figs. 15 and 16 are

of course only put

that the reader

may

trace

more

readily the
:

connection between the different squares

are of

they

no use in the actual transmission.

158
If,

CRYPTOGRAPHY
however, we did not care to risk sending

the grille by post or messengei', the second per-

son in the transaction could readily

make one

VIGOR

IVIEF^I

C/\STO

soREoHic pasyLyo
UpTI|slNOSP

SiHeBL

rLyc f^A^L ToLoic

LofTU
for

EST rVh
Fia. 17.

IE

himself or herself, as

it

would only be
in

necessary to

know which

squares

each

row were

pierced.

In the top row of the pre-

OR,

CIPHER-WRITING

159

sent arrangement

we

see that these are the

seventh.
If

second, fourth,

and

then

we
of

take the

first figure to indicate

the

number

the row, and the others to be the openings,

a nought indicating the end of each row,

it

would be easy

to

send a formula by which

grille,

five

hundred miles away a duplicate

made.
It

could be

would

in the present case

run as

foUows: 124703146802136804246061357.

We

have not taken the rows in regular sequence, as

the following of
1, 2, 3,

4 and 6

in order after

the

noughts might suggest an idea to this

is

troublesome third person; but this

immaterial;
the same.
If

entirely
all

the different rows are there

we have a
all
it

suspicion

that our grille,

is

known,
to turn

that would be necessary would be

upside down, the old bottom edge

the top one.

being

now

This at once throws

sequence, and gives us

the squares into a

a fresh start.

new

In Figs. 18, 19, and 20 we have a somewhat

l6o

CRYPTOGRAPHY
contrivance,

similar

the
still

" revolving

grille,"

tliougli it is
grille this

perhaps

more puzzling.

The
in
it

time has certain openings

made

^O

OR,

CIPHER- WRITING

l6l

round one)

but these openings do not, as in

the i^revions example, at once suffice for the

whole message.

To use

this grille,

we

first

Pig. 19.

place the card so that the edge

AB

is

upper-

most, and in these openings

letters as

we

place as
still

many
keep-

they will take.

We

then,

ing our under paper in the same position L

l62

CRYPTOGRAPHY
grille so that

turn the

BD

is

the upper edge,

-writing
filled.

and

in these

new blanks go on

our

message until these in turn are

then turn the card until

We
it

DC
and

is

the iipper edge,

and proceed

as before,

finally

we

give

one more turn and bring the edge

top.

OA
we

to the

The ten openings

of Fig. 18 thus give

us in rotation forty openings, as

Fig. 19.

see in

The

result

is

a very hopeless-looking

mixture of
20.

letters,
is

the effect

we get

in

Fig.

This Fig. 20

the communication as the

as
all

sender dispatches

it,

the receiver gets

it,

and

as

it

appears to

who may

see

it.

To

reduce this chaos to

takes his
duplicate

full legibihty,

the receiver
it,

grille

and places

AB
its

uppermost, on the message, and through

ten openings he reads "urgent need."

He

then turns the

grill until

BD

is

the top edge,

and the openings now read " only hold ou."

The next
and the

turn,

DO,

tells

him "

another we,"

final shift of

the card to

CA

as its

upper edge reveals now " ek at most JP," and

OR,

CIPHER-WRITING

163

the whole warning stands clearly before him

" Urgent need, only hold out another week at

most.

J.P."

Fig. 19

is

merely added to show

the revolution

how

the forty openings

made by

64

CR YPTOGRAPH Y have
already
in Fig. 9

We
is

sliown

what

technically called

the

" ladder "

cipher, a

form made by slipping a card along, and we

now have

in

Fig.

21

another

arrangement
it

based on much the same principle, though

works out

somewhat

differently.

To make

this form, the " slip-card,"

slip of

we

take a long thin

cut two long

cardboard, and then

slits

we

longitudinal

in

it,

so as to about divide

the card into

three

equal portions.
the letters

On
of

the the

centre portion Ave place

alphabet in their regular everyday sequence.

We then
card
is

get a broader piece of card and slip

this in the slits

on the

first strip.

This second
in

divided into

squares,

and

these

squares

we

place the letters in any irregular

way we

choose, being only careful that every

letter shall

appear somewhere in the length of

ditto in the case of
all

column one, and

other columns.
Avill

the

About four
slip

of these

columns

suffice.

We now

the paper along,

and place any one

of these

columns alongside

OR,
tlie

CIPHER-WRITING
tlie

165
If

alphabet on
tliis

thin strip.

we

con-

tinned to use
it

column,

might gradually become

to

evident

any outsider
stood for
;

what

letter

A
we

or E, and so on

but

can
as

shift the card as often

we

like

during
of

the

making up
sage,
so

our mes-

that

is

no

longer always C, for ex-

ample, but at the

shift will

next

be D, and then
it is

presently
on.

T, and so

The

shifting

must

be intimated to the receiver,

or

the

message

will all at once

go chaotic
at

to

him, so that

the

changing point we must

indicate

by

its

proper

number what column we

i66

CRYPTOGRAPHY
to.

have clianged
2, 3j

These numbers would be

5, 6, 7, 8, 9,

and

4,

the others,

being used
to separate

as blinds

and non- significants, or

words.
If then

we

desired to send the warning, " If

at once it will

you do not return

might read,

be too

late," it

ZU6SPR9TP6HPM2EDUIEW8a U6VWPD3GQ8KGXX6HT5QZZXFQT. The

message here begins with column one, at two
changes to the second column, and at three to
the third.

Figures are at times employed in lieu of

letters.

It would, of course,

be a great deal too

obvious that

should be

1,

and

2,

and

so'

on; but

we may make matters a

little

more

complicated by letting the figures run in the

reverse direction,
so forth, but
difficulty.
still

being 26,

being 25, and

this too presents

very

little

The following message appeared

:

in

the Times of September 7th, 1866

"
1. 2.

9. 15 22

7,

14 22, 8 22 13 23, 24 12 9 9 22 8

12 13 23 22 13 24 22, 4 18 7 19, 9 22 24 7 12 9, 12 21, 24

OR,

CIPHER-WRITING
4 18 15 15, 22 3 11 15 26 18

167
13,

12 16 15 22 20
19 12
4, ?

22, 11 7,
8,

19 18 18 20
7,

12 26 23, 13 22 3

8 7 26 13 23, 18, 20 12, 26 25 9 14 12 13 7 19."

As

the matter

is

now

over thirty years old

there can be no objection to pointing out that

if

we

practise this simple reversal, the result

stands forth as "

XY

E,.

Let me send correit

spondence with rector of College;

plain

will ex-

how

things stand.

go abroad next
.

month."

Apart from the simplicity of

is

its

construction, this cipher

faulty in

having

always the same equivalent for each

in being cut

letter,

and

up by commas

into words.

These

are points that greatly aid decipherment.

The

numbers
six,

too, never

running beyond twenty-

naturally suggest that they are the letters

of the alphabet.

Figure alphabets were very commonly used,

as

we have

seen, in the
is

Stuart times.

The
is

best arrangement

where each consonant

represented by two combinations of figures,

and the vowels by

still

more.

It is better, too,

i68

CRYPTOGRAPHY

not to employ single figures, sucli as 3 or 5

or 8, but to always take doubles, like 22 or 57.

The message
no need to

tlien

runs continuously
off
tlie

tliere is

comma

words, and every

pair of figures stands for one letter.

it

Should
is

at

any time be suspected that the clue

found, an almost impossible thing, a re-shifting

of the

numbers

is

readily effected.
as

The following may be taken

tion
:

an

illustra-

A. 21, 63, 95,

13.

70.

J.

37, 46. 90, 64.

S. 48, 35.

26, 27.

K.

T. 82, 58.

C. 31, 52.

L. 32, 36.

U. 43, 71, 93, 51. V. 61,

76.

D.

83. 65.

M.

72, 98. 77, 66.

E. 41, 80, 34. 25. F. 68, 28. G. 29, 40.

W. 33,
Y.

81.

O. 42, 49, 56, 23.

P. 47, 50.

X. 67, 96.
89,- 97.

H.
I.

22, 30. 62, 91, 86, 92.

Q. 33, 57.

Z. 24, 45.

R. 69, 39.

This

is

the sender's

list;

the receiver's key

would have the figures

figures they represent.
as follows
:

first,

and then the

This latter would be

OR,
21.

CIPHER-WRITING

69

170
letter

CRYPTOGRAPHY
he wants ; L, for instance, being either

32 or 36, while the receiver, glancing down his

key-list, sees that either

32 or 36 are equally
is

L.

The prying would-be decipherer

off

thus at
in-

once thrown
stance,

the scent.

He

knows, for

that double
;

is

a rather

common

termination

but when the same

letter is repre-

sented sometimes by one pair of figures

and
this

sometimes by another,
double L.

he

cannot

find

" Shall," for example, would read

48223236 or 35303632.

He

knows,
;

too, tliat

B
it

is

the commonest of

all

the letters

but when

may be
As our

41, or 80, or 84, or 25, his chance of

it is

detecting

but small.

readers have the key before them,

to
:

we
for

hand over

them the following message

decipherment

224247412680627769239834823

043393565218933344190.

By

" the old method called the " Mirabeau

is

the alphabet
letters

divided into five rows of five

to
five,

each,
letter

marked from one

of

and
thus

each

these

rows

is

also


OR,

CIPHER-WRITING
would be
tlie

17

marked.

C, for instance,

third

letter in the first five,

and would therefore

fourth
letter

be
of

g,

while

would be the
group
of
five,

the

second
-^

and would

therefore be

In practice, however, this

regular alphabetical

arrangement
tell-tale.

would be

discarded as being too

6, 7, 8, 9,

The

figures

are all non-significants, and the

receiver of the message would merely run his

pen through them.

The number

of the

row

is

written as the numerator of these fraction-like

symbols, while the lower number

is

the posi-

tion of the particular letter in the row.

good workable code would, be

1

as

follows v

QaALV; PKFUZ;
this code
5
'5

DHNRX;
:

BIMSY;

EOTWC.

"Constantinople"

by

would read as follows

75^23^512

58 3 2 5 4 1 5 2 3 49 3 3 83 390 1 38 2 10 4 17'

This
that
bols

is it

a very good system.

It will be seen

gives good scope for varying the symindividual letters;

of

thus

the

thrice

172

CRYPTOGRAPHY

occurring

of this

word

is

each time repre-

sented by a quite different symbol.

exercise iu the

As an

same key we hand over the

following to the consideration of our students

of Glyptography
:

4 29 4 38 27 47 18 3 17 1 i9

4'

Yet another numerical method

Count
G-rousfield.

is

that

of

For

this

any three figures

are taken, as, for example, 431.

is

The message

then written out roughly by the sender, and

these figures placed over each letter in the

following

way

Come

43 14

311314

at

once to us
C we

31

43

We

now proceed

to write out our

message for
use the

dispatch, but instead of using

fourth letter from

it

instead of
it,

we employ
of

the third letter from

first letter

and instead

the

from

it,

while for

E we recommence
there-

by taking

in its stead the fourth letter in the

it.

alphabet from
fore read

Our message would

GRNI DU SQDI

WP

YV.

Here
is

again

it

will be seen that the

same symbol

OR,

CIPHER-WRITING

73

not always associated with the same

letter.

Thus the twice recurring

is

in one part of
Gr,

our communication represented by

another by D, while the threefold

and

in

is

R, or S,

or P, in different parts of the message.

cou.rse, if

Of

we took 513

as the recurring

num-

ber, the letters

we introduced

into our crypto-

gram would be
first,
is,

in regular sequence the fifth,

and third from the true ones, and there

scarcely say, no special virtue in

we need

grouping the figures in threes, the key might

as readily be

composed of four or

five.

Thus

we
3
1

might, for example, use 31042, and our

message would then read,

4
,

Oome

3104

23

at

once
The

1042

o u s

the cryptogram based on this key

being,

FPMI

CW PNGG WP UW.

following statement, based on the key of 2130,

we pass on
and good

to our readers:

KM-HSV-PQCQSHis

CJFO-LWJ.

The system

a very simple

one, the

key being of so easy a

nature to remember or to transmit.

In some ciphers the real

letters

are em-

174

CRYPTOGRAPHY

ployed, but tliey only reveal their meaning

when read
right,

in

some

special

way
to

left
left,

to

and then the next right

up-

wards, or

downwards, or diagonally.

They

are ordinarily, however, not difficult of detecT

OR, CIPHER-MERITING

175

way

is

to

wrap

tlie

letters

up

amongst

divers non-significantSj and resting on

suoli

some

simple key as that the letters of the

shall

message

be those that follow anything

All suspicious-

that begins or ends with S.

ABC

176

CRYPTOGRAPHY
type
tlie

a different
in

thougli
very
fet
last

that

is,

of

course,

practice,

thing

we
'be

should
it

do

si

tels

wi

so

U sigh
lo

o sigh
ri s

far

sign

has in
ro'

smu
sip

peps ndo
ex.

see tomo ss

ped

ow

The arrangement seen

in Fig. 23 has someit

times been employed, and as

is

one fairly
our store,
it

good system the more

to

add

to

we
is

give details of

it.

At

the same time,

of

by no means

so

good as some
on.
it is

the
is

others

we have

dwelt

square

drawn, and each face of

three equal parts.

divided into

From

these lines are so

is

drawn that the big square

nine small ones.
place
third

subdivided into
of

In the
the

first

these
F,

we

ABO,

in

second

DE

in the

GrHI, and so on in regular sequence,

squares are lettered.

until all our

place, also in

We
in

then

each square, any one number

from one
tirely

to nine, disposing

them
way.

an enIn
our

irregular

and
it

casual
will

present example

be seen that these

OR,

CIPHER-WRITING

177

numbers run as follows: 47.3.8.1.5.2.9.6. In this key a plain 4 stands for A, a oncedotted 4 for B, and a twice-dotted 4 for C,

and

so

on

all

tlirougli.

Soutli

Kensington

m\.

id

ml

178

CRYPTOGRAPHY
If

number.

any

treachery

or

underhand

work were
stitute

suspected, one would merely sub-

965213874, or any other fresh com-

bination.
If

two persons provide themselves with a

the

copy each of
dictionary, they

same

edition

of

a good

may
in

be able to communicate

with each other

cryptogrammic fashion,
is

though
fairly

the

method
words,

only
is is

available
of

for

common

and

no use for

proper names.
not the word
finds a certain

The method
itself,

to write doAvn

but Avhatever word one

of places

number

back or

for-

ward.
ing,

Thus, desiring to send

off

the warn-

" Get
of

away soon
these

as

you can," we use,

instead
in

words, those that

we

find

our dictionary three places behind them.

that

So

our

message

reads,

" Glesticulator

awakening sonneteer

artless

yolk camphor."
is

The system shown

and
have
so in
is

in Fig. 23 in Fig.

ingenious,

that

shown

13;

but

we
our-

thinking

them

over

devised

OR,

CIPHER-WRITING
tlie

179

selves a combination of
will give

two, to which

we

the

name

of
is

the

Newark

crypto-

gram, that we think

both.

an improvement on
Figs. 13

For the dots of

substituted
lines,

and

2(3

we

have

as

being
It

somewhat

clearer

and more
is

definite.

seems to us
in

that

it

rather a

weak

point

Fig.

23

that the second letter has

third two.

one dot and the

In Fig. 24, the Newark, we have

got rid of the X-like cross of Fig. 13, and

have grouped our

Fig. 23, the

letters

into

threes,

as

in to

odd space over being given

second

E.

Having

got,

as

in

Fig.

13,

various arrangements of right angles, the one,

two, or three lines

in

may be
please.

disposed in them

any direction we

The

six characall,

ters in

the vertical column are

for

in-

stance, variations of the letter L, though they

all

agree in the essentials in having the right

angle,

and

within

it

three

lines.

By

this

method, therefore, with a

little

ingenuity,

we

need scarcely repeat any form, and we may

r8o

CRYPTOGRAPHY
twenty-six
letters

get the

of

our

alphabet
different
is

represented by
symbols.

over

two

hundred
letter,

being the
line,

first

repre-

sented by one
the
third

T by two

lines,

and L,
being

letter,

by three

lines; all

represented within a right angle of the same

direction.

is

the

first

letter,

and

there-

fore one-lined;

the second, and therefore

two-lined

the third letter, and therefore

three-lined, in
direction.

a right angle of the reverse

In Fig. 25 we have a representation of the "clock-hands" cipher.

It is less effective as

a cryptogram than some of the methods that

have preceded
stant

it,

since all its values are con-

the

same forms always representing

the case of the
it

the same letters, except in

threefold

E and

therefore rendering

more

easy of analysis and ultimate detection.

great advantage of
it

One

is

that the forms are

distinctive:
it

60 simple in character
is,

and so

therefore, a very easy cipher to write or

OR,

CIPHER-WRITING
are

l8l

read.

The dots

absolutely meaningless,
at

and are

merely put

random

as

blinds.

The

intimation

given beneath
:

the alphabet

in Fig. 25 is as follows
is

" Clock-hand cipher

simple in character."

\\jyvLi\:\'\vs'rA

ABCDEEE.FCHiJKL
z

A>v<r^m-/\^\i
MM 0PQR5TUVWXY

Fig. 25.

The " two word

one,

"

cipher

is

a very good

the

same

letter

being

represented by
this

different

characters.

To work

out,

we

take any two words of reasonable length and

place them, one along the
series

upper edge of a

of ruled

squares

and the other down

l82

CRYPTOGRAPHY
side.

one

In

tliese

squares

we

place the let-

ters of tte alphabet in regular sequence until

all

the

squares

are

filled.

The words

(see

Fig. 26) that

we have
this,

selected are " ordinarilywill

thoughtful "
squares

therefore,

mean

ten

wide

and
:

ten

deep,

one

hundred

squares altogether
bet

so that

we

get the alpha-

repeated

in

full

three

times,

and only
see

four letters short of a fourth.

We

now,

by referring

to E, that

it

may be

either

NT,

OU, RH,

or

DU,

while double
at pleasure.
still

S would be Of course,
is

LH,

NG-, OF, or

RL

by taking more squares

longer

that

to say,

key- words

still

more

combinations

could be made, but the

really ample.

present

number

is

There

is

no necessity that the

be of
equal

two key-words should

of letters.

number

" Ordinary thought " would have

fifty-six

given us

squares,

and

that

would

have meant

that
over,

the

alphabet

would have
thrice.

come twice
It
is

and a few

letters

by no means necessary that the key

OR,
letters

CIPHER-WRITING
be words at
all;

83

should

one might

simply adopt any chance arrangement of letters

in their place.

The words are only

useful as

84
to

CR YP TOGRA PH V
our

we send

correspondent

tlie

words

" ordinarily thoughtful "

suspicion
to
is

on a post-card, no
lie

aroiised,

and

at once proceeds

make

his key, so

many

squares wide and

fills

so

many

deep, and then

them

in with

the letters of the alphabet.

of the
in the

Bach

real letter

message

is

represented by two letters

ci'yptogram; so that the receiver, on

getting the message, takes a pencil and pro-

ceeds to cut up the communication at each

pair of letters with a little upright line,

and
into

then,

by the

aid of his key, translate

it

ordinary wording.

The specimen message we

append
day

is,

" Plope to be with you by Tues-

"ITNHRGDU YHOa ETOQ LGNUAGIT RFRTDFOT IHRF YHRGRHLHITRORF.

might

The same message might be given "hope"

in quite different characters; thus the

equally well

have been

lUOGILNT.

Whether

there be such a thing as an abso-

lutely indecipherable cipher

one cannot say,

but this "two word" combination must come

OR,
sufficiently

CIPHER-WRITING
foi'

85

near that ideal

all

practical

purposes.

The

subject

is

by no means exhausted, but

trust,

enough has been brought forward, we

to justify in the first place our plea for the

historic

interest of

cryptography, while the

examples we have given are a testimony to

the

abundant

ingenuity

that
of

the

art

has

called forth.

While the art

the

secret writuses,
to

ing

may
it

be turned to

basest

many

should be a source of innocent re-

creation

and an ingenious form

of

puzzledom
such that

while

its

value in time of peril

of
it

is

knowledge

may

save

hundreds of

lives,
itself.

or avert

catastrophe from the nation

INDEX
" So essential did I consider an Index to be to every book, that I proposed to bring a Bill into Parliament
to deprive any author who published a book 'without an Index of the privilege of copyright, and, moreover, to subject him to a pecuniary penalty."- GampheU's ^' Lives of the Chief Justices of England."

A.
"

" Ars

Scrihendi Gharacler-

and

" cipher of

Lord

is" the, 62.

Bacon, 103.

Astronomy, perverted in
advertise-

its

Abbreviated
ments, 131.

aim, 12.

Abbreviation
tions, 64, 65.

of

inscrip-

B.

"According to Cocker," 133. .^neas Tacitas as a cryptographer, 24.

"

Backs
Bacon,

of

slaves a writing

surface, 53.

Agony columns "

newspapers, 129.
the

of

the

cryptographic

enthusiast, 101.

Alfred

Great, secret

Beads and precious stones

ciphers, 96.

Alum as
39.

alphabet of, 26, 68. a writing material,

characters
as

Bracelet

alphabet,
96.

how
in-

made,
Brass,

Arbitrary

writing

upon

ciphers, 61, 105.

visibly, 46.

Archimedes, writing round

stick, 47.

Business ciphers for marking goods, 149.

i88
C.

INDEX
Cooper, Mr., as a decipher-

Camden

Society, reproduc-

tions by, 76.

ing exj)evt, 77, 79. Copper, writing invisibly

" Century of
the, 82, 94.

Inventions,"
early book

upon, 46. Correspondence captured at

" Characterie,"

Naseby, 69.

on shorthand, 63. Charlemagne as a cryptographer, 26.

Count Grousfield's
172.
"

cipher,

OryptograpMa
the.

denudata,"

Charles

I.

a great believer
of,

in cipher, 68, 71.

Crystal, art of writing on,

42.

Chemicals, use
ing, 55.

in writ-

D.

Chemistry, a good or evil

as used, 12.

Daotylogy
16.

or

finger-talk,

Cherry juice as a writing

material, 40.

Decipherment, the art

76, 103, 109.

of,

Chinese characters, 19, 77. Chloride of cobalt as a

writing material, 57.
Citron juice for secret writing, 39, 46.

Delight in the mysterious,

14.

Derivation of cryptography,
11.

Dictionary cryptogram ,178.

Clarendon's " History of the

Bebellion," 69.
" Clock-hands "
cipher, 180.

Disappearing writing, 44. Double letters in constant

use. 111, 170.

form

of

Cocker's Arithmetic, cipher

in, 133.

Dr. Dee, ihe labours of, 29. messageDrugging the

bearer, 53.

Coinage, abbreviations on,

65.

Dummy characters inserted,

71.

Colours expressed by lines,

98.

Dust or soot as a medium,

41.

Conrad us on

art

of

de-

Dutch

three-letter

words,

cipherment, 115.

119, 120.

INDEX
E.

189
arabic and

Gum

gum

tra-

Eggs, conveying messages

by, 43.

gacanth, 42.

Egyptian hieroglyphics,
120.

18.

H.

English three-letter words,

E, the commonest English '
letter, 75, 110, 122.

Head

of slave

as

writing
for

surface, 25, 52.

Heraldic use of lines

colours, 98.

Herodotus as an authority,
E.
Fig-tree juice as an ink, 42
24.

Hidden,

not

necessarily

Plashing mirrors as signals

16.

secret, 25.

Hieroglyphics not ciphers,

II.,

Flight of James

82.
circle.

18.

French in the family

19.

"History of the Rebellion,"

Clarendon, 69.

French Revolution,
G-.

the, 14

Human

Toice

shut up in

tube, 16.

Hurgoes and
in writing,
Magazine,''
I.

Climabs

in

Galls,

nse

of,

Parliament, 144.

38. " Gentleman's

reference to, 115, 134.

Glass, secret writing npon
42.

Inks, chemical, for writing,

55.

Goats' fat as writing

terial, 39.

ma

Inscription

in

country

church, 75.
Poe, crypto-

" Gold

Bug " of
in,

gram

145.

Grape juice as an ink, 40. Greek letters during Indian

Mutiny, 20. "Grille" fot-m of cryptogram, 155.

Jangling

of

bells

as

signal, 16, 95.

Juniper

juice

as

writing

material, 39.

X90
K.

INDEX
'

Newark
179.

"

form

of cipher,

Kidd's treasure chest discovered, 145.

"

Nitrate of silver,
alplia-

use

of,

Knotted
bet, 95.

string "

56.

"Noughts and crosses " form

of cipher, 125.

L.

NuUes, or non-significants,
72, 97, 110, 133.

" Ladder " form of cipher,

164.

Numbers, use

of, in ciphers,

Legitimate use of crypto-

72, 78, 104, 166, 172.

graphy, 13.
" lues

0.
occultes

Notes

des

Lettres," 33.

Objections to study of cryp-

" Lexicon the, 64.

Siplomaticum ,"
its

tography, 12.
O, largely used in Italian

Litharge,

use in secret

and Spanish,
"

110, 123.

writing, 39.

One and two

" form of

cryptogram, 104.

M.
Marquis
of

Worcester's
of Scots' use

book, 82, 94.

Onion juice as an invisible medium, 39, 58. Orange juice as writing

material, 39, 46.

Mary Queen

of cipher, 82.

P.
use, 66.

Mason-marks, their Message wrapjDed

ruler, 47.

round

Papal Inquisition, victims

of the, 43.

"Mirabeau" form
170.
"

of cipher,

Pepys, the Diary

of,

63.

Pharamond, a cryptograph" of
ist,

Monas Hieroglyphica
Dee, 30.

26.

Pigeons as message-bearers,
52.

N.

Poe's use of cipher in story,

of, 69, 70.

Naseby, battle
" Natural

145.
of

Magick "

Polygraphia
graphia, 27.

or

Stegano-

Porta, 38.

INDEX
Porta

191
of,

on cipher writing,
as

Smell, sense

used, 94.

28, 33.

Soot
subject
of

or

dust

revealing

Potatoes

for

'

messages, 41.

cipher, 150.
]

" Standard," advertisement

Parlia'

Pahlication

from, 129.

mentary debates, 144.

R.

Steam
83.

engine,

germ

of the,

Steganographia, 27.

Rawlinson
21.

on

Sheshach,
cipher,

Stick-fast paste in cipher,

152.
Stick,

" Revolving disk "

89, 110.

message

wrapped

round, 47.
String, message
of,

" Revolving grille " cipher, 160.

by means
use
of

99.

"

Ribbon messages, 95. Ring " cipher, 87. Royalist and Parliamentarian, 14. " Rule " form of cipher, 87,
92.
S.

Suetonius,

early

cipher, 24.

Sulphate of copper as an
ink, 57.

Symbolism

of action, 15.

T.
to

Scythian message
sians, 15.

Per-

Taste, sense of, used, 94.

Sheshach as a cryptogram,
20.
I

Telegram-English, 65. The, the commonest Bnglish word. 111.

Shop

prices in cipher, 149.

'Times,"
Tramps and

advertisement
their signs, 148.

Shorthand, early books on,

62, 63.

from, 129, 130, 166.

Trithemius,
ist,

" Siglarium
64.

Romanum," the,
ships
signal

cryptograph-

28, 104.

Sinking

of

Tudor

period, great use of

code, 69.

" Slip-cord " form of cryp-

cipher, 68. " Two- word " cipher, nature

of,

togram, 164.

181.

192
Tyronian symbols, 62.

INDEX
Vowels,
the

commonest

letters. 111.

V. Verney, Sir Halpli, cipher

of, 76.

W.
Watch-fire signals, 16.

Victims of the Inquisition,

43.

Waxed tablets, use of, 24, 25. Weapon of the ill-disposed,

12.

Vinegar

and

Titriol

as

Writers on
27.

cryptography,

inks, 37, 41,58.

Cutbr

S:

Tanner,

The

Selvvood riinting >Vorks, Froaie, and Loudon.

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