CRYPTOGRAPHY

OR

THE HISTORY, PRINCIPLES, AND PRACTICE OF

CIPHER-WRITING

'TOGRA
OR

The

and Practice History, Principles,

OF

CIPHER-WRITING

BY
.

FI^EDWARD HULME,
\\\

F.L.S.,

F.S.A

AUTHOR OF " FAMILIAR WILD FLOWERS," " MYTHLAND," "NATURAL HISTORY LORE AND LEGEND," "THE BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT OF "W AYSI DK ORNAMENT," SKETCHES," ETC

Here's ntnu mystery

and hieroglyphic" BEN JONSON The Alchemyst.

LONDON

WARD, LOCK AND

CO.

LIMITED
E.C

WARWICK HOUSE, SALISBURY SQUARE,

NEW YORK AND MELBOURNE

CONTENTS
CHAPTER
Meaning
of

PAGE
Objections to its study Its legitimate use and value Historic examples of its employment Delight in the mysterious Many other

cryptography

conveying secret information Symbolism of The spoken word imprisoned and dispatched A matter not necessarily secret because one cannot Chinese understand it Egyptian hieroglyphics characters Indian mutiny Greek Ancient Biblical Sir Henry Sheshach of Jeremiah cryptogram Kawlinson 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 Mediaeval authorities Trithemius the Benedictine

ways

of

action

"

Stegauographia
Dr. Dee

Dabbling in the black art " Batista Porta's book on " Natural Majick

"

Chemical methods by vitriol, 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 of cobalt, sulphate of copper, etc.
Invisible writing
etc.

alum,

Often impossible to procure the materials

5

.11

CONTENTS
CHAPTER
II

PAGE

Ancient use of arbitrary symbols Tyronian abbreviations Early works on shorthand Excessive abbreviation of inscriptions on coins, etc. Telegram-English Mason-marks Eise of cipher-writing in England
Battle of History of the Rebellion and decaptured correspondence ISTaseby Royal ciphered Published by Parliament Weighted naval signal-codes Charles I. a great expert in crypto-

Clarendon's

"

"

graphy

Use

of iiulles or non-significants

Numeri-

Mediaeval inscription without vowels cal ciphers 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 His numerous suggesof his labours to the nation
tions
for

cryptograms

The "disk" cryptogram-

Principle modified to sliding strip Bead alphabet Heraldic representation of colours in black and white

The

" string

"

cipher

thusiast

His

essentials

highest perfection of and unsatisfactory Elizabethan arbitrary

in

Bacon a cryptographic ena good cipher His of a cipher His plan cumbrous

A
mark
.

Trithemian
ciphers
.

example. .

No real mystery
.

them

.61

CHAPTER
Is

III

an undecipherable cryptogram possible?

The

art of

for the analysis of a cryptogram deciphering Oft recurring letters Great repetition of vowels Patient Papers on the subject in

Keys

perseverance Gentleman's Magazine of

1742

Yalue

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

of "

general

CONTENTS
based on divers shif tings of the letters Cryptogram " " Inventor in 1761 of Arithmetic!* in Cocker's

PAGE

supposed absolutely secret system His hopes and Illegal to publish Parliamentary debatesEvasion of the law Poe's use of cryptogram
fears thereon

Secret marks made by tramps and vagin story rants Shop ciphers for marking prices on goods Oryptogrsmmic trade advertisements Examples of

volving grill"

The "grill" cipher -The "reThe "slip-card" Forms of numeriThe " Mirabeau " Count Grousfield's cal cipher cipher Communication by use of a dictionary The
cipher construction
" NeAvark

"The " Clock-hands "The

.
.
.

"

two-word
.

"

cipher

Conclusion

.108

ILLUSTRATIONS
FIG.
1. 2.

TAGE

MESSAGE WRAPPED BOUND A RULER

DITTO ILLEGIBLE THROUGH USE OF

.46
48

WKONG RULER
.
.

3.

MESSAGE UNWRAPPED FROM ROLLER

.48
.

4.
5.

DIVIDED TO snow FACILITY FOR DETECTION

49
50

BETTER METHOD OF ROLLER FORM OF MESSAGE

MESSAGE OF No. 5 UNROLLED
. .

6.
7.

.51
.

MASON-MARKS FROM ANCIENT BUILDINGS

8.
9.

THE "REVOLVING DISK" CIPHER.

...

66

88
91 98
100

MODIFICATION OF FIG. 8 FOR STRAIGHT EDGE

10.

THE "BEAD" CIPHER

THE "STRING" CIPHER
ELIZABETHAN ARBITRARY SYMBOLS FOR LETTERS
.

11.
12.
13.

105

THE
THE

" "

NOUGHTS AND CROSSES

NOUGHTS AND CROSSES

"

CIPHER
:

124
126

14.
15.

"

KEY CHANGED
.

THE "GRILLE": PIERCED CARD

.154

16. 17.

THE

"

GRILLE

"
:

MESSAGE READ THROUGH OPENINGS 156

AS
"

THE "GRILLE": MESSAGE

SENT OFF

158

18.

THE

"

REVOLTING GRILLE
9

FORM OF CIPHER

160

10
FIG.

ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE

19.

TOTAL

OF OPENINGS

MADE

BY

REVOLUTION

OF

GRILLE
20. 21.

161
BY "REVOLVING GRILLE"
.
.

THE MESSAGE

163
165

THE "SLIP-CARD" CIPHER

FROM CHURCH IN SPAIN
.
.

22. INSCRIPTION 23.

24.

174

NUMERICAL FORM OF CIPHER

.175
177

THE "NEWARK" CIPHER

THE
"

25. 26.

CLOCK-HANDS

"

CIPHER

.181
.

THE "TWO-WORD" CIPHER.

183

CHAPTER
Cleaning of cryptography imate use and value

Objections to its study Its legitHistoric examples of its employ-

ment Delight in the mysterious Many other ways of conveying secret information Symbolism of action 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
for

tablet

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

Mediaeval
"

authorities
"

Trithemius the Bene-

Dabbling in the black art Dr. Dee Batista Porta's book 011 "Natural Majick" Invisible writing Chemical methods by vitriol, alum, etc. 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
Steganographia
of cobalt, sulphate of copper, procure the materials.
etc.

Often impossible to

iHE word
first

Cryptography

is

derived from

the two Greek words kn/ptos and grapho,

the

signifying

that

which

is

concealed

12

CRYPTOGRAPHY
meaning
to write

or hidden, and the second

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
study
of

in

doing

facilitate its

we

are placing
ill-disposed.

weapon
is

in

the hands

the

This

an argument, however, that applies

equally to

many

studies that nevertheless are

of great value.

Astronomy may

in evil
stars

hands
them;

become astrology, and the glorious

selves

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-WRITING
for clandestine or treasonable
it

13

communications,
sword,

is

clearly

a
its

double-edged

and a

knowledge of

principles and practice

may
the

at least equally well

be used to unmask
tangled
skein

deceit

and

to

unravel

the

of

traitor.

It is sufficiently evident,
flection,

on a moment's

re-

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
way

knowledge and discussion.

the labours of

In the same

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

read a letter or any traitor wlio could copy

a dispatch.

During the stormy closing years

of Charles
I.,

of the reign

we

find this art of secret writing

assiduously cultivated both by

Royalist and

Parliamentarian, as the multitudinous records

preserved
other

in

the

British

Museum and
abundantly

our

national

archives
this,

testify.

Previously to

in

the

stirring times of
of

Queen Elizabeth much use had been made

it,

and during the troublous days

of the

French
in-

Revolution,
fluence

when no man
safe

of

any mark or

was

any hour from denunciation,

this cipher-writing,

we

find

an immense use of
at

when treachery was

when

its

deadly work, or

the love that was stronger than death

sought to shield the victim from the impending

blow, and give the warning that might yet
secure safety by timely flight.

That which

is

secret

and mysterious,

calling

for acute intelligence to penetrate its meaning,

has always exercised a great fascination on

OR CIPHER-WRITING
the

15

human mind.
we have

Hence

at one end of the

scale

the denunciations of the

Hebrew

or figured prophets clothed in mystic language 1 in strange symbolic action, and at the other

the delight in puzzledom that finds

in

pabulum and missing- word competitions, conundrums,

stimulants to
the ingenuity of the

its

such-like
reader.

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
1

of the eye

may convey

a very de-

warning, or the talking on the fingers,

influence

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

recall, as

an example, the sending of a bird, mouse, frog, and arrow by the Scythians to the Persians, as a gentle
hint to

by

flight,

them that unless they could escape as a bird could swim as frogs, or conceal themselves as

mice, they were hastening to swift destruction.

16

CRYPTOGRAPHY

learnedly called dactylology or cheirology,

serve as a

may
The

means

of conveying a message.

significance of

flowers

may make
of

a bouquet

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 communication based

;

on touching various parts of the person

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
to
is

but

all

these are
since

mentioned
present

but

dismiss
to

them,

our

purpose

deal

only with such

as

methods of communication
by means of writing.
so

are

possible

Before, however, doing

reference
to

we cannot

forbear

a
in

quaint

suggestion

that

we encountered

an old

authority on the subject, whereby the

voice
sion.

human

was

made

the

medium
to

of

transmis-

The person desiring

send the meshis

sage was

gravely instructed to breathe

OR CIPHER-WRITING

17

words slowly and distinctly into a long tube

that

was

carefully

and

securely

closed

at

the other end.

all

So soon as he had finished

say,

he

had

to

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
to

of the tube,

was careful
course

open

it

at the

end

last sealed, as of

it

was

of great import-

ance that the words should come out distinctly

by inadvertence the wrong end were opened, the operator was warned that the message would come out in
If

and in the order spoken.

inverted order.
idea
tions

On

thinking out this valuable

that the direcjust

we cannot help deciding

given

would

lead to

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 backwards.

However,

this is a

mere

detail,

and a very
B

little

CRYPTOGRAPHY

experience would soon decide which end of the

tube
it

was best
to

to open.

Baron Munchausen
hit

seems

have

quite

accidentally

upon
the

another curious property of sound,

melodies that he
in

when

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
just
to

matter

is

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 Jon son

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
of

so

of

the

whole educated

caste

the

nation.

In the days not so very long ago

when

three-fourths of the people of England

OR CIPHER-WRITING

19

could neither read nor write, the epistles that " quality," and written in passed between the
legible

enough characters
" scollerds "

for those

who were

sufficiently

to

read them, could

crypto-

scarcely

be considered

examples of

graphy.
tea-chest

The queer characters on a Chinese are to most of us Western people

merely meaningless lines and dabs of colour,

but the sole reason of their being put there

was

that

they

might

convey

meaning.

The Cantonese or Anioy man who painted 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
it,

communication has
but the intention
it.

to

do with

has almost everything to do with

for
instance,

If we,

from a laudable desire

talk
;

to

keep

up our French, often

circle, that is
it

it

in
if

the family
into
it

one thing

but

we drop

because the servant

is

in the room,

and

20
is

CR YP TO GRAPH Y
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

Aldershot chose to write out any

to

message

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
read
easily

in

English could have been

in

enough

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

21

us

that the term

is

meaningless in

itself, it is

undoubtedly made up by reversing

spell

the letters that

the

Hebrew word

for

Babylon.

If a

modern writer denouncing the

it

wickedness of London thought

refer to
it

prudent to

as Nodnol, those
of

who

detected the

transposition

the

letters

would have no

doubt of the meaning.

feeling

Yet one cannot help

in

little

hesitation

accepting

the

Sheshach
authority

as

an

archaic

cryptogram.

One
might

we questioned

said that there

have been a good reason for disguising the

name

but on going to the fountain-head and

itself

reading the verse

that the prophet wrote

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 Ur, the city

of

Abraham,

might have been read in one

the ancient dialects of Babylon as Shishaki,"

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 Ohaldees to

the day

when he wrote
his

of the great city of

words of warning and reproof; but here again on going to the fountain head,
Babylon

we

find

the

whole

reference

to

be in the
tells

present tense.

Rawlinson, too, only

of

what "might have been," and we certainly seem to 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 the
all

23
if

next,

his object

through was
?

prudent suppression
if

of

name

On

the other hand,

the two

names
as, for
it

refer to

two entirely

different places
is

example, Winchester and London

a

not
the

most

extraordinary

coincidence

that

letters in the

name

of each city are precisely

the same, and that while the one has

in

them

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
is

we have

stated, this passage in the

Bible
logists

claimed by some enthusiastic crypto-

and
of

commentators

as

the

earliest

example

a cipher, and now, perforce,

it

we

can but leave

benefit

to the reader to derive such

and comfort from the matter as 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 Caesar,

forwarding

his

dispatches,

changed
places,
;

the

positions of the letters

by four

making
this,

stand for A,
a

for

M, and
was

so on
still

but
the

though

trifle

better,

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 tineas 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

one

Demaratus,

commander

the

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

the secret, removed

them, and
this

who were

in

upper coating, and

the
will

message stood
be
noted,

revealed.

But
secret

this,

it

was
a

scarcely
letter

writing,

any more

than

fastened
secret

down

in

an envelope to-day
process.
It

becomes
is

writing by the

but hidden writing, and

tablet

when

the

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

and when we read

'

our newsthat

paper

the

details

of

the

insurrection

broke out yesterday in Central Africa, such a

method
together
feeling

of

communication would be voted

dilatory,

al-

too

and we

cannot

help

such- is the force of nineteenth-century

habit

that even in those good old times,

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.
a perfect

27

When we come
epidemic

to the

Middle Ages
Europe, and

ran round
it

cryptographia, or, as

was sometimes termed,

had
its

polygraphia

or

steganographia,

en-

thusiastic votaries in every land.

Those who

care for the archaeological side of the subject

may
1560.

refer to the writings of Palatino, dating

1540, of Bellaso in 1553, and of Glanburg in

Should

this

not have

damped

their

ardour, they

may next

take a course of Porta,

Bibliander,

Trithemius,
Schottus,
Caspi,

Cardanus, Walchius,

Selenus,

Tridenci,

Herman Hugo, Comiers, La Fin,

Niceron,

Dalgarno,
then,
writ-

Buxtorff, Wolfgang, and Falconer.

if

Even

they so wish
of

it,

are open to

them the

ings

Eidel,

Soro,

Amman,

Breitkampt,

Conradus,

De

Yaines, Lucatello, Kircher, and

;

not a few others

care to dig their

while for those

who do

not

knowledge out

of such dusty
is

worm-eaten tomes William Blair

thing,

the very

though we would fain hope that ere we,

reach
the last
of

and

they,

these

present

28

CRYPTOGRAPHY

pages they will feel that they have derived

thence as

much enlightenment

as they need.

As many

of these mediaeval authors

had a

great knack of

conveying, with scant or no

others
little

acknowledgment, the labour of

their

into
profit
;

own

store, there

would be

in referring at

any length to their works

we

will therefore select

but two, Trithemius and

Porta, for any comment.

Trithemius,
old
writers,

the

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.

"
Steganograpliia

hoc

est

ars per occvltam Scriptvram animi svi

:

voluntatem, absentibvs aperiendi certa

avthore

OR CIPHER-WRITING
reverendissimo
et

29

clarissimo

ciro

Joanne

Tri-

themlo, Abbate Spanlieimensl et Magice Naturii'li*

Magistro perfectissimo."
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.

a vast mass of misdirected
tunately, to these he

The

result

was

energy.

Unforof extra-

added a number

ordinary characters, which he designated spirittis

diurui

and
lie

spiritus nocturni,

the

result

being that

was accused

of dabbling in the

black art 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
lavish

also the misfor-

tune

to

incur

the

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

supposed to

him

into

closer

relation
all

with demons than was held to be at

fiable,

justi-

was a great admirer

of

the

work

of

Trithemius.

He was

often

sent

abroad on
of

more or

less secret service

by the Ministers

Queen Elizabeth, and we

find

him writing from

William

Antwerp on February

16, 1563, to Sir

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

a book of his own, the
issued in

Antwerp

Monas
year
;

Hieroglyphica,

the following

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
1

together that would be of gain to the nation.

Amongst other reasons

writes

for

staying

on,

he
one
|

"
:

Allready

have

purchased

boke,
1

for

wch

Thowsand Crownes have

andum

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

the sea

had been

well spent.

OR CIPHER-WRITING

31

been by others offred and yet could not be

obteyned.

boke for which many a lerned

man hath
seeke
:

long sowght and day ley yet doth

is

Whose use
is

greater than the fame

to

therof

spred
:

The name therof The

title
is

not

unknowne

on

this
:

you Wise

is

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-

meeter

or

humayne knowledge none can be more behopefull. Of this boke

the one half, with contynuall Labor and watch

the most part of

X dayes

have

copyed oute

And now
man

I stand at the Courtesye of

a noble:

of Hungarie for writing furth the rest

who hath promised me

shall

leave therto after he

perceyve that I
(with
the

may remayne by him

of

longer
pleasure
as

leave

my

prince)

to

him

also with such points of Science

at

my

hands he requireth.

Thys boke,

32

CRYPTOGRAPHY
now have
whole and
yt,

eyther as I

or hereafter shall
pleas you

have

yt, fully

p'fit (yf it

to accept

my

present)

I give

unto your honor

as the

most precyous

juell that I

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 thou-

sand 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

him.

From

the

Dee puts on the book, it is evident that The book was was a manuscript copy.

long kept from the knowledge of the general

public, the first printed
until

copy not being issued

after
this
letter

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,

" Les

Notes
in

occultes

des

lettres"

that were published

year 1606, and he also " " " of his Bookes Natural devotes one of the

Strasbourg in

the

Majick"

to the art of invisible writing.

The

edition before us as

we

write
that

is

dated 1658,

the

title

page stating

the

book was

"printed

by

Thomas
are
at

Young and
sold
at
in

Samuel
Three
Paul's

Speed, and
Pigeons,

to

be

the
St.

and

the

Angel

Churchyard."
are " set forth

In this volume, divided into

calls

twenty sections, or books as he

all

them,

the Riches and Delights of

the

Natural

Sciences,"

and the

result

is

His first book deals strange medley indeed. " the Causes of Wonderful things,' a with
5

sufficiently

extensive

subject

in

itself

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 beautic

34

CRYPTOGRAPHY
etc.,

fjing of women,
cerns
last
itself
is

and the sixteenth conwriting."

with

"invisible
5

His
find

book

" of the Chaos,' and here

we

promiscuous mass of
fit

matter

that

either

would not

in happily in

any

of the other

books, or which looked, or

he happened to have overfuller

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
at
in

instrument whereby
a

great

distance,

we may hear sounds how to detect frauds

else

impostors,

and

much

of

more or

less

chaotic interest and value.

The sixteenth book, " wherein

secrets

are handled

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

these

things

and the consequences of them

must be

faithfully concealed, lest

by growing

common amongst
respected/'

ordinary people, they be disold author here clearly felt

Our

the difficulty of the position he had got himself

into
;

on the one hand thinking to impart

curious and useful knowledge,

much

and on

the other hand in the act of doing so feeling

its

publication a contradiction vitiating

all his

labour.

Even Natural Magick

frank
exposition

fails

to

show

how

the

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

his subject into visible

and secret marks looks

puzzling,
for

at first

sight a

little

unless

visible

marks

carry

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

evident

that

are

enough

to
is

all

beholders

though

their

significance

unknown,

and

these, as he says, are

worthy of a

treatise to

themselves.

In the present

work he

deals

almost entirely with communications that are

secret through
their
invisibility,

until

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 smeer

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

briug 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, while the person to
it

whom
to

was

really sent

would take steps

first

remove the

visible writing,

and then

to

make

a second communication, written between the

lines of the first, tell out its story

by the ap-

plication of a second preparation.

cedure

is

as

follows

The pro" Let Vitriol soak in

is

Boyling water: when

so long
till

it

dissolved, strain
clear
:

it

the water

grow
:

with that
are dry

liquor write

upon paper

when they

they are not seen.

Moreover, grinde burnt

:

straw with Yinegar

and what you

will write

CRYPTOGRAPHY
between the former
lines,

in the spaces
scribe

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

seen.

letters to

be
:

I said, Dissolve Vitriol in water

finely,

then powder Galls

and soak them

in
:

water
filtre

let

them stay there twenty-four hours

them through a
that

linen cloth, or something

else,

may make
send
it

the water clear, and

make

letters

upon the paper that you

:

desire to have
:

concealed

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 in water and write with
and the
is it

39

upon linen
this writing

like,

declaring that

when

dry

it

will

be invisible.

When you would

to

render

it

visible, it

will suffice

soak the

sheet or

napkin in water.
it

The

fabric will

appear darker where

has not been touched

by the alum

solution, so that the

message

will

appear in letters of white.

prescriptions,
in

After divers other

which

litharge, citron-juice,

goat's

fat,

jumper, and various other ingrehe winds

dients

figure,

up

his first

section,

"

On how

may

a writing dip'd in divers Liquors be read," by the assertion, " there are
arts, too tedious to relate,"

many such

and he
letters

then proceeds to his next section,

how

may be made
of

visible

by the action

of heat.

" If " you write," he tells us, with the juice

Citrons,

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

40

CR YPTOGRAPH V

show forth those colours that they would show

if

they were

ripe.

If

you write with a sowre

ivith Cervices
l
:

Grape that would be black, or

when you hold them

cocted,

to the fire they are con-

and
in

will

give the same

colour
tree,

they

would

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
water,

this

powdred
white

and mingled
letters,

with

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
1

that

cannot

be

read

The

fruits of the Service-tree,

Pyrus torminalis, of a

greenish-brown colour, and of rough acid flavour until

they are mellowed by
frost.

OR CIPHER-WRITING
the

41

paper be burnt

upon
at

which

they

are

made.
fashion
:

He
"

arrives

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

remain unburnt."

and

will

The

result of this will be that the paper will

be black and the letters white.

better in theory than
it

This sounds

would probably work

out in practice.
fact

We

are all familiar with the

that

even when a letter written in oris

dinary ink
to read

burnt,

we may
also

often

still

be able

on

its

charred surface portions of the

writing,

but

we know

that the act

of

burning twists and curls the paper up so that

much

of the writing
is

is

out of our sight, while

the whole thing

so brittle that a touch

may

break

it

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

writing wibli 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, so

accessible as

we were

writ-

ing these

of its efficacy

we can

say

nothing, but a letter which

we

forthwith pro-

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 it

Arabick in water, or

Gum
it

Tragacanth, that
is

may
will

be cleer

and when

well dissolved,

not foul the Chrystal

if

you write upon

it

or upon a

Cup

or Glass, for

when

the letters are

dry they are

if

invisible.

No man

will

imagine

it,

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
upon a
glass

to the test of experiment, writing

bottle

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 denned in

black on the transparent glass, the experiment

being entirely successful.

At

the

same time

there seem to be practical difficulties ; one can " Would you hardly imagine a prisoner saying,

kindly oblige

me

with a pinch of soot or a

handful of
events

straw

and a match

"

At

all

we can hardly imagine

his

getting

them.

" the curious side-light and reference to

"
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

is

Inquisition,

and no fraud

suspected

to

be in them."

44

CRYPTOGRAPHY

Hence prisoners might perchance receive eggs from their friends, and with them messages
from the outside world.
it is

However

this

may

be,
al-

at least a pleasant picture. so

One has

ways

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-

egg 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 value.

if

It

might at times be an

advantage

promises made on the eve of an

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 for use at some moment, and when its production after

critical
all

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
ever,

the convict hulk.

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
will

of

the bivouac the

roaring

camp

fire,

expeditiously enough
fulfilled its

reduce to ashes any paper that has

purpose.

In

like spirit of

adverse criticism
this,

we would

deal with the reverse of

letters after

"that invisible
visible

some time

shall

become

and

show themselves."

We

are told that "if one

46

CRYPTOGRAPHY
juice of

write with

Citrons

or

Oranges on

Copper or Brass, and leave

this

on for twenty

days the letters will appear green upon the

place
;

the same

may
it

be done

namely, by dissolving Salt

many other ways, Ammoniac in water,

will
is

and writing with

upon Brass, the place

sooner appear of verdigreese colour."

sufficiently evident that it is rarely

It

indeed that
of days
to

a delay of twenty or any other

is

number

a desideratum.

One

ordinarily desires

HHHHBHR

FIG.

1.

know
sees

at once
to

any communication that any one

fit

make
if

desire to do so

and should especially we knew that the secrecy and

to us,
to
it

mystery attaching
grave importance.

was an indication of

its

The two
" of letters

or three examples that Porta gives

on divers

things

which,

though

OR CIPHER-WRITING

47

they be visible yet the Eeader will be deceived

by

their secret device/' are of

of his hints is to write
it

no great value.

One

on parchment, and

then put

to the fire or candle,

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
flattening

any attempt at
even
if it

forcible

out, so that

we
is

detect the

presence of a communication
able.
let

not get-atis

But
lay

"

if

one desires to read what

in

it it

him

it

on moyst places or sprinkle

it

gently with water, and

will

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

011

a strip of paper wrapped round a stick.

sticks of

TVo

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
spirally

paper must

now be wrapped

FIG.

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

LAI

LU
3.

IVIL

iUUIM

FIG.

comes on each
tion
is

side,

the required communicais

written.

The paper
to

then unrolled

and forwarded
stick,

the

holder of the second

strip

and

he,

on rolling the

around

this,

OR CIPHER-WRITING
is

49

able to read the message with great facility.

is

The theory
notice
of

that no

one would take any

of

these

marks on the edges

the

paper, but on putting the matter to the test of

experiment

we found no

difficulty,

without

any wrapping round

the message that

stick or ruler, in reading

we had
is

previously written.

Half of each letter

sufficient to serve

seen,

and that
If

is

quite

as

a clue.

any

of

our

readers like
selves,

to test this statement for

if

them-

they will readily find that

they place a

piece of blank paper along

any

of the lines of

FIG.

4.

this printed

page so that half of each

letter is
its

hidden the remaining half quite suffices for

identification.

The message we wrote was,

soon."
Fig.
1

"

Expect me

shows the

spirally

wrapped D

50
strip
its

CR YPTOGRAPI1Y
of

paper and the message written on

Fig. 3 represents the strip

edges.

when

unrolled from

the
;

pencil

and flattened out

shows how

ready for dispatch

while Fig. 2
if

the message would look

the receiver, not

to be employed,

knowing that a pencil had

tried

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

51

A
write

very

much

better

way

of workis

ing this spiral

the

paper

method
not

to

message,
right

along

the

edges,

but

across the

strips
strip

\\\>
,

themselves.
of

Having wound our

" Get

<3\

paper round our ruler,

follows

we wrote
another
will not

<V\\
,

as

upon same

it

^
.v

roller the

size, or

you

be able to read this communication."

The appearance
staff

of our message-bearing

may
looked

be

seen in

Fig.

5,

while
Vj
'

Fig. 6
as
it

shows

portion of the strip

when unwound and ready

off to

for sending
It will at

our correspondent.

once be seen
is

how

far

more

puzzling this
in Fig. 3.

than the strip shown

Some

of

the

material

we

find

in

Porta's chapters can scarcely be con-

p
s

sidered to
of

come within the category

writing"
at
all,

^
^

"invisible

since

the methods

he adopts

are

akin to

52

CRYPTOGRAPHY
in

the ordinary letter put

an envelope that
in-

we have already cited. He tells, for stance, how a communication was once
within a
loaf,

sent

and

in

another case
;

in

the

interior of

a dead hare

how

others,

again,

have safely brought

girdles,

letters concealed in their

feet, or in

beneath the soles of their

;

their scabbards or quivers

how

pigeons

may

be used as messengers,
into

or intelligence shot
or guns.
this

camp

or fortress

by arrows
of

He
of

quotes

numerous

instances
;

sort

thing from ancient writers

tus, Africanus,

from Theophras-

Herodotus, Ovid, Cassar, Pliny,

and others.

He
with
that

does not forget to refer

to

the

slave

shaven
it

head,

but

he

also

recognises
that an

may

oftentimes be

desirable

underling conveying a message should be in

ignorance of the fact that he

is

being thus

1 great use was made of pigeons as messengers daring the Franco-German war, and the pigeon-loft of to-day is as much an item of war strength as a Maxim gun.

OR CIPHER-WRITING
employed.
possibly

53

Had he
to

this

knowledge, he might

desert

the

enemy, or

be

filled

with such exaltation of spirit at the importance 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

affrighted

promises, or
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
his

him

to
;

excite his interest or

suspicions

but his food was drugged, and, while he was

under the

influence

of

an

opiate,

his

own

broad back was the surface utilised as the

sheet whereon
to

inscribe

the

message

re-

quired to be transmitted.
ferred to

This method

is re-

by Porta, but

it

dates back far into

ancient history,
to
it.

Ovid, for instance, alluding

54

CRYPTOGRAPHY
Speaking
in

a general

way, but

at

the

same time
periment,

as the

outcome

of considerable ex-

we should be

inclined to say that

the various

compounds suggested by Porta

other
writers
as
inks,
invisible

and

many

until developed

by the action
of

of

light,

or of

heat, or
tion,

the 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

who was

communi-

cating with the

base of operations, or with

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 pen 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 chance 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

it

was intended.
of these simple preparations
;

Some few

we
in

may

refer to

as

those

who

are

curious

such matters might,

when once put on

them
so

the
for

track, very naturally desire to test

themselves.
careful
to

Any one
use

doing

should

be
as

a clean

quill

pen;

and

some, at least, of the materials are poisonous,

56

CRYPTOGRAPHY
little

some

discretion.

Any

one, for instance, solution

in

who

leaves

a clear,

colourless

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
interesting study.

devoted to this

As

familiar

example

of

the

chemicals

affected
silver.

we may mention nitrate of Any communication made by a soluby

light

tion of this

would remain
to

invisible until such

time

as

exposed

daylight.

On

this

ex-

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.
in

instead

of

placing the
it

paper
vessel

the

daylight

we hold
of

over

containing

sulphate

ammonia the

OR CIPHER-WRITING

57

writing will appear with a metallic and silvery

brilliancy.

If
it

we make

a solution of chloride of cobalt,

will

be of a pale pink in tint; but the

is

colour
fluid
it

so slight

that in writing with the

appears colourless on the paper, and

absolutely no
trace
of

there

is

anything to
a

be

seen.

On warming
fire

the

paper before

good strong

the characters appear of a

clear bluish-green; but

they disappear again

of

as

the

paper
so.

cools,

a matter

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

and beautiful

blue colour.

Equal parts

of sulphate of copper

and

sal-

ammoniac dissolved
of

in water give a solution

tint.

a beautiful
at
all

turquoise-blue
strongly,
dries

This,

if

applied

on the paper
too

of a pale

greenish

colour,

a tint

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
afterwards
colour.
If

of

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

the materials ready to hand by dissolving
of vitriol in
soft
oil

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

The

solution
to

should be
cool,

and then allowed

and

is

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

a very cursory examination

notice,

might escape
it.

but the slightest scrudifficulty

is

tiny reveals

The

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
if

and excellently

legible black

while

we

use

a solution so weak as to escape notice

applied to the paper,
it

when

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 obthis
is

and

of course nothing short

of

worth anything.

Many

other

chemical methods

might
all

be

mentioned, but their value after

does not

60

CRYPTOGRAPHY
Nothing but perany real
use.

appear to be very great.

sonal investigation
finds over
is

of

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

on coins, etc. Telegram-English MasonEise of cipher-writing in England Clarendon's " History of the Eebellion" Battle of Kaseby Eoyal correspondence captured and deciphered Published by Parliament Weighted naval signal-codes Charles I. a great expert in cryptography Use of nulles or noninscriptions

marks

Numerical ciphers Mediaeval inscription Ciphers of Queen Henrietta and Sir Kalph Yerney 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" cryptogram Principle
significants

without vowels

modified to sliding strip representation of colours

"
string
"

Bead alphabet
in black and

Heraldic white The

cipher

Bacon a cryptographic enthusiast

His essentials of a good cipher His highest perfection of a cipher His plan cumbrous and unsatisfactory A Trithemian example Elizabethan arbitrary mark
ciphers

No

real

mystery

in them.

METHOD

adopted by the ancient writers

of representing

words by arbitrary marks

first

was said to have been

61

introduced by the

62

CR YP TO GRAPH Y
Maecenas, Cicero, Seneca
tlie

old poet Ennius.

elder,

Philargirus,

Tyro,

and

many

other

writers

commended and employed

were in

these marks.
of

By

the time of Seneca thirteen thousand

characters
use.

these

They

are or-

dinarily

termed Tyronian.

Thousands of these

Tyronian abbreviations and symbols

seen
in

may be
Probus,

the

writings

of

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, " Psalteriiini " 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,

the oldest system of the

first

shorthand

extant,

while

English

OR CIPHER-WRITING
book
1588.

63

on
It

the

subject

did

not appear until

was written by one Timothy Bright,

"
Characterie,

and

entitled

or

the

Art

of

Short,

Swift,

and

Secret
is

Writing."

The
title.

notion of cryptography
If

present in this
of

man employs
it is

a system

abbreviated
it is

writing because

short or swift,

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

who

writes

in

Pitman or any other widely-

known system of shorthand, or who adopts any of the modern telegraph code-books that
compress a long sentence into a single arbitrary

word,
;

is
if

no disciple of
he, like

cryptography
in his

therein
diary,

but

Pepys

famous

adopts a secret code because

on the

whole he prefers to keep his

his

affairs private,

shorthand

stands

on

quite

different

footing to that of the first man.

Such codes
one exposed,
all

have their dangers.

like

Not only
risk
of

is

Pepys,

to

the

having

one's

64

CR YPTOGRAPH Y
is

matters laid bare, but there

bability of

also

the pro-

such a fiasco as occurred within

own knowledge, where a man kept his business and family memoranda by a shortour

hand system that he himself devised, the

result

being that at his death his affairs got at once

into a state of utter confusion that they never
rallied from,

and there can be but

lost
it.

little

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 wxxrds 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

in

abundant

illustrations

such old tomes as the "Lexicon Diploma"

ticum" of Walther or the

Siglarium

Ro-

manum

"

of Gerrard.

In

fact,

the D.GL and

supplies us

Fid. Def. on

our present

money

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

still

example may be seen

III.,

in

the

coinage

George

where

we may
as

find

such
:

concentrated

information

the

following

M B F ET H REX -F-D-B-BT-L-DThis suggests a sort S K, I A T ET E

.

of

mince or hash of the alphabet, but with

arrive at last at "
et

due amplification and clothing of these bare

letters,
nice,

we

Mag nee
Sacri

Britan-

Francice
et

Hibernice Rex, Fidei Defensor,

Brunnovici

Lunebergi Dux,
et

Eomani

Imperil Archithesanrarius

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

CRYPTOGRAPHY
when we come
presently to consider the
is

decipherment of a mysterious message,

point of very considerable importance.

FIG.

7.

On

old

buildings
called

we may sometimes
that

see

what are
stones.
It

mason-marks cut upon the

been
a

has

suggested

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
lost,

in

early

times

meaning that

now

that they were long

regarded with a certain reverence, and that

an

essential

rule

for

their

formation
least

was

that they should contain at

one angle.

We

have reprinted in Fig. 7 divers examples

of these

marks from various ancient

no doubt that
one angle
!

buildings.

There
at

is

all

of

them contain
prosaic ex-

least

The more
is

planation of these
to

marks

that they served

denote the 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

it

work were badly

was at once seen

done or any error made

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 they

may

be found even on
the Pyra-

the blocks of stone that complete

mids;
point

but the more prosaic student might

out that this
after
all
it

only indicates

very ancient usage, and that

was

as neces-

sary in the time of Chofo to detect careless

workmanship
cathedrals

when Salisbury or Amiens were being erected. Whatever may

as
are,

be the exact truth, we

we

think, at all

events justified in giving them

a paragraph
at

and an
posal.

illustration in

the

space

our

dis-

Cipher-writing scarcely makes any real ap-

pearance in
of

English archives until the reign

Queen Elizabeth.

There had been divers

back
until

isolated examples, as, for instance, as far

as Alfred the Great
;

but

it

was scarcely

the days of the Tudors that

in vogue.

we

find

it

really

Many examples
of the
it.

of this period are

preserved in the British Museum, and in the

troublous days
first

Charles

we

find

an immense use of

OR CIPHER-WRITING
Amidst the
the
historical

69

documents preserved in
to light

House

of Lords,

and brought

by the
is

Royal Commission on historical MSS.,

the

correspondence of King Charles captured by

the Roundheads at Naseby

a correspondence

which Dr. John Wallis, a distinguished mathematician of those days, analysed and
ally
fin-

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

" In the end the

King was compelled

to quit
all

the

field,

and

to leave Fairfax

master of

his foot, cannons,

and baggage, amongst which

was

his

own
1

cabinet,

where

his

most secret

letters were,

and

letters

between the Queen

One scarcely sees how, in the turmoil of battle and the sudden realization of defeat, an incident so untoward
1

could well be prevented.

of signals is
holes,

On

board a man-of-war the code

always kept in a leaden case, perforated with 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

officer,

or other cause (for in the

70

CRYPTOGRAPHY
of

and him,

which they shortly after made

that barbarous use as

natures,
is,

was

agreable to their
in

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

have

them from 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 should be referred to

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 Cross, in the Royal
heat of action a

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

OR CIPHER-WRITING
intent that they
into Scotland

71

may
to

take copies to transmit

foreign parts, and that
shall

and

the

said

letters

and papers

be put in

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,

had been already deciphered by the King or Queen, and the translation

Many on

appended to them for greater ease of reading,

Charles
I.

during the course of

the

war
some
cele-.

composed a great many ciphers, and

of

them

of very abstruse character.

to

His

brat.ed letter

the Earl of Glamorgan,

in

which some very suspicious concessions to the

Catholic party
in Ireland

were mooted, was

in different

composed entirely of short strokes

directions
;

but

his

favourite idea

was

the

use of numbers, and the

of this latter type.

Naseby

letters

were
"

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 Rupert

or

Oxford

in full a couple
all

of

numbers

will

at once express

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.

nous

a fait

que cy 27

23

52 33

62

28
31

45 9
8

6G
que

4
ce

48 31 34 8

10
27

50 28

35
23

47
16

50

17

3 c*t tout 33

50

OR CIPHER-WRITING

73

5-62

cest

pour

qiioy

si

66

4 46 189 18
40
11
."

69-2-70
In one

intantion de donner 62
letter of the

sorely troubled

Queen

she writes that

her,

matters
suis

have

so

harassed
tourmantee

"

que
de

je

extremcment
fait

du mal
en
syfre
l

teete

qui

que

je

mesteray
fait
inoy

par un autre qui

jovois

mesme"
and

The trusted new hand then comes

the letter in English.

finishes

We

give

the commencement, and place over the sym" Theer bols their
significance
:

beeing hear

74
letter

CRYPTOGRAPHY
goes on in the

same manner, but we

need not repeat the figuring.

tion of
it

The

translafitfc

is

that

"260

thought
at his

to

speake to him to
for
to
1ST

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

F haue

layed their

purses together for supply of armes for 189.

260 doth

therefore

desire

189 to aduertise
to be sent.

WM
189

of the place

where they are

to

may
to

write

WM

in

the

cipher

189

hath with 260."

This was clearly a docu-

ment

be veiled in cipher.

The

publica-

tion of these letters

by

the Parliamentarians

caused great excitement,

ter to be scarcely

we

are told
at,

a mat-

wondered

and we can
189 and
care to

well
260,

imagine

that

KD

and

WM,
good

would take uncommonly

keep the Channel between themselves and the

victorious Puritans.

OR CIPHER- WRITING
It will
nofc

75
notice
of of

have

escaped
while

the

the

careful
in

reader that,
little

some

the

letters

the

extract

we have given
by the

are each time they occur represented

same number,
31,

H,

for instance, being always

others vary, so that

is

represented by

39 or 40,
This

is

45 or 46, and

is

50 or 51.
frequently
a
little

changing of the symbol

to in

is

resorted
patient

cryptography,
of

or

analysis

a communication

would

presently throw light

clue

upon

it.

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. 1

carious old inscription over the decalogue in a country church runs as follows
:

PRSVRYPRFCTMNVRKPTHSPRCPTSTN.
meaning of this was not discovered for hundred years but if our readers will add to these letters a sufficient sprinkling of one more letter "E " " Perthey will have no difficulty in converting it into
It is said that the

t\vo

severe, ye perfect

men

ever keep these precepts ten."

76

CRYPTOGRAPHY

Double

is

common

final,

so

if

we

find

two

similar

symbols

recurring

at

ends of

words we

may
course

at

least

think them to be

LL.

Of

they

may

be

double
if

SS,
as-

another

common
for

termination; but
the

we

sume
then

them

time

being to be LL,

we may
little,

look
it

up ELL.
is

That means
events

very

but

at

all

some-

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
by

ci-

we may

instance

that

used
of
it

Sir

Kalph Verney.

An

example

may

be

found in the " Notes of Proceedings of the

Long Parliament,"
valuable

that

may
issued

be seen in the

reproductions

by the Camfollow-

den Society.
ing note
"
:

The

editor

makes the

The following numerals written

OR CIPHER-WRITING
in

77

pencil

by the hand

of

Sir

Ralph Verney
ci-

look like
pher.

an attempt to take notes in a

1 to 28.

The numbers range from them

here
in

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
If

should

somewhat slightingly have

"

called

them " an

attempt

to

" take

notes."

we

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

Assyrian ignoramus to record something or

other
;

nor

should

we

lament

from

our

higher level the vainglorious conceit of some

Chinaman who evidently thinks that characters mean something.

his queer

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.

Though

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

wrong characters being at times introduced. The following are examples of

the

cipher
his

used

by

Sir
:

Ralph Yerney
17

in

making
3
3

memoranda
5

"28

15
5

22
5

14

10

817 220
1514
7

15 17
17

15
15
8

85 176
to

20

18 18

1316 285
15."
letters

16

87
"
:

This deciphers into

No

extracts of

be aloued in this House."

:

An28

other one reads

" 5

1512

16
27 10

10
5
-

1516 828 1711 3 15

-

17

710
28
is

17
16
noli

15
7,"

15

"
signifying

The

prince

come

to

Greenhich."
should

For the fourth word here we

read
sense
either

probably
in

now

or

not,

the difference

being

considerable^

OR CIPHER-WRITING
the
direct

79
affirmative
is

contrast

between
"

an
"

and

negative.

Come
"

to

in

the

cipher run together into

cometo," but this

was probably carelessness rather than craft. The ingenious and painstaking Mr. Cooper
presently

determined that the same numeral

always stands for the

is

same

letter,

and that

always a very helpful state of things for

decipherer.
2,

the

Of course
and
so

is

not
in

1,

and

and C

3,

forth

regular

sequence, as that would be a great deal too

easy an
find

arrangement, so that

it

remains to
has
that
as

out

what

arbitrary
analysis

arrangement
it is

been made.
the letters
follows
:

On
are

found

represented

by numerals

10 =

16 = 1

17-0
12 = P

13-D

SO

CRYPTOGRAPHY
In
the

memoranda
find

that

have

come

to

light

we

no use of

1, 19, 21, 23,

24 or

26,

but on the other hand

we

find

that by

chance Verney had no necessity to

use in

anything he wanted 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

we have
is

numbers
;

and then
if

letters,

the

most useful

but

we

desired to write

anything ourselves, a

table
is

having

first

letters

and then numbers

of

more
a good

service.
stiff

If

we want
Russian,

to

trans-

late

piece of

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

8l

employs

to

translate
"

it

the " cryptogrammic-ordinary

letter

table.

For the purpose of the sender the Verney

table should be as follows
:

A=14

H=7

82

CRYPTOGRAPHY
17
8
felt

25

18
8,"

317
note

286

18

16

28

15

a remark that shows that while

he
that

our

an intrusion,
in

also

shows
the

we

had

succeeded

mastering

cipher he was employing.

We

also

find

great revival

of

crypto-

logy during the

stormy period
flight

that

has
II.

its

central point in the

of

James

and

the landing of William

counter-plot

III.,

when
in
of

plot

and
of

sought

safety

the

use

cryptograms.
of

The adherents
the

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

1633 a

book
This

the

"

Century of
greatly

Inventions."

nobleman was
pursuits,

addicted to

scientific

and at the same time was

a
large

in

comunder

mand
Charles
to

of
I.

body

of

troops

He
of

afterwards
Charles

attached himself
II.

the

suite

in

exile

in

OR CIPHER-WRITING
France,

83

and
to

being

sent

over

by

him

to

London

procure intelligence and supplies,

was speedily detected and

put under

lock
at

and key
liberty
leisure
leisure

in

the
the

Tower.
Kestoration.

He was
His

set

at

enforced

in
for

the

Tower

gave
his

him

abundant
as

study,
at
is

while
so

position

man
plains

of

affairs
it

stormy

period ex-

how

that amongst his

hundred

inventions

not a few deal with the various

methods of secret communication.

It
is

of

course beside our present

mark
Suffice

to
it

deal with the

to

book as a whole.
majority of
practical
his

say

that

the

inven-

tions

are of an

entirely
of

character,
to-

ind

the

germ
all its

the

steam engine of

day in
utility

mighty force and

in
his

pervading

is

to

be found

observations.

The

closely fitting cover of a vessel in

which

he was preparing food in his apartment of

Tower was suddenly forced off by the pressure of the confined steam, and he drew
the

84

CRYPTOGRAPHY
this

from

the

suggestion

that

such a force

might be turned

to useful account.

That he himself believed

his

in the

value

of

work
of

is

quaintly evident, for in the dedi-

cation
cellent

his

book

to

the King's

most ex-

Majesty,
sensible

plus

Lords and Commons,

of

on

the

principle
to
his

having he

more
:

than
"

one

string

bow,

writes

The

Treasures

buried under these heads,

both for War, Peace,

inexhaustible
so
:

and

Pleasure,
if

being
I say

beseech you pardon

it
:

seems a Vanity
since

but comprehends but becomes

it

Truth

no good Spring

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

use
shall
still

shall be pleased to

make

of

my

Inventions

the

more Inventive

you

find

me, one Invention begetting

another,
ability.

and more and more improving

my

And

as to

my

heartiness therein

there

needs

no addition, nor to

my

readi-

OR CIPHER-WRITING
ness
begin,
till

85

and
and

spur.
desist

Therefore

be

pleased

to

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 marks at once.

Upon any
Accompts

of

these Seals

man may keep

Millions.

of Receipts

and Disbursements from

hundred

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,

to clean contrary
to

and

in English itself

different sense,

unknown

any but the Correspondent, and not to be

if

read or understood either,

opened before

it

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 development, showing

how

ten thousand people

ful
seals
is

may
or

use these wonderintact.

and yet keep their secrets

No. 3
trived,

"a Cypher
line,

Character so concir-

that one

without returns or

cumflexes, stands

for each

and every

of the

24

letters,

and as ready
the
other,"

to be

made
the

for one

letter

as
in

while

inventive
it

faculty

him, growing, as he
use.

declared

would,
refined

by
and

No. 4

is

"this
that

Invention
a
point

so

abbreviated

onely showeth distinctly and significantly any

of

the

24

letters

and these very points

so

to

be made with
will

two pens,
but
as

that

no time
the

be

lost,

one

finger riseth

other

may make

the

following letter,

never

clogging the

memory with

several figures for

of confusion
letter for

words
are

which with ease and void

speedily

thus

and punctually,

letter, set

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
His once instead of being content with two. " a way by a Circular motion fifth invention is
either along

Rule or Ring wise, to vary

so

any

Alphabet,

that

the

self-same

Point
ad-

individually
ditional

placed,

without

the

least

mark

or variation of place, shall stand

letters,

for all the

letter

24

and not for the same

writing
:

twice in

ten

sheets

yet

as

easily

and certainly read and known as

one and the
self

if it

stood but for

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

CRYPTOGRAPHY
sketch
as

short
in

we

have

already

quoted
This

the case of

one or two of
his,

them.

fifth

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.

Wo

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

card and divide the

smaller circle from one

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

with

the

other.

The person

whom we

are corresponding has a similar

arrangement, an<J
as in

we arrange
shall

together that,
to

Fig.

8,

be

adjusted
out,

A.
true

We

then

spell

the

words
the

the

letters

being those of

outer circle, but

If

representing them by those of the inner.

90

CRYPTOGRAPHY
we
desire

then

by means

of this

diagram to

write the
as

word February, it would come out DZOXEJXT. The sender reads from the
while the re-

outer circle to the inner one,

ceiver
outer,

reads

the

characters
at

from inner

to

a glance

the two circles

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

same
give
etc.,

equivalents, all that

is

necessary

is

to

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

are

now

represented on the inner circle by en-

tirely different letters,

and the too ingenious

off

onlooker

is

at once

thrown

the scent.

Our
this

correspondent must of course

know
turn,

of

and give

his

card a similar
arranged.
It

but this
for
in-

may
by a
thus,

easily be

might,

stance,

be that two similar letters followed

different

one should convey the hint;

at this point

KKQ

would mean that

we

OK CIPHER- WRITING
shift

our inner alphabet

if

till

the letter within

like

A
to

should be Q; and

we

in the course of a

page or two
then
to

change

again,

BBX
spin

Y
D

would convey the hint

the circle round until
the

X became
A

new

equivalent of A.

This combination of the fixed

and revolving
excellent one,

circles
its

is

a most

only drawback
little

B@
^

being that
difficult

it is

perhaps a
the

K^
N

'-

to

read

radiating
>

T
V

letters,

as while only one

is

ab-

s~^

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

X _~-*
-

little

practice
of

make the reading

them a

very easy matter; but to those

K
F JG
.

who

feel

difficulty

Fig.

9.

92

CRYPTOGRAPHY
come
the
for

should

as

boon
"

and

blessing
is

where
changed

"

Ring- wise
"

arrangement
a
Rule."
the

that

along
that

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,

and possessing great

possibilities

of being torn

when turned over amongst

other
less

papers.

We

have only drawn a portion,

that

than half
the part

the proportion in fact

AK,
To
of

we have shown,

bears to

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

regular the
al-

sequence,
phabet,

placed the letters

slit

A
and

is

then

cut
strip

top

and
is

bottom,

narrower
it

of

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
the

93

alphabet in any irregular order.

When
a

the whole
;ting

twenty- six letters have

the
strip

found

place,

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, C, down to

little

the end, but also some the

to
slip

surplus, so that

can be moved up and down so as

in.

bring other combinations

Of course

the reader, on inspection of

that in principle
it is

our figure, sees

identical with the circular

card

method

already

shown,

that

"head"

would be

XVRT,

and that we could at once

sliding
If

vary the equivalents by

strip
it

the

narrow
slipped

upwards or downwards.
until

we
to

down

came opposite
no
longer be

A, then
but

''head"

would

XYRT,

BKDN.

Our correspondent must

clearly be

informed of any such shifting, and of course

any accidental shifting of the sliding piece

must be guarded

against.

The merest glance

is
still

that the proper key letter

opposite to

94

CRYPTOGRAPHY
suffice to

A will
To

show whether any movement

has taken place.

revert

now

to our

ingenious Marquis.

After devoting the

first five of his

"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

all.

Fig. 40, for

of smell,

to be

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
to the taste,
aloes, etc.,
;

while another method trusts

salt,

pegs being dipped in alum,

and distinguished by touching them

It
is

with the tongue.

scarcely to be imagined

that even amongst the blind such a sensitive-

ness to smell or taste could be developed as

OR CIPHER-WRITING
would make these fancies workable

95
realities.

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,
liver

castor
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. a

After No. 43 he devises

new

tinder

box, an artificial bird, and so

on; but at No.

52

we

find

him harping on

the old string again, if devising an alphabet by the " jangling the Bells of any parish church "

can be so termed, and at No. 75

structed

we

are in-

"

how

a tape or ribbon weaver

discourse

may

set

down

a whole

without knowing a

letter, or

interweaving anything suspicious of

other secret than a new-fashioned ribbon."

It
is

certainly very remarkable that

when

96

CRYPTOGRAPHY
Marquis had the whole
field of

the

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.

Receiver

and

sender

would mutually arrange a scheme

of lettering
this

by

this aid of colours,

and

if

at

any time
of

were
colours

discovered

re-arrangement

the

would alone be necessary for a fresh

departure, and these variations could be

made

OR CIPHER-WRITING
in

97

an immense number of ways.

By way

of a
:

start

we would suggest
and green

the
N"

following key

A = red

B = yellow and green C = red and yellow

D= yellow and

black

E = red and black F = black and yellow Gr = green and black

= white and red O = green and white P = black and green Q = white and green R = white and black S = yellow and white
T== white and yellow

H= yellow and red

and yellow K=green and red L = black and red
I

J= green

W = black and white

Z= black and
black

U V = green and green

X=red and red Y = yellow and yellow

M = red and white

Beads of turquoise blue colour can be used

to

divide

words, or

they

may

be
If

inserted

mywliere as non-significants.
themselves
of

the

beads
initials

are

not

available,
;

the
if

the

colours will suffice

thus,

we

can-

not actually express

bead,

A
the

by a red and a green

we can by EG.
for

As B
blue

is

already refor

quired

black,

must be T
it

turquoise.

Ignoring

T wherever

comes,
it

the letters

must always be read

in pairs, as

takes t\vo of these to signify the real letters of

98

CRYPTOGRAPHY
number
be
of
in-

the message, and, knowing this, any

accidental breaks,
as

misleaders,

may

troduced.

"Mind

see Cecil"

would therefore

read

EWGTWRYBYWEBTEBBYTBTBBTGYBRT or RWTGY WRYBT TWJftB TRBRBT RTBRYG YBRTT, or any other

arbitrary breaking-up of these particular let-

ters into

sham words
to

to mislead

investigators

that

we chose

make.

In Fig. 10 we have strung the actual beads,

marking

their colours
1

by the signs used

is

in

heraldic work.

Their message

the begin-

" Mind see Cecil." ning of

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

form of early cipher may

11.

be

Fig.
of

Eacli

of

the

persons

desirous

communicating with each other

strip

was provided with a similar

or stout
card.

of board
this

Along the top

either

of

was

placed the alphabet,

according to the

common

order of the letters or in any irreg-

ular fashion, so
their appearance

long only as they

all

made

somewhere

in the series.

knot was then tied at the end of a piece of

string,

and by
the

it,

through a hole made at the

the string was held in
its

top

of

strip,

place.

The

sides of the strip of

wood

or card-

board were notched, and the string was wound

round tightly and was 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

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

Green is indicated horizontally and vertically disposed. by inclined lines downwards from right to left.

100

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

OR CIPHER-WRITING
but
t]ie

IOI

second line only gives CH, as the

A we

want next comes before C and

bet and must therefore
If

in the alpha-

come on the next row.

we marked

it

on the same row, we should get

is

ACH, and
drawback
that,

this

no use to
of

us.

The only
is

to this

method

communication

unless

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

GJSTU,

to the
this

great bewilderment of

the

receiver

of

enigmatical message.

Lord Chancellor Bacon was an enthusiast

in

cryptology.

He
three

laid

down

the

law in

quite Johnsonian style in this

and many other

of

matters.

The

essentials

good

cipher, he very justly declared,

were

facility in

execution, difficulty in solution, clearness

suspicion.

from

This latter item

is

perhaps not
safety

very clearly put; his meaning

the decipherment of those for

is

from

whom

the com-

102

CRYPTOGRAPHY

munication was not intended.

A method
our

that

he himself devised,
introduced as

he with calm assurance

of

"a cypher

own which

has the highest perfection of a cypher, that

of signifying

omnia par omnia, anything by

This

everything."

sounds

most convincing

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

It is 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
and

a cipher
it

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 different letters.

If

then

we
it

desire to send a message of fifty

letters,

would

be

necessary to
It
is
if

use
far

two
too

hundred and

fifty.
;

therefore

slow in operation

even

one had the various

it

formulas at one's finger's ends,

would involve

OR CIPHER-WRITING
five

103

times

the

labour

of

ordinary writing.
five

AVhen we once know that each group of

stands for a
single
letter,
it

is

as liable of
of decipher-

discovery, on the

same principles

ment, as a simpler arrangement.

Of course,
clue,

if

Bacon had not published

this

the task

would have been immensely more

it is

difficult,

and

only just to his method to frankly and

fully say so.

The cipher was composed

as follows

A=AAAAA

104

CRYPTOGRAPHY

In the same cumbrous fashion, and based

on the same
following,

lines

as that of Bacon,

is

the
old

which
:

we

extract

from

an

encyclopedia

A=lllll

OR CIPHER-WRITING
only the second letter in each
all

105

word
"

counts, and

the rest

is

mere padding
abrach

Baldach abasar
abrai
disaria

lemai

clamech

misach
all,

athanas."
bibit,"

This, after
it

only signifies

" Abel

and

has taken fifty-six letters to give

nine

In some of the Elizabethan ciphers neither

letters

nor figures are used; but in place of

find

them we
those
this,

merely arbitrary forms, such as

in

we have represented
though
it

Fig.

12.

But
mys-

looks at

first

sight very

terious,
in
it

has no more real element of

difficulty

than the use of the letters of the alphabet.

106

CRYPTOGRAPHY
whether we
spell

It is really immaterial

cat

with a curved line (that

0),

we have

learnt to call
to a point

and two sloping

lines

coming

and a horizontal

line across their centre (that

we have got used to as A), and a third symbol made up of an upright line and then a horizontal line across
its

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

soon learn to recognise this form when we see

it,

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
Fig.

letters, or in

these grotesque forms of

letters in

12, as in the
is

which

this

page before us

printed.

OR CIPHER-WRITING

107

Why

should not the ten upper forms in Fig.

12 spell cryptogram just as well as

CRYPTOwe

GRAM
are not.

does

In the one case we are used to

the forms employed,

and

in the other case

That

is

really the only difference.

CHAPTER
Is

III

an undecipherable cryptogram possible P The art of deciphering Keys for the analysis of a cryptogram Ot't recurring letters Great repetition of vowels Patient
perseverance Papers 011 the subject in Gentleman's Magazine of 1742 Value of general knowledge Conrad's
rules

The

letter

Its construction

Noughts and crosses cryptogram Ciphers from agony columns of Stan-

"

"

Prying busy bodies Alternate letters significant Ciphers based on divers shiftings of the " " Inletters Arithmetick Cryptogram in Cocker's in ventor 1761 of supposed absolutely secret system His hopes 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 Cryptoconstruction

dard and Times

grammic trade advertisements Examples of cipher The "grill" cipher The "revolving grill" The " slip-card Forms of numerical cipher The Communi"Mirabeau" Count Grousfield's cipher cation by use of a dictionary The "Newark" The " " The " two-word" cipher Conclusion. Clock-hands
? '

fTlHE
"*"

question as to whether a cipher has

all

ever been devised that could for

defy
patient

time
will

successfully

investigation

naturally occur to our readers.

Some would

have

it

that as

all

the advantages are in favour

KlS

CIPHER- H'RITIXG
of the ingenious cryptographist,
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 yery reasonable one.

would

tell

us that nothing that the wit of

is

man

could deyise

safe

from the wit of some other

man

to search out.

Howeyer

this

may

be,

and the point, of course, can neyer be

settled,

we must bear
ordinary

in

mind that what

to

the

man

is

hopeless

may

not proye so to

the deftly- trained ingenuity of the expert.

cryptogram in Paris that was deciphered some

few years ago for the French Goyernment took
accomplished experts just six months to lay
bare,

and the ordinary amateur would scarcely

attack any problem with such dogged deter-

mination as that.

In the art of deciphering

the case that " practice

it

is

emphatically

makes

perfect."

There

are certain yery definite rules, too, that proye

of

immense

assistance

in

the

analysis

of a

10

0? YPTOGRAFHY

cryptogram.

There

are

special

conditions,

however, for each language,

being
a

"

0," for example,

much more
"

freely

used

letter

in

Spanish or Italian than in English.

English language

In the

"
is

the letter that occurs

with

the

greatest

frequency.
is

The

easiest

cipher to translate

that where each letter

in it always stands for

letter,

some other individual

where K, for instance, always means F,

be recognised as

or

P may

all

through.

Where
be, are

too the symbols, puzzling though they

always arranged as in an ordinary com-

munication,

and broken up

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

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

M,

or X.

We

add greatly,
all

too, to the puzzle if the

words are
rily

joined into one, or are arbitra-

broken up.

Non- significants
it is

also

add

to

the difficulties of analysis, and

a good plan

OR CIPHER-WRITING
to cut out every
like

III

" and " and " the " and such-

common words

that can at

all

be spared.

The English tongue abounds in monosyllables. Of course the letters that necessarily qccur 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,

been, seen,

agreed, speed, are examples.

EA
ease,

and

OU

are the double vowels that most comas in pear, early,

monly go together,

and

or our, cloud, or rough.

be A, or
is

I,

or 0.

Of

all

English words

single letter will " "

the

the

one that most commonly occurs, and

it

"and" runs

very closely.

If,

therefore,

we

have determined that the commonest symbol of

all
if

in our mysterious

cryptogram

is

E, then
of three

a very constantly recurring

word

letters

ends with this same symbol, we

may
and

begin to hope that

T,

we have found out

EE, 00, LL, SS, are the doubled

letters

112

CRYP TOGRA PII Y

most
usual

of

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
so,

on,

or,

and

ends do, go, no,

to.

In by far the great

first

majority of words the

is

or second letter

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.

take

"We

any word
occur,

in

which any one

more

of

them

and substitute them

for the symbols standing for them,

and then

just

put dots for the others until more light

dawns.

Very often

this

proceeding at once
if

suggests the whole word, and

at

so

we have

once gained a knowledge of other charac-

OR CIPHER-WRITh\G
tors

113

and soon get a long way towards buildIf,

ing up our key.

for

instance,

we have

discovered by analysis that X, L, and

really

are

A,

I,

and T, and we come across the

set
,

words

down

FXLTNXO JPXPLER, we AI A TATI as follows

:

them
and
it

presently begins to

dawn upon us
5 '

that the
fit

words "railway
AYe
If

station

would
this

just

in.

at

all

events

accept

tentatively.

we

are right
for

we have added
see

largely

to

our

store,

we now

that

F must

really be
will be

R,

T must
is

be L,

must be W,
be
0,

Y, J
1ST.

S,

E must

while

represents
ters

Our knowledge
the

of three letIf

has thus given us seven others.

find in

we

>resently

cryptogram the group

that

of

letters

JQXTT, we remember
to be

we

know
station

really

A,
us

and
to

our

railway
that
it

guess
S,

has

led
is

believe

is

really
if

and T

L;
into

we
S

try

how

looks

we turn JQXTT

ALL.
shall, so

This

suggests to us small,

stall,

and

is

114

CRYPTOGRAPHY

either

or

we know

that the

word

is is

not

stall,

because
P.

T we
or

already

know
at

shown by

One
will

two endeavours

words

containing

determine for us whether we

or H.

shall read it as

Z, the

commonest
to be

symbol of
E, and

all,

have decided at once

recurs.

PQZ THE, so Q

often
is

T'E
there

is

evidently

not M,

for
is

is

no word

THE,

but H.

JQXTT
failure,

therefore

SHALL.

So by patient analysis, sometimes by success,

sometimes by sometimes by guessing

what
it

it

might

be,

sometimes by seeing what

step
pull

could not be,

we

by step press

on.

.The
it

man who would

make

down a

wall finds

difficult to

a start, but

when he has
first

once got his pick fairly into a joint the

.brick is presently

got out, and then

brick removed
first

all

the

others
the

follow,

every

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,

OK CIPHER-WRITING
until presently the great block of

115

many

tons

in

weight

is

riven in twain.
9

In the Gentleman

Magazine for the year

1742

will

be found an interesting series of

the
art
of

papers
s*

on

deciphering,

entitled

Cryptographia

denudata" the author being

Conradus.
After
proceeds,

David

Arnold

general
curiously
to

introduction

he

first

enough,
exposition

in
of

an
the

English

magazine,

an

German language,

pointof

ing

out

the

characteristic

recurrences

letters,

terminations of words, and so

forth,

by
in

which
that

one

may
to

attack

cryptogram

language.

He

then

proceeds with
the

equal

thoroughness
then the

analyse

Dutch

language,
Italian,

Latin,

and Greek.

He

English, French, " The Art writes

:

of

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-

116

CRYPTOGRAPHY
who

ing those of the Certainty of the Art

have hitherto questioned

found
ready

it.

There are to be
are

Men
to

of

uncommon Capacity who

to be expected

assert
is

with great Confidence that

no Success
so

from Enquiries

doubtful and

uncertain in their Nature.

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

Writings composed of Secret Characters, so

that the true sense and words of the Writer
shall

be exactly known.
it

This Art, however

difficult
its

may

appear, will be admired for

it

Simplicity and the Ease with which

may

be attained,
stood,

when

the Theory of

it

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
ifc

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 Liberality. " He that in this is

engages

Study

supposed

to 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

should be acquainted with several Languages,

and

particularly

Latin,

which

is

most

fre-

quently

made use

of in secret Writings;

and

he will be a greater Master of this Art in proportion

as
his

Knowledge
for

of

Languages

is

more extensive;

the

Decipherer
is,

has to

determine what the Language

secret

in

which the

Writing

is

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

IlS

CRYPTOGRAPHY

the Sense of any Passage

discovered,

may

be more easily
to

and one word contribute

of

the
or

Explication

another.

Cryptography,

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
the

produced as
to

requires
explain.
in

utmost Acuteness
the whole as

detect and

Upon
Learning

Man

advances

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

are
to be

the Eules are drawn, which

used

as Clues in the Labyrinth of Cryptography."

Truly

our

author

magnifies
it

his

subject!

He who would
who
Primate of

shine in

would be a man
or

might have
all

been

Solicitor- General

England had he

not
I

chosen

the path of the cryptographic expert

OR CIPHER-WRITING

119

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

outnumbered by the Consonants, the Yowels must therefore recur most frefour times
quently."
as follows:

The

rule that

is

based on this

is

"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

Thus we are gravely told, if the writing be in Dutch any three-letter word must
all.

120

CRYPTOGRAPHY

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

arg,
ast,

bad, baf,

bak,

bal,

ban,

bas, bed,

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

bok, bol, bon,

bos,
dat,

bot,

biy,

bnl,

bus,
des,

dag,
die,

dam, dan,
dik,
dis,

das,
dit,

dek,

den, der,
dol,
elf,

doe,
eer,

dog,
eet,

dop,
elk,

dor,

dun,
erf,

dur,

dyk,

een,

end,

eya, fjn, gal, gat, gek, git, plus one

hundred
through

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
in

declares

that

any
at

three-letter
all

word

that language
list

must,
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,

and men

but to these we

may

at once

add

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

OR CIPHER-WRITING
mop,

121

mow,

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

through the alphabet would prodigiously

crease
eight.

in-

his

grand

total

of

one hundred and

practical
into

His formula to be of
therefore
of

use

should

be

extended
will

"Any

word

three

letters

be found to be

one of the following one hundred and eight,

unless,

perchance,

it

may

be one out of the

many

scores of other three-letter

words that
Be-

we have omitted
sides, in

to include in our list."

any

case, the list 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

it

further than to say that

is

either one of
of

those a
list

three,

or,

more probably, one out

of

four or five hundred

other words,

the

help

given

is,

after

all,

not

of

great

122

CRYPTOGRAPHY
Setting up
as

value.

some

little

authority
to

on

the

matter

ourselves,

we may add
all

these rules of
to

Conrad's one which he seems

:

have

overlooked

that

words

be-

ginning with

will

be found to be either

horse or hallelujah, or else one of the hun-

dreds of

other words

that

commence with

that letter.

The

letter

is

the commonest in use of

all

all

the letters, not only in English but in

of

the European languages.

Statistical enthusi-

asts assert that out of every

thousand

letters

in

any ordinary page

of

prose, one
will in

hundred

and thirty-seven of them

this
letter.

English be
that

This
are

is

matter

our

readers,

who
once

statistic

and
the

enthusiastic,

can
them,

at
if,

check

from

page before
it

indeed,

we may assume

to fulfil

the conditions named, and not sink beneath

even ordinary prose.

letter

In a French book the

about
per

should

occur
times

one

hundred
a

and

eighty-four

thousand,

OR CIPHER-WRITING

123
in

much

larger

proportion

than

English

while the

German language runs the French

being one hundred and seventythousand.

very
eight
are
lish;

close,

per

Spanish
in this

and

Italian

about the same

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

IS"

and three per thousand, the

at about one
at

hundred and ten in 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 that

he had, for the fun of the thing, joined in

I2 4

CRYPTOGRAPHY
of the

some
in of

"

"

agony-column

advertisements
perplexity

the newspapers, to the

the
original

great

correspondents,

and

he

CL

OR CIPHER-WRITING
endeavour
to

125

get hold of; and the final out-

come might be considered a confession that

he was beaten
at least, he never replied to

our communication.

The form

of

cryptogram

we employed

is

rather a good one, and

it

we

have often used

on postcards,
in

etc.

Proschool-

bably most of our readers

their

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 the

go.

13,

and place

in the

made by them the

in pairs,

various letters
far
it

of

alphabet

so
fact,

as

they will
use

As a matter
of

of

will

up

eighteen
lines

them.
as

Then

place
see,

two other
the right
in

X-wise,

we may

to

of

the

previous

arrangement,
spaces the
that

and
these

the

four
place,

intervening
also

make
eight
in

in

pairs,

remaining

letters.

These

letters

may be arranged

126

CRYPTOGRAPHY
Should
it

any order.
that
trated

at

any time appear

person
has
pene-

some
the

unauthorized
mystery,
to
shift
it

would
letters

merely

be
start

necessary

the

and

happily again.

This

shifting

would

be

ar-

PW EC KY
UH LS

ZD QT IM

JECkXCVVUJREaEE
VOLIECFlUQCFirOEHFIG. 14.

ranged as
of letters,
thirteen.

follows:

On

counting

the pairs

we

find,

of course,

that there are

Two
and
1

in the first space,

on.

two

in the

second,

so

Our

present

arrangeIt

ment

is

CL

R X 3NQ,

and

so forth.

OR CIPHER-WRITING
is

127

evident that
the

spondent

we merely new formula,

if

sent our correas

IP
into

W2 EGr
whose

3KY, any
hands
this,
it

unauthorized

person
it.

fell

might reconstruct

To avoid

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
it

have

the

upper part of Fig. 14 given the new combination,

and the formula for

might run as

follows:
so
forth.

12F037CJ5LS910KA9IM4UH, and

We

should,

on getting

this,

draw

out
the

the

skeleton lines

and

lightly
to

number
construct

spaces,

and

then proceed

our key, putting

-in

FO

in the twelfth space,

LS

the

fifth,

taking no notice of the CJ, as

we have no
To use

thirty- seventh space to

put

it

in.

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
it
it

clearly a square; the

would be
line
;

square,

except

that

has no top
is

the

space to right of

also

three-

line figure, the square

being
;

incomplete

for

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 Y-like form at top, a reversed

at base,

and two other Y's that are turned

For the
first letter

sideways.

in

each space

we merely draw
square,

that

space; thus
letter

is

and the second

dot in
the
space.

we

represent

by a
cross

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

the
at

mesthis

we send by
our

it

"
sat

On

arriving

Frank

down."

Below

the

OK,

CIPHER-WRITING
Fig.
14,
this

129

second
other

combination,

we

place

an-

communication; but

our readers,
find

with the
difficulty

key before
in
it

them, should
for

no
so

deciphering
to them.
is

themselves,

we

leave

The following

from an advertisement

in

one of the London daily papers, the Standard

of April 14th,

1892 :-

vhkk mns rzx vgzs li Nq vgzs rvdds sghmfr Izx qhrd tmrntfgs. He h bntkc nmkx ad pthsd rtqd, H sghmj h'c cqno tonm sgd

SN gzud
!

NADX.

sgntfgs,

ektqd
It is

AKZQMDX.
each letter

of

very easy construction,

being merely one forward in reality from the

one here given, so that what

L,

is

B
so

is

really
on.
It

what
the

is

is

really

W,
of

and
one

is

poetic

effusion
It

"

"

Blarney

(AKZQMDX).
"

read as follows :-

I will not say

what I have thought, Or what sweet things may rise unsought.

If I could only be quite sure, I think I'd drop upon the flare."

In the following from the Times, two letters

130

CRYPTOGRAPHY
"
:

ahead of the real one are used

Ngv

og

mpqy aqw
and ease

ctg

uchg cpf gcug oa vqtvwtgf

"

okpf," meaning,

Let

me know you
F was

are safe,

my

tortured mind."
substituted

In another Times notice

for A, Gr 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,
of at

"

know

you," evidently the

work

some third person, and the correspondence once came to an end. That this penetramatters deemed secret must often
is

tion into

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

perhaps

allowed to
of

say

here

the

illustrations

decipherment

we

have here given are published examples, 1 that

1

From an American book

"

of

the

"

Curiosities

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 crypto-

graphy do
measure

at their

own

risk,

and

in

some

may

be thought to be issuing a chal1

lenge to busybodies,
into

that nevertheless to pry

is

matters that do not concern one

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 confor

us,

versation not intended

or any

other

such meanness.

Some advertisements
so

are so abbreviated, as

much
so

business or sentiment has to be got

ito

narrow a space, that they verge on

"

}he

cryptographic without any such intention

for instance,
so

-as,

hpy

in

nw

hme, so

mkf an mre hpfl

1

fr yr ftre."

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

term a

rally to define those

to that of others.

132

CRYPTOGRAPHY
may
as

Several forms of cryptographic writing

readily be devised, not by changing the various

letters

into

others,
a,

but

retaining
b,

them

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, sixtb,

and so on,

shall be the significants, the carriers

of the message. to

For instance,

if

we
"

desire

send the following communication,

at

"

Get

away

once,"
astro

it

would read

as

Lgpestra
it

rwnapyi

eniciel."

We
thus

could break
letters

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

to count.

letter

that
of

is

It just doubles the length

the communication, a message

of

thirty
it.

letters requiring

another thirty to conceal

OR,
Iii

CIPHER-WRITING

133

substitution for this

letter

we may make
of

the

first

of

the

first

word, the second of

the
third,

the second, and the

significant letters,

third

the
first

beginning again at the

of the next, then the second of the following " " Get one, and so on. away at once would

then read,
of

"go pey
ei."

rst al
this

Iwn afa yon ta

sft

pn

loc

By

means we have

to

employ a considerable number of non-significants.

This
in

is

certainly a

drawback, and
felt to

it

would
if

an especial degree be

be so
all

the

message to be conveyed were at

a lengthy one.

Such

devices,

however, have

the

advantage that the letters employed to spell out the communication are the real letters.

There
tuted

is

no need to learn a code of substi-

characters,

and one

is

also

spared the

chance of error that

of

may

spring from the use

"

such a code.

In the far-famed Cocker's

1

Decimal, Loga-

"

According to Cocker,"

i.e.,

an accuracy of statement

The phrase occurs in a farce entirely beyond question. called The Apprentice, and hit the popular fancy.

134

CRYPTOGRAPHY
and Algebraical Arithmetick," pubthe

rithmical,

lished

in

year 1684,

we

find,

following

the preface, a letter in cipher.

in
is

All the vowels

this

remain unchanged;

is
if

A, and

E, neither more nor less; and

we

replace

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

by
a

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

the ordinary arrangement

of the consonants,

we

shall find

no

difficulty

in reading the letter.

By

this

code Constan-

tinople

would be

XOLGFALFILOKNE.
from a man who

In the Gentleman's Magazine for 1761 we

find a rather interesting letter
flatters himself that

he has devised an abso-

lutely

safe

cryptogram.

He

declares
to

that

"when
out,

the present

war was ready

not

break
secret

gentleman,

versed
to

in

alphabets, but
subject,

chancing
to

think upon

the

happened
the

hit

cipher,

properties

of

upon a kind of which appeared

to

very

extraordinary,

not

only

him

but

also to

some

of

his

friends not apt to

make

<9A ,

CIPHER-WRITING

135

rash
lay

conclusions.

He

therefore

without dein-

endeavoured to convey notice of his

:

vention to his late Majesty

judging

it

might

prove

advantageous to the Royal

critical

Measures

during a great and

at once in so

war

to be

waged
of

many and

so

removed parts

the world.

But

this attempt,

and likewise a

second, had no effect. " In the

meantime some

of his friends, solici-

tous to

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

CRYPTOGRAPHY
art.

about the importance of such an

it
it.

But
in

was not

his business to

meddle further

" It occurred to the author,

failed of

when he had

making

this art

advantageous to the
sell

British
it

dominions, that he could easily

upon the Continent; and, probably,

for a

sum not

inferior to a large Parliamentary re-

ward, to which

many thought

it

entitled.

But

upon consulting

his principles

he found that

no crowned head of Europe was rich enough

to purchase

from him an advantage over the

monarch
"

of his

own

country.
at

Thus disappointed both

reflecting that
to this

home and

abroad,

and

secret

may

happen,

by lying by,
himself to

be buried with him, he set

it,

consider what to do with

and

hath now at length he thinks hit upon the

best

means
is,

of

making
it

it

useful,

and

this

method

to publish
later,

to all the world."

century

we may

parenthetically
so far as

presume that had the matter got

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 have been inundated with prospectuses

of

the

Universal

Cryptogram
" at
step,

Company,

Limited.

He

goes

on

to

say

that

first

he

saw several objections

disappeared as

to this

but they
rea-

soon

as

the

following
:

sons presented themselves, viz.

First,

that

Supreme Wisdom hath locked up every man's secrets, good and bad, in his own
the
breast.

Secondly, that

human wisdom hath

inflicting

imitated the

Supreme, by

punish-

ment on those who

secrets or letters.
lication of this art
it

unlawfully break

open

Thirdly, that after the pub-

Governments

will 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

clauses.

And

this,

the inventor imagines, will prove

138
of

CRYPTOGRAPHY
singular

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

1

of nations.

"

These are the principal reasons that deterto

mined the author

still

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

hand with
he would

so advantageous a

weapon.

And

much

rather cliuse thus

to devote

this art to the particular service of his

1

country

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

OR,

CIPHER-WRITING

139
;

than to that of his fellow-creatures in general

For, he
citizen
is

not (as some style themselves) a

world,

of the

nor

ever will be,

till

the world becomes one city.

Again, he will

never publish this secret

till

he hath given

six months' notice previously of his intention

to do so.

And,

if

during those six months

gentlemen of sense and knowledge will be so

good as to publish reasons proving that more

evil

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 duty to publish
it

then

think
delay.

without further
evil

Query then, whether more

wil]

or

more good
tion?
"
it

result

from such a publica-

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
set
forth.

and read

at sight as above
all

Fourthly, though

the

men

in

the world were perfect masters of the art of

reading and writing this cipher, yet could any

two

of

them, by

agreement

upon a

small

variation (to be

made

at will), correspond with

impenetrable secrecy, though their letters were

to

pass open through the

Fifthly,
it

hands of

all

the

rest.

is

strictly impossible for all

it

the art of

man

to read

except the reader

be in confidence with the writer.

the author thinks
there
is
it

N.B.

That

may

be demonstrated that
it

never hath been invented, and that

to invent, another
inferior to
this

impossible

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
at

and deciphering
;

clerks, first

home, and next abroad

or to 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,
im-

every variation a

new

cipher, absolutely

penetrable even to those

this art,

who

are masters of

and

to all
if

human

sagacity.

" This art,

these
to

judged useful to the crown of

should be
:

realms,

first

communicated
be the sole
in his

the king only

it,

that he
so

may
it

possessor of

and

have

power

to disperse it 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 for

CRYPTOGRAPHY
an arcanum imperil.
It should

be made

death and total confiscation for any

man

to

betray this secret communicated to them by

the king
;

and
after

to the author also, should he

betray

it

he hath given

it

up

to

his

Majesty.
"

The

toil

and

delays

attending the best

ciphers

hitherto

invented are an intolerable

of Courts.

clog
see,

upon the dispatches by most

it

And we

of

the

letters

taken this war,

that

hath been resolved rather to pen them

in plain writing than to subject

them

to such

ruinous delays.
all

This cipher
delay.

is

exempt from
ciphers

such

toil

and

The best
fit

hitherto invented

and found

for business

are held,

by the best

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-

pervious to

all

human

penetration.

The author

hath never yet communicated the art of this

OR,

CIPHER-WRITING
;

143
will,

cipher to any mortal

nor indeed ever

or to

except to the king only,

general
;

mankind

in

unless a

dangerous sickness should

to reveal

happen
friend,

to oblige
in

him

them

to a select

order to 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,
it.

by the whole
dangerous
to

world
sick-

being told

Perhaps the
its

ness was too rapid in

progress

allow

the

summons

to the select friend, or in

all

view of
objects,

the realities of Eternity

mundane

even the great cipher

itself,

may have shrunk

once

into insignificance, or a

sudden accident may

at

have

befallen

him and
his

made

all

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 of

was long

Parliament.

In

the

various

series

of

the

Gentleman's Magazine
in

we

find

"

Proceedings
"

the

Senate of great Lilliput

all

running at

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
etc., of

Names

of the

Hurgoes, Climabs,

Lilliput," in

which both the assumed and real

given.

names
Climab

are
is

Hurgo is a member of the House

a Lord,
of

and
;

Commons

a debate therefore in which Hurgoes Castroflet,

Shomlug,
spoke

Toblat,
really

Adonbring, and Guadrert

carried

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

Headers of the weird

at.

tales of

Edgar Allen

OA\

CIPHER-WRITING

145

Poe

will

recall the great use of

cryptography

in the story of

"

The Gold Bug," where a Mr.

l

Legrand
of an

of

South Carolina becomes possessed

of

enormous treasure

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 parch-

ment with some mysterious writing thereon.

Should any of our readers up to this point have
applied the
this

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

in

question

was

supposed

to be a part of the plunderings of the notor-

ious

pirate

Kidd.

Half

buried

in

the

sea

sand, in close proximity to a wreck, a

1

piece

"

We

estimated the entire contents of the chest at a

million and a half of dollars, and upon the subsequent disposal of the trinkets and jewels it was found that we had

greatly undervalued the treasure,"

146

CRYPTOGRAPHY
011

of

parchment was found, and

markings
of

this

some few

mysterious
application

were noted.

On

the

heat this parchment revealed

lines of

some three or four

cryptogram, and

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

presently brings to light

the massive
wealth.

chest

which

holds

this

ill-gotten
lost

The

piratical vessel

was

and the scoundrels that

manned

it

drowned, and the memorandum found

of

by a mere chance on the desolate shore

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

147

concerns us

is

the cryptograph round which

the story turns.

This also
given in
in
it

we need not
full
is

set

out in detail, as
story.

it is

length in the
it

The weak point

that

is

not

at all the sort of cipher that a pirate captain

would
literary
of

concoct,

while

it

is

exactly what

man, with an eye to the

printing press,
find the

possibilities

the

would put
(t)

together*

Thus we
the

dagger

representing D,

asterisk (*)
(J)

standing for N, the double

dagger
is

being 0.

The
(;)

parenthesis mark,
is

(,

R, and the semicolon

representative of

T.

The

interrogation

mark

(?),

the

^f,

and the

colon also appear.

in this fashion

The message commences

53Ut305))6*;4826)4J

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

machine for carrying on secret correspondence.

48

CR YPTOGRAPH V
all

Probably
on
their

our readers must have noticed

or

gate-posts

door-steps

certain

mysterious

chalk-marks,

the

cryptographic

symbols of the great begging fraternity, telling

their

successors

what

fate

their

appeal

for
soft-

alms

may be
and

likely to

meet with.
a
little

The

hearted,

perhaps

soft-headed,

householder

who

dispenses liberally and with-

out enquiry to the bearers of every harrowing

tale

need never fear any

applicants,
his

falling

off
little

in

the

stream of

since

the

white
to

mark on

premises will always

suffice

bring on a fresh inundation, while the

man

who

finds (or puts) a square

it

mark on

his door
is

will be free, for

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 with a

prosecution*

6>A>,

CIPHER-WRITING
a kind

149

Business

people often employ

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

prepared

proper

article at a fair price

and pro-

five shillings, for instance,

he would not

feel
it

any

difficulty

whatever in legibly marking

with a good wholesome five that 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

stand for the

1234567890.
we
us 27/6.

With

this

key before us

see that an article

marked

MG /N" will

cost

We

occasionally find the

pushing business

man breaking

out as a follower of the crypto-

150

CRYPTOGRAPHY

graphic art with the idea of more effectually

calling attention to his goods.

An

energetic

dealer in potatoes largely circulated the follow-

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

nam

skniht retfa gnidaer siht,

uoy

lliw leef taht sih

si

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

151

seotatop, os taht
fo meht,

eurt eulav
i

dna retfa ecno gniyrt meht,

leef erus

uoy
8a

lliw taeper
i

ruoy redro morf emit ot emit.

i

wonk

eht seotatop era doog

evali

on

noitatiseh ni gnittup erofeb

reffo
:

uoy

ym

suoreneg

yldnik drawrof xis sgnillihs dna ecnepi

xis

dna

lliw ta ecno

dnes uoy eno derdnuh

dna evlewt sdnuop

fo

ym

tseb seotatop

"
! ! !

It will be seen at a glance that this cipher

is

merely the ordinary words reversed in their

spelling,

and with a very

little

practice

of

reading the reverse way one makes it out very " The potato man thinks after reading readily
:

this,

you

will feel that his

is

small puzzle and

It takes

generosity

novel

if

not interesting.

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
of

you may know the true value

them, and after once trying them I feel

sure you will repeat your order from time to

CR YPTOGRAPHY
time.

As

know

the potatoes

are

good, I

have no hesitation in putting before you

generous
offer
:

my

kindly forward six shillings

and

sixpence,

and

will

at once

send you

one hundred and twelve pounds of

"

my

best

potatoes

We may

add parenthetically that the pota-

toes supplied are excellent in quality, that

we

had pleasant experience

and

of

them long before

1

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

" stick-

remark may be made

fast paste,"

of the excellent
is

which nevertheless
as follows
:

advertised,

amongst other ways,

"

STI

CKPH
illus-

AST PAS T EST ICKS."

we may quote

As one more

tration of this commercial use of cryptography,

the following

advertisement
ot

"My
1

darling,

Rof tobacco og

Nospmoht,

ytrof evif, Kcirederf Teerts,

Daetspmah Daor."

And
!

that

we

did not write or suggest this crypto-

gram

OK,

CIPHER-WRITING
is

153

The process again

it

simple reversal, and from

if

the reader will readily learn where,

he be

smoker, he
pouch.

may

find

due replenishment of
of

his

Such trade uses

the crypto-

gram

are naturally of the simplest nature, and

is

present no difficulty, as the great object

that

the person whose eye

to readily

it

catches should be able

read the advertisement; to puzzle

in-

and baulk him would frustrate the whole

tention of the thing.

We have
turies

now

travelled throughout the cen-

from Julius Caesar and Herodotus to the

vendors of potatoes and the makers of paste

in this present year of grace
;

from the victors

of

Xaseby, the fugitives of Culloden, to the

the

shopkeeper of

Hampstead Road.

Our

rapid review of these hundreds of years has

not been,
at least

we

trust,

without interest, and

it

will

have shown that the subject has been

it

held of great importance, that

part in

has taken

its

making

history,

and

in the rise

and

fall

of great causes,

and that

it is

something more

154

CRYPTOGRAPHY
to the

and better than a mere shield

knave or

the veiled appeal of the love-struck swain in the columns of the newspaper.

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

155

the

"grille."

It is 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
1

placed
fills

beneath.

He

then removes the

grille,

and

up the

rest of the paper with

any other

letters

or words that occur to

to

him

as being calculated
off

throw any unauthorized third person

the scent.

The

receiver merely places on the

grille,

communication his duplicate

the message,
all

and reads

superfluous material being to

it is

him no

distraction, since

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

into an
is

entirely

innocent-looking affair;

but this

very
1

difficult to

do properly.
la grille',

Any
in

indication

In France, Le chassis or
Git-ten.

Germany, Netz

or

Tf)6

CRYPTOGRAPHY

of halting composition or the introduction of

any conspicuous word

._,_

at once attracts attention

-)--

ifY|E _... '...!.. .t.l.

iCO:

OK,

CIPHER-WRITING

157
it

distribution,

with necessary ammunition,"

would require an enormous amount of ingen"uity to so

tion

"

wrap round "rifles" and "ammuniwith innocent padding as to make the

it

message read as though

invitation

were merely an
tennis.
It
is,

for lunch

and lawn

therefore, better to face the fact boldly that

the message

is

undoubtedly of a secret nature,

and then leave 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,"

as

appears to the receiver

it;

when
is

the grille

is

placed upon

while Fig. 17

how

it

looks

when

dispatched, and

how

it

reads to any un-

authorized and grille-less person.

lines

The dotted

on Figs. 15 and 10 are of course only put

reader

that the

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 messenger, the second per-

son in the transaction could readily

make one

VIGOR

IVJERI

C/\ST<3

SOREOHlC
UpTI|jNOSP SI^EBL

Hive
LofTu
for

^HL
FIG. 17.

joLoic
IE

EST R.VH
it

himself or herself, as

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

fourth,

second,

and

seventh.

If

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

five

hundred miles away a duplicate

made.
It

grille,

could be

would

in the present case

run as

follows: 124703146802136804246051357.

We

have not taken the rows in regular sequence, as

the following of the
1, 2, 3,

4 and 5 in order after

noughts might suggest an idea to this

is

troublesome third person; but this

immaterial;
the same.
If

entirely

the different rows

are there all

we have
all
it

a 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

160

CR YPTOGRAPH Y
contrivance,
it is

similar

the
still

"

revolving

grille,"

though

perhaps

more puzzling.

The
it

grille this

time has certain openings made in

oo o
D
FIG. 18.

(of

course

we need

scarcely pause
is

to

say

that their shape, round or square,

a very
easier to

minor

point.

Sometimes

it

would be

cut a square hole, and sometimes to punch a

OR,

CIPHER-WRITING

l6l

round one)

but these openings do not, as in

the previous example, at once suffice for the

whole message.

To use

this grille,

we

first

FIG. 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

162

CRYPTOGRAPHY
grille

turn the

so that

BD

is

the upper edge,

and

in these

new blanks go on

writing our
filled.

message until these in turn are

then turn the card until

We
it

DC
and

is

the upper edge,

and proceed

as before,

finally

we

give

one more turn and bring the edge

top.

OA
we

to the

The ten openings

The

of Fig. 18 thus give

us in

rotation forty openings, as

result
is

see in

Fig. 19.

a very hopeless-looking

mixture of
20.

letters,
is

the effect

we

get in Fig.

This Fig. 20

the communication as the

as the receiver gets
all
it,

sender dispatches

it,

and as

it

appears to

who may

see

it.

To

reduce this chaos to

takes
his

full legibility, the receiver

duplicate

grille

and places

it,

AB
its

uppermost, on the message, and through

ten

openings he

reads " urgent

need."

He

then turns the

and

The

is the top edge, " the openings now read only hold ou." next turn, DO, tells him " t another we,"

grill until

BD

and the

final shift of the

card to

CA

as its

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

OR,

CIPHER-WRITING

163

the whole warning stands clearly before

him

"

Urgent need, only hold out another week at

J.P."
Fig. 19
is

most.

merely added to show

the revolution

how

the forty openings

made by

164

CRYPTOGRAPHY
have
already
in Fig. 9

We
is

shown 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

slip -card,"

we

take a long thin

of cardboard,
slits

and then we cut two long

in
it,

longitudinal

so as to about divide

the card into

centre

three

equal portions.
place

On
of

the the

portion

we

the

letters

alphabet in their regular everyday sequence.

We

then get a broader piece of card and

slip

this in the slits

on the

first

strip.

This second
in

card

is

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

column one, and

other columns.
will
suffice.

of

all

the

About four
slip

of these

columns

We now

the paper along,

and place any one

of these

columns alongside

OR,

CIPHER-WRITING
If

165

the

alphabet on the thin strip.

we

con-

tinued to use this column,

it

might gradually become

to

evident

any outsider
stood
;

what

letter

"for

or E, and so on

but we

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

next

shift will

be D, and then
it is

presently
on.

T,

and

so

The

shifting

must
re-

be intimated to the
ceiver,

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

66

CRYPTOGRAPHY
to.

have changed
2, 3,

These numbers would be

5, 6, 7, 8, 9,

1,

and

4,

the others,

being used
to separate

as blinds

and non- significants, or

words.
If

then we desired to
at once

seiid the
it

warning,

" If

you do not return

might read,

will

be too

late," it

ZU6SPR9TP6HPM2EDUIEW8G
The

U6VWPD3GQ8KGXX6HT5QZZXFQT.

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,

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

14 22, 8 22 13 23, 24 12 9 9 22 8 9, 12 21,

21-

OR,
1-2

CIPHER-WRITING
7,

167

15 15 22 20 22, 11
4, 7

19 12

19 18 13 20
7,

8,

4 18 15 15, 22 3 11 15 26 18 13, 8 7 26 13 23, 18, 20 12, 26 25 9

12 26 23, 13 22 3

14 12 13 7 19."

As

the matter

is

now

over thirty years old

there can be no objection to pointing out that

practise this simple reversal, the result stands forth as " R. Let me send correif

we

XY

spondence with rector of College

plain

it

will ex-

how

things

stand.

go abroad next
its

month."

Apart from the simplicity of

cipher
is

construction, this

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,

168

CRYPTOGRAPHY

not to employ single figures, such as 3 or 5

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

The message then runs continuously

no need to

there

is

comma

off

the 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.

D.

83, 65.

M.

72, 98.

V. X.

61, 76.

E. 41, 80, 34, 25. F. 68, 28.

77, 66.

W. 33,
Y. 89,

81.

0. 42, 49, 56, 23.

P. 47, 50.

67, 96.
97.

G. 29, 40.

H.
I.

22, 30.

62, 91, 86, 92.

Q. 33, 57. E, 69, 39.

Z. 24, 45.

This

is

the sender's

list

the receiver's key

would have the

figures

first,

and then the

figures they represent.

This latter would be

as follows

OR,
21. A.

CIPHER-WRITING
49. 0.
50. P. 63. A.
64.

169
72.
76. 77.

30.

H.

39. R.
40. G. 41.

M.

90.

K.
I.
I.

22.

H.

31. C.
32. L.

K.

V. 91.

23. 0.
24. Z.

51.

U.

65. D.

K
W.
D.
I.

92.

33.

W.

42. 0.

52. C.
56, 0.

66.
67.

N.

80. E.

93.

U.
A.

25. E.
26. B.

34. E.

43. U.
45. Z.

X.

81.

95.
96.
97. 98.

35. S. 36. L.

57. Q. 58.

68. F. 69. R,
70.

82. T.
83.

X.
Y.

27. B.
28. F. 29. G.

46. J.
47. P. 48. S.

T.

37. J.
38. Q.

61. V.
62.
I.

A.

86.
89.

M.

71.

U.

Y.

This,

it

will

be noted, sets free 11, 12, 13, 14,

15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 44, 53, 54, 55, 59, 60,

73, 74, 75, 78, 79, 84, 85, 87, 88, 94,

and 99

for use for

of people

any special purpose, such as names

places, or anything of such conit

and

stant occurrence that

would be an advanit

tage to be able to express

instead of

by two figures the twelve that would otherwise be

necessary to spell out London, or the twenty

that Parliament would require.

Twenty- seven

pairs of figures are thus set free as symbols

for

anything that

may

be decided upon be-

tween sender and receiver.

Any one

sending a dispatch by this code uses

likes

any figures he

from those standing

to the

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

The prying would-be decipherer is thus at once thrown off the scent. He knows, for inL.
stance,

that double
;

is

a rather

common
is

termination

but when the same letter

repre-

sented sometimes by one pair of figures

and
this

sometimes by another,
double L.
"

he

cannot

find

Shall/' for example,

would read
too, that

48223236 or 35303632.

He

knows,
;

E
it

is

the

commonest

of all the letters

but when

may

be 41, or 80, or 34, or 25, his chance of

it is

detecting

but small.

As our

readers have the key before them,

to
:

we
for

hand over

them the following message

decipherment

224247412680627769239834823

043393565218933344190.

By

" Mirabeau " the old method called the

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

171

marked.
letter

C, for instance,
first

would be the third

in the

five,

and would therefore

fourth
letter

be
of

o, o

while

would be the
group
of
five,

the

second
o
7.

and

would

therefore be

In practice, however, this

regular alphabetical

arrangement
tell-tale.

would

be

discarded as being too

6,
7, 8,

The

figures

9,

are all non-significants,

and the
his
is

receiver of the message

would merely run

of the

pen through them.

The number

row

written as the numerator of these fraction-like

symbols, while the lower

tion of the particular

number

is

the posi-

letter

in the

row.
:

good workable code would be as follows

1

QGALY; PKFUZ;
this code

2 5

DHNRX;
:

BIMSY;

EOTWC.

"Constantinople"

by

would read as follows

575^23^51

52
This
that
bols
is
it

2 j>8 3 J2 5 JL j5 3 49 3 3 83 390 T 38 2 10 4 17'

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 represymbol.

sented by a quite
exercise in the

different

As an

same key we hand over the

following to the consideration of our students

of cryptography
:

?A!AA^J>l_i.?A^ 29 4 38 27 18 3 17 1 19
4,

4,7

4'

Yet another numerical method

Count Grousfield.

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

figures placed over

each letter in the 4314314314 31 43 following way :Come at once to us

these

We now

proceed to write out our message for

dispatch, but instead of using

C we use

the

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

Our message would

read
it

GRNI DU SQDI

WP

YV.

Here
is

again

will

be seen that the same symbol

OR,

CIPHER-WRITING

173
letter.

not always associated with the same

Thus the twice recurring

is

in one part of
Gr,

our communication represented by

another by D, while the threefold
or

and in
E, or S,

is

P, in different parts of the message.

if

Of

course,

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 might,
31
niessao-e o

for

example, use 31042, and our

04

would then read,

the

Come

3104

23

at

once
key

1042

to us,
being,

cryptogram based on

this

FPMI

CW PNGG WP UW.

The

following statement, based on the key of 2130,

we

pass on to our readers:

KM-HSV-FQCQSHis

CJFO-LWJ.

The system

a very simple

and good one, the key being of so easy a

nature to remember or to transmit.

In some ciphers the real letters are em-

174

CRYPTOGRAPHY
only reveal their meaning

ployed, but they

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-WRITING
the
letters

175

way

is

to

wrap

up

amongst

divers non-significants,

and resting on some

such simple key as that the letters of the

message

shall

be those that follow anything

All suspicious-

that begins or ends with S.

/\BC

176

CRYPTOGRAPHY
type

a
in

different practice,
si
i

though that

is,

of

course,

the very last

ivi

thing

we

should

do
far

tels

fet

so

//

sigh be o sigh u

sign

has in

smu
sip

lo

peps ndo
ex.

ri

see tomo ss rr

ped

ow

The arrangement seen

good system the more

in Fig. 23 has someit

times been employed, and as

to

is

one fairly
our store,
it

add

to

we
is

give details of

it.

At

the same time,

of

by no

means
have

so

good as some
on.
it

the
is

others

we

dwelt

A
is

square

drawn, and

each face of

divided into

three equal parts.

From

these lines are so

is

drawn that the big square

nine
place

subdivided into
of

small ones.

In the
the

first

these
F, in

we
the

ABC,

in

second

DE

third Gr

H I,

and so on

in regular sequence,

until all our

squares are lettered.

We

then

place,

also in

each square, any one number

disposing them in an encasual
will

from one
tirely

to nine,

irregular

and
it

way.

In

our

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

through.

South

Kensington

WTl

178

CRYPTOGRAPHY
If

number.

any

treachery

or

underhand
sub-

work were suspected, one would merely

stitute

965213874, or any other fresh com-

bination.
If

two persons provide themselves with a

each
of

copy

the

same

edition

of

a good

dictionary, they

may be
in
is

able to

communicate

with each other

cryptogrammic fashion,
only
is is

though
fairly

the

method
words,

available
of

for

common

and

no use for

proper names.
not the word
finds a certain

The method
itself,

to write

down

but whatever word one

of places

number

back or

for-

ward.
"
ing,

Thus, desiring to send

off

the warnuse, find

Get away soon as you can," we

of

instead
in

these

words, those that

we

our dictionary three places behind them. So that our message reads, " Gesticulator
artless yolk

awakening sonneteer

camphor."

The system shown

and so
have
in
is

in Fig. 23 is ingenious, in Fig.

that

shown

13;

but

we
our-

thinking

them

over

devised

O/t,

CIPHER-WRITING

179

selves a combination of the two, to

will

which we
crypto-

give

the

name

of
is

the

Newark

gram, that we think

both.

an improvement on

For the dots of Figs. 13 and 23 we

substituted
lines,

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

third two.

letter

has one dot and the

In Fig. 24, the Newark, we have

of

got rid of the X-like cross

Fig. 13,
threes,

and
in

have grouped our

Fig. 23, the

letters

into

as

odd space over being given

to

second

E.

Having

got,

as

in

Fig.

13,

various arrangements of right angles, the one,

two, or three lines

in

may be

disposed in them

any direction we please.

The

six characall,

ters in

the vertical column are

for

in-

stance, variations of the letter L,

all

though they

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

180

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 same letters, except in the case of the

threefold

easy of

and therefore rendering it more One analysis and ultimate detection.

it

great advantage of

is

that the forms are

so distinctive
:

so simple in character
is,

and

it

therefore, a very easy cipher to write or

OR,

CIPHER-WRITING

l8l

The dots are absolutely meaningless, and are merely put at random as blinds.
read.

The intimation given beneath the alphabet

in Fig. 25 is as follows
is
:

" Clock-hand cipher

simple in character."

ABCDEEEFCHIJKL

A>v<n;u-m\i MM OPQR5TUVWXV
Z
FIG. 25.

The
one,

"

two word

"

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

182

CRYPTOGRAPHY
side.

one

In these squares we place the

let-

ters of the alphabet in regular sequence until

all

the

squares

are

filled.

The words

(see

Fig. 26) that "

we

have selected are " ordinarily

therefore,
will

thoughtful

this,

mean

ten

squares

wide

and
:

ten

deep,

one

hundred

squares altogether
bet

so that

we

get the alpha-

repeated

in

full

three

times,

and only
see now,

four letters short of a fourth.

We

by referring
OTJ,

to E, that

it

may

be either NT,

EH,

or

DTJ, while

double

S would be

LH, NG, OF,

or

RL

at pleasure.
still

Of course,
is

by taking more squares

longer

that

to say,

key-words

still

more

combinations

could be made, but

really ample.

the
is

present

number

is

There

no necessity that the

be of
equal
"

two key-words should

of letters.

number

"

Ordinary thought
squares,

would have
that

given us

fifty-six

and

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

>/?,

C1PHER-WRIT1NG
be words
at
all;

183

letters

should

one might

simply adopt any chance arrangement of letters

in their place.

The words

are only useful as

ORDINARILY
A

184

CRYPTOGRAPHY
to

we send
"

our

correspondent
"

the

words

ordinarily

thoughtful

on a post-card, no

suspicion
to

is

aroused, and he 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

Each

real letter

message

is

represented by two letters

cryptogram; 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

then,

by the

aid of his key, translate

it

into

ordinary wording. "

The specimen message we

to be with

append

is,

Hope

you by Tues-

"-ITNHRGDU YHOG RTOLJ LGNUAGIT RFRTDFOT IHRP YHRGRHLHITday

RORF.

The same message might be given

"hope"

in quite different characters; thus the

might

equally well

have been

IUOGILNT.
as

Whether there be such a thing

an absosay,

lutely indecipherable cipher one cannot " combination must but this " two word

come

OR,
sufficiently

CIPHER-WRITING
that
ideal

185
all

near

for

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

arfc

has

called forth.

While the art

the

secret writuses,

ing

may
it

be turned to

basest

to

many
while

should be a source of innocent re-

creation

and an ingenious form of puzzledom

value in time of peril
it is

its

such that
of

knowledge of
or
avert

may

save

hundreds
the

lives,
itself.

catastrophe from

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." Campbell's "Lives of the Chief Justices of

England"
" Ars

A.
"

Scribendi Character -

and

"

cipher of Lord
advertise-

w," the, 62.

Bacon, 103.

Astronomy, perverted in
aim, 12.

its

Abbreviated
ments, 131.

Abbreviation
tions, 64, 65.

of

inscrip-

B.

"According to Cocker," 133. ^Eneas Tacitus as a cryptographer, 24.

"

Backs
Bacon,

of

slaves a writing

surface, 53.
" of

Agony columns

the

cryptographic

newspapers, 129. Alfred the Great, secret

enthusiast, 101.

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.
187

Business ciphers for marking goods, 149.

188
C.

INDEX
Cooper, Mr., as a decipher-

Camden

Society, reproduc-

ing expert, 77, 79.

tions by, 76. "Century of Inventions,"

the, 82,

Copper,

writing upon, 46.

invisibly

94

"

Characterie," early book

Correspondence captured at Naseby, 69.

on shorthand, 63.

Count Grousfield's
172.
"

cipher,

Charlemagne

as

a crypto-

grapher, 26. Charles I. a great believer

in cipher, 68, 71.

Cryptographia
the,

denudata"

Crystal, art of writing on,

in writ42.

Chemicals, use
ing, 55.

of,

D.

Chemistry, a good or evil

as used, 12.

Dactylogy
16.

or

finger-talk,

Cherry

juice as a material, 40.

writing

Decipherment, the art

76, 103, 109.

of,

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

writing material, 57. Citron juice for secret writClarendon's
ing, 39, 46. "

Delight in the mysterious,

14.

Derivation of cryptography,
11.

Dictionary cryptogram, 178.

History of the

Kebellion," 69.

Disappearing writing, 44. Double letters in constant

use, 111, 170.

"Clock-hands"
cipher, 180.

form

of

Cocker's Arithmetic, cipher

in, 133.

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

bearer, 53.

Coinage, abbreviations on,

65.

Dummy characters inserted,

71.

Colours expressed by
98.

lines,

Dust or soot as a medium,

41.

Conrad us

on

art

of

de-

Dutch

three-letter

words,

cipherment, 115.

119, 120.

INDEX
E.

189
arable and

Gum

gum

tra-

Eggs, conveying messages

by, 43.

gacanth,42.

Egyptian hieroglyphics, 18.

English three-letter words, 120.
E, the

H.

Head

of

slave

as

writing
for

surface, 25, 52.

commonest English

Heraldic use of lines

colours, 98.

letter, 75, 110, 122.

Herodotus as an authority,
F.
42. Fig-tree juice as an ink, as mirrors signals, Flashing
16.

24.

Hidden,

not

necessarily

secret, 25.

Hieroglyphics not ciphers,

18.

Flight of James II., 82. French in the family circle,

19.

French Revolution, the,

G.
Galls, use
of,

14.

History of the Rebellion," Clarendon, 69. Human voice shut up in

tube, 16.

Hurgoes
in

and

Climabs

in

writing,

Parliament, 144.

38.

"

Gentleman's
reference
to,

Magazine,"
115, 134.
55.
I.

Glass, secret writing upon,

Inks, chemical, for writing,

in

Goats' fat

as writing ma-

Inscription

country

terial, 39. " " Gold Bug of Poe, crypto-

church, 75.

gram

in,

145.
J.

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

"
Grille

Jangling

of

bells

as

Mutiny, 20. " form of cryptogram, 155.

signal, 16, 95.

Juniper

juice material, 39.

as

writing

190
K.

INDEX
<k

Newark
179.

"

form of cipher,
use
of,

Kidd's treasure chest discovered, 145.

"

Nitrate of silver,
"

Knotted
bet, 95.

string

alpha-

56.

"Noughts and crosses "form

L.
of cipher, 125.

"

Ladder " form

164.

Nulles,
of cipher,

or non-significants,
of, in ciphers,

97, 110, 133.

Numbers, use

Legitimate use of cryptography, 13. " Les Notes occultes des

Lettres," 33.

72, 78, 104, 166, 172.

0. Objections to study of cryptography, 12.

0, largely used in Italian
"

"

Lexicon
the, 64.

Diplomaticum ,"
its

Litharge,

use in secret

writing, 39.

One and two

and Spanish, 110, 123. " form

of

M.
Marquis
of

cryptogram, 104. Onion juice as an invisible

Worcester's

book, 82, 94.

medium, 39, Orange juice

58.

as

writing

Mary Queen

of Scots' use

material, 39, 46.

of cipher, 82.

P.

marks, their use, 66.

Message

wrapped

round

Papal Inquisition, victims

of the, 43.

ruler, 47.

"Mirabeau" form
170.
"

of cipher,
"

Pepys, the Diary of, 63. Pharamond, a cryptographist,

Monas Hieroglyphica
Dee, 30.

of

26.

Pigeons as message-bearers,
52.

N.
Naseby, battle of, 69, 70. " " Natural of Magick
Porta, 33.

Poe's use of cipher in story, 145.

Polygraphia
graphia, 27.

or

Stegano-

INDEX
Porta

191

on

cipher
as

writing,
for

28, 33.

Soot
|

Smell, sense of, used, 94. or dust revealing

Potatoes

subject
of

cipher, 150.

"

messages, 41. Standard," advertisement

Publication

Parlia!

from, 129.

mentary debates, 144.

Steam
83
'

engine,

germ

of the,

R
Rawlinson
21-

Steganogr aphia, 27.

on

Sheshach,

stick-fast paste in cipher, 152.

Stick>

"Revolving disk" cipher,

80,110.
"

mess age

wrapped
by means
of

round, 47.
cipher,
I

"Revolving
160.

grille

String, message
of>

99.

"

Ribbon messages, 95. " Ring cipher, 87. ParliamenRoyalist and

tarian, 14. " "

use early cipher, 24. Sulphate of copper as

Suetonius,
i

an

nk

57.

Rule
92.

form

of cipher, 87,

Symbolism

of action, 15.

S.

T.
Taste, sense
of,

Scythian message to Persians, 15.

used, 94.

Sheshach as a cryptogram,
20.

Shop

prices in cipher, 149.

*Telegram-English, 65 the commonest The, Englishword, 111. advertisement "Times,"

Shorthand, early books on,

62, 63.

from, 129, 130, 166.

Tramps and
Trithemius,
1st,

their signs, 148.

"

Siglarium Romanum," the,

64.

cryptograph-

28, 104.

Sinking
"

of
"

ships

signal

Tudor

code, 69.

form of crypSlip -cord togram, 164.

period, great use of cipher, 68. " Two-word " cipher, nature of, 181.

192
Tyronian symbols, 62.
V.

INDEX
Vowels,
the

commonest

letters, 111.

w.
Watch-fire signals, 16. Waxed tablets, use of, 24,
-Jo.

Verney, Sir Ralph, cipher

of, 76.

Victims of the Inquisition,

43.

Weapon
12.

of the ill-disposed,

Vinegar

and

vitriol

as

Writers on
27.

cryptography,

inks, 37, 41,58.

Butler

&

Tanner,

The Sehvood

Printing

Works, Frorac. and London.

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