PR I N TED IN GR EA T BR I T AIN

PR E F A C E

I H A VE no intention of writing a complete of m anual

cryptography Finality even very relative is not
.
, ,

attainable in the domain of this art Besi des goo d .

,

manuals are in existence on t his sub j ect and the titles ,

of some of them will be found at the e n d of this volume .

A cryptographer of considerable experience however , ,

can al w ays a dd a few details even t o the most complete

works of this kind .

My obj ect in writing this book is simply t o explain

w hat cryptography is and to recall what it ha s been
,

from anti quity to the present day ; in short to relat e m y ,

experiences as a decipherer .

The rst part of the volume contains a description of

the principal systems of cryptography together with a
,

note on the r ole played by cryptography in history .

In the second part I relat e how I succee de d in decipher

ing a dozen cryptograms of various kinds In some .

chapters of this section I give the t exts j ust a s they came

into my hands ; but in the maj ority oi cases though
.
,

preserving the system of cryptography actually employed ,

1 have on grounds of expediency substitute d an a pp r o x i

, ,

m at e reading for the actual text and have modied the

,

plan and even radical features of the narrative in such

, ,

a way as to render abortive any attempt at i dentication

and localisation .
vi P REFACE
In the third part I give so m e advice in a general way
on lines which have prove d protable to m e and further , , ,

a certain number of tables and formul ae ; but while I

recogn i se these t o be very useful too much reliance shoul d
,

n o t be place d on the m un der penalty of striking the

,

wrong track a s I shall have occa sion to repeat farther on

, .

In point of f act a s I have foun d by experience in

, ,

cryptography the exceptions are innitely more frequent

than the rule .

TR A N S L A TO R S PR E F A C E

I have to acknowledge with grat eful thanks the valuable

assist ance I have r eceiv ed in preparing this w ork from
the lat e Mr W Jarvis L ieut Commander W W Smith
. .
, .
-
. .

o f Washington U S A Mr Albert M Smoot of the

, , . .

L edoux L aboratories New York and Miss A Wishart

, , .

of the Radio Corporation of America It was not an .

easy t ask substituting English t ext for th e examples of

ciphers in French and if there are any errors which h av e
,

inadvert ently escaped det ection I humbly beg forgiveness .

J . C . H . M A C B E TI I .
 C O NTE N TS

PA R T I
PA G E

D ES C R IP T I O N or T HE PR I N CIP A L S Y S T E M S OF CR Y PT
OGR A II I Y , W I T H H I S T ORIC A L NOTI C E

PA R T I I

EX A M P L ES OF DE CI P H E RI N G 47

PA R T I I I

LI S TS A ND TA B LE s

BI BL I OG R A P HY 156
V

PA R T I V

TH E PLA Y I

AIB C IP HE R S Y S TEM , 159

VI I
 A C K N O W L E D G M E NT

OUR than ks are due t o the following gentlemen

in connection with translating the book from the
o riginal French working o ut and substi t uting
,

English Examples for the French ones ,

adding ad ditional matter and seeing the w ork ,

through the Press :

Mr J C H Macbeth
. . . . .

Th e late Mr W J Jarvis . . . .

Mr H G Telling
. . . .

Commander Smith US N , .

Paymaster Commander J E A -
. . .

Bro w n R N , . .

TH E M A R C ON I I NT E R NA T I ON A L CO DE CC .
,
L TD .
,

M O H O US
ARC NI E, ST R A ND
,

L O DO
N N, W . C 2 . .

25 t h 1 922 .
 C R Y PTO G R A PH Y

PA R T I
DESCRI PTI ON OF THE PRI NCI PA L SYSTEMS OF
CR YPTOGRA PHY, WI TH HI STORI CAL NOTI CE 1

I .

E VE R Y ON E has at some time or other use d crypto

, ,

graphy or secret ciphers

2
, .

Who has not had occasion to make some note or t o ,

correspon d with somebo dy by dotting letters in a news

,

paper or book ? Even chil dren amuse themselves in

this way on their school desks But a pen or p encil is .

not necessarily re quired to make use of a secret language .

More than one of us in our young days have been

, ,

embarrasse d by a question f ro m the schoolmaster We .

have b een require d t o give a proper na m e in answer ,

but it is precisely this proper name which has slippe d our

memory So we have glance d at a co mr ade with whom
.

we ha d previously come to an understanding And the

'

l atter passes a nger over his hair his e ar his lips his , , ,

e ar and his n ose whereby we understand
, , Helen .

We have thus corresponded by means of mimetic

cryptography .

What is cryptography after all ? Cryptography is

,

the art of recor ding one s thoughts in such a way as t o

1
T h is P ar t I app e are d in t he B ib l iol h q u e u n ive rse lle ct r e vue
.

su iss e in Au g u s t Se p t m b e r
, e ,
n d Oc t o b e r
a 1 91 7 , .

2
F ro m t he Gre e k w ords p w d s e cr e t ; a n d yp d rf w t o w ri t e
x rr s, x . .
2 CR Y PT O GRAPHY
make them un rea dable t o others Particularly more .
,

over it enables two p ersons t o corres pon d under cover

,

o f complet e secrecy a t least in theory A man will .

perhaps invent on his own account a system of writing

, ,

by means of which he can wr it e an d preserve secret s

which he prefers not t o divulge while ensuring the ,

possibility o f rea di ng them again at any ti m e .

The great thinker Alexandre Vinet compose d a system

, ,

o f crypt ography which w a s a s simple a s he w a s noble

minded He use d it t o not e in his diary his qualms and

.

trials The phr ases he wrot e in this way can be read

.

almost at a glance .

The cele b rat e d Swiss physiognomist Jean Gaspar d ,

-

L avat er in his Dia ry of a S elf Ob serve r c onstructe d

,
-
,

several systems of secret wr iting to preserve his privat e

reminiscences These passages which are omitte d from
.
,

the new Fr ench translation are far more di fcult to ,

read than those of Vinet Eight years aft er his death

.

his countrymen ha d not succeede d in deciphering

them all .

Some years ago I was asked by a friend a professor at ,

a university in German Swit z erland to decipher a piece ,

o f yellow paper covered with strange charact ers found

, ,

among the records of a Swiss p olitician a contemporary ,

of Napoleon I and which was suppose d to have so m e

.
,

historical importance Here is a specimen a part of the

.
,

rst line an d one word of the sixth :

3i i
,

{ I ix l
I
 I
PRI NCIPA L SYST EM S OF CRYPT O GRAPHY 3

My friend ha d consulted his colleagues : one ha d declare d

it was not Sanscrit another that it was not Ethiopic , ,

an d still others that it was neither Slavonic nor Runic .

These professors spoke truly for it was French ,

This system was one of the easiest t o decipher There .

were some 800 signs in the text One of the signs the .
,

second in the above example and the most frequent , ,

occurre d something over ninety times while another the , ,

four th occurre d seventy times

, .

Now it is well known that in English French Ger m an , , ,

and most languages of Western Europ e the most f r e ,

quently oc c urring letter is e ; the letter which follows is ,

in F rench n or 3 according to t he writer ; in Ger m an n ;

, , ,

in English t ; in Italian t ; and in Spanish a In Russian

, , ,
.

the m ost frequently occurring letter is 0 but i i f the ,

language is written in Ro m an characters In Polish the

'

most frequent consonant is 2 ; not uncommonly three

may b e f ound in the same w o r d In Arabic and Tur ki sh .

the letter I e lif corresponding to the French stoppe d

, ,

or silent h occurs oftenest In Chinese a t least in the

, .
,

newspapers the characters found in order of frequency

are 2 ( chi o f genitive ) 4 ; (p uh not negative )
, , , , , ,

and I ( han g work ) T o ascertain which letters occur

, .

oftenest in any language one must calculat e f r e ,

q u e n c ies .

The next thing t o do is t o study which letters most

co m m only adj oin They are as in French and e n in .

German The most frequent groups of three are e m in

.

French the in English e m in German Che in Italian et c

, , , , .

Bulky w o rks have been w ritten on this s u bj ect c o ntaining

long lists more or less co m plet e of the vario u s articula
, ,

tions and disartic u lations o f words O f course this .

,

requires an enor m ous a m ount o f labour inv o lving a ,

4 CR Y PT O GRAPHY
statistical study of t exts containing many thousands o f
letters .

To revert t o our exa m ple I encountere d a di fculty at ,

the rst onset The sign which came second in order

.

o f frequency and which I suppose d shoul d represent

,
1

either It or 8 cause d me some e mbarrassment

, .

At last I abandone d the books I had been using and ,

began a new calculation o f the frequency o f letters in

certain authors and French newspapers In the letters .

o f Voltaire I noted that the letter u occupied the second

place in point of numb ers this being obviously due to the ,

fact that the words n ous and vous we an d you
are common in the epistolary and conversational style .

In the sixth line of the document a group of signs ,

o f fere d the p eculiarity of conj oining twice in succession

t h e t w o most frequent characters the suppose d e and
'

the suppose d u separate d by another sign an d followed

,

by on e occurring rather rarely Accordingly a new trial .

w a s m a de which this time prove d satisfactory

, These .

signs might imply the t ail o f the word va leure um or the

wor ds p eureux or heur eux This last prove d to be correct
. .

Among the rst signs o f our example the suppose d 6 ,

occurs preceded by the supposed u In French u fol .

,

lowe d by 6 occurs principally in the syllable que It .

coul d not be the word leque l here the sixth sign not being ,

similar t o the rst The group must read : Ce que A

. .

little farther on we meet again with the sign represent

ing 0 followed by the r of the word heure ua: and precede d
,

by c a group of letters which m ight for instance form

, , ,

the words cm n d cre t or bett er still cmre

'

, , , , .

1 The d e cip h e r m e n t i s b as e d n o t o n l y on s t a t is t ics b u t a l so , on

h ypo th e se s I n f ac t t he f a m o u s e xpre ssi on S u ppos e th a t

.
, ,

i s t he m o tt o o f t he cryp t ograp h e r
 PRIN CIPA L SYS T EM S OF CRYPT O GRAPHY 5

The result of the deciphering showed that there w a s

no question of a con S p ir a cy in this mystical writing but ,

of the enthusiastic sentiments inspire d in the author by

so m e charming person m e t at a fashionable party It .

was perhaps the rough draft of a letter The rst phrase

, , .
,

translate d was as follows :

,

What I a m writing you here is merely to relieve my

heart since I am writing to the dearest o bj ect in m y life
,

to divert the frightful restlessness of my days .

And so on for twenty v e lines -

.

Cryptography has provide d an ent ertaining el d for

novelists They pro duce heroes who mark in secret
.

writing the route to b e followed in order t o recover a

fabulous treasure or t o track the author of a crime or ,

perhaps learne d men who reveal some stupefying d is

cov e r y .

We have all rea d the story of the Gold B e e tle b y ,

the American novelist E dgar Allan Poe It will b e

,
.

remembere d that in order to recover the wealth buried

,

by Kidd the p irate it was necessary t o let the gol d

, ,

beetle fall from the left orbit of a skull attache d to the

highest branch of a big tree and to extend by fty st eps,

a line leading from the foot of the tree and passing

through the point where the beetle fell A hole w a s .

dug at the S pot reache d and of course an incalculable

, , ,

treasure unearthed .

Who has not read also Jules Verne s a n g a

,
J d a,
?

An d who has failed t o b e int ereste d in the researches

made by the Judge J a rr iq u e z into a Portuguese document
secret writing in order to save the life of an innocent
victim condemn e d to death 2

In A Voya ge in to the I n te r ior of the E a r th also by ,

Jules V erne we see a Danish scholar int ent on piercing

,
6 CRYPT O GRAPHY
the m ystery of a cryptographic parch m ent which is t o
reveal the route t o be followe d in order to p enetrat e into
the depths of our t errestrial globe But old Professor .

Lid e n b r oc k seeks t oo far and it is his nephew Axel a , ,

careless young man who attains the obj ect si m ply ,

enough by rea ding the nals of the lines backwar ds .

It may be pointe d out that the system deciphere d by

E dgar Allan Poe is comparatively simple He himself .

acknowledges this and claims to have deciphere d keys

,
1

t en thousand ti m es more arduous The system .

conceive d by Jules Verne in his A Voya ge in to the r

I n te rior of the E a r th is also very easy A s t o that in .

J a n g a d a the proble m is solve d thanks t o an incre di b le

, ,

combination of favourable circumstances .

In one of the lat est novels of the Ars ene L upin series ,

The H ollow N e e d le Maurice L eblanc ha s the idea of

,

unifor m ly substituting the consonants of a document by

dots Nothing can be sai d o f this system except that
.
,

it is ultra fantastical -
.

A nal exa m ple and this time historical : the poet

,

Philippe Desportes wrot e in cipher the life of Henri

King of France If this work ha d come down t o u s and
.

been deciphere d proba b ly not many edifyin g subj ect s

,

woul d have been found therein But it was burnt during .

the troubles of the Holy L eague 2

.

Some months ago I receive d a lett er from a foreigne r ,

who informe d me that he was very intereste d in crypto

graphy and that he wa nte d to work on some o f cial
,

t exts He begge d m e t o lend him so m e diplomatic

.

documents of which he woul d take copies for his u se

,

1
The ke ycryp t ograp h y i s t he f orm ul a w h ic h e n a b l e s a
in
t x t in ci p h e r t o b e re ad
e .

H e n ri M ar t i n H ts to ir e d e F ra n c e vo l i x p 4 7 2 n o t e
2
, , . .
, .
, .
 PRIN CIPA L SYS TEMS O F CRYP T O GRAPHY 7

and return me the originals You do not know m e . ,

he wrote but you can rely on me entirely : I am
,

n e utra l .

Despite this excellent recommendation I ha d nothing ,

to communicate However touche d by his candour I

.
, ,

gave him some a dvice L iving in a large town he ha d .

,

at hand a mine of small cryptograms : he had only to

look in the windows of the curio dealers and antiquaries ,

t ake note of a number of prices marke d in secret

characters and try to decipher them It is a crypto
, .

graphic exercise as goo d as any other There are certain .

methods which enable one to guess which letter means 5 ,

which 0 which 9 etc ,

1
I refrained from pointing them
, .

out to him since the value of these exercises lies precisely

,

in nding out these methods for oneself I wonder .

whether he followed my a dvice which I consider w a s ,

good .

We were j ust now recalling some S pecimens of secret

wr iting where the key was in the hands of only one person .

L et us now consider another order of cryptography ,

which enables two persons to correspon d under shelter

of secrecy We will leave asi de the various sympathetic
.

inks the employment of which a f fords no security

, ,

whether use d on paper or as has often b een seen in , ,

the course of the present war on the skin that o f the ,

arms or back s ince a si m ple che m ical reaction exposes

them i m mediately Conventional or shu f ed alphabets
.

alone are of any use .

An example of a cryptography wi dely in vogue in the

1
N OT E TR A N S L A TO R T hi s i s f or d e ci m a l cu rre n cy I n
BY . .

cip h e rs re pre s e n t i n g s d t he sa m e m e th o d s w o ul d rs t d is c l os e
. .
,

6, l , an d 0 .
8 CRYPT O GRAPHY
Mi ddle Ages is furnished by the se calle d alphabet of the
-

Freemasons of which the following is a S pecimen :

,

The following words w il l b e rea d without di f culty :

ME D -u r n n n
By writing the alphab et in a di ff erent order the ,

values of these angles an d squares may b e altere d

at wil l.

In D ecember 1 91 6 I w a s giv en a bund l e of papers in

, ,

Spanish cryptography t o decipher It w a s a privat e

.

correspondence writt en in the a b ove system a litt l e ,

complicat ed : there was not only one dot but t wo or ,

thr ee in most of the lett ers .

Among many other ingenious S yst ems may b e men

t ion e d that known as the zigzag which is constructe d
,

thus : Take a sheet of paper rule d in squares and write ,

along the t 0 p of the vertical columns the whole alpha b et

in any order you like Having done this superpose on
.
,

the page a sheet of tracing paper on which m ark a dot

,

in the vertical column headed by the letter require d ,

t aking care not t o m ark more than one dot at a time in

each horizontal line The dots once marke d you j oin
.
,

them b y zig z ag lines and send your correspondent the

,

drawing thus obtained .

 PRIN CIPA L SY ST EMS OF CRYP T O GRAPHY 9

An inquisitive intermediary would see nothing in it ,

especially if the docu m ent were brief whereas the ,

recipient will place the message receive d on t o a graph

si m ilar to that of the sender and will have no difculty ,

in deciphering :

P F C I O Q X D E R K Y J L S Z V M T A U G N B H W

I love you dearly .

He ( or she ) will reply in the same way or perhaps by ,

means of a threa d This is laid along the cipher alphabet

.
,

begi n ning on the left and wherever the threa d passes a

,

letter require d it is marke d in ink Arrive d at the right

, .

extreme of the alphabet the threa d is move d a section , ,

and a new start is made from the left and so on in ,

denitely until all the letters requ ire d have b een marke d .

Thus to write the words I reciprocat e woul d require
,

something over seven sections of the thread each cor ,

responding to the length of the alphabet This metho d

1
.

1
It is d l ss t o say th a t i f t h ig ag co t ai s f t y a g l s d
n ee e e z z n n n e an

t h th r a d b ars f t y m arks a d cip h r r co l d di scov r t h k y o f

e e e , e e e u e e e

b o th.
10 CRYPT O GRAPHY
of corresponding is very ancient It is some years .

since ZEn e a s the tactician recommende d a similar system

, ,

in his Po liorce te s l
.

Shorthand is not the same thing a s cryptography of ,

course ; it is not a secret writing seeing that hundreds of ,

thousands o f persons can make use of it Nevertheless .

,

an artful m ind can combine S horthand and cryptography

in such a way as t o form a fairly complicate d secret
writing In 1 91 3 I was hande d several dozen pieces of
.

paper which had been sei z e d at a p enal est ablishment in

French Switzerland They were covere d with shorthan d.

like characters which had resiste d the e ff orts of several

professional shorthand w riters Here is a fragment : .

l 77 32
/
t 4 / 4

It w a s the correspondence of two b andits authors of ,

rob b eries on a high scale who were int erne d at the two ,

extre m es of the prison They ha d transmitted their .

missives by means of a ve ry well organise d postal service .

T heir letter box was purely and si m ply the backs of the
-

volumes l ent them by the prison library They had .

a g reed in a dvance as to what books they woul d borrow ,

and each found the letter of the other by opening the

book wide which allowe d the little piece of p aper con
,

c e a l e d in the hollow space in the back of the bindi n g to

fall out .

They had other hiding places all ready in case of alarm - .

Their alphabet consisted of m ore than 200 di f ferent

signs 2 I will dwell a moment on the cont ents of these
.

1h ap t r xxxi
C e .

Th m th od o f d cip h ri g app l i d h r
2 e e e e n e e e was t o ca l c l a t
u e t he

fr q
e cy o f t h v rio s l i s d c rv s
ue n e a u ne an u e .
 PRIN CIPA L SYS TEM S OF CRYPT O GR APHY 1 1
messages in order to show the usefulness of a safe form o f
cryptography .

These two bandits M and S had drawn up well

, . .
,

scheme d plans of escape and were on the eve of carrying

,

the m out when the unforeseen contingency of the decipher

ing occurre d They ha d organise d their future move
.

ments an d proj ecte d the bur glary of a j eweller s shop

,

in an i m portant Swiss town in or der to get on their feet

before proceeding to e f fect a gigantic coup at a j eweller s

in the Rue de la Paix Paris or in Regent Street L ondon

, , , ,

Take the small cases wr ot e M t o S but never
,
. .
,

j ewels displaye d on velvet trays for j ewellers have a ,

tra ined eye and can at a glance detect whether any piece
,

is missing from a tray The large dealers always have

.

an assistant conceale d in a corner whose duty it is t o ,

keep his eyes xed on a mirror in the ceiling enabling ,

him t o watch most of the shop without the kn owledge

of the customer When you go into the sh0 p n d out
.
, ,

without attractin g att ention where this mirror is situat ed, ,

and operate outside its ra dius of reflection .

Some further a dvice followe d :

I shoul d work in rst class rai l way carriages : Op erat e
- -

on solitary indivi duals but never with a dagger you

, ,

understan d ; nor with revolver or chlo r oform Hypnotism .

at all times and everywhere So lose no time in taking .

lessons in hypnotism as soon as you have left this e n

chanting resort .

M who ha d a t ast e for mental pursuits and was well

.
,

rea d mingle d the practical advice which we hav e j ust

,

rea d with philosophical considerations on perfect friend

ship on Schopenhauer and Nietzsche on the destiny of
, ,

the soul et c Occasionally there is a postscript : Ask
, .

o ur worthy chaplain t o borrow my fountain pen for you -

.
12 CR Y P TO GRA PHY
I will conceal a watch S pring in it toothed like a saw
-
, ,

and you can begin on ling the bars of your cell for we ,

shall have to b e out by the end o f the month He .

further writes : Not on e out of a hundred shorthand
experts in Berlin not one I repeat woul d b e capable ,

o f reading my system S to So it is still more likely t o

.

remain a seal ed book in French Switzerland .

The example given above in facsimile means : B e on

the alert The pincers will be put b ehind the win dow

sill this afternoon I t s actual reading is :
. Achtung !

Zange wird nachmittags am Fen stersims hinterlegen .

F or this correspondence took pl ace in German I have .

chosen this phrase from a sampl e which begins with a

succession of oaths of no particular interest f or u s .

II .

A s we have Seen cryptography is of service to privat e

,

indivi duals that is t o certain pr i vat e individuals

. b ut
it s main usefulness lies in furnishing a means o f cor
respondence b etween heads of Stat es Ministers an d , ,

Generals In wartime especially by it s ai d p l ans o f

.
, ,

action and secret information can b e communicat ed ,

relief aske d for et c Cryptography when employed for

,
.
,

diplomatic or military purp o ses is t ermed cipher , ,

whether it b e in the form of ciphers or gures letters , ,

or any other signs O bviously when war conditions

.
,

prevail only Government departments and military

,

authorities are in a position to utilise cryptography 1

,

which is of incalculable value t o the m .

1
The a u th or s h o ul d h av e sai d l e gi t i m a t e ly

It i s a m a tt e r .
33

o f co m m o n k n o w l e dg th a t n u m b r l e ss a tt e m p t s w e re m ad e b y
e e

spi s t o co ve y i n f or m a t i o n t o t he n e m y b y m e a n s o f m ore or l e s s
e n e

i n ge n io u s ci p h e rs I n m os t cas e s th s a tt m p t s w re f oi l e d b y t he
. e e e e

i g n u i ty o f t h e xp r t s t a ff o f cryp t ograp h rs e m p l oy e d in t he
n e e e e

vario u s C ip h e r D e par t me n t s TE A NS L A TOB

. .
 PRI NCIPA L SYS TEMS OF CRYPT O GRAPHY 13

III .

The origin of secret writing is lost in the mists of anti

q u i t.
y T o go back only to 5 0 0 years before the Christian

era we nd this record : When Xerxes planned to
,

invade Greece a Greek named Demaratus a refugee at

, ,

the Cour t of the King at Susa warned his countrymen ,

of L aced aemon by means of a message traced on wooden

t ablets covere d with wax At rst nothing coul d b e .

seen on the m and it w a s Gorgo the wife of L eonidas the

, ,

1
King who discovered the strat agem
,
The Gartha .

g in ia n s ma de use of a si m ilar process which seems t o ,

indicat e the employment o f sympathetic ink 2

Hero .

d o t u s has recorded for us a not very practical system

3

which was once e m ployed in the East H ist iae u s .
,

tyrant of Susa he t ells us ,
wishing t o co m municat e ,

to Ar ist a g or a s his lieutenant at Miletus the order t o

, ,

revolt coul d nd only one way all the roads being

, ,

guarded He had the head of his most trustworthy

.

servant shave d made some incisions in the scalp and

, ,

waite d till the hair grew again ( The era of the t ele .

graph had not yet arrived I) A S soon as this occurre d ,

he sent the man to Miletus without giving him any further

instruction than on his arrival to invite Ar ist a g or a s to
, ,

shave his head and scrutinise it Now the incisions .
,

forme d the word Revolt ( A m i m s) e ra

This rather slow means of correspondence was not in

current use At t he sa m e period the Spartans had a far
.

better system of cryptography the scyta le s of which , ,

1
H e rodo t s u , VI I 239
. .

2 Au l G ll
u- e e , N m t s a tt iq u e s X V

. II . 9 .

3
V 35 . .
 O
14 CRYPT O GRAPHY
Plutarch among others has left us a description The
,
1
,
.

s cytale was a cylin drical ro d round which the sender of

the secret m essage rolled a long band of papyrus in a
S piral after the fashion of the emblems which cover reed
,

pip es. On the wrapp er thus forme d he traced the

words lengthwise along the ro d taking care t o writ e only ,

one letter at a time on each fold of the ribbon of papyrus .

Once un rolled this showe d nothing but a meaningless

,

succession of separat e letters The r ecipient rolled the .

band round a rod of the same length an d diamet er a s

that of the sender The slightest di f ference in the .

dia m eter of the two ro ds m ade the reading of the message

practically i m possible .

To give an i dea of the di f culty involved in deciphering

these scytales without having the proper ro d or with a ,

cylinder of a size dissimilar to that of the sender it m a y ,

be stat ed that twenty lett ers can be co m bined in

billions of di ff erent ways A d e co d ist who applie d .

himself to discovering the meaning of a document thus

transposed and was so expe ditious as not to devote more
,

than one second t o the scrutiny of each co m bination ,

would reach the trial of the nal arrangement of these

characters at the en d of 7 years If chance .

favoured him he might hit up o n the solution at the

,

thousand and rst or t en thousan d and rst trial or it ,

m ight happen that he woul d have t o persevere to nearly

the end or worse still he might encounter t he solution
, , ,

without knowing it and stopping there .

N o wadays however there is a process which enables

, ,

us t o decipher these ribbons of papyrus co m paratively

easily even without bei n g in possession of the desired
,

1 L if e o
f L ys a n d e r , c h xi x
. .
 PRINCIPA L SYST EMS OF CRYPT O GRAPHY 15

cylinder L et us suppose that one of these m essages ha s

.

fallen into our hands and that its twenty v e centuries

,
-

of age hav e left it preserve d in its or i g i nal stat e of fresh

ness We begin by making an exact copy which we
.
,

shall manip u lat e in our own way bearing in mind always ,

t o leave the originals intact From one of the ends of

.

this copy let us ou t o ff say three frag m ents each con

, , ,

t aining ten or a dozen letters or more or less if we like

, .

We place these seg m ents one b esi de the other in the

order in which we hav e cut them This done we slide .
,

the second along the r st either up or down and the

, ,

third along the second endeavouring t o for m possible

,

syllab l es or fragments thereof ( Assume for con venience

.
, ,

the document t o be in English ) L et us suppose that .

after various adj ust m ents our att ention is xe d on the

following co m bination :
We observe that of the two groups
o f thr ee letters W I L is capable of
,

forming a part of the wor d will or

wild . To t est this we re f er t o the
,
E B
original scroll t o count the int ervals A R
between the three letters in the W I L
group and nd that I is the eleventh
,

letter after W and L the eleventh

,
T H
after I It now becomes o b vious
. I N
that if the eleventh letter after L is S P
another L or a D we are on the
,

right track The trial pr o v es this t o

.

be the case by yielding L We now .

make a new c o py of the papyrus

and cut it into segments of eleven letters which ,

place one by one t o the right the result being that ,

document beco m es an Open page to us thus : ,

16 CRYPT O GRAPHY

D
E

A R d e . e n e m y .

W I L r i v e a .

T TH . o n t i c
r . I N k a n d .

i S . P l a n n i n g t

.

P
L

Drawing nearer the Christian era we are tol d by ,

Suetonius the biographer of Julius Cmsar that the latter

, ,

employed for secret matters a sort of cipher which con

siste d in writing instead of the re quired letter the third
, ,
1
letter from it a s D for A and so on
, , .

The Emperor Augustus says the same historian , ,

when he writ es in cipher puts B for A C for D and , ,

-

2
so on for the other letters and AA for Z ,
.

Julius C aesar s cipher is still in use in our day that

i s t o sa y it remains in principle but with complications

, ,

which make it much harder t o decipher Alfre d .

King of England an d Charlemagne al so use d crypto

,

graphy for corresponding with their o ff icers I do not .

think I am violating a diplomatic secret a thousan d ,

years having elapsed in revealing that in Charl emagne s

,

secret writing meant i ; d; l ,

C ae sa r , c h l vi
. .
2
A ug ust us , c h l xxxvi ii
. .
 PRI N CIPA L SYST EMS OF CRYPT O GRAPHY 1 7
etc.
1
The Governments of V enice Florence and other , ,

It a lian republics made use of secret writing fro m the

thirteenth century .

Since the Mid d le Ages numerous investigators have

pondered over an ideal syste m of cryptography A m ong .

them we may menti o n Francis Bacon the philosopher , ,

and Blaise de Vig e n er e the F rench diplomatist whose

, ,

ingenious table is still useful to day either f or coding -

,

or decoding Cardinal Richelieu the great statesman

.
, ,

fre q u ently resorte d t o cryptography L ouis X I V used . .

s o complicat e d a cipher for corresponding with his

Ministers when they were absent f r o m V ersailles or when ,

he himself was with the army that it was n ot until ,

1 7 5 years a f ter his death that the key was discovered .

L et us here pause in this historical survey to examine

more closely the part playe d by ciphers Nowadays all .

the Great Powers have a Cipher D epartment There is one .

i n L ondon and others at Paris Rome Petrogra d Berlin

, , , , ,

Vienna and elsewhere

, When the head of a Stat e and
.

his Minister of F oreign A f fairs leave the country they ,

are always accompanied by a sta f f of experts from the

Cipher D epart ment M Po in ca r e during his last j ourney
. .
,

to Russia a few days before the German aggression

, ,

had with him the Director of the French Cipher Depart

ment with whose collaboration he was able t o keep in
,

touch with Paris without running the risk of i n discreet

co n d e n c e s .

Germany has a depart ment the Chirie rb u r d sta ff e d

, ,

by professional experts whose mission is t o nd new

,

ciphers both complicate d and safe and t o decipher the

, ,

secret documents of the enemy The newspapers in .

1
G S e le n u s , C ryp t o m e n ice
.
, p . 28 2 ( A lc iu n ) .
 18 CRYPT O GRAPHY
formed us that in February 1 91 6 the D epartment at , ,

Vienna employe d twenty six cryptographers -

.

Cryptography sai d o ne of the most genial of Swiss ,

Army comm anders to me the other day is a German ,
.

science Y ou must b e a German wear gol d sp ect acles

.
,

and a bushy beard before one can properly study ,

crypto g raphy .

Not so long ago however when neither Berlin n or , ,

Vienna were cap able of decipheri n g di f cult cryptograms ,

they were glad on occasion and in secret to have r e , , ,

course t o on e of those little Stat es which they so utt erly

1
d e Sp ise .

E ach step in the progress of cryptography is a ccom

p a n ie d by a corresponding step in the art of deciphering .

History ha s preserve d the names of some cele b rat e d

d e co d ist s Thus the geometrician Fran cois Vi e t e su c
.
,

c e e d e d in deciphering for Henr y I V a very complicate d .

system forme d of some ve hundred signs which w a s

, ,

use d by the heads of the Holy L eague and the Spaniards 2

.

The l att er angrily denounce d V iete to the Holy See a s a

wi z ard and a necromancer According to them he coul d .
,

only have ent ered into possession of the secret b y calling

up the spirits of those who ha d known the cipher during
their earthly career But the Pope was a man of humour : .

he submitted the plaint t o examination by a commission

of Cardinals with urgent recommendation
, The
Cardinals understoo d the hint and the examination is ,

still unnished .

1
S e e t he Z rl r che r Post ,

F e b ru ary 28 , 1 91 6 , m idda y e d i t io n , an d

t he B a n d ,F e b ru ar y 29 1 91 6 Su p N 1 0 0 The m i l i t ar y Co u r t
, , . o . .

a t Zu ric h a f t e r s e m i g t o h e si t a t e s u b j e c t iv e l y ov e r th is poi n t in
, e n

a paragrap h o f i t s j u dg m e n t ad m i tted i t o b j c t i v l y in a n o th e r
, e e

pa rag rap h .

1
l ) T h o u I l is l i e u ive r se lle B ook 1 29 y e ar l 6 0 3
o , o r n , , .
 PRIN CIPA L SYST EMS OF CRYPT O GRAPHY 1 9
During the reign of L ouis XIII another d e co d ist . ,

Ant oine Rossignol made hi m self known to the dis

, ,

c o m t u r e of the Huguenots .

1
It was in the year says Charles Perrault ,

at the siege of R e al m ont a city of L angue doc then in , ,

possession of the Huguenots that he rst gave proof of ,

his talent The city w a s besiege d by the army of the

.

King commanded by the Prince de Cond and it opposed

, ,

such a resistance that the Prince was on the point of

raising the siege when a letter from the besiege d w a s
,

int ercept ed written in cipher of which the most skilful

, ,

in the art of deciphering co u ld make nothing It w a s .

given to M Rossignol w ho deciphered it forthwith an d

.
, ,

sai d that the besieged were sending to the Huguenots

of Montauban t o say that they were short of powder ,

and that if they were not supplied with so m e immediately

they woul d surrender to the enemy The Prince de .

Cond sent the besiege d their letter deciphered with the ,

resul t that they surrendered the same day U pon this .

being reporte d to Ca rdinal Richelieu he invite d M Ros ,

.

signol to the Court an d the latter gave such astonishing

,

proo f s of his skill that the great C ardinal despite that ,

extraordinary dispositi o n which prevente d him from

admiring many things nevertheless coul d not forbear
,

expressing his s u rprise He ( R o ssignol ) serve d very

.

use f ully during the siege of L a Rochelle discovering ,

the enemy s secrets by means of intercepte d letters all

,

of which he deciphered w ith sc a rcely any trouble .

He continue d his activities under L ouis X I V who .

,

held him in such high esteem that once on the way ,

back from Fontainebleau he called on him at his country ,

1
L e s H o m m e s illn s / r es qm ( 1 7 th) s i c le

on ! p a r u .
p en d a n t re .

Vo l . i
A n t o in e R o ss ig n ol l ll a is l r e d e s C o w p /
.
, es .
20 CRYP T O GRAPHY
house at Juvisy t o which he ha d ret ire d The poet .

Bois Robert a ddresse d m any of his epistles in verse t o

-

Rossignol in one of which in accordance with the w ishes

, ,

of Cardinal Richelieu he extols Rossignol s skill regar d

,

ing him as a re doubtable pro digy The following is a .

,

rough translation of the p assage :

T h e re i s n o u g ht e l s e b e n e a th t he ski e s
T h a t m y b e h idd e n f ro m th i e y e s
a n e .

0 w h a t a m ig ht y ar t i s th i n e
F or b y i t provi n c e s a r e w o n ,

A n d s e cr e t p l an s o f kin gs u n do n e .

T h is i s a rig ht co m m odi ou s ar t .

I pri th e e un t o m e i m par t
T h y m e th o d s a n d th u s j u s t i fy
,

The y e ars th a t b e a n d th os e go n e b y .

The va n q u is h e d e e i n g f ro m t he f ray
, ,

Take O a th a d e vi l s in th y pay ;

H ll s un s e e n i m ps th e i r pack e t s s t e a l

e ,

T h e i r s e cre t s t o th i n e e ye s re ve a l
.

There is a certain amoun t of truth underlying this

extravagant eulogy not that an Antoine Rossignol
,

wo u l d wish it Colonel Scha e ck of the Swiss General

.
,

St a f f has stat e d that a good decipherer must have
,

both natural and acquired qualications the former ,

necessarily playing a predominant par t The natural .

qualications are insight the spirit o f observation , ,

patience and perseverance If a person b e happily

, .

gifte d in any degree for this kind of work an d nds an ,

Opportunity of developing his natural talents he may ,

attain by study and practice a surprising degree o f skill .

For this he will have t o devote himself to a profound

study of the various systems of cryptography have a ,

thor o ugh knowle d ge of m athematics and especially the ,

calculation of pr o babilities and be acquainted with ,

l a nguages an d their literatures .
 PRI N CIPA L SYSTEMS OF CRYPT O GRA PHY 21

Two remarks may be added t o this statement : F irst ,

in default of mathematics we m a y be satised with ,

arith m etic ; secondly one thing is indispensable which

, ,

Colonel Sha e c k possessed although he modestly refraine d

,

from mentioning it com m on sense I have hear d of .

a case where fteen months of assiduous research faile d

to prod uce any result whi l e a little later by the exercise
, , ,

of a little common sense the goal was reache d in two ,

days .

In 1 64 5 John Wallis the English mathematician , ,

acting under the order of Cromwell deciphere d the secret ,

papers of King Charles I which were seize d after the .

,

Battle of Naseby an d which proved that the King in

, ,

negotiating with his a dversaries was playing a double ,

ga m e 1
.

On July 2 1 67 3 L ouvois the then French Minister

, , ,

of War paid 600 livres equivalent t o 1 20 st erling t o

, , ,

one Vim b ois for discovering the cipher of certain con

S p ir a t o r s ; four days lat er he prescribe d a si m ilar fee t o the

Sieur de la T x r e for a discovery of the same kind

i e 2
.

If these lines m eet the eyes of any cryptographers they ,

will regretfully ad m it that the rem u neration for their

arduous l abour s has dwindle d t erribly since that p eriod 3
.

In 1 7 52 a German professor na m e d Hermann who had ,

deed the mathe m aticians and learne d socie ties of

Europe to decipher a syste m of his invention sa w his ,

secret unveile d by a Swiss name d Nicolas B e guelin or D e

B e guelin son o f the Mayor of Courtelary a vi ll a ge
, ,

1
E nc yclop ce d ia B r ita n n ica ar t Cr y p t ograp h y
, . .

2
Va l e rio De la c yp t g a p hic vo l i i p 1 1
, r o r , . .
, . .

3
The a m o u r propr e o f t he cryp t ograp h e r do e s n o t a l w ays m e e t
-

w i th t he r e sp e c t d u e t o i t F or i n s t a n c e a cryp t ogra m w h i c h I w s
.
, a

c h arge d o f cia ll y t o d e cip h e r in Ma y 1 91 7 r e so l v d i t s e l f i n t o , , e

f or t he f oo l w ho r e ads th e s e l i e s n .

22 CRYPT O GRAPHY
situate d in that part of the bishopric of Basle which was
then under the Bernese Prot ectorat e He ha d require d .

only eight days to discover t he key The story o f this .

inci dent is preserve d in the H istory of the R oya l A ca de my

.

f
1
f
o S cie n ce an d Lite ra t ure o B e r lin .

It was by methods used in cryptography that Miin t e r ,

a Dane and Gr ot e f e n d a German succee ded in 1 8 0 2

, , ,

i n decipheri ng a part of the alphabet of the Persian

cuneiform inscriptions One group of angles or arrow
.

heads struck them by its frequent repetition Miin t e r .

pronounce d it t o be equivalent t o the word king
ha a thiya in the harmonious language of the time )
( K h -
s y ,

and this supposition was eventually conrme d .

Mention may b e ma de also of B a z e r ie s a French o ic e r , ,

who n ot long ago succeeded in deciphering L ouis X I V s .

syste m of cryptography co m prising so m e 60 0 numbers , ,

some of which represented letters an d some syllables .

Thus for exa m ple the word mine could be written
, ,

in these four ways

I . 46 . 1 44 .

II . 230 . 59 . 1 25 .

III . 514 . 1 84 . 37 4 .

IV . 58 5 . 229 . 146 .

an d by still other gure combinations .

>1: :1: >5

As we have seen cryptography has at all times been

,

extensively use d by conspirators revolutionaries and , ,

secret societies On this point I will conne myself t o

.

the two following quotations :

In May 1 60 3 a nu m ber of foreigners use d t o meet
, ,

in a house near Font a inebleau which they ha d bought ,

1
Y e ar 1 7 5 8 pp . 3 6 9 3 8 9, w i
-
th t w p l a t s
o e .
 PRINCIPA L SYST EMS OF CRYPT O GRAPHY 23
for the purpose o f m eeting secretly Their plottings .
,

however were frustrated as their house was rai ded and

, . ,

among other su Sp icio u s obj ects were found a quantity of

1
letters in cipher which reveale d the conspiracy .

Among the papers of the Chouannerie says M G ,
. .

L enotre 2
are t o b e seen a number of sheets writt en
,
'

in bizarre characters which forme d the cipher used by

Georges Ca d ou d a l and his associates at the ti m e of the

Directory and the Consulate The key of these is known . .

The archives of the Foreign O f ces in various countries

still contain cryptographic documents the keys of which
are lost and the deciphering of which the cryptographers ,

after interminable e f forts have ha d t o abandon accor d ,

ing to plan ! A curious circumstance is that t exts

written in cipher are encountere d even among the hiero
glyphs A certain inscription of Esneh cont ains a
.

profusion of crocodiles in groups of as many as eighteen

,

at a time t h e meaning of which is not apparent The

, .

most hardened Egyptologists have not yet succeede d in

forcing the teeth of these redoubtable saurians apart
an d making them disgorge their secret Certain m yst er i .

ou s languages perhaps Etruscan for instance might ,

yiel d to cryptographic metho ds of decipherment .

>l< '
1

If the black cabinets or postal espionage o f ces , ,

which were extensively use d in F rance during the reigns

of L ouis X I V L ouis X V L ouis X VI an d L o uis X VIII
,
.
,
.
, .
,

unsealed letters to feed the police reports and to furnish

gossip to the Court camarillas the black cabinets of the ,

Ger m an E m pire in the eighteenth century were centres

1
Dul a u re S ing u la r it s his to r iq ue s
, , p . 30 3 .

2
Se e ar t ic l e on C ip h rs
e .

in t he Te mp s Se p , t em be r 29, 1 91 7 .
24 CRYPT O GRAPH Y

of cryptography Count Br iihl Prime Minister o f

.
,

Augustus III Elector of Saxony organise d a complet ely

.
, ,

e quippe d establish m ent at Dres den All the messages .

received or sent by the King of Prussia s A m bassa dor in

that city were Opened copied and deciphere d during , ,

a p eriod of sixteen years from 1 7 3 6 to 1 7 5 2 A s soon , .

as the postal cour ier from Berlin arrive d on Saxon t erri

t ory at Gr ossen hayn his bag was picke d during the
, ,

changing of horses the o f cial letters abstract e d and sent

,

by a s w ift horse ri der to Dresden where the black cabinet

-
,

unseale d copied an d r e sc al e d them an d returne d them

, , ,

t o the post which delivere d them at the same time a s

,

the rest of the mail which ha d arrived in the int erval ,

.

This black cabinet known as the Secret Dispatch , ,

w a s directe d by the Aul ic Councillor V on Sie p m a n n ,

assiste d by numerous experts .

Another dignitary Baron von Scheel o ffi cer of the , ,

corps of cadets excelle d in forging handwriting which

, ,

ma de it possible t o t ear Open envelopes too troub l esome

to unseal The Court locksmith was un der orders t o go
.

to the L egation and with the connivance of the Prussian ,

Secretary force the lock of the chest in which the Prussian

,

Minister kept the keys of the ciphers 1

.

Thanks to their lau dable activity Saxony was aware of ,

the plans of Frederick II and when nee dful co m muni .

, , ,

c a t e d them to Austria and Russia Count Br iihl how .

,

ever gave the game away a t an o f cial dinner when he

, ,

indiscreetly mentione d something he ha d learnt through

his perverte d laborat o ry F rederick II change d his . .

systems of cryptography and thenceforth entrusted his ,

correspondence solely t o functionaries who were a b so

1 S chlcz e r s S ta a tsa n z e ig e n
'

, P ar t 6 2, p . 1 29 cl se q .
 PR IN CIPA L SYS T EMS OF CRYPT O GRAPHY 25

beyond suspicion
l u t e ly But he did not complain f o r .
1
,

he himself had for some ti m e carrie d on the same kin d

of espionage which gave him a tangible a dvantage ov er
,

his opponent s during the Seven Years War

.

Austria moreover di d not lag behind and a master

, , ,

stroke her black cabinet was operated in a wing of the
Imperial Palace of the Stallburg at Vienna The sta f f , .
,

who were Ne apolitans and well verse d in work of this kind ,

directe d their energies t o the correspondence of all the

Ambassadors On one occasion the deciphere d copy
.

was placed in the o f cial cover a ddressed from Madri d

to the Spanish Ambassa dor instea d of the original letter ,

extracte d therefrom The Spanish diplomat lodge d a .

complaint with the Austrian Pri m e Minister Prince ,

Kaunitz The matter was serious and might hav e

.
,

involve d grave consequences so the Prince severely ,

repri m ande d the negligent o f cial .

The work done in the black cabinets cannot b e

accurat ely ter m ed cryptography as they merely ,

deciphered cryptographic docu m ents by means of the

key which they were quite incapable of discovering
,

for the m selves .

>1:

The litera tu re on cryptography is very voluminous ; it

woul d be scarcely possible to mention in these pages the
titles of all the works which have been published on
this subj ect I nee d sa y no more than that of all those
.
,

I have read the m o st substantial is the work of a French

,

man I might mention also the name o f Von K a siski

.
, , ,

a German Maj or Books it is true provi de a great deal

.
, ,

of interesting material but they do not help to decipher ,

The s e cre t ary c h an ge d h is n a m e an d s ou g h t o t he r e l ds f or h is

tal t s
en .
26 CRYP T O GRAPHY
documents which are in any degree complicate d any ,

more than the best of grammars can m ake a goo d

w riter .

IV .

L et us now exa mine some of the principal systems of

cryptography or ciphers .

Broadly speaking all the systems may be divide d int o

,

t wo categories : Substitutional where the real letters of ,

a text are replaced by other lett ers or by Arabic numerals , ,

o r by any other signs ; and Transpositional which ret ain ,

the real letters but shu f e them complet e l y so a s t o

, ,

produce chaos .

1 In the S u b stitu tion a l class that is t o sa y where

.
,

the lett ers are replace d by other l etters or by gures ,

o r signs are comprised the systems of which examples

have already been given : the r st example then those ,

o f the Freemasons of the z iz g a g and the thread and o f

, ,

the two thieves .

Here are some others : The He b rew ca b alists ha d

several cryptographic ciphers which they use d principally ,

to discover the hidden meaning of certain passages in

the Bible Thus the A thba sh the Hebrew S pelling of
.
,

which forms the key c onsist ed in writing

the last l etter of the alphabet h ( tha w ) instead of the
rst letter R ( a lep h) and the last but one C ( shin )
,

instea d of the secon d 3 ( b e th) and so on The applica ,

.

tion of the Athbash resulted among other instances in , ,

i dentifying under the place na m e She sha k that of Babel

1 -
,

or Ba b ylon .

An o ther system A lba m consiste d in replacing the r st

, ,

letter of the rst half of the Hebrew alphabet N ( a lep h)

1
Je r . xxv . 26
 PRIN CI PA L SYS T EMS OF CRYPT O GRAPHY 27

the rst letter of the second half of that alphabet

ta m e d ) and the second letter of the rst half 3 ( b e th)
,

by the second letter of the second half 72 ( m em ) etc ,

.

In a third system the A tba hh the interchange o f the

, ,

l etters was based on their numerical value But I shall .

not dilate further on this a s that clever Hebraist J Bux

, ,
.

torf has explained the whole thing far m ore clearly

,

in L atin than I can in a mo dern language Those .

desiring further details are referred to his book 1

.

Baco n thought he had found something wonderful in

the f ollowing invention : He replaced each letter of the
plain t ext by a group of v e letters writing : ,

AA AAA A AA A B AA A B A

for A B C The metho d Of deciphering a document

.

written in this way is obvious enough : the frequency of

the groups must be calculate d instead of that of the
letters In the example given below represe nting the
.
,

last letters of a message and according to the m ost, ,

plausible supposition the t ermination of a feminine

,

Christian name ,

A B AAA B E BA R A B A AA

we are induced by the frequency of the groups to read

E NE and accor dingly t o presume such a name a s
, , ,

Irene Magdalene or Helene And once we have arrive d

, , .
,

at the probable value of two letters in a ciphere d t ext ,

success is only a question of ti m e .

We have already seen how the systems of Julius Cwsar

and Augustus were written They followed a parallel .

progression : D f o r A E f or B F for C et c But suppose

, , , .

we break this S ym m etry and say for instance that , , ,

1
De A bb r e via t ur is H e b ra icis B as , l e , 1 61 3, pp . 24 , 27 , and 37 .
28 CRYP T O GRAPHY
R = A, O= B , V = C P= D H
, ,
=E, et c . The di ffi culty
then becomes apparent .

By making u se of the cip he r squa re or Vig e n r e s ,

table it is possible to write in cipher by means of

,

several secret alphab ets a s m any as four ve six or , , , ,

even ten or more at a time in perio dical succession ,

.

Here are the rst few lines of Vig e n er e s table 1

(A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P QR S TU V W X Y Z

d e f g h i j k l m O p q s t u V w x z
'

n r y
e f g h i j k l m n Op q r s t u v w x y z a
f g h i j k l m n O p q r s t u v w x y z a b
8 h i j k l m n O p q r s t u v w x y z a b c
11 i j kl m n O p q r s t u v w x y z a b c d
etc .

Suppose we wish to conceal the wor d hieroglyphics

in cipher by using thr ee al phabets in t he rst of which ,

B takes the place of A C of B etc ; in the second E = A ;

, , .

and in the thir d C = A We accordingly a d e p t as t he

.

key wor d t o o ur cipher the co m bination BE C being the

-
,

letters standing for A respectively in the three alphabets .

We now writ e the word hieroglyphics and under ,

each lett er add a letter of the wor d BB C in cons ecutive

or der thus : ,

h i e r o g l y p h i c s
B E C B E C B E C B E C B

The next thing is to look in the ab o ve t able for the

l etter H in the horiz o ntal line of capitals and for B in ,

the colu m n of capit als on the left ; at the point where the
t wo lines commande d by these letters intersect we n d
t he lett er i which we writ e as the rst letter of our
,

1 The co m p l e te t a b l e w i ll b e f o u n d o n pag e 155 .

 PRIN CIPA L SYS TEMS OF CRYP T O GRAPHY 29

ci phere d word The same Operation for the letters I

.

an d E yields rn which we t ake as our second lett er and

, ,

so on The nishe d res ult appears as foll o ws :

.

h i e r o g l y p h i c s
B E C B E C B E C B E C B
i m g s s i m c r i m e t

Thus the word hieroglyphics writt en by the ai d o f ,

the key wor d BE C is trans f or m e d into im g ssim cr im e t
-
,
.

It will be n o t ed that o f the three i s in the cryptogram

o nly two stand f or the same letter in the plain t ext ;

th e same is tr u e o f the three m s while the two s s a l so

represent di ff erent letters .

L et us examine another cryptogram of the sa m e order

t a
p v c c ig r q d u p r b h it v c c a c e o e a o s c

a l i e c c .

Given the knowledge that this text has b een ciphere d

by means of Vig e n r e s t able and that the k ey wor d is
-

PIAN O we op erat e by reversing the process describe d

,

above that is we writ e the key wor d PIAN O repeat edly

,
-

under the letters of the cipher ; then looking for the ,

rst lett er of the key wor d P in the vertical colu m n t o

-

the left of the t able w e nd in the line corresponding

,

thereto the rst lett er of the cipher t and at the head ,

of the colu m n in which this occurs we note the capit al

letter E which will be the rst letter of the deciphered
,

text Proceeding in the sa m e way with the secon d

.

letter of the key wor d and cipher I an d a respectively

-
, ,

we obtain S and so on until w e have be f ore u s the w hol e

,

t ext deciphere d as follows : Espionage co m pensation

scraps of ol d iron .

As we have seen deciphering by means o f the key

,

word is q u ite easy when we kn o w that word When we .

30 CRYPT O GRAPHY
do not know it however there are certain methods a
, , ,

little too long to explain here which per m it of it s d is ,

c o v e r y almost m echani cally All that can be said is .

that in the above cryptogram a s well a s in any other ,

secret document the rst thing t o do is to n d the

,

vul nerable point in the armour and attack it with the

weapons at your co m mand .

Now in the t ext we have j ust deciph ere d the weak

, ,

Sp o t is the double letter cc repeat e d thr ee times and it, ,

is this which will help us pierce the mystery After .

careful investigation we nd that they correspond in

,

each case with the lett ers on of the plain text : Espi on age ,

co m pensati on ir on all t hr e e o f which in the ciphering

, , , ,

fall by acci dent under the letters OP of the key wor d -

PIAN O .

L et u s now examine a somewhat di ff erent example .

We are handed a document t o decipher which reads a s

follows :
M A S E G X
I S O 0 OX
A M O X mN
OK Y Y a Z K
Y K O S mW

The valuable information is a ff orded us that this

paper w a s conscat e d from a traveller at Brigue on the ,

Italo Swiss frontier an d we therefore presume that
-
,

the t ext is in It alian Noting that the rst third an d

.
, ,

fth lines each contain six letters while the secon d an d ,

fourth have seven we assume that the cryptogram is

,

more likely to be a list of words or rather names than a , ,

phrase .

The letter occurri n g most frequen tly is O w hich , ,

accor d ing to the rul e of fre quency shoul d represent e , ,

 PRIN CIPA L SYS TEMS OF CRYP T O GRAPHY 3 1
but it is in vain that we try t o decipher the second line ,

in which it appears three times If we adopt the hypo .

thesis that we have before us a list of pr o per na m es we ,

are co m pelled at the sa m e time to recognise how little

help may b e expected from the m anuals otherwise the ,

grammars of cryptography For we encounter inter

, .

minable lists of f amily na m es in which the letter e is

not the most frequent : Bacon Byron Foch Chur chill , , , ,

Wilson Du m ont Gouno d Marconi Calvin L oyola

, , , , , ,

Cagliostro Victor Hugo etc

, , .

The axiom postulat ed by the books that the lett er e

is the p ivot in deciphering w ill not carry us very far ,

so that another method must be adopt ed for deciphering

proper names not only those we have j ust enu m erate d ,

but names in general The fre qu en cy of the ir term i na .

t ion s in each language m ust b e t aken as the basis In .

French for instance 8 per cent of proper na m es end

, ,
.

in e r or ie r Mercier F ournier Garnier Beranger , , , ,

Boulanger ; 7 per cent in 0 n on d on g on t Masson

.
, , ,

Cha m pion Dupont L eblond L ong ; 6 per cent in a u

, , , .

ca n an d a ut
, a ur : Boileau
, Rousseau Moreau
, , , ,

Clemenceau Na d au d Caillaux
,
1
In Russian 0 1) and e n
, .
,

t erminat e 3 5 per cent of na m es ; shy 25 per cent ; in .

, .
,

9 per cent ; itch 6 p er cent et c

.
, .
, .

Those who w ish to t ake up cryptography and to indulge

i n these interesting calc u lations without undue mental
fatigue shoul d conne their energies t o T ur kish family
m
na es a by no means co m plicated t ask for there are ,

none In the Ottoman do m inions all that is necessary ,

even f o r o f cial records is t o say that on e is called John ,

the son of Ja m es or Ali the son of Mustapha I once

, .

1
It m t b
us e un d e rs t ood th a t th e s e propor t io n s a r e o ly n a pp ro x i .

m a te .
32 CRYP T O GRAPHY
aske d a frien dly Greek who ha s long o f ciate d as a ,

magistrat e in those p arts how they manage d to avoid ,

errors in a large city housing say 500 Alis sons of , ,

Mu st a p ha s My int erlocutor s eeme d surprise d at my

.

quest ion and answere d : Oh ther e is n o trouble at all

, ,

in i dentifying anybo dy .

A little digression In that happy country not only .

,

do fathers not trans m it their fa m ily names t o their

children but on the contrary in certain cases it is
, , , ,

rather the chil dren who transmit their names t o the

fathers For instance a certain Osman ha s a son name d
.
,

T aleb who becomes fa m ous The father then changes

, .

his name from Osman to Abu Taleb the father of ,

Taleb . An historical example is that of Ab d cl Caaba ,

who having given his daughter in marriage to Mahomet

, ,

w a s so proud of the event that he change d his name to

Abu Bekr the father of the Virgin
, L at er he became .

Caliph and rst successor t o the Prophet .

Of German names 25 per cent end in er and 6 per , .

,

cent in the syllable ma n n Tr op p m an n Beth m ann

.
, ,

Zi m mermann etc Italian names end in i (4 0 per

,
.

0 ( 30 p er a
( 20 per et c .

T his brings us back to our example We w ill suppose .

that the termination X which is the most frequent , ,

represents i At the end of the third na m e we nd two

.

o f these suppose d i s separat ed by a letter not yet id e n t i

~

e d . Now as our study of proper names has gone con

,

sid e r a b ly beyon d the rudiments se t out above we know ,

that in i is the most likely ending : Bellini Rossini Mazzini , , ,

Di Rudini etc We therefore assume that E = n

, . .

A similar problem now confronts us at the en d of the

rst word : n 2 i Careful reection leads us to suppose

.

t hat this word i s a common noun in the p l ural ending ,

 PRINCIPA L SYST EMS OF CRYPT O GRAPHY 33

in n ti ( exa m ple : ca n ti con ti sa n ti) and that it might be

, , ,

a headin g or the title of the list perhaps a gen ti Acting on , .

this assu m ption we make the re quire d substitutions

,

ready of course to try other suppositions if this fails

, ,

u s and our cryptogram assumes the following form :

A G E N T I
2 E ? ? A ? I
G A ? I N I
P

A moment s reection induces us to substitut e the

letter r for O which occur s t hr ee ti m es in the second line

, ,

2 e r r a r i
once in the third and once in the fth From
, .

we automatically reach F e r r a r i As our calculation .

of frequencies in Italian name t er m inations gives the

second place to 0 we su b stitut e that letter for the K s
,

in the last two lines The letter Y causes some hesitation

.
,

but eventually we decide to replace it by m and nally ,

we have the following version :

This method may seem empirical even infantile but it , ,

often pro duces satisfactory results .

The di f c ul ty bec o m es really serious in the syst em of

ciphering by means of Arabic numerals in which a ,

letter a syllable o r a word is represente d by two or thr ee

, ,

gures F o r exa m ple :

.

28 7 1 5 4 7 5 0 9 62 20 65 1 3 7 9 5 2 32 7 5 8 8
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22 .

stand for Travaillez prenez Work take , ,

The numbers 5 4 a n d 0 9 each me a n a ; 1 3 8 8 , ,

34 CRYP T O GRAPHY
and 4 3 e ; number 5 2 means nothing ; the rst
,

the second 7 5 = r The metho ds of deciphering here are

.

so delicate fragile and awkwar d t o explain that I prefer

, ,

t o leave them to the innat e sagacity of the reader .

An undecipherable sv st e m is that which consists in

designating a letter by means of the nu m ber of t he page
in a book the number of the line of the order of the
, ,

word in that line and nally the position in that wor d

, , ,

occupie d by the letter in question thus : The ,

correspondent will decipher this if he has a copy of the

s ame book in the s ame edition as the sender .

U nfortun at ely this syst em takes a long ti m e to cipher

, .

and very long to decipher without taking into account ,

the inevitable errors Moreover you m ay not n d the

.
,

letter re quired If you are using a French book for

.
,

inst ance you may have to dispense with a

,
True ,

you might use a 0 inst ead but this woul d someti m es ,

lead to confusion Suppose you want to write : Kiel
.

is b esieged Cie l ( heaven ) is b esieged
. is scarcely
the same thing Neither would your correspondent ever
.

guess that in the phrase His Maj esty ill ; coche r
,

( coach m an ) summone d to general headquarters the ,

wor d cocher was intende d for the famous surgeon

Kocher .

In Russian books the letter f is also in f r e q u e n t w hilc ,

in Italian publications w and y are rarely seen .

>1
:

Correspondence ha s someti m es been carrie d on in the

f o ll o wing manner : Most dictionaries are printe d with
t wo columns on a page Instead therefore of writin g
.
, ,
 PRINCIPA L SYST EMS OF CRYPT O GRAPHY 35

the req u ire d word you adopt the word appearing on the
,

same line in the parallel colu m n thus : ,

WADE instead of VI SI O N
THERM OMET ER T ERRIFY
BE LL IC O S E BEARER
E S T U ARY E QU A L
T ORRE NT TO
OMIT O C CA S I O N

The word terrify appears here but n o t t erried , ,

which would not be found in a small dictionary An d .

,

in fact the disadvant age of using ordinary dictionaries

,

in this way is that the various grammatical d istinction s

cannot all be shown Thus with the ai d of any dic
.
,

t io n ar y you can say Sen d letter but not Sen t ,

letter which two phrases are d ia m e t r ica llv Oppose d in
,

meaning .

S pecial dictionaries have been compiled each page ,

containing fty w o rds in current use Thus for instance :

.
,

( page ) 7
1
23 GRAD U A L
24 GRANT
25 GRAVE
26 GREE K
27 GREE N

If it is req u ired to send the w o rd Greek y o u writ e ,

the number which precedes t hat w ord an d the n u mber

o f the page ,
or the wh o l e in one number 1 7 24 , .

M u ch m o re v o l u m inous dicti o naries have been utilise d

or c o m pil e d in w hich a ll the w ords are a cc o m p a nied in
,

the m argin by nu m bers ranging say fr o m 1 t o, ,

L et us endeavo u r t o decipher the fo ll o w ing cr y pto

36 CRYPT O GRAPHY
gram coded fro m a dictionary of
, numbere d
words :
24 1 3 3 24 0 29 1 5 1 28
21 682 0 1 64 3 21 5 3 1
0 50 7 0 24 1 27 0 90 4 3
21 5 3 1 0 24 3 2
0 1 1 74 1 531 1

T he rst thing to
do and
it is not
easy is
to det ermine
the exact meaning of two of the numbers the same way ,

a s when preparing a sur vey m a of a country it is rst

p
necessary t o calculat e with the utmost accur acy the
height and distance of two given points t o form a base ,

on which the triangulation of the whole region m a y b e

e f fecte d and the altitude of all heights therein calcul ate d

, ,

so in cryptography a secur e base must be sought decod ing

a ciphered document .

L et us assume that we have discovered the meaning

of the last two numbers in the above :
21 5 3 1 = THE ; 0 90 4 3 = GE NERA L .

It will be note d that 21 53 1 occurs twice which woul d ,

favour the assumption that it represents a common word .

Success in deciphering this form of cryptogram however , ,

depends mainly on a careful observation of the r e la t iv e

v alues of the nu m b ers and their co m parison with the

approximate positions of the words in a dictionary In .

the abov e cipher for instance the thr ee highest num b ers
, ,

are all in the twenty fourth thousand and as their values

-
, ,

are very close we cann o t go far wrong in assuming them

,

t o stand f o r w ords beginning with W This would place.

the twenty rst thousand somewhere about T so t hat

-
,

t h e pr o bable initials of the rst two words of the message

are W and T L eaving this on one side for the m o m ent
.
.
 PRI NCIPA L SYST EMS OF CRY PT O GRAPHY 3 7
however we will study the end where the last two wor ds
, ,

are assume d t o have been denitely establishe d as THE

GE NERA L Immediately preceding these we note two
.
,

numbers in the fteenth thousand which occur nu m eri ,

cally about half wa v between those representing -

GE NERA L (0 90 43) and T HE We accor dingly

look in a dictionary and nd that the corresponding ,

position is among the O s O f words beginning with O

.

likely t o prece de THE GE NERA L we observe O F O N , , ,

OPP OSE and OR and provisionally select t he rst O F

, , , ,

corresponding t o 1 5 1 28 We now have 1 53 1 1 another .

,

presumed O word occurring lat er than CF in the d ie

-
,

t ion a r y There are OPT I ON and ORDE R of which

.
,

the secon d seems the more likely This dou b tless follows .

the wor d BY which meaning we accordingly att ach t o

,

0 24 32 the whole furnishing us with a useful tail end :

,
-

BY ORDE R OF THE GE NERA L .

Great patience will be required to ferret out the whole

of the message as there will b e considerable uctuation
,

in the position of the words varying according to the ,

dictionary used t o solve the cryptogram We must .

make the most of the land m arks already more or less

i dentied The fourth word 21 5 31 is known t o b e
.
, ,

THE and the wor d following is probably though not

, ,

necessarily a noun We not e that the nu m ber r e pr e

, .

senting it 0 1 1 7 4 is the lowest of all occurring doubtless

, , ,

a m ong the A s The message being of a military natur e

.
,

we immediately think of ARMY and ART I LL E RY and ,

l ook for a f urther clue The next nu m ber as well as .

,

the eighth is presumed to b e a W word as we have seen

,
-
, .

The eighth number immediately precedes the phr ase

By or der of the General and is therefore most likely ,

a verb expressing something in connection with the

38 CRYP T O GRAPHY

supposed army or artillery Consulting the dictionary .

under W we are attracte d by the wor d WITHDRA W

,

or WITHDRAWN If the latt er is correct it shoul d

.
,

follow so m e part of the verb t o be and in fact the , , ,

seventh number 0 1 64 3 oc cupying nu m erically a position

, ,

so m ething over a third o f the distance between ARMY

( or AR T I LL E RY ) and BY woul d seem t o represent the ,

wor d BE itself The sixth number 24 0 29 is a W wor d

.
, ,
-
,

and both from the cont ext and its numerical position
a little earlier than WITHDRAWN (24 1 27 ) in the
dictionary it excludes any other reading but WI LL
, .

We have now t o t ackle the rst three wor ds of the

cryptogram The rst n umber 24 1 33 closely fol lows
.
, ,

that representing WITHD RAWN ( 24 1 27 ) in numerical

or der an d the dictionary o f fers us as
, proba b les .

WITHIN or WITHO U T After fur ther study on the .

lines described we pro duce WITHIN THRE E DAYS

,

as the rst t hree wor ds of the cipher All that remains .

is to decide whether the fth number 0 1 1 7 4 means , ,

artillery or ar m y The wor ds occur so closely in
.

the dictionary that this is no easy t ask but after careful ,

calc u lation of the distances separating be an d b V

fro m the beginning of the dicti o nary we plu m p for ,

artillery an d our complet e message reads : WITHI N
,

T HREE D AYS THE AR T I LL E RY WI LL BE WIT H

DRAWN BY ORDE R OF T HE GE NERA L .

It should be a dde d that in practice such documents

are not o ften found with the numbers written in this
straight f orwar d way U sually the gures are transpose d
.

an d all sorts of co m plications int erspersed .

A co m m on m etho d is to rearrange the order of the

figures in e a ch group up o n a prearrange d plan Thus .
,

24 1 3 3 21 6 8 2 etc
, a r e transfor m e d into 1 34 3 2
, .
,
6 21 8 2 , ,
 PRI NCIPA L SYST EM S OF CRYPT O GRAPHY 3 9
et c The great di fculty here is t o discover the normal
.

order of the gures in each number and t o restore them ,

t o their pri m itive form before proceeding t o the actual,

deciphering It is a case of baling the ocean l

.

The principal inconvenience o f those numbere d dic

t ion a r ie s known in diplomacy as
, codes is that when ,

they are lost or stolen in most cases others have t o b e

,

compiled and works of this kind cannot be made i n a

,

day Even under the m ost favourable circumstances

.
,

when a fresh code is hel d in reserve for contingencies .

considerable delay m ust ensue before instructions for

their use can reach those concerne d and the enemy ,

reaps the benet The following is one instance a m ong

.
,

others of this disadvantage : During the Russo T urkish

,
-

War in 1 8 7 7 the Ottoman Field Marshal Osman Pasha

,
-
, ,

entruste d one of his Generals Selim Pasha w ith a con , ,

d e n t ial mission It so happene d that Selim was the

.

o f cer responsibl e for ciphering an d being prudent he , , ,

kept the code on his person U nfortunately he depart ed .

,

so promptly on his mission that he forgot t o leave the

volume with his chief The latter during the whole .

,

time of his Adj ut ant s a b sence saw a pile of ciphere d

telegrams from Cons t antinople accumulate on his table ,

without being able either to rea d or reply to them .

V.

2 The second category of cipher systems is the Tr an s

.

osition a l in which the actual l etters are not changed

p , ,

but are mixe d together or shu f ed and in e f fect really ,

amount to anagrams So m e anagra m s are very short :

.

ve il for l ine are f or ca r m o re for R om e w a n d e r for A n d r e w

, , , .

A n ge lu s for Ga le n u s Va ussore for R ousse a u et c

1
, In , .

1
The pse u do y m adop t e d b y
n R o u ss e a u w h en givi n g h i s f a m o u s
co n c e r t a t L au sa n n e .
40 CR Y PT O GRAPHY
cryptography however we encounter anagrams of
, ,

1 0 0 20 0 30 0 500 and
, , , , letters I hav e seen one .

comprising nearly lett ers It may be adde d that .

the longest are not the hardest to decipher ; quite the

contrary . Among these systems which are very ,

numerous are include d the scytales o f the L ace
,

d ae m on ia n s which we have already consi dere d

, .

A syst em easy enough t o decipher is on e which

the cryptologist Vesin de Romanini called an aerial

t elegraph cipher The rst letter of the t ext is writt en
.

in the middle of the rst line the second letter at some

,

dist ance to the right in the same line the thir d lett er ,

similarly to the left the fourth in the second line to the

,

left the fth in the same l ine to the right the sixth in
, ,

the mi ddle and so on inverting the order o f the letters

, ,

with each new line Arrive d at the foot of the page a

.
,

new start is made at the t e p the lett er s being writt en

,

in the same or der as before an d immediately to the ,

right or left of those already put down A crypto .

grapher will have no di f culty in reading a t ext ciphered

in this way
ER TO HP
SO RE TT
NT GT CC
UE OH GW
TA TK HE

which means : T HE S T R O N G O U GH T T O PR OT E C T
THE WEAK It was a si m ilar cipher which Jules
.

V erne use d for his cryptogram in A Voya g e in to the

I n te rior of t he E a r th .

L et us now pass to the grille or lattice a we ll , ,
9

known form of cipher The grille is a square piece of

.

sti f f p aper or cardboar d in which a certain num b er o f

 PRINCIPA L SYST EMS OF CRYPT O G RA PHY 41

holes are cut The s quare thus perforate d is super

.

imposed on a sheet of whit e paper and a letter is written,

in each hole This done the grille is tur ne d 90 degrees

.
,

to the right so that what was the top le f t hand corner

,
-

beco m es the t Op right hand corner T he fur ther letters

-
.

of the message are now written in the holes an d the ,

Operation is continue d u ntil all four corners of the grille

have occupied the same position It need scarcely be .

sai d that when cutting the holes in the grille care must
, ,

be t aken t o arrange them so that overlapping of the

letters dur ing the four turns will be avoi ded .

The following example can be rea d quit e easily by

means of the appropriat e grille :
R M E Y O P

T M H S L T
R E E T W E

E O C , V A A

S U C L E Y

L D D O S D

Deciphered this reads : R OME WA S C OMP L E T E LY

,

DE STROYE D BY THE GA U L S .

Grilles are usu a lly larger than the above d iagr a m ,

which ho w ever will s u fce as an illustration As m a y

, ,
.

be seen texts written in this code a r e very easy to re a d

,
42 CRYPT O GRAPH Y
when one h a s the proper gril le Nevertheless even
.
,

without the grill e the di fcul ty of deciphering is not

very great and in the secon d part of this volume I shall
,

explain the mechanism of the process by which it can

be done To complicat e this cipher a high Austrian
.
,

o fcer ha d t he i dea of minglin g a nu m b er of blank or

mea n ingless letters with the others ; but this di d not
increase the di f c ul ty of translating a s is prove d by the
,

fact that such a syst em is scarcely ever use d .

The metho d of employing divi ders is much t o b e

preferre d It consists of cutting vertical slices in a t ext
.

and mixing these col um ns of letters Here is a very .

short example j ust thr ee names :

M A D R I D
V I E N N A
P A R I S
which we divide into vertical slices proceeding then t o
,

writ e rst the lett ers of the secon d colu m n n ext thos e

of the last fourth rst fth and thir d o r in some

, , , ,

other order as agreed on In this case the key will b e

.

A I A D A R N I M VPI N S D E R .

How is the recipient of this brief message to deal with

it ? He knows that the key agreed upon provi des for
six letters i n a line Since the t ext contains sevent een
.

letters he proceeds to draw the following graph :

,
 PR I NCIPA L SYS T EM S OF CRYPT O GRAPHY 43

crossing through the last square after which he writes ,

in the letters of the cryptograms in the order indicated

b y the key the second column the sixth the fourth , , ,

e t c when the thr ee names will be restored On no .

account must he forget to cancel the last square f o r if ,

he absent mindedly wrote a letter therein during the

-

Operation of deciphering the whole of the little text

,

would b e thrown out o f order The na m e PARIS for .

,

instance woul d be changed to I A MDR This system

, .

can be complicate d indenitely .

L et us exa m ine another example :

V H I I N R
U R S I N E
P W P L TN
K TD S S F
Z O O E I C
L EM B O E
This contains thirty six letters an d is there f ore very
-
,

short ; nevertheless the nu m ber of possible changes o f

,

position which one m ight e f fect in the letters t o ascertain ,

their meaning is so enormous as to b e practically in

,

calculable For the sake of comparison t ake wheat

.
,

o ur If we coul d isolat e a particle an d under a micro

.
,

scope count how many such scarcely p erceptible m ole

cules coul d be containe d in a cubic milli m etre we shoul d ,

nd let us sa y
, Ne w t o form a S phere as
, ,

large as our t errestrial globe it woul d re quire a nu m ber

,

of these particles equal to that of the combinations which

it is possible to make with the thirty six letters of our -

cipher which would have to be represente d by a series

,

of thirty seven gures

-
.

The key to this last t ext is the same that of the

preceding cr y ptogra m Accordingly the plain t ext must
.
,
 44 CRYPT O GRA PHY
be written six lett ers t o the li n e and the rst lett ers of
,

our exa m ple w ill form the secon d vertical slice of the
graph The phr ase we are about t o discover ha d for
.

it s author a great Captain who lived a centur y ago an d ,

accomplishe d victories in Europ e by the side of which

1
the present victories of our enemy are in sig n ica n t .

He succee ded in a much more magnicent ent erprise :

he won the a dmiration of the enemy peoples Decipher .

ing by the graph pro duces the following :

K V L P Z U
a H MW OR
r

j
t I Z P OS
mI w L E I
mN o T H N
j
h R mN OH

The r st line is compose d of blank letters intende d ,

si m ply t o embarrass the decipherer The t ext begins .

from the second l ine : The word i m possible i s not in
2
Fr ench .

This syst em of divi ders which dist antly recalls

t he L a ced aemonian scytales and was dubbe d by an early
,

ninet eenth century writ er the undecipherable cipher
-

ar a c ll n c is very di f cult to deco de when one has

p e e e e

t o deal with texts more complicat ed than the element ary

S pecimens we have j ust present ed It may b e point ed
3
.

1
N OT E T R A N S L A TO R Wh e n M L an gi s w ro t e th is t he
BY . .
,

Ge r m a n s w e r e i n a t e d w i th th e i r m i l i t ary s u cc e ss e s .

The ac tu a l w ords a re L e m o t i m possi b l e n e s t pas f ra n g a is

'

2
: .

3
On e m e th od o f co m p l ica t io n ca l c ul a t e d t o e x e rcis e t he pa t i e n c e
,

o f t he d e cip h e re r con sis t s in s u ppre ssi n g withou t l e a vi g a n y t ra ce

, ,
n ,

i f I m a y sa y so o f a c e r t ai n n u m b e r o f e s in a t e x t in su c h a w a y
,

as t o u pse t t he ca l c u l a t ion o f f re q ue n ci e s B u t th is proc e e di n g i s

.

da n g ro u s i n as m u c h as i t d o e s n o t o ff e r a b so l u t e s e c u ri t y a n d o n e
e , ,

r un s t he risk o f e n t a n g l i n g b o th o n e s e l f a n d o n e s corr spo n d e n t

e .
 PRIN CIPA L SYS T EMS OF CRY PT O GRA PHY 45

out that the second and longer exa m ple being reg ular , ,

is less di fcul t t o decipher than the rst which though , ,

sh o rter is irreg u lar

, .

There are systems in existence which are literally

undecipherable the ciphers being so m eti m es co m pose d b y
,

means of ingenious machines resembling the cash regis

ters of the S hops But there is a but it is probable
.
,

and often certain that systems absolutely undecipher ,

able to a n in q uisit iv e outsider will also be so to their

'

recipients however well provi de d the latter m a y be

,

w ith the desire d kevs T he reason is that i m portant news .

is nearly always urgent As soon as it is a question of .

urgency resort has t o be ha d t o t elegraphy or radio

,
1

t elegraphy Now in a long align m ent of lett ers which

.
,

are me aningless t o him the most skilful of t elegraphists ,

will commit involunt ary errors due t o inattention ,

fatigue or reex movements An d when a telegram

,
.

runs into a number of lines and has t o be retrans m itte d

several times the case is worse ,
.

It is stated that not 1 0 p er cent of te l egrams in cipher .

are free from errors on their arrival In t he rst place .

,

there is continual confusion between the letters u a n d n ,

o and a e and c e and l m and n

,
even in plain t exts
, , , .

Then it is so easy by a fal se m ovement t o change the , ,

one letter 8 into the two letters i and e

or the two letters on and t into the S ingle
letter o It is precisely these extra or missing
letters that do all the mischief .

One error is so m etimes su fcient to make the whole

text m eaningless as we have seen in the example ,

MADRID Hence i f one m u st u se systems very d if

.
,

1
I cid t a l l y i t m y b p i t d t th a t t h t l grap h ic a l p h a b t
n en a e o n e ou e e e e

is n o th i g l s b t a s y s t m o f cry p t og rap hy
n e e u e .
46 CRYPT O GRAPHY
c ul t to decipher it is none the less indisp ensable t o
,

choose keys in which one error will not cause a reper

c u ssio n t hroughout a document Fur thermore it is not
.
,

always conveni ent to carry about a dictionary or a code .

C ON C L U S I ON .

When one has a t ast e for cryptography and Op p or

,

t u n it ie s arise to devot e onesel f t o it seriously the study

,

develops into a passion At rst the am at eur is b e

.

wildere d He m ust make persistent e f forts and not b e

.
,

discourage d by r everses At all cos t s he must continue

.
,

assi duously persevering with trials not made haphazar d ,

but reasoned out and b ase d on induction an d hypotheses .

The S lower the resul t is obtained the more t ar dily Spc ce ss

,

cro w ns our e ff orts the more profound will be the sati s

,

faction we experience when we reach the goal an d like , .

Archimedes exclaim Eureka 1
,
 PA R T I I
E X A MPL ES or DE C PH ER I NG I

A C ON S U L T A T I ON .

ON E day a gentleman sent up his card and was S hown

int o my o ff ice .

It is t o an unfortunat e acci dent that I owe t he

pleasure of m aking your acquaintance he said very , ,

a f fably . What has driven me t o seek enlightenment
from you is this : I have b een sent here on a mission ; you
wil l excuse me from going into details Arriving this .

morning I had scarcely entere d my hot el when a post m an

,

brought in a letter a ddresse d to m e Now it was an .

,

understoo d thing that those who sent it must writ e in

cipher all c o m munications of any i m portance It is a .

wise precaution for you will se e if you examine the

, ,

envelope that it had been Opene d by stea m stuck down

, ,

again and im m ediat ely dried By whom 2 None of the

,
.

hot el people could or would throw any light on the

subj ect .

The cipher agree d upon between us is a gr ille I did .

not bring the grille it might have gone astray but I

had note d on an ol d lett er a m etho d f or q u ickly recon
s t r u c t in g the necessary grille t o be destr o ye d as s o on
,

as it had served its purpose This method consist ed

.

m erely of a list o f the nu m bers of the small sq u ares t o

be cut in a sq u are S heet o f paper which would enable m e,

47
48 CRYPT O GRA PHY
t o rea d the secret message transcribe d on t o another
square place d under the perforate d sheet Every night .

I destroy papers which I no l o nger want and I fear I ,

may have inadvert ently burnt the lett er contain i ng the

key in question I was able to get your a ddress with o ut
.

di f c u lty and am come to beg you t o bring all your S kill

,

int o play so that I m a y know the contents of the message

,

without delay .

Wh il e saying these wor ds he hande d me the ciphered ,

t ext which ran a s follows

,
1

a it e g f l y t b o e e h r e a u w n a n o a r r d r t e e t
h o s h f p e t a p o t o y h l r e t ih e n e m g a o a r n t

a tot al of sixty four lett ers or the s quare of eight Even

-
,
.

without the knowledge that I had to nd a grille that ,

woul d have been the rst idea to occ u r t o me .

I begged my visitor to call again at the en d of an hour ,

and immediat ely set t o work First I copie d the t ext on .

t o a s quar e divi de d into sixty four sectional s quares like -

,

that appearing b elow I numb ere d the four corners in .

Roman numerals and further a dde d Arabic gures t o the

,

sixty four s quares for the purp o se of easy identication

-
.

The principle of the grille system has already been

explaine d on p 4 1 I revert t o it m erely t o point out
. .

that the grille numbere d at the four corners in Roman

,

gures shoul d t exactly over the t ext the corner of the

, ,

grille numbere d 1 covering corner I of the t ext corner .

,

2 of the grille corner II of the t ext and so on If in .

,
.
,

our exa m ple the rst hole in the grille exposes the letter
,

A ( s quare when t he position o f the grille is change d so

that corner 1 covers corner II of the text and corner 2 .
,

1
N OT E
T R A N S L A TO R Tl t e x t o f t he cip h e r as w l l as
BY . lc ,
e

c e r t ai por t io s o f t he xp l a n a t ory m a tt r h av e b e n m odi e d t o

n n C e , e

m e e t t he r q u ir m e t Of t h E n g l is h t ra n l a t io n
e en s e s .
 E XAMP L ES OF DE CIPHERI N G 49

covers corner etc the sa m e hole will expose lett er Y

.
,

( s quare A further operation will reveal the letter T

( square and a nal turn the letter M ( s q u are
A S imilar res u lt will be produce d by all t he other holes in
the grille which in e ach of its four positions will enable
, , ,

a quarter of the act ual text t o be read .

IV
In this case ho w ever the grille was missing and my
, , ,

visitor in his embarrassment had aske d me to reconstruct

, ,

it How must I procee d 2

.

I t ake a piece of tracing paper cut a little l a rger than

,

the above s quare and superi m pose it thereon On the

, .

tracing pap er I repro duce the outline o f the s quare a s it

5O CRYP T O GRAPHY
shows through and outside the four corners I writ e the
,

Arabi c numerals 1 2 3 4 I then examine th e t ext an d

, , , .

endeavour t o form a useful syllable .

On the rst line my att ention is attract e d by A T

( squares and common enough word in English
1 3 ) a ,

and on e which mi ght easil y form the beginning of a

message Accor dingly I mark the place of these two
.
,

lett ers on my tracing paper ; after which I turn the latt er ,

not a quarter only but a half roun d so that it is now

, ,

reversed and corners 1 and 2 cover c orners III and I V

, .
.

o f the t ext The marks ma de on the tracing paper now

.

coincide with R T ( squares 62 an d This is a very

good wor d ending an d it is evident that from the last
-
,

two lines we coul d easily extract the wor d H E A R T

s quares 5 3 5 4 ( or 59 ( or Marking th ese
'

, 62 64 , .

an d again reversing the tracing pap er we nd in the ,

correspon ding s quares 1 3 4 ( or 9 ( or
1 2 the , ,

combination A T E ( or F ) T ( or O ) E This not b eing .

very satisfactory I abandon the combination and try

,

another .

Having seen that the tracing paper is in its original

position I t urn my attention to the secon d line an d
, ,

deci de t o mark T H E ( squares 9 1 4 This is con , ,

cede d by investigators t o b e the co m monest trigram in

English and is almost cert ain t o occur in a t ext of sixty
,

four letters Reversing the tracing paper as before

.

brings the marks t o the corresponding s quares 4 9 5 1 5 6 , ,

i n the sixth line indicating the l ett ers R T E This is

,
.

quite a promising combination and I l ook for the vowel ,

which shoul d precede i t The rst that meets the eye is .

0 ( s quare while three s quares farther back (4 2)

appears P We now have the group P O R T E which
.
,

seems to call for the nal R and sure eno u gh this letter ,
 EXAMP L ES OF D E CIPHE RI N G 51

occu rs in the last line at s quare 62 though o f course , , ,

N T ( s quares 63 6 4 ) are possible , .

I now reverse the paper t o ascertain what lett ers corre

S p o n d t o the new m arks an d bring t o light T ( square 3 ) an d
,

N O ( 20 ,
We now have the group T T H E N O the ,

rst lett er being doubtless a nal and the last two the ,

beginning of a new word The next proceeding is t en .

t a t iv e ly to begin the construction of the grille which I ,

do by drawing s quares round the letters P O R T E R

( 4 2, 45 , 4 9, 5 1 , 5 6,

L et us now take crayons in four colours s a y blue ,

red green and yellow With the blue crayon we m ak e

, , .

a small mark in the t ext itself against each of the above

six letters We now turn the tracing pap er but this time
.
,

only a quarter and our S ix marke d s quares n e w cover the

,

lett ers I O U S A G ( 2 1 1 1 8 3 5 4 1 T o these we, , , , ,

att ach a brown mark Incident ally it may b e not e d .

,

that the results of t h e quarter t ur n unlike those o f t h e ,

complet e half are not necessarily t o b e rea d consecutively

, .

A further turn brings u s t o the group T T H E N O

( 3 9 1 4 1 6 20
, , , which w e m ark in re d ; an d a nal
, ,
-

turn pro duces L A E H E N ( 7 24 30 4 7 5 4 which , , , , ,

we indicat e in green .

We have now neutralise d 24 out o f the 64 s quares .

thereby narrowing considerably o u r el d of research .

Coming back t o our original group P O R T E R we look ,

for a likely wor d t o precede it and are favourably incline d ,

towar d s T H E ( 32 3 6 There are two H s bet w een

, ,

the T an d the E and we a dopt the second e x p e r im e n

,

t ally Marking these an d reversing t h e tracing paper

.
,

we nd the three corresponding letters to b e R T H

( 26 29
, , This enlarg e s our re d gr o up t o T TH E
N ORT H a res u lt w hich proves that we are o n t he righ t
52 CRYPT O GRAPHY

track Accor dingly we mark in the four colours the

.
,

corresp onding lett ers in the four p ositio ns bringing the ,

t otal of neutralise d s quares t o

Progress onwar ds is b y leaps and b ounds We have .

si m ply t o study on e or other of the coloure d groups ,

ignoring meanwhile the now numerous ear marke d -

s quares F or instance on scrutinising our two re d wor ds

.
, ,

THE N ORT H and the unmarke d letters following them

, ,

we quickly discern a P and an O and think o f Po l e
, .

These letters are duly foun d in s quares 3 8 4 3 4 8 an d 50

, , , ,

and having marke d these in re d an d the corresponding

,

lett ers in the other positions in their appropriat e colours ,

we nd that only twe l v e s quares remain t o be

accounte d for .

The mat erials for the grille are now almost complet e ,

an d we are able to cut ou t 1 3 holes from the 1 6 ,

which in the four p ositions will ena b le u s t o rea d the

, ,

whol e of the t ext Our four coloure d groups each

.
,

re quiring three lett ers t o b e complet e now appear a s

,

follows :
Re d : T T H E N O R T H P O L E
Green : E L B E W A E F T H E A N
Blue : R A N D TH E P O R T E R
Brown : I F O U A R S A Y I N G A

A glance at our t ext shows Y ( s quare 8 ) t o b e the only

un m arke d letter between the F an d O in the brown line ,

which discovery enables u s t o ll in all the other blanks

automatically an d at the same time proves the brown line
,

t o be the beginning of the message We can now com

.

p l e t e the cutting of the grille .

At this j uncture my visitor appears Have you dis

.

covered anything he asks eagerly .

 E XAMP L ES O F D E CIPHERIN G 53


Here is your grille I reply L et us read it to
,
.

gether : I F YO U AR E S T AYIN G AT THE N ORTH

P O L E HO T E L BEWARE OF THE MA NAG ER A N D

THE P ORT ER .

But our friend suddenly looks grave .

Good heavens l he exclaims I have some import ant ,

p apers in my portmant eau And with a bound he d is .

appears downstairs .

I t is t o be hope d he arrive d in time .

W HE R E I s TH E M ON EY 2
The Chief of the French Secret Service Department ha d
i nvite d me t o call upon him an d after giving me a cordial ,

welcome sai d ,
:

You are aware that following on the robbery at the ,

Continental Bank the notorious individual whose i dentity

,

has not b een establishe d and who is known only under one ,

of his aliases Pa st our e has j ust been sent ence d t o ve

, ,

years imprisonment Ha d he t aken scrip payable t o

.

order or bearer we sho u l d have been at ease but he has

, ,

conne d his att ention to cash .

Now a fellow of his stamp would hi de the stolen sums

,

in such a way as t o be able to nd them intact on regaining

his liberty and he is t oo keen a psychologist t o hav e
,

conde d his secret t o an acco m plice He has worke d .

single hande d and we only manage d to lay hol d on him

-
,

thanks to an accident a h o le having been torn in one of

,

the ngers of the rubber gloves he w ore in his operations .

By this circu m stance we secure d an i m print o f his thumb ,

and i dentie d it with the a n t hr Op o m e t r ic record already

m a de o n the o ccasi o ns o f his previous collisi o ns wit h
j u stice .

U nfortunately six d ays elapse d bet w een the robber y

,
54 CRYPT O GRAPHY
and the arrest We have b een able t o trace his move
.

ment s dur ing the last two days but are still in the dark ,

a s t o how he e m ploye d his time dur ing the rst four .

Being deter m ine d to leave n o stone unturne d t o recover

the m oney I have continue d a strict investigation
,
.

Y est erday I visite d the central establishment housing

our m a n and learnt that Pa t our e ha d al m ost i m me diat ely
, ,

on his entry aske d p er m ission t o writ e his will which he

, ,

hande d seale d t o the prison registrar I had the package .

produce d an d having obt ained a warrant from the Court

, , ,

t ook cognisance this morning of the la st w ishe s of the

prisoner and in his presence
, .

The t ext of the will was somewhat t o the e f fect tha t

its author b e queathe d his wat ch a ring t he cont ents of , ,

his pur se an d his personal e f fect s t o his brother and sister

, ,

who woul d make themselves known when re quire d if an

a dvertisement were i nserte d in a big daily asking for the
heir s of M de Pa st ou r e
. .

I was struck by the aspect of the fourth page of this

docu m ent which the prisoner ha d covere d with gur es
,
.

I aske d him what this meant and he replie d that they were
,

merely calculat ions of interest on the income from land

hel d in com m on by his family in their village

Here is the pap er itself I do not know why the .

c o nt ents of the fourth page perplex me You se e that .

in the four col um ns into which the page is rule d off ,

Pa st o ur e has writt en sums in a ddition subtraction , ,

l t ipl ic a t io n and division with erasures everywhere

, , .

Please t ake the d o cu m ent exa m ine it at leisure an d let

, ,

m e kn o w at y o u r c o nvenience what you think of it .

I p u t t he will into m y bag and having arrive d ho m e, , ,

stu d ied it with e a ger c uri o sity .

I beg a n by veri fying the results of the arithmetical

 EXAMP L ES OF DE CI PHERI N G 55

Operations occ urring therein At rst glance the whole .

was a c o nfuse d medley The nu m ber 1 5 8 for instance .

, ,

multiplie d b y 86 was S hown as and si m ilarly other

,

sums were quite wrong After pr o longe d reection I t ook .

,

a notebook and recor de d the various observations su g

geste d by a preliminary exa m ination I counte d all the .

gures on the page an d found there were 1 4 4 I then

,
.

made a list of the m column by colu m n as follows :

, ,

20 1 0 1 0 4 53 7 8 7 24 36 6 7 3 5 1 8 7 6 936 1 7 7 95 298 4
8 4 7 20 1 224 6 7 5 294 85 1 8 5 27 23 6 45 2236 1 21 1 1
5 8 86 4 3 1 1 0 2250 1 1 8 1 3 4 1 4 3 7 5 6 5 95 21 4 0 1 5 93
5 7 91 3 1 54 4 93 94 5 4 44 10 21 25 244 8 1 0 0 64 221 2

These 1 4 4 gures were distribute d in the following order of

frequency :
F igure : 1 2 4 5 3 7 0 6 8 9
Times occurring : 24 21 20 1 7 1 2 1 1 1 0 1 0 10 9

I became more and more convince d that there was a key

t o b e discovere d here But the fre quency of the t en .

gur es le d to nothing In F rench even in a long phrase .

, ,

the whole of the 25 or 26 l etters of the alphabet are rarely

use d On the other hand the shortest phrases require
.
,

at least 1 6 1 7 or 1 8 di f ferent lett ers The famous line

, , .

of Voltaire s
Non il n est rien que Nanine n ho n or e
, ,

where the n s and e s form nearly hal f the total nu m ber of

lett ers absorbs 1 2 di f fere nt letters It is scarcely possible

. .
,

except p erhaps in Runic t o writ e phr ases w ith a t o tal ,

of t en di f ferent characters In French w hen Arabic .

,

nu m erals are resort e d to f o r secret w r iting groups o f ,

two g u res at least are generally e m ploye d

, , .

Accordingly I proceeded t o divide the 1 4 4 fig u res into

,

sections o f tw o : 20 1 0 1 0 4 5 and so on There wer e

, , , , .

7 2 such groups but on a calculati o n I found that there

,
56 CRYPT O GRAPHY
were never more than two groups alike : two 1 0 s

4 5 s etc T wenty one groups were repeat e d and

-
, .
,

occur re d only once .

Matters were not making much headway The letter .

occur ring in F rench on an average once in six lett ers

, , ,

or 1 7 p er cent I had no m eans of decidin g which of the

.
,

21 repeat e d groups coul d represent that lett er I then .

divi de d the 1 4 4 gures into groups of three ; there were 4 8 .

But my disappoint m ent w as if possible still great er , , ,

only one group bein g duplicat e d 20 1 all the rest

occur ring only once I went on t o form groups of four .
,

then six eight and twelve gures after which I stopp e d

, , , .

In each cat egory I ha d of cour se arranged the groups in , ,

numerical or der from the lowest t o the highest On , .

exa mi ning them in rot ation m y attention w a s attract e d ,

more particularly by the thr ee g u r e groups and for this -

,

reason : I was struck by the very small di f ference between

certain groups which followe d at intervals of 1 Thus :
, .

0 1 0 , 0 1 1 ; 1 10 , 1 1 1 ; 223 , 224 , 225 ; 4 5 3 , 4 5 4 ; 64 2, 6 4 3 ,

then with a lacuna 64 5 ; 8 5 1 , 8 52 It then occurre d t o .

me to a dd t ogether the t hr ee gur es of the highest group :

98 4 . The groups following this in value
gave : 952 or ,939 or ,

Hallo ! I sai d t o myself none of these group s ,

seems t o exceed 21 when I a d d the three gur es composing

it. And I thereupon reecte d that in many French
p hrases the letter 25t h of the alphabet does not occur ; ,

nor y the 24 t h ; nor, the 23r d ; the last in com m on

usage being the 22md Perhaps after all each of the .
, ,

thr ee g ur e groups represent e d the order of a letter in

-

the alphabet .

Accordingly I made the trial and a dde d the gures

, ,

of ea ch group This resulte d in the groups 0 10 and 1 00

.
 EXAM PL ES OF DE CI PH ER I NG 57

p ro d u cing a t otal s u m of 1 ; 0 1 1 and 1 1 0 each 2 ; ,

1 1 1 an d the two 20 1 s each 3 The group which

, , .

ince d the largest su m was not as I had at rst sup ,

)
ed one ,of the highest but According t o ,

u
y new hypothesis the plain text probably containe d ,

the l e tters a to e if the language were F rench I was ,

.

disconcerted however to n d that the most fre quent , ,

total of the additions w a s not 5 corresponding to e but 9 , , ,

e qualling i according t o my theory , It m ight b e L atin .
,

I thought .

Another serious irregularity which came to light was

that the most fre quent totals after 9 were 1 5 ( ve times ) ,

correspondi n g t o the letter 0 and 21 ( ve ti m es ) to u , , .

This is contrary t o the rules of letter frequency not only ,

in French where after e the most fr equent letters are

, , ,

n a i r s t only the i of our thr ee suppose d letters has

, , , ( , ,

any place here ) but also in L atin where the lett ers , ,

shoul d occur in the following order : i e s u a n 0 r , , , , , , , ,

etc Still we have her e the i u and 0 and in any case

.
, , , .
,

it was desirable t o p ut our supposition to the t est .

The r st three gures m eant e ; the next three , ,

0 l 0 = a ; then The co m plet e t ext prove d

to be : Ca le isiu s Op u s Chro n ologicu ni B ib liothgu e ,
.

l
M un icip a le .

So he has deposite d the sequel t o his secret in a

volume I thought , And w ith a psychological fore .

sight by no m eans stupid he has not truste d t o his ,

me m ory having ha d experience of the transfor m ations

,

which m e m ory c a n e f fect in a na m e after a certain nu m ber

1 N OT E
T R A N S L A TO R
BY r e t w o e rrors in t he cryp t o .
~ T h e l e

gra m t he n a l l e tt r in ( l is ius b i n g r pre se t e d b y t he gro u p

, e
'
a i
'
e e n

93 6 = 1 8 = r a n d t h th i rd l tt e r in M u icip a le b y t he gro u p
, e e . n

4 54 = 1 3 = m .
58 CRYP T O GRAPHY
of years F urthermore he ha s chosen as the receptacle
.
, ,

of his con d e n ce s a kin d of work which is among the

,

least cons ult e d in a collectio n of b ooks Ol d books on .

law or theology are so m etimes referre d t o but ancient ,

m anuals of chr onology are generally allowe d t o sleep in

p e a ce f

The same day I repair e d t o the Biblioth e que Munici

pale and aske d for the volume by Calv isiu s It w a s a
, .

quarto t ome boun d in a thick leather co ver The cr y p .

t o g r a m giving no indication of a page I thought Pas ,

t oure must have ma de so m e secret entries on the rst or

last pages There coul d b e no question of sympathetic
.

ink S ince the necessary manipulat ions t o make it visible

,

were scarcely possible in a public reading room I -

.

exp ect e d t o encounter some letters dott e d in p encil ,

which if j oine d woul d form wor ds and phrases ; but m y

hop e w a s vain although I did not stop till I had scanne d
,

e very p age of the volume .

I was lo st in conj ectur e when the i dea occur re d to me to

,

examine the insi de of the back of the book pressing the ,

latt er co m plet ely op en I p erceive d no not e or anything

.

else Still re flecting I looke d at the inside cover I

.
,
.

noticed nothing at the beginning of the volu m e but at the ,

end in the t op corner the paper was somewhat crease d

, ,

and seeme d to have been moistene d Feeling the p l ace .

with my ngers I beca m e aware of the existence under

, ,

the paper of a hard obj ect small and slender It was

, ,
.

i m p erative that I S houl d se e what was hidden there ,

so I h a d the book put on one side and went o u t t o ,

o btain a s m all S ponge a b o ttl e o f water an d a tube

, ,

of gum .

Ar m e d with these obj ects I returne d for m y Ca lv isius

,
,

and o perating in the sa m e w a y as Pa st our e must have

,
 EXAMP L E S OF D E CIPHERI N G 59

done b ut vice ve rsa I slippe d the little S ponge soake d

, , ,

in water into the suspicious place and while waiting

, , ,

for the moisture to take e f fect I turne d t o p 21 5 and ,

.

plun ged into the mysteries o f the chronology of the Kings

Ezechias an d Nabonassar When the desire d result w a s
.

obtaine d I drew from its hi ding place a small safe key

,
-
,

which bore the na m e Bauche and a nu m ber I r e .

gumme d the paper and having returne d the volu m e

, , ,

went in quest of the Chief of the Secret Service .

Have you any idea o f the m eaning of the gures 2

he asked S haking hands and indicating a seat

, .

Why yes I replie d
, , They have enable d me t o
.

nd this little met al obj ect .

Picture the astonish m ent then j oy of the Chief He, ,

made me describe point by point the develop m ent of

my discovery Then he start e d on the chase aecom
.
,

p a n ie d by his S leuth hounds Two days later on

-
.
,

opening m y newspaper I learnt that the thirt een hun dre d

,

thousand francs which had been stolen ha d b een r s

covere d from the strong room of a bank where a com
-
,

a r t m e n t had been rente d for ft een years by a client

p
about to st art for Australia

A RA B I C N U M E RA L S .

I will now give another instance of success in the dis

co v e r y or key to a cryptogram It was in Arabic nu .

m e ra l s
. One day I receive d in the usual bu f f envelope
the following text : 1

6 7 5 3 4 3 4 95 9 6 1 4 96 5 4 8 60 4 64 95 1 4 5 64 4 64 96 25 3 50
6 5 64 6 0 4 950 4 5 6 64 4 5 96 6 4 96 64 5 6 64 9 60 4 94 9664 6
5 96 6 5 0 624 9 50 53 6 6 50 60 5 7 4 96 8 5 84 9
1
Se e f oo t n o t e on p . 60 .
60 CRYPT O GRA PHY
I b egan by arrang ing the numbers in or der of i m portance ,

from the lowest to the highest :

0 4 950 0 624 9 1 4 56 4 25 3 50 3495 9 4 5 664 4 5 96 6 4 64 95
4 64 96 4 9664 5 0 5 36 5 4 8 60 5 664 9 5 7 4 96 5 96 6 5 60 4 94
61 4 96 6 50 60 6 5 64 6 6 7 5 34 8 5 8 4 9 9664 6

It will be notice d that two thirds of these groups range -

from the 0 t o the 60 thousands and two 464 95 an d

4 ,

4 6 4 96 d i f fer only by a unit Have we here one of those .

syste m s of comb ine d co des involving m uch complication ,

in their d e cip he rm e n t b u t rarely use d by reason of their

,
'

extreme co m plexity 2 On the other hand these groups

,

of ve gur es may be p urely arbitrary 1

.

A striking p eculiarity is the preponderance of 6 s an d

4 s which o ccur 30 and 24 times respectively whereas

, ,

1 2 and 7 each occur only twice 8 thre e t imes and 3

, , , ,

four times .

Perhaps it is possible t o group the gures di f ferently .

Can we divi de the t ext into groups of four gures 2 No

,

because t here are 1 1 0 gures Neither can we for m .

groups of three We can however form 5 5 groups of

.
, ,

two gures :
6 7 53 4 3 4 9 59 61 4 9 65 4 8 60 4 6 49 51 45
64 4 6 4 9 62 5 3 50 65 64 60 4 9 5 0 4 5 66 44
5 9 66 4 9 66 4 5 66 4 9 60 4 9 4 9 66 4 6 59 66
5 0 62 4 9 50 5 3 66 5 0 60 57 4 9 68 58 4 9

Having made the division we observe that the group ,

4 9 occurs twelve t i m es which is somewhat above the ,

normal fre quency of the letter e in a total of 55 groups .

We will therefore assu m e provisionally that 4 9 e

, ,
2 .

1
N OT E T N S TO A t rs t sig ht th is cryp t ogra m w o l d
BY RA LA R . u

be h ard t o dis t i g i s h f ro m t h d ic t io ar y c ip h r d scri b d

n u e n e e e on

p . 35 .
 EXAMP L ES OF D ECIPHERIN G 61

We next note the fre quency o f the numbers 4 9 ( supposed

e ) and 66 in the series 66 4 9 66 4 5 6 6 4 9 60 4 9 4 9 66 , , , , , , , , , .

A s a general r u le o n ly a consonant can follow the double d

'

e in English and the most likely consonants are n t d

, , , ,

and l The rst three lett ers in the series might well b e
.

(I e d but the se quence woul d be : 2 d e 2 e e d

,

,

which gives an unusual number o f d s in a smal l group

.

Suppose we try the much more likely n as the e quivalent

of 66 We now have the series n e n 2 n e 2 e e n The
.

.

letter t seems to b e the obvious consonant to ll the

secon d lacuna and by replacing the r st by the vowel i
,
,

we get the complet e word ninet een , with n e as the
t ail en d of the prece ding word This promising result
-
.

yields us the following four e quivalents :

4 9= e ; 4 5 = i ; 6 6 = n ; 60 = t

We procee d t o make trials with these four letters and ,

observe that prece ding the wor d
, ninet een there ,

occurs the group t e 2 i n 2 2 n e ( 60 4 9 5 0 4 5 66 4 4

, , , , , ,

5 9 66
, , The co m bination leads us to the i dea that
a date is in question in which case ther e can be no hesi,

t a t io n in lling in the three blanks thus : t e d in June .

Or r theory is conrme d on exa m ining the series following

nineteen viz 2 u n d 2 e d (4 6 5 9 66 50 62 4 9
.
,

, , , , , ,

which is obviously hundre d .

Be f ore going any farther we summarise the result s ,

so far obtaine d t o wit : ,

d = 50 ; e= 4 9 ; h= 4 6 ; i = 4 5 ; = 44 ; = 66 ; 62 ; t = 60 ;
j n r2

and are immediately str u ck by the fact that the nu m bers

procee d in two regularly descending se quences so that , ,

without further trial we are able t o cons t ruct our ,

a lphabet :
 2

62 .
CRYPT O GRA PHY
a=
53 h= 4 6 v = 58
b = 52 i= 4 5 p = 6 4 w = 57
c 51
2 =
j 44 q = 63 x = 56

d 50 k= 4 3 r = 62 = 55
z
y
e = 49 s = 61 z = 54

f = 48 m = 67 t = 60
= 47 n = 66 u = 59
g

The complet e t ext of the crypt ogra m is then found t o b e :

Make use of the cipher a dopte d in June ninet een ,

hundre d an d twelve .

L
Once more I woul d ask m y readers t o refer t o th e
Preface t o this volume .

I N TH E F L OU R .

Towar ds eleven o clock one night a s I was about t o

retire t o bed I heard a vio l ent ring at the door and a

, ,

mo m ent lat er my mai d app eare d an d smilingly informe d

m e that a policeman was asking for me She knows I .

a m always please d to s ee a policeman whose visit usually ,

leads t o cert ain little expeditions which g e n e r allv result

,

in so m ething unexpect e d with a spice of a dventure .

I Opene d the door half way an d aske d : Who is
-

there 2 An un known voice replied : May I trouble

you to come at once t o you know where 2 You will then

receive inst ructions I hastene d to the rendezvous
.

a n o f ce in which were congregat ed o f cials detectives , ,

an d policemen We exchanged greetings and then a

.
, ,

large m o tor car having drawn up at the entrance some

-
,

of the party myself include d t ook our places in the

vehicle which moved off at great speed
, .

I thoro u ghly enj oye d the moonlight trip We rushed .

through villages and a woo d an d cli m bed a hill con ,

versing in l o w t o n es all t he ti m e Su d d enly t he car

.
 E XAMP L E S OF DE CIPHE RI N G 63

st e p p e d ; we got out and proceede d on foot to a solitary

house where a bright light gleame d from a wi n dow on

,

the groun d oor So m ebody knocke d at the door

. .

While waiting for it to be opened the lea der o f the ex ,

p e d it io n took me apart and infor m ed m e that a d o m i

ciliary search was about to be carrie d out in the roo m s of

a man who had been arrest ed that day and who had ,

strongly protested saying he had been entruste d with a

,

diplomatic mission In the papers t o b e submitte d

.

to me for examination I was to search for pro o fs of that

state m ent .

At last we were inside and I was installed before the ,

drawing room t able on which documents in various

-
,

languages were being pile d I burie d myself in the .

t edious and wearying t ask of selection putting on one ,

side the scree ds which see m ed to deserve a more minut e

examination I ha d no knowledge of t he case or of the
.

allegations against the arrest e d man .

But something was taking place at a table at the other

end of the roo m w here a mysterious personage who was
, ,

a ddresse d as Mr D eputy was occupie d in taking
.
,

notes It appeare d that a considerably larger s u pply of

.

provisions ha d been foun d in the roo m s than was author

ised by the F oo d Order ; an d a detective who ha d a ,

reputation for sm a r t n e ss ha d brought in a tin box which

, .

had arouse d his suspicions though it apparently containe d ,

only o u r There w a s also a sack of flour in the larder

.
,

and this pound or so kept separately in a wri t ing desk

, ,

had puzzle d him .

Co nte m plating the w hit e powder w ith an air of a b sor p

t ion the detective m ur m ure d : Old our so m et i m es
,

c o ntains w o r m s ; I w onder w hether there are any here .

And while Mr Dep u ty and o ther f uncti o naries l o o ked
.
64 CRYPT O GRAPHY
on with int erest he passe d the our through a sieve which
,

he ha d j ust procur e d letting the ne powder f all on t o an

,

Op en newspaper Suddenly a s m all cylindrical obj ect

.
,

appeared a sort of case for st eel pen nibs With obvious

, .

delight the det ective examine d this obj ect cleane d an d ,

op ene d it and t o our astonish m ent produce d therefrom

, , ,

two ri b bons of pink paper covere d with charact ers in re d

,

ink which he deferentially sub mitt e d to the D eputy
, .

The latter aban done d the a ir of indi f ference w hi ch he ha d

hi therto displaye d and eagerly seize d the two documen t s
, ,

which he began to study with deep int erest .

Several of us forme d a cir cle round him an d I was ,

able t o read over his sho ul der one of the t exts :

Y OUW OU L D H A R D L Y K N OW TH E R E
WA S A W A R PR O V I S I O N S A R E P L E N
T I F U L A N D QU I T E C H E A P

( You woul d har dly know there was a war . Pro
visions are plentiful an d quit e chea p )

The other t ext b egan with the letters USLA AVI ,

foll owe d by several more without any apparent Sig n i

cance though the wor ds ID O L an d SHE BA stoo d out
,

among the meaningless array .

Returning t o my seat I glance d fr c m time t o time at

,

the D eputy He was comparing the English t ext
with the strange medley on the secon d ribbon an d seemed ,

t o b e making great e f forts of m emory F inally with the .

,

careworn air of one who has not solve d a proble m he ,

carefully presse d the two bands of paper into their case

an d put the latter into his pocket .

Two hours had elapsed S ince our arrival The e x a m i .

n ation w a s nished and the seals a f fixe d The D eputy .

disappeare d and we rej o ine d our m o tor Going off at

, .
 EXAMP L ES OF D E CIPHERI N G 65

a good pace under the light of the m oon I reache d home

, ,

about two in the morning .

The word us la a v i kept r u nning through my hea d .

Surely this was a Slavonic wor d meaning glory .

And coul d one connect it with the words i dol and

Sheba ? It might be some ritual On the other .

han d the initial w or d of the mysterious writing might

,

be a variant sp elling of the Russian usloe ie m eaning ,

t erms I imagine d so m e semi Oriental conspiracy
.
-
,

an d was frankly seize d with a t ormenting desire t o know

the whole t ext of the document .

On the f ollowing morning I was immensely gratied

on hearing a policeman announce d He came to invit e .

me to ca ll upon Mr D eputy at an hotel near the .

station upon a matter o f great urgency I at once made .

my way thither and was im m ediately intro duce d into

,

the presence of that important man who plunge d ,

without preamble int o the business .

You see he sai d ,
these are the two document s
,

seized the other night Each cont ains sixt y v e lett ers
.
-
.

One is evidently the transcription of the other to which ,

it has been att ache d in error I have co m pare d the .

fre quency of th e l etters in each and here is the result : ,

tt r
Le e : A B C D E F G II I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Pla in t e x t z 7 0 1 3 6 1 0 3 4 0 1 4 0 4 5 3 1 5 3 3 4 1 4 0 2 0: 65
C iph r
e :

We have t o discover the key I will not hide f r o m you .

t he fact that it will be di f cult But it must be done .

,

for we have receive d S imilar writings from other sources ,

on the same kind of paper a n d in the same re d ink Try .

and get on the track of the metho d by which w e can

decipher the m .

F o r instance he continue d ,both texts have an ,
66 CR Y PTOGR A PH Y

e qual number of A s H s 1 s an d T s There are n

,

.

J S M s or X s in either The cipher contains B G and Z

,

.
, , .

w hi ch are absent from the plain t ext and m y theor y it ,

that these and other re dundant lett ers such as seve r ,

.

instead of six E s are int en de d t o play the part of letters

w hich are present in the plain t ext but absent f rom the

cipher .

I went home an d S hut myself in with what eagerness

may be imagine d With the respect due t o a relic I drew
.
,

the precious paper from my pocket case an d b egan t o

study it It rea d as follows :
.

U S L A A V I P I C A S D H O I O TO E I D O L Y
S H E B A H A D A D S TC E S R E N E S O N E Z
TU K U K D G O E L O A C S N R

A rapi d glance le d me t o the conclusion that the t hr ee

words which had seeme d so p ort entous were m erely
accidental groups in the cryptogra m and I procee de d t o ,

experiment on the lines indicat ed by the D eputy ,

comparing the t ext with the suppose d transcription .

I soon became convince d however of the absolut e , ,

i mpossibility of arriving at any resul t in this way an d ,

began trying other methods putting aside the plain ,

t ext .

There b eing sixty v e letters in the cryptogram I

-
,

t emporarily decided against the theory of a grille whi ch ,

usually requires a s quare number The pairs OE AD .

, ,

ES NE and U K which were repeated gave m e the i de a

, , , ,

of looRin g for a key word ( se e p but the intervals

-
.

between the repeate d g r oups furnishing no satisfactory

indication I p a sse d on t o another hypothesis
, .

I notice d that the letter 0 occurre d three times in a

s equence of ve letters thus O O O and that the same
: ,
 EXAMP L E S OF DE CIPHE RI N G 67

hing happene d with A A A A This favoure d the
: .

dea that the cipher had been co m pose d with the aid of
t he syst em known as


dividers ( see p 4 ) that is
4 .
,

t he required phrases had been writt en in very sh o rt lines

and the letters separated into vertical sections which , ,

placed en d t o end had forme d the t ext now be f ore m y

,

eyes Accordingly I began to cut the t ext into groups

.
,

of letters which I j uxtapose d with the obj ect of r e

,

constructing the original t ext As a nucleus I t o ok .

the two groups j ust m enti o ne d and arranged them ,

in vertical co lumns thus : ,

0 A
I H
O A
T D
O A
Of these pairs only OA could form part of an English
word but the o ther two pairs coul d each be the nal and
,

initial letters o f separat e wor ds I rst tried the word .

board . There w a s only one B in the cryptogram ,

and the group containing it was Y SH E B J u xtap o sed .

with the above this produce d the series : Y OA SI H

, , ,

HOA E T D B OA The r st trigram being u n sa t isf a c

, ,
.

tory I abandone d the wor d board and tried
, ,

etc but obtaine d no good res u lt one o r other

.
, ,

of the trigra m s pro duced always proving an impossible

combination .

It then occurre d t o m e that the ve pairs a lr e a d v

m arke d o f f need not necessarily be consecutive letters .

The pa ir IH f o r instance was v ery unpro m ising but

, , ,

the insertion of S or T m a king I SH or ITH wo uld , ,

yield a far more h o pe f ul basis Acco rd ingly I decided .

,
68 CRYPT O GRAPHY
tointerpose a thir d group b e twe en the r st t wo, an d hit
upon ST OB S This pro duced :
.

S A
0
lI T H
O C A
T E D
O S A

The secon d line coul d not b e w ith for there w a s no ,

W in the cryptogram but it might be I think
, Adopt .

ing this i dea I succee de d quit e easily in adding three more

,

groups t o my wor d skeleton to wit : VI PI C E NE S O

-

, , ,

and UK UK D and now had quite an i m posing array :

,

0 S A V E U
I T H I N K
O C A P E U
T E D I S K
O S A C O D

But I coul d get no farther ; none of the r emaining groups

woul d t in .

I had of course marke d each group of lett ers in the

, ,

cryptogra m as I had use d them an d now foun d that ,

several letters were isolat ed and that there were two

,

group s with only four l etters each among some longer ,

series as yet untouche d I looke d again at the partial

,
.

"
reconstruction Certainly the words save
. think , ,

an d cap e seeme d t oo goo d to abandon I wondere d .

whether the last could b e a part of the wor d escap e ,

an d in order t o t est this omitte d my rst column OI OTO

, , ,

s ubstituting the two groups O EID O an d USLA A These .

coul d only b e adj uste d by moving them down one line .

The wor d think was now preceded by O U instead
 EXAMP L ES OF DE CIPHERI N G 69

of I ,I complete d the word you by a dding the group

so

Y SH E B an d now read the following :

,

V E U
d- i O U T H I N K
mE S C A P E U
n
tI L E D I S K
mD A S A G O D
d
U 0 A

The rst line looked as though it might b e save u s

I ha d two spare S s but neither of the groups containing

them woul d S u it the rest of the context I then extende d .

each o f the l ast v e colu mn s b y one letter do w nwar ds

'

followin g on from the ciphere d t ext This made the last .

l in e rea d : B OA R DA NG Assuming that AN G w a s p art

.
v

of the na me of a S hip the wor d on seeme d the p io p e r

,

wor d to precede boar d To intro duce this I pre .
,

xe d the two groups DH OI O an d OA CSN .

I was gratie d to not e that the secon d line now rea d

do you think but the thir d line was not so flawless ,

being H A SE SCA PE U A glance at the last column .

showed m e a means of correcting this : it w a s the group

UK UK DG By cutting off the r st two lett ers an d
.

sliding the column up two lines the K of think w a s ,

preserved an d the thir d line beca m e has escape d .

S uccess was now a foregone conclusion It t ur ne d out .

that the original t ext ha d been written in lines o f eleven

letters an d had then been divi de d into vertical sections
, ,

of which the fth ha d for m e d the rst letters of the

ciphere d t ext the eighth forming the secon d series
, ,

an d so on The rst line SA VE U had t o b e

.
, ,

aban doned and the co m plet e reconstructed t ext prove d

,

t o be :
70 CRYP T O GR APHY
D O Y O U T H I N K Z
H A S E S C A P E D T
O C H I L E D I S G U
I S E D A S A C O O K
O N B O A R D A N E U
T R A L V E S S E L

( Do you think Z has escaped t o Chile disguised as a
cook on boar d a neutral vessel
The document in plain language which accompanied
the above was merely int ende d t o t hrow investigators
o ff the scent Having found the key I lost all fur ther
.
,

interest in the cryptogram I was not at all curious to .

learn for whom the message was I ntende d any more than ,

the name of the person referred t o a s Z I concerned
myself only with forwarding the whole ciphere d and
.

plain t exts key and m y rough working to my i m me diat e

,

principal 1
.

C IP HE RI N G BY M EA N S OF A K EY -
W OR D .

L et us suppose that I am request ed to decipher the

following cryptogram :
I
p b v d d b n
z o w n z s c c z a f s t x
v 1
y S d S x
p t f h k t d d d s k b p p c
v p a f s v s e j t v y b i p q o a a s y b
a c r
p w h s m l s n c t g k n i y s v y c
I
p l d d l a h v w c C s d q a g t c w d j

There are 1 20 letters i n the text I note the following .

repetitions : ip d d cc f v d s 8 33 Op e y yp af s iys cap

, , , , , , , , , , ,
.

I calculat e the intervals by making a pencil mark betwee n

the i and p I n the repeat e d ip s ( there are three of them)

and count the lett ers between the marks I do the same .

1 The re ad e r i s agai n re fe rre d t o t he Pr e fa c e an d t o t h f oo t o t

e n e

on p . 48 .
 E XAMP L ES O F D E CIPHE RIN G 71

with the other identical groups and draw up the foll o wing
,

t able
ip to ip 63 letters , or
3) I
P :3 1
p 33
3! dd dd 3 3 3 ,
dd d d 62
,7 cc 90
U iv 4 8
,2 ds 11
3, sx 6 1

9, vp 3

9 v p 60

2, v y 33

,9
yb 9
3 3 afs 3 1
3 iy s 3 iys 63
1 evp e v p 60 ,9

It will b e note d that the factor 3 o ccur s in eleve n out of

the fteen lines so it is fairly sa f e to assume that a ke y
,

word has been use d in coding the t ext and t hat this word ,

contains thr ee letters The question is : Ca n we discover

.

this key word and successfully decipher the t ext ? We

-

begin operations by copying the whole of our text into

three c o lu m ns that is in lines of t hree lett ers numbering
, ,

each line t o facilitat e reference :

( )
1 i p b (1 1) xpt 21 ) vy b
( 2) v d d ( 1 2) i h k w) ip q
( )
3 z ob ( )
1 3 t dd g o 9
9

(4) gqw ( 1 4) dsk e w

( 5) w n z
( )
1 5 bp f e
( 6) scc ( 1 6) vp c e
(7) zaf ( 7)
1 vpa d
(8) stx ( 1 8) f sv e
( 9) viy ( )
1 9 k z v e
s d S
( 10 ) ( 20 ) e j t S
72 CRYPT O GRAPH Y
The r st column begins with the lett ers i n z and ends ,

with d g w ; the second column b egin s with p d o and ,

ends with q t d and the third column begin s with b d b ,

and ends with a c

The next thing is to calculat e the frequencies i n each
column which gives us the following table :
,

Fir st column : s e 7 e ach ; d i w 3 each ; a f g t 2 2

, , , , , , , , , ,

each ; h e h n o p :13 1 each , , , , , , , .

Second column : p 8 ; d 5 ; c y 3 each ; a h i n q s t , , , , , , , , , , ,

2 each ; 9 j m 0 w a z 1 each , , , , , , , .

Thir d column : c 6 ; b 4 ; a f h l e 3 each ; d t y z

, , , , , , , , , , ,

2 each ; h j q r s w a 1 each , , , , , , , .

According t o the law of frequencies E is the comm onest ,

lett er in English followed by T or S ; the commonest ,

bigra m s are T H and HE and the m ost f requent trigram ,

an d thr ee lett er wor d is THE We may therefore

-
.
, ,

assume that p in col 2 stands for E In col 1 we . . .

hesitat e between s and either of which may r e pr e

sent E How can we arrive at a decision 2
.

L ooking down our t ab l e of nu m bered lines we not e ,

that p ( col 2) is precede d by c t hr ee t imes ( lines 1 6

.
.
,

17 , If therefore 7) ( col 1 ) represent s E we get

, , .
,

the combinatio n ( l ines 1 6 and 1 7 ) EE ? EE which seems ,

unlikely R ecalling that one of the commonest bigra m s

.

is HE let us substitut e H for E as the value of e in

,

col 1 In our list of repetitions we nd the group

. .

c v
p If . we adopt HE as the value of v
p we may ,

easily infer that c e p equals THE and this combination ,

does as a m atter of fact occur in lines 1 6 1 7 an d 3 6 3 7

, ,
- -
,

the c in col 3 and e p in cols 1 and 2 on the succeeding

. .

lines .

I f we are satised that we have established one e q u iv a

lent in each column we can i m mediately ascertai n the ,
 EXAMP L E S OF D E CIPHERIN G 73

key word used from one or other o f the ciphering tables

-

at the en d of this book and armed with this word decipher ,

the cryptogram automatically The process will b e .

explained in due cour se .

Meanwhile it will be interesting to se e whether it is

,

possib l e to e f fect the decipherment without knowing

the key word and without reference to the ciphering
-
,

t ables We wi ll suppose that f or some reason or other

.
, ,

we have not at our d iSp osal such useful adj uncts for
nding a key word and that we are without any cl ues -
,

outsi de the cryptogram itself to help us in the deci

1
p h e rm e n t .

So far then we have established the following :

, ,

c ( col . I)= H ; p ( col .

2) = E ; 0 ( col . 3) = T.

Our copy of the cryptogram w ritten in column form , ,

with numbere d lines shoul d have su f cient m argin t o ,

attach the transcription of the letters as we ascert ain

the m We now attach the letter H to all the e s in col 1
.

.
,

E t o the p s in col 2 and T t o t he o s in col 3 L ines

.
,

. .

1 6 1 7 attract our att ention at once with the group

-

HETHE which looks like a part of the wor d whether
,
.

We therefore t entatively add W as the e quivale n t of f i n

col 3 and R as that of a in the sa m e col u m n duly
.
, ,

marking accor dingly all the similar letters in the column .

The next thing we notice is the group WH ? T in lines

3 1 3 2 and we decide to ll the blank with A attaching
-
, ,

this value to the three y s occur ring i n the m iddle co lumn

.

F or the moment we cannot go any farther in this

direction so we fall back on the law of fre quencies which
, , ,

however might easily prove a pitfall if w e did not recog

,

1 N OT E BY TR A N S L A TO R T h i s e xp e ri m e n t i s n o t
. in t he F re n c h
e di t io n , but i s add e d h e re t o a m p l i fy t he e xa m p l e .
74 CRYPT O GRAPHY
nise the possibility of numerous exceptions It will b e .

rememb ere d that the lett ers 8 and 0 each occur seven times *

in col 1 so that we coul d not at rst deci de which w a s

.
,

likely t o stand for E However having eliminate d c by

.
,

attaching t o it the value of H an d not e d that the next ,

letter after 3 and e in order of frequency i n the colu m n

occur s only three times we feel j ustie d in assuming that

,

s = E and accordingly mark in seven E s in col 1

, . .

We now nd that one of these E s occur s in line 1 0

,

and another i n line 3 1 and that in each case it is prece de d

!
,

by the letters i y (in the second and thir d columns of the

preceding line) As the most likely group of t hr ee letters
.

ending with E and repeat e d in the same t ext is THE

, , ,

we t entatively a dopt T and H a s the value of i ( col 2) .

and y ( col 3) respectively

. .

We are now able to resume the threa d of our internal

clues with the group ( lines 7 1 0 ) WE ? ? H TH E which we -
,

construe as weigh the thus obtaining two new e q u iv a ,

lents t ( col 2) = I ; a: ( col 3) = G

. . .

It will perhaps be as well to tabulat e the results SO far

, ,

obtained :
Col 1. . Col 2
. . Col 3 . .

sz E a=R
v= H c= T
'

f =W
ye r G

A glance at the above will S how us how we m a y nd a

possible S hort cut in our operations It will b e noted that .

i n the mi ddle colu m n i = T and vice ve rsa t = I We can , ,

.

soon ascertain whether this principle applies throughout .

The resul t o f a trial as far as we can go con rms this

, ,

hypothesis and we quickly arrive at so m e gratifying

,
 E XAMP L E S or D ECIPHERIN G 75

results Our attention is rst directed to the group

.

( lines 20 21 ) S ? OHA ? which we identify as such a s
-
,
.

Isolated groups begin to j oin up as for instance , , ,

which can scarcely be any

thing else but ently weigh the obj ect ENT L Y being ,

part of an adverb yet t o b e discovered Always su b .

st it u t in
g the new equivalents as we establish them we ,

continue to build up words and phrases From line 20 .

we can now read S U CH AS ? E ??Y R EA S? NA 2?Y

E ? ? ECT THE ? WHAT which is soon resolved into ,

such a s we may reasonably expect from them what ,

etc In fact we automatically decipher the rest of the

.
,

cryptogram as fast a s we can not e the e quivalents which ,

leap to the eye with ever increasing rapidity -

.

Although we have solve d the cryptogram ( and the rea der

should by now h a ve the complet e plain t ext before him
i f he has duly followed our reasoning with pencil and
paper ) we still do not know the key wor d by which the
,
-

cryptogram was ciphere d and by which it co u l d be deci

p he r e d without resorting to the long empirical process

j ust described .

L et us go back to our starting point that is to where we -

,

had establishe d only one e quivalent in each column v iz : .

Col 1 , . 1) =H ; col . 2, p = E ; col . 3, c= T

.

These three lett ers are presumed to have been ciphere d

from three separat e cipher alphabet s each indicat ed ,

b y a letter The three indicating lett ers t aken together

.

form the key word as agree d upon betwee n the sender

-
,

and recipient of the message Ou r obj ect is t o ascertain .

this key word -

.

T ur ni n g to Vig e n er e s ciphering t able on p 1 5 5

.
,

we rst look along the top line of capitals for the le t ter H ,
 76 CRYPT O GRAPHY
from which we procee d directly downwards in the colum n
i m mediately below until we arrive at the letter O ; and on
the left of the line in which this occurs we nd the capit al

letter O which shoul d be the rst letter of the key wor d

,
-
.

We proceed in the sam e way with the letters E and p ,

producing L as the second letter of the key word ; and -

with T and c which gives us J as the third letter Accor d

,
.

ing to this then the key word is OL J

, ,
-
.

Thus arme d and with Vig e n er e s t able before u s we

,

,

refer t o the text of the cryptogram and procee d a s de ,

scribed o n p 28 We rst writ e the key word repeat edly

. .
-

under the t ext thus : ,

i p b v d d z o b n , et c .

OL J O L J OL J OL J

Starting fro m the capital 0 in the column t o the left of

the table we follow the horizontal line which it commands
,

and st e p at the letter i the rst letter in the ciphere d

,

t ext .From this i we ascend the column containing it

until we reach the t op line of capitals where we nd the ,

lett er U This shoul d b e the rst letter of the plain

.

t ext We continue in like m anner with the second letter

.

of the cryptogra m and of the key word p and L which -

, ,

pro duces E an d so on We thus decipher as far as the

, .

following : u e s h s u l d s s f n .

But here we st e p for this array of letters makes no sense

,

at all We are evidently on the wro n g track What is

. .

the next thing t o b e done 2 Fortunately Vig e n r e s

,

t able is not the only ciphering instrument known t o

cryptographers Possibly the t able used was that of
.

Porta which will b e found on p 1 5 3

, . .

T o use Porta s t able we t ake our rst pair of e q u I v a

,

l ents e = H and we look in the top line for which

 EXAM P L E S OF DE CIPHERIN G 77

ever o f the two lett ers belongs to the first ha lf of the

alphabet in this case h ; we then descend until we
encounter in the same colu m n the second letter of t he
pair, At the left of the double line containing the con
j unction o f the two letters will be found two capital
letters Y and Z Either of these it is i m m aterial which
, .

will be the rst letter of the key word We proceed -

.

similarly with the second pair e and p which yiel ds as , ,

the second letter of the key word E or F while the third

-
,

pair 0 and t gives u s S or T as the last letter

, , .

We w ill say therefore that the key wor d is YES

, ,
-
.

As befo r e we write it repeat edly under the t ext of the

.

cryptogram and following the instructions acco m pany

, ,

ing Port a s table proceed as follows :

i p b v d d z o b n w n z s c c z a f, e tc

Y E S Y E S Y E S Y E S Y E S Y E S Y E S, etc

w e s h o u l d s u f f i c 1 e n t l y w ,
et c

In this way the complete t ext is deciphered easily :

We sho u l d sufciently weigh the obj ects of our hop e ,

whether they be such as w e m a y reasonably exp ect fro m

them what we pr e pose in their f ruition .

Our readers will do ubtless recognise this as one of

Addison s ob iter d icta

.

A good cryptographer woul d have detect ed at once that

P o rta s table was the more likely to have furnished the

key word for the three initial pairs of eq u ivalent s which

-
,

gave the clue to the cipher consiste d of letters belonging

to di f ferent halves of the alphabet and Porta s table is ,

s o constructe d that n o letter can be represented by

another in the sa m e h alf of the a lphabet whereas in ,

Vig e n r e s t able there i s no such restriction

.

In order to decipher quickly by means of a table it i s

78 CRYP T O GRAPHY
as well to writ e out the whole of the t ext of the crypto
gra m accompanied by the key word repeate d thr oughout
,
-
,

then to procee d with the deciphering of all the lett ers

under the rst letter of the key word as for inst ance -
, ,

Y i n Y ES followe d by those under the second l ett er E , ,

and nally those under the l ast S In the case of Vige , .

n er e s table a se t square is a useful ai d

.

A B I LL E T D OUX -
.

A gentleman calle d upon m e and co m plained that the

behaviour of his son was not giving him entire sa t isf a c
tion It appeare d that while casually glancing through
.
,

the t extbooks use d by the young m a n who was studying ,

for his B A he had found the missive which he now

,

pro duced Before mentioning the matter to his heir he

.
,

was anxious t o kn ow the meaning of the three lines in

the document wr itt en in secret characters .

It was a sheet of blue paper satined and perfumed , ,

signe d with the initial J and contained the following

,

( I have added nu m bers to the signs ) :

4 e e a e e A L a e
1 2 3 4 10 11 12 13 14

WJ z a g L B D
15 16 17 18 19 20 21 23 24 25

F1 M _ UJ L
26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35

36
N HL

mmn t n
37 38 39 4O 4 1 42 43 44 45 4 6 47

E L L B H J WE M
48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58
 EXAMP L ES OF DE CIPHERI N G 79

Very good I sai d t o the anxious father ; will you
,

kindly call t o im orr ow about two o clock 2

L eft t o myself I began to study the cryptogram , .

The signs 1 4 2 are between quotation m arks The -

.

most fre quently occurring S ign is No 7 which is repeat e d .

,

nine times in all about the norma l frequency of the

letter E in a total of f t y eight letters One peculiarity -
.

struck me : the wor d starting from S ign 43 b egins with a

doubled letter This furnishes us with a useful piece o f
.

information the text cannot b e F rench a language which ,

does not contai n words beginning with double d letters .

Exa m ples of such words occur in E nglish e e l ; in

Ger m an A a l ( eel ) A a r ( eagle ) A a s ( carcase ) L eaving
, , ,
.

aside Gaelic a language not very extensively use d the

1
, ,

two principal languages which contain a considera b le

number of words of this sort are Russian and Spanish .

I n Russian a whole series of words b egin with

, the
commones t being e ve dien ie ( introduction) A certain .

number of other words begin with 3 8 among them ,

ssylha
( exile ) and ssora ( quarrel ) Perhaps the wor d
,
.

formed by the signs 4 3 4 7 is this very Russian wor d -

ss o r a . As if to conrm this sign 4 5 is the m ost frequent ,

i n our text and i n Russia 0 is the com m on e u st letter

, .

I n this case the wor d forme d by signs 50 5 3 shoul d be

,
-

od n o ( one ) or ohn o ( window ) But n is one of the most .

fre quent letters in Russian whereas S ign 5 2 suppose d , ,

to represent it occurs only twice i n the whole t ext , .

F urthermore the wor d forme d by signs 7 and 8 which

, , ,

according to o u r supposition should be od or oh is mean , ,

in g l e ss i n Russian We m ust therefore abandon that .

, ,

language .

1 N OT E BY T R A N S L A TO R Me n t io n m ig ht b e m ad e o f D u t c h
.
,

w i th oog ( e ye ) , ee n (a on e ) uu ( h o u r ) a n d o th e r si m i l ar w ords
, ,
r , .
80 CRYPT O GRAPHY
L et us now pass on t o Spanish Here the only letter .

which can b e represent ed by the double initial 4 3 and 4 4

is l and i n fact ll forms t he b eginning of a large numb er
, , ,

of very com m on Spanish words In this case S ign 4 5 .

, ,

the most fre quent woul d be e These two lett ers l and e
, .
, ,

occur again at the end of the last wor d of our t ext but in ,

reverse d order e l This is i n a w o rd of v e letters o f

, .
,

which the r st is the same as the third so that it can b e ,

no other than p ap e l ( paper ) .

Knowi ng now the letters a and e we observe that S igns ,

7 and representing e and 1 0 3 1 and 34 (a ) are all , , ,

followe d by the same nal letter w hi ch can only be 3 , ,

in which ca se 33 3 5 is la s (the) and 50 5 3 undoubt edly

- -

e ste ( this ) In our t ext w e count nine e s seven a s and

.
, ,

seven s s According t o the rules of Spanish crypto

.

graphy 0 occurs as fre quently in that language as s if

, ,

not more frequently Now the S ign occupying the four th .

rank in order of frequency in our t ext is No 3 which .

,

occurs ve ti m es It is quit e likely that this stands for

.

0
. We shoul d t he n have for the word 23 25 S O? doubt -
,

less s on ( are ) With n tracked down we i dentify 5 6

.
,
-

and 21 22 as n o ( not )
-
.

In Spanish the commonest group of thr ee lett ers by

,

far is qu e ; the wor d 1 2 1 4 ends with e and it s rst two , ,

letters b eing so far unknown t o us might well b e qu e ,

( that ,than ) This seems

. probable for then 4 8 4 9 w ill be ,
-

t u ( thou you ) , If 9 1 1 is m a s ( more ) 3 6

.
-
,

must be m uj er e s ( wo m en) .

Su m m ing up the letters so far obtained we not e that ,

the alphabetic a lly consecutive letters in n 0 each consist , ,

of a square w ith this di ff erence that the square m is

, ,

blank n contains one dot and 0 tw o dots Co m paring

, , .

these with t he ot he r angles and Open s quares w ith and ,

 EXAMP L ES OF DE CIPHERI N G 81

without dots we are able to construct a symmetrical

,

graph containing the co m plete alphabet from which we ,

can supply the letters still require d to decipher the

cryptogram :

The deciphere d t ext proves to b e as follows :

A m or no es m a s q u e p o r a :
No s on pi e dras l as mu e e

j r s .

L l e va t u e s t e pap e l .

L ov e is n o th i n g m ore th an a s q u a b b l e :
Wo m e n a re n o t s t on e s
.

K e e p th i s pap e r ).

Whe n the fond parent returne d he was not p ar t icu ,

l arly please d to learn that he ha d ha d his so n taugh t

Spanish only t o nd him receiving such sentimental
l essons as this on satin an d sc n e t e d paper I had a .

presentiment that his o f fspring was going to hav e a very

uncomfortable interview I ret ain one pleasant memory
.

of my visitor : to his thanks he adde d a phrase which I

hear none too often : Don t forget t o send m e a note of

your charges .

A L I TT L E G E R M A N .

In the Ger m an original o f the D ia ry of a S e lf Obse rve r -

,

by the celebrat ed physiogno m ist Jean Gaspar d L avater -

,

of Z u rich date d January 1 7 1 7 7 3 we n d this sextet in

, .
,

cipher :
6
82 CRYP TO GRAPHY
E fs e kf t f o Tu b w c e f s F se f hkf c u ,

Fs xb s h f t ff ho f s w o e h f m kf c u .

F s ib ssf efs Wo t u f sc m kdi lf ku .

K O t f k o f s Ob di u t kd i p g u h f g sf w u
t
F g sf w f t kd i, s e kf t f t m kf t u ,

E b t t F s , hm f kd i kin , w o t u f s c m kd i kt u .

We begin by calcul ating the frequency of the letters

in the t ext The l ett er occurring oftenest is f of which
.
,

there are 33 whence we m ay de duce f = E In actual

, .

practice e in German has a fre quency of 1 8 per cent

, .
,

or an average of 1 i n 5
% letters A s this verse contains .

1 5 6 lett ers we ought to have here proportionately

,

E s The pr e portion of E s or letters

.

suppose d to be such is therefore somewhat higher than ,

the normal average .

According t o an Austrian authority Colonel Fle issn e r ,

v on Wost r ow it z the letters fo l lowing E in or der of f r s

,

q u e n cy in German are : N I R S T We will suppose .

,

therefore that s the letter i n our text occupying the second

, ,

p l ace i n or der of frequency ( 1 7 times ) stands f or N , .

Next in order are k and t each fteen times One of , .

these S hould signify I t he other R Then comes u , .

( e l even ti m es ) pro b ably e qualling S

, For the letter T .

we have the choice between e i and 0 ( each eight times ) , , .

L et us conne our selves at rst to the two leading

lett ers : f = E s = N We have the more reason to believe
.

these e quations correct fro m the circumstance that i n

German n is the most frequent terminal letter Now out .
,

of t he thirty three words comprised i n the verse t en do

-
, ,

in fact end with our suppose d N Indee d nine out of the

, .
,

t en end with E N which is also in conformity with the

,

rule .

Now that we have at our d iSp osal two practical ly

 EXAMP L E S OF DE CIPHE RIN G 83

certain letters let us substitut e the plai n letters f o r the

,

ci phere d ones standing for them We shall then have .

33 E s H 7 N s making 5 0 known letters out of a total

of 1 5 6 The undeciphere d letters are replaced by dots :

.

. en en En e .

En
Here we are brought t o a st e p ; there is no such wor d as
e n in German whether with or without a capital lett er
,
.

We must have got o n the wrong track through our t oo

docile a dherence to the rules given us But not much .

harm is done since we have only j ust started Where

, .

is the fault 2

For t he m oment we will retain our condence in e and ,

assume that it is n which is out of place A two letter

. .
-

word in German beginning with e can only be e h ci er , , ,

or e s apart from such i m port e d expressions as e n b loc

, ,

e n g r os and e n t et e
,
-
.

Can the w or d in question then be Ei ( egg ) No fo r , , ,

it occurs three times in the sext et and egg is not a ,

t erm likely to b e repeat e d so often i n the poetic style .

True if this were the case the fth wor d in the r st line
, ,

might be E ile ( haste ) but the rst wor d i n the line , ,

forme d of the sa m e letters woul d then be L e i a term , ,

non existent Can our word b e E h ( before ) ? No for

-
.
,

although this woul d enable u s to read the f th wor d as

E hre ( honour ) and the rst wor d as R e h ( roebuck ) we ,

S houl d have roebuck occurring twice in the s a m e line ,

which is incredible ; besides the second r e h is not wri tt en ,

with a capital letter and cannot there fo re be a n o un i n

, , ,

Ger m an Furthermore the t ext woul d contain a dis

.
,

proportionate n u mber o f w ords endi n g w ith e h Neither .

can the wor d be E s f o r while the f th w o r d w o ul d then

,
84 CRYPT O GRAPHY
b e E sp e( p) the rst wor
as d
,
wo ul d be Pe s which is also ,

non existent in the German language

-
.

O nly E r is left and we nd this meets the case well

,
.

The fth wor d i n the r st line now becomes E r e which ,

can be no other than E rd e ( earth ) The rst wor d w ill b e .

De r ( the who ) Assumi ng ; therefore that s = R and

, .
,

c = D the rst line rea ds :

,

Der d e e . . der Erde

Fur ther trial favour s the i dea that the second wor d must
be d ie s en ( this ) the value t = S b eing arrive d at from the
,

rst wor d i n the fth line : F t = pr ob ab ly E S That .

k= I in the wor d d ie se n is conrme d by the second wor d

in the fo ur th line which with the lett ers so far a sce r
, ,

t a in e d gives us tf kof s se in er (his) and b y the prece ding

,
z
,

word K o = I n (in )
, .

From the letters already deciphere d we make the

following discovery : f = E that is the ciphere d letter ,

stands for the letter prece ding it i n the alphabet ; s = R ,

e = D the same re m ark applying in each case

, Perhaps .

it will be the same for the whole of the alpha b et We .

accor dingly make the trial chec king the result o f the ,

equations from time to time :

a=Z b =A ez B d=C c= D f=E

=
g F h= G I= H k= I l= K m=L
n=M O= N =
p O q r= Q s= R
t=S u= T w= U x= W y = X z=Y

It will be note d that the letters a q r y and z of the , , , ,

secret alphabet corresponding to the plai n letters Z P

, , ,

Q X and Y are a b sent from the sextet which we n o w

, , , ,

read as follows :
 E XAMP L E S O F DE CIPHERIN G 85
De r di e se n S ta u b de r E rd e g ie b t ,
Er w a r g e se e g n e r g l ie b t
un d e .

Er h arre d e r Un s t e r b l ic h ke i t .

I n s e i e r Nac ht sic h o f t g e f r e u t
n .

E s f re u si c h w e di e s s l i e s t
e , r e .

D ass E r g l e ic h ihm u n s t r b l ic h is t
, , e .

In English :
H e w ho giv e s th is d u s t t o e ar th ,

Wa s b l e sse d a n d b e l ove d .

H e w ai t s f or i m m or t a l i t y .

I n h i s n i g ht he h as o f t r e j oi c d e .

L e t h im w ho r e ads th e s e l i n e s r e j oi c e ,

T h a t he l ik e him i s i m m or t a l
, ,

.

The same work contains a score of ciphere d passages ,

so me of which are l ess easy to rea d than the abov e

example .

N B I t is worth noting a s a rare phenomenon that

. .

this sextet contains only German terms It is far more .

usual in German t exts to nd a proportion of pure French

wor ds varying from 5 t o 8 per cent or more .
, .

A S H OR T CUT .

I have j ust received a picture pos t card from a young

friend who signs h i mself M J It depicts a pretty
. .

rose covere d cott age near Penzance in Cornwall On

-
, .

the ad dress side in the part reserve d for correspondence

, ,

appears the following I nu m ber the S igns for reference :

.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 s 9 1 0 1 1 1 2 1 3 1 4 1 5 1 6 1 7 1 8 1 9 20 21

+ V
22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 3 1 3 2 33 34 3 5 3 6 3 7 8 8 39 4 O4 1

L l
42 4 3 4 4 4 5 4 6 4 7 4 8 4 9 5 0 5 1 5 2 5 3 5 4 5 5 5 6 5 7 5 8 5 9 6 0
86 C RYPT O GRAPHY
We b egin by constructing a nu m erical table of all the
s igns in order of frequency :
S ig n . Tim e s . S ig n . Tim es . S ig n . Tim e s .

9 cc 4 2

1 s 3 X 2
V 7 D 3 T 1

r 2 1_
_ 1

L 4 O 2 1

A 4 2

1

We assume that + = E According to the laws of .

lett er frequency in E n glish I the secon d S ign i n the

, ,

t able shoul d be S T or A Signs 30 and 3 1 would

, , ,
.

then represent either E S E T or E A any one of , , ,

which is possible There being n o other similar j uxta

.

p o sitions we are unabl e for the moment to establish

,

the point .

We observe that three of our supposed E s are followe d

by the sign V which may accor ding to order of f r e

, ,

queney stand for R D N A S etc This S ign occur s no

, , , , , , .

fewer than seven ti m es in the cryptogra m but as yet we ,

are unable to est ablish from its connections more than

that it m ust be a consonant and that the S ign L ( Nos 8 , .

an d 4 8 ) is probably a vowel .

L et us n o w try a trail that ha s prove d very use f ul in

deciphering o ther examples the discovery of the trigra m
T HE which o f c o urse cannot be sai d with certai nty to
, , ,

be present in the text but is so fre quent a group in English

,

as t o m a ke its presence a very reasonable assu m ption .

We h a ve in the cryptogram n ine triplets en d ing with E ,

o f w hich begin w ith E and begin with

a supp o se d v o w el This leaves us with seven groups
.
,

two o f which st a rt with the S ign V which we have ,

 EXAMP L E S O F DE CI PI I E R I NG 87

already noted as a consonant often following E and ,

three begin with the S ign 00 These thr ee t riplets are .

and Assuming that one

o f the triplets is THE we have for the value H t o choose
,

between the signs T and D The rst J occurs , .

, ,

twice before E while the last I] o ccurs once bef o re and

, , ,

once after E The second S ign T appears only once

.
, ,

in the cryptogram We are therefore in cline d to assume

.

the S ign J t o represent H

Just as we are about to exa m ine the possibilities of
the trip l ets an d which op en with E
and end with T it occur s t o us t o search for an external
,

clue Tur ning the c a rd we observe the name Pen
.
,

z a n ce , which suggests a short ou t Our young corre .

sp on d e n t has possibly mentioned the name in his message .

We not e that t h e word cont ains two E s separat e d b y,

ve other lett ers Examining the cryptogram we nd

.
,

that there really is such a group 21 28 Th e two N s -

.

are represente d by the S ign V at 23 and 26 The initial .

P however proves to b e the S ign which we had assu m e d

, ,

to b e H This letter must theref o re b e one of the two

.
, ,

signs D or T that is if the trigra m THE occurs i n ,

the text .

The resul ts so far establishe d are as follows :

H Z A: =
+ Er V Z N J
Z P m T Z

Having marke d the equivalents in the cryptogram as

far as we have g e n e we note that the group following
,

Penzance
29 5 is
3 which it does not
-

require m uch imagination to transform into WEATHER .

F rom A 2E W ( 1 1

'

a few to

( 36 magnicent w e reach o ur goal in thr ee or
,
88 CRYPT O GRAPHY
four steps thanks to our short cut and nally rea d the
, ,

following :

Am S pending a few days at Penz ance Weather .

magnicent Kindest regar ds
. .

A D I C T I ON A R Y C OD E .

The following cryptogram is hande d t o me :

57 6 1 3922 7 64 2 0 00 1 921 9 6 44 8 60 1 6 4 5 7 0 4 36 8 7 1 5 9
868 6 8 57 6 1 37 8 27 99 60 1 8 4 21 2 3 94 0 0 64 4 7 262 868 6
7 67 0 40 4 9 3 261 4176 663 8 4 83 3 4 8 27 0 0 0 1 3 696 60 62
8 686 21 3 7 4049 24 8 5 7 94 8 0 30 0 97 1 2 0 30 0 4 21 2 95 7 6
24 7 5 8 57 6 8 3 37 0 70 2 91 8 5

In practice this kin d of cipher which is very com m only

, ,

use d is subj ect to ar b itrary complications an d i t may well

, ,

prove quit e a long task to restore each number t o it s

original int egrity the s ender having probably shu f ed the
,

four gures throughout i n accor danc e with a formula

agree d upon with the recipient .

But as it is always b est t o procee d from the simple

to the complex we w ill act on the preliminary assu m ption
,

that the ab ove nu m bers have not b een change d and are ,

t o b e rea d j ust as we se e them We begin by making .

a list of the forty v e numbers of which the lowest is

-
,

0 00 1 and t h e highest 97 1 2 arranging the m in numerical

,

order :
0 00 1 24 8 5 4 21 2 60 6 2 8 57 6
0 00 1 27 99 4 21 2 6 44 8 8 57 6
0 30 0 326 1 4 368 6 63 8 8 6 86
0 30 0 3 696 4 57 0 7 1 59 8 68 6
0 64 4 3 922 4 8 27 7 26 2 86 86
0 70 2 394 0 4 83 3 7 64 2 91 8 5
1 37 8 404 9 57 61 7 67 0 921 9
21 3 7 40 49 60 1 6 7 94 8 95 7 6
24 7 5 4 176 60 1 8 8 33 7 97 1 2
 EXAMP L ES OF DE CI PH ERIN G 89

We apparently hav e to deal with a dictionary code ,

numbere d from 1 t o F ace d with a system like

this so simple an d regular one has to be on the alert
, ,

lest it shoul d conceal a trap On one occasion in an .

,

example which seeme d quite as clear I pro duce d the ,

reading : Either X o r Y war m ly reco m mende d .

But subsequently I ascertaine d that the nu m bers ha d

been cooke d in the cipher and that the true rea ding ,

of the phrase w a s : Both X and Y absolutely unknown .

Assu m ing in the present case however that the , ,

numbers are unaltered we m ake the following observa

,

tions : The nu m ber 0 0 0 1 occurs twice a s do 0 300 4 0 4 9 , , ,

421 2 and 8 5 7 6 whil e 8 686 appears three times

, ,
The .

following pairs occur with very S hort intervals :

24 7 5 and 24 8 5 , 3922 an d 394 0 , 4 8 27 an d 4 833 ,
60 1 6 and 60 1 8 7 64 2
, and 7 6 7 0 , 91 8 5 an d 921 9 .

All this shoul d b e borne in m ind as it will probably prove ,

useful .

We will now suppose that the number 000 1 represents

the letter A We next t ake a small English dictionary
.

and begin on the real work making u se also of the t abl e

,

at the end of this volume giving the proportion of wor ds

in Webster s Dictionary classie d according to their

initials 1
.

From this table we note that the mid dle of Webst er s

Dictionary occurs nu m erically about half way through L -

.

But as this bul ky tome is rather di f cult t o handle we ,

will use in pre f erence a s m all dicti o nary suitable for rapid
reference though there is the inevitable drawback that
,

the proportions of the letters vary to so m e extent with

every dictionary particularly in the middle of the
,

alphabet .

1
Se e p . 1 38 .
90 CRYPT O GRAPHY
We have b egun by supposing that 0 0 0 1 = A The .

next t hi ng is t o look f or certain wor ds which one would

expect to nd in most texts as for inst ance the prep o, , ,

sit ion s of an d t o the conj unction and the
, ,

article the et c Now we learn fro m the t able that
,
.
,

in Webster s Dictionary theoretically divide d into a

hundre d e qual sections words b eginning with O are

,

co m prise d between the 5 8 and 6 1 per cent marks If . .

the dictionary were divide d int o parts instead of

a hun dre d the 0 section woul d b e foun d between
,

and In t he list of numbers in our ciphere d t ext

we observe three occur ring in this section : 60 1 6 60 1 8 , ,

an d 60 62 Can one of these be OF

. From its position
we t entatively give the r st this readin g an d on looking , ,

up of in the dictionary our attention is drawn t o ,

the wor ds closely following it : o ff o ff end o f fen
, ,

sive .

S ur ely this last a common military t erm is
the equivalent of our second presume d 0 nu m ber 60 1 8 , .

At any rat e the close proximity of the two num b ers is a

,

promising indication that o ur surmise is correct .

It will be usefu l n e w to seek such words as the an d

to.

The dictionary table S hows T s in Webster t o

fall between 8 7 1 5 and 9298 ( substi t uting the divi

sion for the percentages ) A s already noted the number
.
,

8 5 7 6 appears twice in the t ext and 8686 three times .

These numbers are outside the T li m its and fall in the ,

S section Nevertheless allowance has t o b e made for

. ,

variations in the pr e portion of letters accor d ing to the

dictionary used and our cryptogram was probably not

,

coded fro m Webst er We m a y accordingly ventur e

.
, ,

to suppose that either 8 5 7 6 or 8 6 8 6 represents THE .

R e f e r r in g t o the t ext of the cryptogra m we nd that

these two nu m bers occur co n se c u t iv e lv 868 6 8 5 7 6

,

,
 EXAM PL E S O F DE CIPHERIN G 91

w hich favours the assu m ption that the rst e quals T O

and the second T HE .

An o ther nu m ber occurring twice is 0 30 0 The dic .

t io n a r y shows A to extend t o 6 4 3 per cent of Webster .

,

o r 64 3 per and as and is about hal f way thro u gh -

the A section this word may well be the reading o f 0 30 0

,
.

T here are two other pairs of duplicate numbers 4 0 4 9
and 4 21 2 These fall so m ewhere about H but there are
.
,

so many likely words with this ini t ial such as H AVE , ,

H A S HE HIM etc that it is di f cult to favour any

, , ,
.
,

isolate d word without the assistance of the context .

It will be as well at this j uncture to endeavour t o

construct a part o f the t ext by using t he words so far
obtaine d as a skeleton Can we ll in the lacun ae in.

the group T O T HE O FF E NSI V E for ,

inst ance ? The two missing words are represente d by

the numbers 1 3 7 8 and 27 99 This latter falls a m o ng .

the E S We have t hen E

. OFFE N SI VE d oubt
, ,

l e ss enem y o f fensive I t happens that the other .

nu m ber 1 3 7 8 w hich falls un der C is al m ost half way

, , ,
-

between 0 0 0 0 ( A ) and 27 99 ( E NEMY ) and the only ,

likely word in the d ictionary occ urring i n this p osition

is coming We m a y therefore not be far wr o n g
.
, ,

i n reading this group : T O THE COMIN G E NEMY

OF F E NSI VE .

Another group that attracts our attention is A N D

AN D This is followed by the nu m ber 4 21 2 which o ccurs
.
,

again after the w o rd o f fensive Nu m erically the .
,

number is nearly hal f w a y to 8 5 7 6 to which we have ,

attache d the reading THE All o wing for a sm a ll m argin .

,

as we did in the case o f the T s N o 4 21 2 S hould c o incide

, .

with the beginning o f 1 s rather than the H s Tenta

.

t iv e l y a dopting t he prono u n

I for this n u m ber w e ,
92 CRYPT O GRAPHY

next not e that the number occurring between the two

AN D S is 97 1 2 the highest in the cryptogra m A s this

, .

is near the en d of the alphabet the pronoun you ,

seems t o be indicat e d and we have : AND YO U A ND I , .

The numb er followi ng I in the above group is
95 7 6 the secon d highest
, and therefor e probably a ,

W wor d perhaps WERE or WI LL It is followe d by

, .

24 7 5 an undoubte d D wor d and the nex t is THE

, , .

What ca n this D wor d be ? Alphab etically it occurs

somewhere b etween coming ( 1 3 7 8 ) and enemy
The interval between these two is 1 4 21 and the ,

di f ference between 1 3 7 8 an d 24 7 5 is 1 0 97 or roughly ,

thr ee four ths of the int erval This brings u s among the
-
.

DPS or DO S There is another numb er in the text

.

occupying about the same dictionary position 24 8 5 .

We have in fact 24 7 5 an d 24 8 5 one of which might

, , ,

be D O Suppose we give this reading t o the second

.

p ro t em and look
.
,for a wor d closely preceding it which
will suit our cont ext The dictionary S hows us di .

v ul g e and divide The group we are studying may
.

therefore b e : AND Y O U A ND I WI LL D I VID E T HE .

We must procee d patient l y in this way calculating ,

i ntervals an d worki ng out the position of each letter .

We shall of course make a false st ep occasionally but

, , ,

every wor d establishe d strengthens our foothold and the ,

context gui des u s m ore and m ore surely as we ll in the

gaps .

In this way the three n umbers 833 7 0 7 0 2 and 91 8 5

, , , ,

w hich follow the group and you an d I will divide the ,

are quickly resolve d into S U M BE T WEE N U S the sug ,

gestion i n the context couple d with the approxi m at e ,

dictionary positions of the nu m bers e ff e c t iv e lv narrowing ,

our choice After going on to est ablish some G an d H

.
 EXAMP L ES OF DE CIPHERI N G 93

words such as HIM HA V E and G OO D only a very

, , , ,

slight imagination is re quire d to convert such a group

as A GO O D 0 T O i nto a good Opportunity to .

and eventually we pro duce the complete reading of the

cryptogram as follows :

Mi has secured a valuable piece of information
in regard to the co ming ene m y o f fensive I have been .

requeste d to send him ve hundred pounds It is a goo d .

Opportunity to denounce him Do so and you and I will

.
,

divide the su m betwee n us .

Thus all the words are deciphere d with the exceptio n

,

of the rst The number of this 5 7 6 1 occupies a position

.
, ,

relative to 4 8 3 3 ( IT ) and 60 1 6 ( OF ) its nearest neighbours

,

numerically which brings it among the ME S or MI S

,

.

It is apparently the name of an indivi dual We m ight . ,

by a minut e investigation i dentify so much of the name

,

as to reveal the nationality o f its owner but it does not ,

matter m uch to us The person who gave me the docu

.

ment to decipher will probably be in a position t o throw

ligh t on the individual ; I am not co m petent to do so .

In ciphers of this sort a read y reckoner is a useful

adj unct t o facilitate the calculation of letters prop o rtions , ,

and intervals .

TH E S L I DI N G R U L E S .

A copy of the B e r lin e r Ta g e b la tt has been p ut into my

hands with the obj ect of verifying a suspicion that some
hidden m essage has been conceale d therein the copy ,

having been intercepte d on its w a y t o a quarter believed

to be harbour ing ene m y agents .

Opening the j our nal I observe an article wi t h big

,

headlines announcing an ene m y victory The article is .

heavily marked with red cr a yon C o ncluding that this .

94 CRYPT O GRAPHY
i s a mere blind I scrutinize every page column a f ter
, ,

col umn until on the last page among the Stock Exchange
, , ,

quot ations my att ention is attracte d by a certain number

,

of gures marke d with dots in ink .

Taking a sheet of plain paper I m ake a careful copy of ,

all the gur es marke d in or der as follows :

1 8 5 6 2 95 93 7 6 93 6 7 4 1 8 7 4 2 2 7 4 2 5 5 5
3 7 5 4 2 8 6 94 3 6 7 3 5 6 22 1 6 6 2 6 7 0 3 5 6 7
3 7 5 8 3 96 93 24 4 3 2 6 8 2 97 93 6 6 3 4 1 6 3
3 1 7 4 2 5 5 92 8 6 8 3 2 7 7 8 1 1 96 6 2 3 6 3 2 8
7 6 2 96 5 3 2 7 6 3 1 6 0 2 5 6 1 3 6 8 0 227 6 1 7
2 2 7 6 2 27 24 27 4 2 5 6 3 3 1 6 1 3 5 5 91 8 5 8
4 2 5 6 4 2 6 7 1 8 7 92 3 6 93 8 7 23 7 6 23
2 4 6 8 1 8 6 6 5 3 24 7 3 2 6 7 6 3 96 1 2 1 6 6

Altogether there are 222 gures Have here a .

dictionary co de No because 222 cannot b e divide d

,

by 5 or 4 It is however divisible by 6 or 3 With

.
, , .

six gures a d ict io n a r v of a million words ( including

can b e cons t ructe d but this woul d be too m any

, .

With three g ur es one m ight compose a dictionary of a

thousand wor ds ( including but this is obviously
th e few for practical purposes .

A dictionary co de being ap parently out of the ques

ti on we e ntertain the theory o f a system of ciphering
,

by groups of t hr ee gur es each group representing a

l etter We accordingly make a trial dividing the gures
,

.
,

i nto groups of thr ee which we arrange in order from the

,

lowest to t he highest .

O f the seventy four groups thus obtaine d we not e

-
,

t hat six are duplicate d v iz 1 66 26 7 27 6 4 25 5 3 2 and

, , , , , ,

742 .

If we admit that each of these seventy four groups of -

three gures represe nts a letter we shall re quire a pro ,

 EXAMP L E S OF DE CIPHERI N G 95

portion of at least ni ne E s an d the total nu m ber of

repeated groups does not reach that The n how ar e .

we to get over t h e great di fculty of i dentifying the

alphabetical value of the sixty two groups not r e -

p e a t ed ?
L et us put aside for the moment our notes on the
three g ur e groups after adding thereto the observation
-
,

that the list shows a certain number of groups which

di ff er from each other only by single units t o wit : 1 3 5 1 36 ,
-
,

25 5 256 , 26 7 26 8 , 296 297 , 3 1 6 3 1 7 , 3 66 3 6 7 , 5 91 5 92 5 93 ,

- - - - - - -

622 623 , 7 62 7 63 , 868 8 6 9

- - -
.

While being almost certain that t hiS will not b e of

much use t o us we will hol d it in reserve as a possible

,

forlorn hOp e It is j ust possible too that these t hree

.
, ,

g u r e groups may stan d for syllables but even so the ,

repetitions shoul d still b e more frequent .

It then occurs to us to ad d the gures of each group t o

se e whether the totals will correspond to the numerical

rank of the letters i n the alphabet Putti n g the larger .

numbers to the t est we get the equivalents 93 8 ,

20 corresponding to T ; 8 7 9= 24 = X et c
, , .

So far so good On trying the s m all nu m bers how

, .
,

ever we meet with a check there being no A B C D

, , , , , ,

or even E ; in fact no number pro duces a lower total ,

than 7 ( 1 60 ) or 8 Now a t ext of such a length ,

without a single E will scarcely b e found i n any language

of Wester n E u I Op e .

It is evi dent that we must pursue o u r researches in a

di f ferent direction The nu m ber 222 is divisible by 2
. .

We will there f or e divide our cryptogra m into sections

, ,

of two gures classifying the m in numerical order

, .

This enables us t o produce the following tabl e of f r e

n c ie s :
q u e
96 CRYPT O GRAPHY
17 on c e 32 4 me ti s 55 on ce 69 4 t hn e s

18 5 t i me s 35 56 t w ic e 70 on c e
19 on c e 36 58 72 t w ic e
tw ic e tim
a,

21 37 59 3 e s 73 on c e
22 4 t im e s 38 n e o c 60 o c n e 74 5 time s
23 t w ic e 39 w e t ic 61 3 t im e s 76 5
24 41 n e o c 62 t w ic e 77 on c e
25 4ti s
me l t hn e s
42 E 63 5 tim e s 79 t w ic e
26 t c
wi e 43 n e o c 65 o c n e 80 on c e .

28 ti s
3 me 44 66 4 tim e s 81
29 3 53 67 3 99

31 3 54 68 3

Out of the 1 1 1 groups of two gures obtaine d we ought ,

to nd one repeate d at least a dozen times t o represent E .

But no group q ccu r s mor e than ve times There are .

four with this pr e portion viz 1 8 63 7 4 and 7 6 Can .

, , , ,
.

they all mean E This woul d make a total of twenty E s

a pr e portio n which while not beyond the bounds of reason

, ,

is yet somewhat t oo high for the length o f the text .

Have we t o deal with a cipher of several alpha b ets as ,

the total of forty six di f ferent numbers might lead u s t o

-

suppose But how many alphabet s 2 We must e n

d e a v o ur t o nd out While doing so we note that the

.

consecutive groups are repeate d at two other places ,

that the consecutive groups and

each occur twice and that the groups
,
and
are rep eat e d but i n inverse or der
,
.

If we calculat e the i nt ervals b etween the rep eate d

pairs as describe d o n p 7 0 we nd thirty two numbers
, .
,
-

between the rst and second pairs and a curious ,

coincidence a si m ilar numb er between the second and

thir d pairs thirty six numb ers between
,
-
and
8 7 b etween and 5 8 between
and and 3 between and
1
i n t rva l is ca l c u l a t e d as a l re ady e xp l ai n e d f ro m a s t rok e
The e , ,

dividi n g t h rs t pai r t o a corre spo n di n g s t roke dividi n g t he se co n d

e

pai r .
 EXAMP L ES O F DE CIPHERI N G 97

Out o f the above intervals three are divisible by 4 ,

and three by 3 which woul d suggest a possible key wor d

,
-

o f three or four letters On S plitting up the crypt o gr a m .

into segment s of three ( supposed ) letters and arranging ,

them in c o lu m ns we nd that col 1 alone has no fewer

,
.

than twenty seven di f ferent numbers which cannot there

-
, ,

fore represent as many di ff erent letters Further m ore

, .
,

no number has a higher frequency than t hree in any of the

columns and with the excepti o n of 5 9 which is the only
, , ,

nu m ber occurring three times in col 1 and might .

, ,

therefore stand for E the fre quencies of 3 2 and 1 are

, , , ,

too evenly disperse d to fur nish any clue as to their

signicance .

The soli d features to which we must revert are the

repetitions of the groups
and These do u btless represent such fre quently
occurring bigrams as T H ER ( or E with another lett er ) , ,

I N etc
, .

An exa m ination of the table of frequencies set out above

reveals a peculiarity which m a y help t o put us on the
right track It will b e observe d that ther e is no n u mb er
.

lower than 1 7 an d none higher than 8 1 The cry p t og r a m .

may therefore have been ciphered by means of the groove

, ,

or slide system .

The numerical slide system is constructe d as follows :

Take a piece of cardboard oblong in shape and at each , ,

end cut a certain number of s l its Into these slits insert .

long strips of sti f f paper or parch m ent some o f which ,

are inscribed with the alphabet and others with a series

of numbers Calendars are so m etimes m ade on the same
.

principle By S liding backwards or forwards a S lip

.

bearing the alphabet the letters thereon are m ade t o ,

coincide w ith di f ferent gures on the nu m erical slips and ,

98 CRYPT O GRAPHY
by this means a great variety of secret alphabets r e pr e
sent ed by numbers can be formed .

Where the respective positions of the strips a s adopt e d

at the beginning remain unchanged to the end of t he
crypto g ram the system is that of numerical xe d slides
, .

When the respec t ive positions of the strips are change d

once or several times dur ing the process of ciphering we ,

are face d with the syste m of numerical movable slides .

L et u s examine the S impler syste m that of xe d slides ; ,

and since strips of paper or parch m ent are very fragile

,

and easily torn we will replace the whole by small rules

,

o f plain woo d two long and two short We gra duat e

,
.

all the rules by means of equidistant strokes and in the ,

d ivisions thus made we inscrib e on one of the two longer ,

strips the numbers 1 t o 50 an d on t h e other 5 1 to 1 0 0

, ,

On one of the S hort r ules we inscribe the alphabet

i n the usual order and on the other the alphabet
,

in reversed order : Z Y X etc The diagram will

, , , .

bett er illustrat e the part which the four rules can play
in ciphering .

As an ex a mple to cipher t he wor d dee d from the
,

upper alphabet we can employ a t will either of the two

,

numb ers falling under each le t ter transcribi n g the word ,

for i n s t ance Using t he lower alphabet

.
,

we have the choice between the two lines of gures above

it an d m a y produce
,
The two di ff erent
l etters in t he wor d dee d may therefore b e represented , ,

by eight di f ferent numbers .

 EXAMP L ES OF DE CI PH E R I NG 99

As regards the system of movable rul es we give ,

far t her on i n the chapter entitle d
,
Sp ilt Ink ,

a pro ximate instance code d by letters instead of

,

numbers .

In wh at way must we adj ust our wooden rules or slides

i n order to decipher the cryptogram which we are now
studying We have already not e d that the double
group occurs three times in the cryptogra m .

L et u s now endeavour to ascertain whether it corresponds

t o the frequently occur ring bigram TH F or this pur .

pose we adj ust the upper alphabet in such a way that T

is above 7 4 in the lower numerical strip We then move .

the upper numerical s t rip u ntil the 25 thereon falls b elow

H in the upper alphabet .

Beginning from the rst pair which oc curs in the

,

rst line of the cryptogra m we decipher A T as the two

,

letters following T H The next number 54 falls outsi de

.
, ,

the range of the alphabet Ignoring this for the moment

.
,

we proceed : K OZMR H DLI P Plainly we are o n the .

wrong track .

Suppose we try another of the repeate d groups ,

This pair occ urs at the end of the cryptogram A dj usting .

the rule so that T and H in the upper alphabet correspond

to 21 and 66 in the upper and lower numerical rules w e ,

proceed to work backward but are brought to an abrupt

,

pause b v the number 3 9 which is far b eyond the range

, .

O n j ump i ng over this we pro duce nothing more promis

,

ing than WOY R ? CTH .

There are other duplicate d pairs Open to investigation ,

but the fact that our rst essay though a fail ure pro , ,

d u c e d initially the combination T HAT induces us t o

restore the rules to the position 7 4 25 = TH This time . .

we take the second pair which occurs in the fo u rth line

,
3 300
1
CRYP T O GRAPHY

I
5
the cryptogram We get as far as TH E K NOW2BLFI
6 f .
,

San d are again b a l e d Yet ther e are the initial letters

.

that seem so promi sing .

5 Suppose we revert t o the co m bination THAT ( pre

*

O
su
(a
m ed ) i n the rst line and try the letters prece ding it .

0
We get E TA TSOTELBA R eversing this we recognise .
,
C:
H
:3
Able t o state At last we are making denite pro
.

gress But we have now reached the beginning of the

.

t ext ; and when we attempt t o go in the other direction ,

we get a mixt ur e of co m prehensibl e and in com pr e

h e n sib l e groups with occasional nu m bers which have no
,

corresp onding letter Such numbers are 1 7 4 4 5 3 5 4 .

, , , ,

an d 8 1 .

These p erplexing number s must be either punctuation

marks blank lett ers or as we are b eginning t o susp ect
, ,

changes of alphabet In two cases certainly such .
, ,

nu m bers separate intelligible from non intelligible groups -

.

Perhaps Nos 5 4 an d 8 1 occurring as they do on the

.
, , ,

lower numerical rule are intende d to indicat e that the ,

groups following are to be read from the lowe r alphabetic

rule in which case 1 7 an d 4 4 will refer to a change to
,

the upper alphab et .

On putting this theory t o the test working from ,

No 54 we are agreeably sur prise d t o encounter the

.
,

group PLA NI SWOR K I NG By continuing to follow .

the i ndications given by the key nu m bers we are ,

very soon in possession o f the plain text complete a s ,

follows :

Able to state that plan is working well Only six .

in the know Your p eople must have everything ready

.

by May f ourth Signal three two . .

What the further history of this interesting plot was

I am unable t o state We may at least suppose that .
 EXAMP L ES OF DE CI PH E R I NG 10 1

the interception and disclosur e of the m essage went far

to bring it to an untimely end .

A C ONT RI B U T I ON T o H I S T OR Y .

The post brings m e a letter ; I recognise in the a ddress

the handwriting of a well known historian with who m -
, ,

however I have not yet been in correspondence On

, .

opening the envelope I nd therein nothing but a sheet

,

of paper containing a cryptogram in the same writing .

Who would have expected a communication in cipher

from such a man ? D ecidedly everybo dy is t aking ,

up cryptography nowada y s L et u s se e what he ha s .

to say :

o u s z e h h
.

n 1 C

m a (3 ] k O n S O 6 r i 0 X

g.e g u u e uc U u h S 3 u y u O
a c l)
. .

u c n s a 1

k a s s d f g e V
a f n u s r 0 a I
i u t u
.

W S 0 u 1
_
i k a d v
.

m l
.

J 1

The crypt ogra m contains in all 1 36 letters A scrutiny

, , .

of the t ext shows the following repetitions : DU (4 ti m es ) ,

US NS NL CM AC CP E V RI GE E G G U
, , , , , , , , , ,

UU SS SD UO BA I K
, , ,K A A G AF I U UI
, , , , , ,

II G O
, .

We divide the two letters of the r st O U with a stroke ,

do the sa m e with the second third and f o urth and then , , ,

count the letters between the strokes Proceeding like .

wise with the other repeated pairs we establish the follow ,

ing t able ( the gur es represent the nu m ber of letters in

the interval from one pair to its repetition ) :
10 2 CRYPT O GRAPHY
ou ou 24 or u
uu l u or l
26 2 X 13 72 2 x 2x 2x 3 x 3
66 2x 3 >< 11 ss se 26 2x l3

99

us us 24 sd sd 26 2 x 13
63 3 x3x7 u ono 64
n s 47 47 b a
ns ba 64
nl
nl 10 8 ikik 42 2x 3 >< 7

3 ,

cm cm 79 79 12 2 x 2x 3
a c
9 9

ac 37 37 k a k a 54
p
9,

cp c 37 37 ag a 49 7 7
cv
g 9, X
cv 55 5 x l1 af af 15 3 x 5

, 9

ri ri 48 .
, 2x 2x 2x 2x 3 iu iu 8 n 2 X 2 >< 2
ge
e
g 48 2x 2x2x 2x 3
u i ui 10 a: 2x 5
eg
eg 26 2 x 13 i i i i 3 n 3
g ugu 26 2 x 13 g go
o 5 : 9 5
nu
uu 3 3

It will b e note d that the factor 2 is common to 1 9 out

of the above 3 1 int ervals and if there were no other ,

important factor we shoul d b e te m pted t o assume a

key word of two letters ; b ut the factor 3 is common to
-

1 4 of the interva l s which is nearly a ha l f and in any , ,

case there are bound t o b e a considerable proportio n of

2 s because that factor m ust appear i n every even
,

num b er The prob ability that a key word of three

.
-

letters has been use d is strengthened by the fact that

there are some repeat ed trigrams in the cryptogram two

of which OUS and IKA have int ervals divisi b le b y

, ,

three .

Assuming therefore a key word of three letters we

, ,
-
,

copy the whole of the t ext into three columns that is ,

i n sections of three letters each forming a line and nu m ber , ,

the lines for convenient reference A su fcient margi n .

shoul d be left to attach the transcription as describe d ,

i n the chapter on Ciphering by Means of a Key
Word
.
 EXAMP L ES OF D ECIPHERING 10 3

(l ) o u s (17) y u o ( 3 3) m 0 . 1
( 2) z e h ( 1 8) u c n ( )
3 4 c a f
( 3) n s o ( 1 9) s a c ( 3 5) w s i
(4 ) b o n ( )
2 0 p i a ( 3 6) u t u
( 5) l h h ( )
21 m e g (37 ) i 1 k
( )6 i c m ( 22) u v b ( 38 ) i 1 u
(7 ) a c p ( )
2 3 a i k ( )
3 9 u o o
( )8 k s c ( 24 ) a s s (40 ) u l n
( 9) o u s ( 25) d f a ( )
4 1 l 1 k
(10) e e v ( 26) p O a ( 4 2) a d n
(1 1) r i o ( 27 ) r i ( 4 3) g o h
( 1 2) x g e ( 28 ) a g e (4 4 ) b a g
( 1 3) g u u ( 29) v a f ( 4 5) o v j
(14) e u u ( )
30 n u s ( )
4 6 a
( )
1 5 u h s (31 ) r t r
( 1 6) s d u ( )
3 2 r c 0
Our text thus arrange d in three columns the rst ,

b eginning 0 z n the second it e s an d t he third 8 h 0

, ,
.

Col 1 is presume d to have been ciphere d by the r st

.

letter of the key word which re m ains to b e discovere d

-
, ,

a nd cols 2 and 3 by the secon d an d third lett ers

.

of the same key word -

.

The b est way to nd the key word is to ascertain if -

,

possible which letter represents E in each c olumn or

, , ,

failing that to establish at least one letter in each colu m n

,
.

Now although E is the most fre quently occurring lett er

,

in English it is followe d so closely by T an d A that

,

allowance has to be made for one or other of these pre

dominating in a short t ext In looking for E it shoul d .
,

b e borne in m ind that this letter very commonly follows

H also that TH is a very frequent bigra m an d that THE
,

is the commonest trigra m .

Now it happens that the r st three letters 0 u s are , ,

repeate d in line 9 The wor d the is not an unlikely

.

b egi nning and the fact that s is o ne of the two letters

,
10 4 CRYPT O GRAPHY
having the highest fre quency in c o l 3 f av o urs the .

supposition that it stands for E In lines 1 9 and 30 .

, ,

the lett er follows u whence we may draw the le gitimat e ,

inference subj ect to correction that u s = H E and ous

, ,
:

THE .

Arme d with these thr ee letters we will now consult ,

Vig e n er e s t able on p 1 55 an d endeavour t o recon

.
,

struct the key wor d From the capital lett er T in t he t op

-
.

l i ne of the t able we descen d the column which it heads

till we reach 0 an d to the left of the line in which it occur s
,

we nd the capital letter V which shoul d be the r st ,

lett er of the key wor d As will b e seen the top horizontal-

.
,

of capit als r epresents the letters of the plai n t ext the small ,

letters in the bo dy of the tabl e are the ciphere d letters ,

an d the column of capitals t o the left are intende d to form

the key wo r d This rel ationship must always b e borne
-
.

i n mind when ciphering or deciphering from Vig e n er e s

t able .

Pro ceeding in the same way with H an d u the second ,

letters i n the suppose d plain t ext and the ciphere d wor d

respectively we obt ain N as the second letter of the key
,

wor d and continuing fro m E and s we obtain 0 Accor d

, , , .

ing to this then our key wor d is VNO

, ,
-
.

We must next write out a portion of the t ext of the

cryptogram an d underneath the key wor d repeat e d
, , ,
-

continuously By means of the table we procee d to the

.

decipher m ent with the following result : ,

o u s z e h n s o b o n l h h i c In a c p k s c
V N OV N OV N OV N O V N O V N O V N O V N O
t h e e r t s f a g b z q u t

Plainly it is useless t o go a n y farther ; we have struck

,

a f alse trail and m ust patiently go over our groun d anew

, .
 EXAMP L ES OF D E CIPHERIN G 10 5

We cannot res o rt t o Porta s table for enlighten m ent it

,

being so constructe d that the plain letter cannot be i n the

sa m e half of t he alphabet as its ciphere d e quivalent and ,

this conditio n is not m e t in ou s TH E There is another z .

duplicat e d trigram in the cryptogram which might r e p r e

sent THE iha This occm s in lines 23 24 and 4 1 42
.
'
- -
,

i being in the mi ddle colu m n h i n the third and a i n the

, ,

rst colu m n on the following line This group iha .

,

THE does not prej udice nor is it prej udice d by ous

, , ,

THE the d i ff erence being due t o the fact that the letters
,

did not fall t o be ciphere d under the same alphabet .

There co ul d of co ur s e be still another form for T HE if

, ,

three alphabets were use d .

On putting iha TH E to the test by means of Vige

z

n er e s t able

we pro duce the key wor d PDW b ut this
,
-
,

merely proves another failur e There can b e no doubt .

that three alphabets were used an d as we are unable t o , ,

get any assistance from a key word the obvious conclu -

,

sion is that we are face d with a cryptogram ciphere d by

means of three irre g u la r alphabets This makes our t ask .

rather more comp l icat ed and we shall have to discover

,

the meaning of the letters one by one .

We m ake a b e g in n m g by assumi ng that ous i n line 1

in the colu m nar table represents T HE an d i n addition , ,

to marking this word in the margin we mark T opposite ,

every 0 i n col 1 H opposit e every u i n col 2 and

.
,
.
,

E Opposit e every 3 in col 3 We must always proceed

. .

in this way going through the column s and marking the

, ,

appropriat e transcription t hroughout every time we ,

establish the value o f a letter By this m eans we obtain

.

our clues and buil d up the soli d fabric of the plain

t ext
.

In the present instance this marking besi des bringing ,

 10 6 CRYPT O GRAPHY
out the w ord T HE repeate d i n line 9 shows H t o occur ,

in two consecutive lines 1 3 1 4 followe d in each case by

,
-
,

the ciphere d letter i t This cannot be meant for E since

.
,

we have already given this value t o s ; neither can it b e

T which woul d pro duce the co m bi nation H T?H T The
, .

choice is limite d to A and I either of which is far m ore ,

likely than 0 If we assume A we have i n V i ew

.
,

HA ( S ) or HA ( S ) b ut these are both r ul e d out

,

by the fact that the suppose d T is represent ed by g ,

whereas T has alrea dy been a dopte d a s the value of o in

the same column .

On the other han d if we assume the lett er following

,

H to be I we have the possible group

, I (S) ,

and a s neither of the parenthetical lett ers usur ps the

. position of T we will bol dly adopt thi s readi ng which
, ,

gives us the equival ents : g = W c = C a S ( all col , ,

z .

u = I ( col .

We have already note d another trigram i n the crypto

gram which appears likely to represent T HE iha .

It occur s isolat ed i n lines 4 1 4 2 but enables us to pro duce

-
,

T HE ( R ) E i n lines 23 24 and T H ( A ) T IS in lines 37 3 9

- -
.

The wor d of would naturally be expecte d i n a text

the length of our cryptogra m p erhaps m ore than once , ,

and probably preceding the The group T HE i n .

lines 4 1 42 is precede d by n l and as this bigra m occurs

-
,

twice in the text we m a y not be far out in ascribi ng to

,

it the value OF It occurs isolate d in lines 4 5 but i n

.
-
,

lines 3 7 4 2 it gives us the very substantial result : T HAT

-

IS ( EA ) ST O F T HE The parenthetical letters cannot

.

b e WE because E ( col 3) has been establishe d as the

, .

e quivalent of 3 whereas the ciphere d l etter here is 0

,
.

L et us pause here a moment to su m m arise our dis

co v e r ie s :
 EXAMP L E S OF D E CIPHERI N G 107

Col 1 . . Col 2 . . Col 3. .

o= T 3 1etters
, osi
a E
I

1 2 F: 2 n a:
A9
. n
i z A 4
O U n O n
3 2
E 5 , L : 2

2 H 3:

g W,
= 2
u= S , 6

Total : 6 7 lett ers out of 1 36 which indicates goo d p ro ,

gress It is as well to summarise results in this way

.

from time to time as it shows how far the realm of hypo ,

thesis is being narrowe d down b y the extension of that of

certainty .

To S how how the summary will eluci dat e such a group

a s that in lines 25 28
( the capitals represent the plain
-

t ext so far as discovered and the small lett ers are ciphers ,

still under investigation ) a p E a r Tn e it will be o b serve d , ,

that the repeate d ciphere d letter a occu rs i n col 3 . .

Therefore it cannot represent any of the letters E A

, , ,

O I or H any more than p the second lett er i n the group

, , , , ,

an d occur ring in col 1 can be int ende d for T F A E .

, , , , ,

C W or S The commonest bigram ending E is HE an d

, , .
,

the commonest trigram T HE so that as T has not yet , ,

come to light in col 3 nor H in col 1 we attach these .

, .
,

values to a and p in the group which now appears a s ,

THE Tr Tn e The only letter that t s the r sand .

wiche d b etween two T s an d not yet accounted for is I

.
, ,

This enables us t o sub m it the group t o the following trans

for m ation : T HE T IT ( L ) E ( OF ) the parenthetical l etters ,

requ iring conrmation .

The solution is now i n sight The letters remaining .

unknown are merely isolate d rocks i n an ocean of un der

standing Thus the group extending from line 9 t o
.
 10 8 CRYPT O GRAPHY

line now appears as : THE Ce v I TA x OF WHI CH IS

17
hE sd I y The second wor d can be no other than CAPI
.

TA L while a s to the last the na m e of a capital having

, ,

six letters of which the second is E and the fth I there

, ,

nee d not b e much hesitation in pronouncing it BER L IN .

The cryptogram hol ds no further t errors for us .

BER L I N makes us think of ( lines 35

and eventually we have this table of all three alphabets :
P l ai n t e x t : A B C D E F G H I K L M N O P R S T UV W Y
C ip he r Co l l : i d e
a l n p r v x z y m w s u o k b g c
u d c
.

,, 2: e h o a g
s t i v f
9 9, 3: 0 p
m s e c k u r j b f n v h g a i

The plain t ext proves t o be a s follows

The Margrave of Brandenburg the capital of which ,

is Berlin ha s no right to assume thereby the title of king

,
.

He is king only in Prussia that is east of the L ower ,

Vistula .

N OT E BY A UT H O R T h is s t a t e m e n t b y
corre spon d e n t w ho i s my ,

n o t a m a n t o ass e r t a n y th i n g l ig htl y as a r u l e aro u s e d m y c u riosi t y ,

.

Upo n i n v e s t iga t i on I n d he i s rig ht as i s b or n e o u t b y t he ad m is

, ,

sio n o f Ge r m a n j u ris t s w ho a r e re gard e d as au th ori t i e s in P ru ssian

p u b l i c l a w H e r m a n n S c h u l ze L u d w ig v on B o e n n e a d L u d w ig
: , ,
n

B o r n ha k w ho w i th co n sid e ra b l e r e t ic e n c e ackn o w l e dg e th a t t he
, , ,

M argrav e o f B ra n d n b u rg i s o n ly n d h as n e v r b e e n o th e r th a n
e , a e ,

ki n g in P r u ssia
The i m m e n s e ki n gdo m o f P r u ssia as w e kn o w
.
,

i t t o day is o n l y a c t io n ; i t s e xis t n c e h as n o se rio u s h is t orica l or

-
, e

j u ridica l b asis .

S PI L T I NK .

This morning s post brought me a letter from a well

known professional man who has been utilising his S pare

ti m e in constructing a safe cip her He sends me a .

specimen and warns me that he has sub mitte d it to

,

several a m ate urs who faile d to decipher it the last r e , ,

 EXAMP L ES ( ) F DE CIPHERI N G 10 9

turning it intact w ith the re m ark that it w a s so much

S pilt ink
Perhaps you will have better luck adds
.
,

my correspondent no doubt s m iling up his S leeve a s he

,

wrot e .

L et us glance at this cryptogram I f I do not succee d .

in deciphering it I will frankly admit it without any

,

false shame :

s s e g u h c k x d g z g g z s z d s j n f j
z

w p h f x q u g o g g h z n y s l
p a y s f i m
o w l s w n n o z d d f h v m p x k q b z h h t
i z n h k d r t x f s n r e x b e m f
y y

Total : 93 lett ers I prepare a list of frequ e ncies an d

.
,

n d that the most numerous letters in the t ext are h s , ,

and 2 which each gure eight ti m es Can any o f thes e

, .

represent E Nor m ally ther e S hould be about a dozen

,

E s in a t ext of this length

.

The next letters i n order of frequency are g ( seve n times ) ,

f n ( six times ) and d a: ( ve times ) These gures are

, , , .

too close for a si m ple alphab et cipher Besides what .

,

double letter c o ul d the initial 3 3 stand for If we assume

a name beginning LL t hey woul d have to b e followe d
,

by O or E and as e the cipher e quivalent appears only

, , ,

three times in the whol e of the cryptogra m it is useless ,

t o go any farther in this dir ection .

It woul d appear that more than one alphabet has

been use d and that we may have to seek a key wor d
,
-
.

The procedure to ascertain this has already b een de

scribe d ih the chapter on Ciphering by Means o f a Key

Word .

It will be not ed that there are several duplicated

pairs of letters in the t ext e d for instance o ccurring three
, .
,

t imes Accordingly we insert a stroke between the t w o

.
,
1 10 CRYPT O GRAPHY
lett ers in each pair and coun t the intervals maki ng ,
t he
following ta b ulation :

z
g gz
-
3 letters , or 3
z d-z d 8 2 X 2 >< 2
H i ,

se es 2 0 2 x 2 >< 5
ys ys 5 o
-

zn z n 3 7
-
37

Thus there are two i ntervals having the factor 2 t w o

, ,

with the factor 3 and two with 5 This absence of a

, .

predominant factor does not augur well for the key wor d -

theory and the experiment of dividing the t ext into thr e e

,

columns on the ground that of the t hree e qual factors , ,

3 is the most likely to i ndicat e a key wor d if any leads -

, ,

t o no result
The cryptogram contains several double letters v ia
.

33, gg ( twice ) n n d d h
,h and yy
, A close
,
scrutiny
,
reveals .

the fact that the gg i n one case is followe d by h in alpha

b e t ic sequence and i n like manner n u is followe d by 0
,
.

This detail gives m e a clue to the right track The syste m .

o f ciphering use d appears t o b e that known a s the Saint

Cyr Slides .

By means of the Saint Cyr slides we can obtain twenty

six di ff erent alphabets Anyone can make these S lides
. .

All that is necessary is to Obtain two rules or strips o f

plain woo d one long and one short On t he short rul e
, .

mark equidistant divisions and in them inscribe the ,

twenty six letters of the alphabet Procee d i n the same

-
.

way with the lo n g rule but with the di ff erence that two
consecutive alphabets al e f t y two letters A Z and A Z
,

- - -

, ,

must be marked here i n order that when the smaller , ,

r ule is move d up or down i n j uxtaposition with the

 E XAMP L E S OF DE CIPHERI N G 111

longer it will always b e in contact with twenty

,
-
six letter s
on the latter as shown : ,

When the short r ul e is move d so that its A is a b ove Z

on the long rule the Z of the former will coincide with Y
,

on the latter The short rule represent s the alphabet of

.

the plain t ext and the long rul e the cipher alphabets
, .

In the above example A is represente d by G B by H , ,

and so on If w e want t o change the cipher we have

.
,

only to slide the small rul e t o the right or left an d a new ,

ready made secret al phabet is produce d on the long rule

-

underneath In this way we have twenty Six di f f erent

.
-

alphabets at our d iS p osal .

It is even possible t o make a change of alphab et with

every letter ciphere d and that without riski ng a mental
,

breakdown Suppose under this scheme we wish t o

.
, ,

cipher the wor d gun The G on the short rul e is seen
.

to be over M on the lower rule so we write M as our rst ,

l etter
. We now decide to use a new alphabet base d on
this M ; for this purpose we merely slide the S hort r ul e to
the right until its A is above M on the long rule To .

cipher the second lett er of our word we look for U in the ,

upper rule and below in the new alphabet we nd G

, , , .

Having written this we again change the alphabet by

,

sliding the upper rule to the position where its A will be

over G and now nd the ciphere d e quivalent of N our
, ,

last letter to be T Thus the word gun becomes
, .
,

M GT by means of thr ee di ff erent secret alphabets o ne ,

for each letter obtaine d auto m atically in the way de

,

scribed .

Is this the method by which our cryptogram was

1 12 CRYPT O GRAPHY
ciphered ? If we knew the secret of the rst letter ,

everything coul d b e unfol de d mechanically ; but we do

not an d this is the mystery of the S pilt ink
,

.

However there are ways and means When the groups

, .

gg and n n o attracte d m y attention j ust now I consulted

h ,

a note b ook in which I recor d rules which appear de du

cible from a long series of observations on ciphers and ,

found an entry entitled : Cipher establishe d by means

of Saint Cyr slides with automatic change of key at
,

every letter This is what I read :
.

A When two l ike letters occur together the second

.
,

represents the plain lett er A

B When two like letters are followed by the next
.

letter in alphabetic se q u ence the second and third letters

,

in the trigram represent AB

C When an a occur s in the ciphered t ext the letter
.
,

which follows is i dentical with the corresponding plai n

t ext letter
I have note d so m e further rules on the subj ect but ,

these t hree will be a m ple for our purpose L et us apply .

them to o ur cryptogram :
Rul e A . In as the second 8 equals A
gg g A
3, 3 n 3 A
3 3) ,3 d 3, A
9, J, 3 3)
A
a: M h A n
v n y A n

Rule B . In gg h the last two lett ers equal AB

7 3 ,3 2 3,

t ule C . In ay the letter y equals Y

By these rul es w e wo u l d appear to have accounted for
twelve letters ( gg occurring twice ) U sing these as a .
 EXAMP L E S OF DE CIPHERI N G 113

check it now remains to decipher the remaining eighty

,

one l etters .

We do not know the value of the rst letter S but that , ,

does not matter ; in the dozen letters presumed to hav e

been estab l ished we have a plentif u l choice of starting
points With the Saint Cyr sli des to o ur hand we select
.
,

for a beginning the rst group containing two known

letters gg h From what has gone before we infer
.
,

that the ciphered letter h is the rst letter of a new alpha

bet The cipher being represent ed by the long rule and
.

the plain t ext by the short one we slide the latter u ntil ,

A thereon is above H in the lower r ul e We now have .

to se e which letter on the upper r ul e corresponds to

the letter fol lowing h in the cryptogram of which a ,

section is reproduce d for convenience :

g g h z n y s l p a y

The letter i n question is 2 which we nd to correspon d

'
,

to S Adding this t o the two letters already known w e

.
,

obtain three consecutive plain text letters ABS -

, .

The lett er 2 now becomes the ciphere d e quiva l ent of

A in a new alphabet Proceeding as before t o adj ust the
.

rules we identify n as the e quivalent of 0 Again chang

,
.

ing the alphab et by giving the value of A to n an d con ,

t in u in g similarly with each letter we decipher the above ,

group as the word AB S O L U T E L Y .

The whole of the t ext is thus deciphered quite easily ,

with the exception of the rst l etter The cryptogram .

begins with ss and we kn o w that the second s stands f o r

,

A Further we know that this is by virtue of the fact

.
,

that the val u e o f the rst 3 was altere d to A b u t we have ,

no means o f knowing what the original value of this

initial 3 was However we have the context to guide us
.
,

8
1 14 CRYPT O GRAPHY
where o ur formul ae are i m potent and e ff ectively the series ,

of letters from the second prove t o be A M CONVI NCE D , ,

so that we may safely concl ude that the mysterious r st

letter is I The complet e transcription is as follows :

.

I am convinced that the present system is absolut ely
undecipherable Accordingl y I am proud t o have ih
.
,

vented it .

With the view o f softening the disappointment of my

correspondent to whom I have co m municat e d the
,

deciphere d text I am able t o inform him in a covering

,

not e that this syst em o ff ers safeguar ds by no means

negligi b le since for example the word am appears
, , ,

in two di ff erent disguises se and h t ; the in of the ,

words conv in ced accor d in gly and in vented
, ,

is dissimulate d under t hr ee separat e forms : ha a h and f s , ,

while ent in pres en t and inv en ted is ciphere d
a s iw
p and r es: resp ectively .

AN U N D E CI P H E RA B LE S Y S TE M .

In the S pring of 1 91 7 the post b rought me a cryptogram

t o which w a s att ache d a visiting car d with the wor ds ,

in the han dwriting of a friend : You are fond of so l ving

di ff icult problems Here you are then I I wish you
.
,

j oy
. The cipher text which containe d f t y two letters
,
-
,

was as follows :
y l i r x q m p a t cm o v z n g r q l f k v e

wn o d s d s c k u t i u h p f y w b h e g b x j a

I b egan by calculating the letter fre quencies and to , ,

my stupefaction foun d two a s two b s two o s ih fact

,

,

two of each lett er of the alphabet neither more nor l ess , .

O n ly one group d s was repeat e d and that being the

, , , ,

case it was useless to seek a key word

.
-
.
 EXAMP L E S OF D E CIPHERI N G 115

There coul d be no question either of a grille or di

vi ders I n any case these two letters o f every kind
.
,

were a strange coinci dence though instances almost as ,

cur ious are encountere d from ti m e to time I reecte d .

on the possibility of a dictionary co de There are con .

v e n t ion al codes compose d of three letter groups : ua b -

whf etc
, .

By co m bining the letters of the a lphabet in thr ees a ,

l arge number of groups can b e obtained su f cient t o ,

replace the words of a consi derabl e size d dictionary .

Thus the letter A followe d by one other letter gives

, , ,

twenty six di ff erent groups and each of the other letters

-
,

of the alphabet followed by another letter si m ilarly

, ,

yields twenty S ix combinations In this way 26 x 26

-
.
,
:

6 7 6 di f ferent groups of two lett ers can b e formed an d ,

67 6 x 26 = 1 7 5 7 6 groups of three letters

, .

I might have ma de some investigation in this direction

but for two obstacles : ( 1 ) The f t y two letters of the t ext -

were not divisibl e by three One of them m ight b e a .

blank letter b ut which ( )

,2 In what ever way the t ext
w a s divi de d i nto thr ee letter groups these were all -
,

di ff erent and I neede d at least one repeate d group t o

,

serve as a base or starting point -

.

I thought of a code composed of four letter groups ; -

5 2 is divisi ble by 4 but the S ectioning o f the text int o

,

four l etter groups f aile d likewise t o furnish any gui de

-
.

Only two gro u ps began with b b he g an d baj a But all .

my e f forts prove d futile I coul d not i dentify these .

groups approxi m at ely with such fre quently occurring

words as and at be but and others w ith
, , , ,

initials in the early part of the alphab et .

Not being able t o Obtain the faintest cl u e as to the

method of ciphering e m pl o yed I called on m y frien d , ,
1 16 CRYPT O GRAPHY
in f orme d him of my lack of success an d begged him to ,

acquaint me with the key .

Quit e si m ple he sai d This is how I wr ot e that
, .

cryptogra m : I cut f t y two s lips of paper on each of -

,

which I inscribe d a letter of the alphabet After using up .

twenty six I repeate d the alphabet on the other twenty

-
,

six I dropped the whole f t y two slips i nt o my hat and

.
-
, ,

after S haking them up took the m out one by one hap ,

hazard an d not e d them down j ust as they came to hand

,
.

The t ext thus formed I sent t o you .

Then it ha s no meaning I I exclaimed .

Of course he replied and I must ask you t o forgive
, ,

my little trick ; but you are so clever at cryptography

that if I ha d submitt ed you a t ext with any meani n g at
all you woul d probably have deciphere d it far t oo
,

quickly 1
TH E A N TI QUE D E A L E R S

.

A friend had aske d me to meet him at the tramway

t er minus I was there to time with a minute t o S p are
.
, ,

and was rst While I walke d t o and fro with an eye

.
,

on the various approaches the long hand of the clock ,

tripp e d j auntily on its way marking o ff the minut es i n ,

silence At the end of a quarter of an hour I had decidedly

.

lost all right to rep eat the famous remark I almost ,

had t o wait attri but ed gratuitously to L ouis XI V

,
.
,

who appears to have sai d quit e the opposite 1

.

How shoul d I pass the ti m e 2 There w a s no news

ven dor Besides when one i s i n the habit of reading the

.
,

news at certain regular hour s it is j ust the same as with ,

m eals one ha s no ap petit e b etween .

1
Why sco l d him Do t y n

ou th i k h i s sorry o g h t o h av
n e en u e

k e p t m e w ai t i n g H ac h tt s di t io


2 (! r
u v es dc J . R i a c ne ,
1 8 65
e e

e n , ,

vo l v p . . . .
 E XAMP L E S OF D E CIPHERIN G 117

But I descried an anti que dealer s shop acr o ss the road

and as from that spot I shoul d easily se e m y dilatory

friend or be seen by him I went over to exa m ine the ,

articles displayed My eye quickly fell upon the prices

.

inscri be d on the la b els and succu m bing t o the fascina

, ,

tions of my innocent hob by I se t m yself t he t ask o f ,

deci phering the values of the letters which took the pl a ce

of Arabic numerals Drawing out my notebook I took
.
,

note of a number of the articles expose d for sal e i n the

four or ve windows as well as their mysterious prices
,

VI Z

1 . Bronze statue ( Psyche e m erging fro m bath ) p z r

. .

2 . Incense burner i mp p
. .

3 . Colour e d engraving ( nati o nal costu m es ) m mp p

. .

4 . L arge double mirror ol d f ra m e gilt much

, ,

rubbe d mi m p p
. .

5 . Inlai d car d t able a p p

6 . Ir on dagger mp p .

7 . Small picture ( glacier ) white woo d fra m e , mr p .

8 . Small engraving ( Mari e Antoinett e ) black ,

frame mi z .

9 . Small picture ( The Flirt ) worn gilt frame , mi z .

10 . Black an d gol d metal t ray owers in centre , mi z .

11 . Ol d barometer In r . .
p
12 . Ol d pict ur e ( rustic scene ) f . z

13 . Four Ol d engravings : the four m mf . . z

14 . Grandfather clock
15 . Card table with inlai d draught boar d
,

16 . Glass cheese dish f . z

17 . Sm all Flemish painting c o py of a copy ) . i mp p

. .

18 . L arge trunk m uch patche d

, z r
p . .

19 . Devotional picture cloisonn w orked on

,

w o od mi . z

20 . Hea d o f lion in bronze ( door knocker ) -

mi . z

21 . Concave shield b a s reliefs i n gilt f ra m e

,
-
, z r
. .
p
22 . L arge oval met a l tray Watteau s u bj ect ,

in centre mi . z
118 CRYPT O GRAPHY
23 S m all mirror , large black wooden fra m e
. b p p . .

24 Mir ror , brown carve d fra m e

. m mr I. .

2
5 Tin candlestick
. L P

S
26 Oval ilver tray , t arnished
.

27 Bronze bowl on three feet

.

28. L
arge bronze han d lamp i mp p
. .

29 S mall c hi na vase coloure d an d gilt

.
, m mp p
. .

30 Engraving ( the Signing of Magna Charta )

.

3 1 Engraving ( Fri ends till Death )

. mp p .

L ibrary o f F amous Men ,

volume with
49 plates m
p p .

33. Silver bell m i z . .

34. S m all silk mat silver fringes , o .

p
35. Silver strainer z .
p
36. Ol d decant er silver stand
, m i z . .

37 L ocket w ith cat s eye and a m ethysts

,

-
mi z .

38. Chase d silver egg cup -

mf z .

39. Copper seal m m p . .

40. Old S ilver chang dish o

p
41. Ol d decanter
42. L i queur stand with two a g on s
, b hp . .

43. Ol d beer mug colour e d stoneware

, mp .

44. Bronze me dal set in ring of chase d S ilver o .

p

The rst thing I notice d w a s the large number of p s .

reaching a thir d of all the letters I ha d not ed It occurs .

among the p ence an d S hillings but never among the ,

poun d s
We all know the r le playe d by zero in arith m eti c
when high numbers come into play Zero the value of .
,

which is dene d as nil then assu m es an extreme im ,

portance provi de d it appears on the right si de that is

,
,

t o the right This is the gur e that best give s the notion
.

of innity i f repeat e d t o a s ufcient extent If I were

,
.

a m athematici an and were co m m iss io n e d by the Boar d

o f Rese a rch I woul d willingly write a book on The Va lue of
,

Na ug ht .
 EXAMP L ES OF DE CIPHERI N G 119

F rom the above it follows that letter p never , o ur

occ urring t o the left of any of the prices b ut being often ,

repeate d to the right we may boldly conclude p = O , .

Next we observe that the only other letter in the pence

column besi des p is 5 these two sharing the column in the
,

pr e portion of two thir ds and one thir d resp ectively The

- -
.

conclusion is fairly obvious that 2 stands for 6 .

O f the bigrams occurring in the S hilling column the ,

rst letter is always m an d since numbers in this column ,

do not go beyond the t eens m can mean no other than 1 ,

.

Parenthetically it may b e note d that there are only

nine di f ferent letters in the price list so that one gure ,

out of the t en is unrepresent e d This is m ost likely t o b e .

9 a gur e that is r ar e l v seen in prices of anti ques

, Nine .

or 1 9 shillings or pounds is very unusual Prices .

hovering in the re g ion of the 9 s are wander i ng asteroi ds

which usually succumb t o the m inor attrac t ion of the

s m aller planets 8 or 7 or the increasing attraction of the ,

larger planet 1 0 .

We have presumptively dispose d of the four gures 0 ,

1 6 and 9 and almost certainly know that the price of

, , ,

the coloure d engraving t arnishe d tray an d china

vase ( 29) is 1 l 0 s each ; of the L ibrary of F a m ous Men
.

1 ; of the copper seal 1 1 S ; of the dagger .

e n graving an d beer mug l 0 s each ; and of the .

b ronze bowl ( 27 ) and silver strainer 68 each . .

The incense bur ner s m all Flemish painting

and bronze hand lamp ( 28 ) are all the sa m e price that
is 10 s plus a number of pounds i ndicated by i The
,
.
,
.

double mirror ( 4 ) is the same price aug m ente d by 1 0 ,

ie
. mi mp p
. . Further the engraving
. . . pict ure ,

door knocker -
an d decanter ( 4 1 ) are each price d
at mi z These articles seem to m e quite dear enough
. .
1 20 CRYP T O GRAPHY
at 1 2s 6 d so that there is no nee d to ascribe a great er
. .
,

value than 2 t o i .

This brings the price of the incense burner et c to , .

,

2 l 0 s and that of the double mirror t o 1 2 l 0 s

.
, There .

are also t wo it ems S ilver bell ( 33) and decant er with silver
stand ( 36) price d at 1 2s 6 d . .

The letter i shares with r the thir d place in or der of

f requency a m ong these prices The bronze Psyche .

trunk an d S hi el d ( 21 ) are each price d at 6 plus r

shillings ; the pictur e of a glacier ( 7 ) is 1 0 plus r S hillings ;
the baromet er 1 plus r shil l ings ; grandfather clock
1 0 plus r pounds ; brown fr ame d mir ror 3 0 plus -

r shillings ; an d the candlestick ( 25) and engraving

Magna Chart a each r s hillings So ubi quitous .

a letter can scarcely be int en de d f or anyt hi ng but 5 .

Certainly the two last na m e d obj ects woul d not fet ch -

more than 5 s each while such quotations for the other

.
,

articles as 1 5s 1 5s 1 1 5 s 6 5s and 1 0 5 S are

.
,
.
, .
, .
,
.

co m m only seen We therefore attach the val ue of

.

5 to r .

O ur attention is now attracte d t o the letter b There .

is a mirror ( 23) at b pounds a li queur stand ( 4 2) at b ,

guine a s an d a car d t able ( 1 5) at b pounds 5 shillings

, .

The r st na m e d is a v e r v woebegone looking obj ect and -

,

must b e regar de d as dear at 3 The car d t able is more .

present able at 3 5 s but however g o o d value this m a y .

,

be the liqueur stand at b guineas is an obstacle t o t h e

,

placing o f b at any higher value than 3 Accordingly .

w e a ppraise b at 3 .

S u m m arising we have established six out of the nine

,
.

digits Those re m aining t o be d isc o vere d a r e 4 7 a n d 8

.
, , .

The letter f occurs a m o ng the shillings and is always ,

acco m panied b y 5 pence This latter factor induces .

 EXAMP L ES OF D E CIPHERI N G 1 21

us to ascribe the value of 7 rather than 4 or 8 to f , ,

.

On this as su m ption prices are as f o llows : Bl ack a n d

,

gol d tray devotional pictur e Watteau tray

locket an d chased silver egg cup 1 7 s 6 d each ; -
. .

rustic scene cheese dish 7 s 6 d each ; four . .

engravings the four , 1 I 7S 6d . .

The letter 0 occurs three ti m es The sil k mat ( 34 ) is .

m arke d o p . It was originall y marke d b z o r 38 6 d

. . .
, . .
,

which price has been crosse d o ut The value is sc a rcely .

li kely to have j u m pe d suddenly to SS so that the only ,

alternative is 4 s Ass u m ing therefore that 0 e quals 4

.
, , ,

the price of the bronze medal ( 44 ) is also 4 s an d that of .

,

the chang dish ( 4 0 ) 4 1 0 s .

The prices of all the items h ave thus been establishe d ,

with the exception of the inlai d car d t able This is

marke d e pounds which must m ean either 8 or 9
,
.

The lett e r e occur s nowhere else so we have no means of ,

draw n any reliable inference Compare d with the .

other card table which appeare d fair ly goo d value at

,

3 5s the present article is rela t ively not cheap at 8

.
,
.

While I was debating within myself whether to invite

conr mation from the dealer who had co m e to the door ,

an d was regar di n g me with an inquisitive air a commotion ,

t ook place behind me an d my friend a goo d hour and a

, ,

quart er late greete d me in breathless tones :

,

So sorry ol d fellow ; but you know

, ,

Y e s y e s ; I know
, I interrupt ed I f you had kept
,
.

m e waiting ten m in u tes I should have been a nn o ye d ;

,

but people w ho ar e m ore than an hour l a te are assume d

t o have been vi cti m s of an acci dent and they are al w ays ,

excuse d in a dvance But don t w or r v I have n o t

.

.

waste d my ti m e .
 PA R T I I I

LI STS A ND TA BLE S

N OTE This thir d part consists of a series of calculations

.

o f letter fre quencies and combinations in English an d

cert ain foreign languages .

Of the practical value of these lists compile d a s a ,

result of numerous experiments there can b e no dou b t, ,

but the fact must not be lost sight of that they constitut e
on ly on e of the fa ctor s which t he decipherer must t ake int o

account if he woul d push his investigations to a successful

issue Cryptograms are often encount ered in which the
.

normal frequency of lett ers ha s b een deliberat ely upset .

The se con d fa ctor is untiring e f fort supporte d by ,

persevering study .

The thir d fa ctor is fla ir or insight This nee d not be

, .

r egar de d as purely instinctive or in the nature of a lucky

gift A reasoned and discerning ingenuity p l ays a large
.

p art here as well as the exercise of that gu m ption or

,

com m on sense which enabled Christopher Columbus to

stan d an egg in a position contrary to the laws of physics .

E NG L IS H I .

Ord e r
f Le tte r F re quen cy
o .

According to Edgar Allan Poe : E A O I D H N R S T U Y ,

etc .

According to Vesin de Romanini : E T A O N I R S H D

L C W U M etc , .

1 22
 L IS T S A ND TAB L E S 1 23

Normal frequency table ( Hitt ) : E T OA N I R S H D L

UC M PF Y W G B V K J X Z Q .

T elegraphic fre quency ( Hitt ) : E O A N I R S T D LH U

C M P Y F G W B V K X J QZ .

Ord er o f F re quen cy f
o F in a l L e tte rs .

According t o Val e r ie : E S D N T R Y O F A etc , .

( See
also Englis h III ) .

The Common e s t B igra ms ( Va le r ie ) .

TH HE A N ER O N RE I N E D ND AT OF O R
, , , , , , , , , , , ,

HA E N N T EA et c
, , , , .

F r e quen cy f Doub le
o L e tte r s .

EE, 0 0 , F F LL
etc , , S S, .

According to Va le r ie : SS , E E , TT, LL MM , , 00 , FF etc , .

Word s ( in Ord e r )
The M os t F r e qu e n t Two Le t te r -
.

O F T O I N IT IS BE HE BY OR AS AT A N S O
, , , , , , , , , , , , ,

etc .

E N G L IS H II .

The Com m on es t Tr igra m s ( Va le rie ) .

THE A ND T HA H A T E D T ( t r iE D To c arr iE D The )

, , , , , ,

E NT F OR I O N T I O ND E HAS ME N NCE
, , , , , , , ,

O F T ST H , .

The Comm on e s t Thr e e Le tte r Wor d s -

.

THE A ND then F OR ARE B U T A LL N O T et c

, , , , , , , .

The Commo n e st F our Le tte r Wor d s -

.

T HAT WITH FR OM HA VE THI S THEY etc

, , , , , , .
1 24 C RYP T OGR A PH Y
Wo r ds of On e L etter .

A I 0 , , .

Propor t ion o f E ( Valerio ) 1 3 per cent : .

Proportion of vowel s ( Valerio ) : 4 0 per cent .

E N GL I SH
III . .

( CO M PI L E D BY TR A N S L A T O R ) .
1

O r d er of L ette r Fre que n cy in R e la tio n to Positio n

of L etter in Wor d .

Ini t ial letter s : T A O M H W C I P B E S etc , .

S econd letter s : H O E I A U N R T etc , .

Thir d lett ers : E S A R N I etc , .

Ant epen ul ti m ate l etter s : I T E A H N 0 et c , .

Penultimate l etter s : E N A R H I L C 0 etc , .

Final letters : E T S D N R Y G etc ( S ee also Eng , .

li sh I ) . .

Co n son a n t B ig ra m s at the E n d s of Wor d s ( O r der

of F re q u e n cy) .

NG , ND ,NT , DS KS ST TS TH H T R T S S C T LL
, , , , , , , , , ,

LT , GH , S H CH DD L D L S NS R N R S WN
, , , , , , , , ,

FF , LP MS , , R D, R L .

E N GLI SH IV . .

F in a l B ig ra in s .

A n Engli sh text o f letters contain s on a n a vera g e ,

( excluding two l etter word s) : -

1 1 word s ending HE .

1 0 word s e nding E D .

Thi d t h f ll w i g e t i p t p a g e 1 3 8 h a e b ee m
1 o n co
s an e o n s c on s u o v .

p ile d p e ia lly f
s c t h E g li h E d it i
or e n s on .
 L IS T S A ND T A B L ES 1 253

8 word s each ending ER NC ,

.

7 word s each ending O R RE , .

6 word s each ending A T ND , .

5 word s ending NT .

4 word s ending L Y .

3 words each ending A N DS E N E S L E O N RY S E , , , , , , , ,

TY .

2 words each ending AD AS CE H T I D IS K E K S , , , , , , , ,

M E NE OT OW R T S S S T T S T H VE
, , , , , , , , ,
.

1 word each ending A L AP AR A Y CH C T DE E E , , , , , , , ,

E M E T E W E Y GE OH HY I G I L I N IR
, , , , , , , , , , ,

LL L S L T NS N Y OM O U R N R S S H TE UE
, , , , , , , , , , ,

U L UR US UT WN WO Y S
, , , , , ,
.

F in al Tr igra rn s .

A n Engli sh text let t er s contain s on a n a vera ge

of ,

( excludin g thr ee le t ter word s) : -

5 word s ending I N G .

3 word s each ending E N T HA T , .

2 word s each ending AVE ERE GH T I O N IE D , , , , .

ND S P L E VER, , R TY , .

1 w ord each endin g AC T AID A N D A NT AR T A T S , , , , , ,

EE N E ND E RY E SS E S T HE D HE N HE R
, , , , , , ,

HIS ICE IE S I SE I SH I T H LL Y L O R NCE

, , , , , , , , ,

NE D N T S O KS O RE RED T ED T E R U N D
, , , , , , , .

I n itia l Co n so n a n t B ig ra ms ( O rd e r o
f Fre q u en cy
) .

T H PR WH CH F R S H TR
, , , , , , , CL , SP , CR , PH P L . ,

B R CL SC S M S T WR
. , , , ,
.
1 26 CRYP T O GRAPHY

E N G L I SH V .

Like L etters at E qu a l I n ter va ls se

( p a r a t e d b y two
L etter s) .

A b A cV a
A m b A SS3 dOr .

ArA i A
.
A m i A b I9
A l A I V 3 A m m A
o A rtd 1
A d A m n A 1 e
A i A c A m PA n

p A k A g e t r A m W A
S A r A In e n t A n d A

eVA u A t e e r r A n e A n

r A i A m A n i A
he A l A n 0 n s A M
1
A
r A n g l e n1St
.

q u A A n t A W D
o r A
o
u A l JA n u A I V a

A v A C A n A S
he A chA
l
.

w A V . p A W
A f A p A
A r A rd A p t A
p A e A n t A q u A
A _ A
g A r A
m A

A
n A _

r A _

e A d
W hA
A
A
r

r c
r i A
A g 8
A

aVA l A b 18 r k A u
h

C l A m An t A r m A m

A n A 0 A r n A n
a
nt
C 0 m P1 A s A n t A r r A
.

Dr 8 A f A s t r t A k 8
PA
.

A i A S t A r v A t 1 0 n

A l A A S c A

S h A m 9 d
.

S 1 00 D A m Au A
DA . p A h 18 A A
A t A _ A
ustl A
V A u A d e V A A W
A v A c A AI
A w A y S A AS
 L IS T S A ND T A B L ES 1 27

A t t A _ a n E _
A u d A C h
E a E r
p
-

r e s t A u r Ant a r E _
c A v e A t a S E
A v i A a t E
d Ar w c k a V E
t A X p A y e r b 1 E
lA y m A n E c r E
B a B E c t E
B o B rE
. d e E
B r B e E d oo E
S n B u B x p F d l E n t
C o B w B n e E d l E
C a Cu l a m wE d n E S d
C a C_ r E d r E H
C a Ch d E e p En
C e CY E f f E M
C h Ck 1
0 E f l E d
C i C E f l E M
C l Ck H E g l E M
C o Ch S E g m E Dt
SS C o Ch E g r E _
C r C 0 E i v E
E
.

S 3 C r CY E l l
C r Cke E l l E
C r C E l S E
C r C E l t E
S p e C t CM E l V E
C t C m b E I
S53 nD
.

a D m l E f
D e D E m p E
D e D m S EH a
D i De m n C E
D i D
E n d E
h H nde D r D n o
o
E
I D u Da n 0
+
0 0 n l E n t
E a E n n n E _
E a E r
E n S E
s p E a l 4 r n t E
E Em p
.

a l E n V
1 28 CRYP T O GRA PHY
O Et r
y G
E
O Er ne G
n m
u G
y

P G
D E G
c ; L
b E d 1a n G
P .

Q u _ H s

I C m w H
A
bE n
amg
A
v
I E 8 H
r r H

r c I
c X
r
v
r E n C e I
c h e r mS S I
g
s r
p n U
L

.
mdf I
v
r s b m I
r t I
I
n
r V m
E u
o 0 E I
b m e
.

E S 1 y I
S p I
a
S E I
E s

t m I
S
.

m n t 8 m I
I
1
+
3 E
i
m E t I I
E t t m I
n

+
W E u I
E u t m I
I
.

n
V 1

s 0 m
m
E
m X
h
y
C
m
b
C rI
I
I
V
A
p E rI
X t m I

i t 1 I
E
GF u r Fn
I
u 1 W I
E
O a n U tI
n
w u G I
O g a
w dI
 L IS T S A N D T A B L E S 1 29

N
N
O
O
O
O
O
O
l O
p O
M d Ma n f O
i
l
. M O
C O e MOr 0 e L
C O

e MOn 0 _ O
M MY C O

Nd e S C6 m O
N e1 r O

0 O

O
C O

N O
N tO
O
Nb L
I O
f O
N e O
f O
Nc 6 n O
L
b

g O
d O
t O
O
N t e x p 0
b 0
0
0
0
0
0
0
1% CR Y P T O GRA PHY
b O S SS
P S S On
P S S
P Pe r S S S
P Pm
.

S S6
.

P P S S
P PO w e e n t h u S S_
P P S Sb
P P S Ss
P P S Ss
P P G n S S
P P t 8 S S8
.
0
1 R R 1 M d e 6 S S6
Rd
.

e X R 1 S S8
0 S S8
n
a S S 0
1

c a 0 a S S 9
S S
W R
a R e T T
p e R R m T T
la R R S T T
_ R R T T6
PR R 0 T
_ R R T T
R R T
R R T
C o R R T
R R u T
R R T T
R R b a T Tl
L

R 1 T Ta
p u R Rt T Te
R T Th
ho R n
a c e T T
c n R y T T
R T T
d e 0 UT T
F 0 b R y d ST T
f o R T T
a S S t O S u T T
 L I S TS A N D TA B L E S 1 31

Tr a Te Um O Ur
J . r T
T Un h Ur
_ T Un l UC
.

l 0 n

b e T 0 h Un S Ul
T u h r U p t Ur
O u T t U r b Ul
a T H e d p U r S Ue
S iT dafi io n m U S c Ul
T MU S e Um
g r 3 T T M U S q Ue
8U U8 g U t t Ur
8 U c Um b V l Ve

S U
U

U
t
f
o
U e S

S
V
V
W
aW&
l Ve
l Ve
a

U
.

t Z l 0
b
Z a

hU h 0
0

E N G L IS H VI .

Letters at E q ua l I n ter va ls ( sep a ra te d by

Three L etters) .

d A l l A
r A l w Ay
A C 0 u A
1
n t A n 0 8

8 t A r c A s 8

0 h A m An
m A e f A c W r
.
.

A g I
A l S A t n
A l I A
A p h A b M
A c tA u l A r e A d
y
e r A d i c A t e Ste Am b OA t
A d o r A b l e n A m e S A k 8

h e A d q u A r t e r s _ A m l n A t

e r i A f 1 n A n o i A l
.

A l n

A g i n A l A n d m A r k
A g u l A c h A n g e A b m
u
c o t e
1 32 CRYP T O GRA PHY
lA n g u A g e teC h D Ca l
g A n g w Ay Ch u Ch
I n e C h AJ J I C Ad C l e C
A n im A C l f C
o r g A ri i s A t io n ne C k 1
.
Ce
A n n u Al C l 1 Ch
.An o m AJ y C l u Ch
m A n s 1 A u g ht e r C o a Ce ar
t r Aa i s p Ar e n t Co m Ca
s u b s t A ri t i Al C o n C .

n L A na i f Act ur e Co u Cl
d i L A p iml A t e d C r u Ch
c A t e e Ct r C
e C u b C
l Cu r Cy
o D e e De
e D e l De
t D e s De m m0 n
.
.

1 D i v De
We Dn e Da y
Dr e D
Dw l Dle
. .

E a b E
a c E
E a g
E a g
A E a g
E
A s t r
lA t e r Al C E a n
A t i c A E a r S S
c o A1 M 3 f Ar m s E a r
A t u r A r 9 E a r E
A v e r Ag e E a 8 E r
n A V i g A t e E a t E
A v o c A t io n E b a E
A V OW AI d E c l E
A w kw Ar d S p E c l En
B s o r B p r E c l E
v o l C a n i C c 0 r r E c t E S S

Ch a n Ce s E c u E
C h a r Co a l E c u E
 L IS T S A N D T A B L ES 1 33

E V al
a
.

m d l rE si d E
_ E u C E
d d E s i r E
Scb du l E E s o m E
d a C E
f -
E s q u E
_ f
o I E in v E s t m E n t
t E r E s u m E

g a
.

DE h a V E E t o b E
.

. .

d E 1 f l E d r E t i c E n t
.

f 0 r E 1 g n Er l if E t i m E
.

E 1 t h E r b E t o k E n
_ E 1 e t E E v a n E s c e n t

d E 1 l n E t 8 E v i c E

d E 1 l V E ar V i d E n t

8 n v E 1 o E E V i s E
b E 1 o
d
1
E 0 r E

E 1 u E E v o k
E m b l E m b e n E v o l E n t

m in E n t d E v o t E
_ E m i S E b E w a r E
r E m u n E r a 0 E x c t
4
u e r
3 r E n t h E S i8 E x p r E ss
p .

s 6 V E n t l E t b E x t r Em e
g E n t l E F e a r Ful
c E n t r E G o i n G
En u m E r a t Gr u d Ge
PE 0 p l E H a r s H
r E p l l E d
.
.

H a t c H
E p o S E a r c H b i s H o p
8 c E p t I E H e a t H
E p u t E H e i
.
g H !
T
U

E r a g E H l t c H
E r a s E tH o u g H
_ E r a t E I e n t I
0 V E r d u E I g h t I n
og
9 x PE r i m E n t C 0 m PI l a t I u
d E r i V hl E PI l g r I m
n e V E r t Ele H V I l l a I n
I 0 1 t
o

l n BE r v E W
.

I
.

m p l
W ho l E s a E I m p r I
r E s c u E I u I
n q
134 CRYP T O GRA PHY
I n s p I r e p l e M e n t
I n s t I n c t c o M la l i M e n t
I n t ii I t io n s y M p t o M
d im I Ir u t I on a M u s e Me n t
I n v o I c e r N a m e Nt
c I r c u I t c o N c e r

m I s c h I e f e N c h a Nt
a N c i e Nt
N dem
d i g
Nd m e Nt
e m e N t

c o N f r o N t
+
n c O O

E N g l a Nd
s a N g u i N e

n i s a N c e

h e N o m e No n
p
o m i

kN O W 1 N g
.

d e N 01 U t
8 h e

N S
.

1 g
N
.

I S 1 o
s y m b o L i c S t N t
L i k t
N
.

1 t r

t
0 b 0 uS
L o y L
a o 0 C t 0 n
L u c k L e s s r 0 0 r y
a b s o e t e L y t 0 S 0 m e
M a d a hl W h 0 S 0 e

c o m hl
II
al I
a
a
n d ll e n t

x i M u nl

a z e M e n t
s 0

s Om e h
l
s 0 m 8 b
0
0
Ow
q
u y

a M e n d Ih n m c Om p r O n s e
s o M e t i hh m c O n g l O m e r a t io n
I l i n i M u nl c On t r O
ILo n u M e n t a n O n y n H Du s

Bl o v e M e n t O p t i On
 L IS T S A ND TABLE S 1 35

f 0 r e o S e l S s
e

h 0
p 0
0 r t h
r

r
l

t n on
oh 0
od 0 X
S
d n
b e S
e n e S s

li i S e

i d e S
0 r t l on b u S i n e Ss
t 0 r t u ou S s u S p e n S e

P 0 S t p on O d iS Ii e r S e

0 t a t o r e S p o n S
hr 0 u g h ou f S t i e S
L
b a

b 0 u r h o o d Ch r i S t In a S
0 u t d o S t r e Ss
0 u t g oiN o a b S t r u S e
Pa r a r e t Ta i n T
Pe r s P Te e n Th
Ph 0 s Ph e
ni

Pl u m P
Po 8 t Po n e
Pr 0 m Pt
Pr 0 s Pe r
Qu nm
.

l n Qu m
R a t o R
t R a V e R s8
S u R c h a R 8 6
a R d O u R
R e C o R d
R e V e R s e
buR g l a R
b R i b e R Y
auR i f e R o uS
w R i t e R
C o R k S c R e W c u l T i v aF e
a R m Ou R p T i V i T y
b R o k e B T m e n T
PR o p e R u Tm o s T

To T
.

1u R t h e R a s

A R t h u R T r a c T

p a R t n e R Tr a i T
m o R t u a R Y c o n Tr a s U
I
d N b u r Se Tr e a T

dw c l o Se s Tr e e T
1% CR YP TO GR AP HY
S Tr c T S U m p t U u S

p 3 Tr o T p Un o t
_ S Tr u c T n d 0 ted
Tr H s T c O n n d I
cOnW Tu I a T
o

3 l 01

a
1
0
_ 0 Tu n a T U
o

r l 0

Tw 8 n T U U
0

e 1
tru Tw r T y Ut h U
n
S
Ua r U b6 U U
o

q a t l
h Uf U U U
o

c a e 0 3 t l 0
Ul n o U Va t V
. .

r 1

fr Ul t f U V V
. .

O t l

S U l Ph U WGS t W r d
SC Ul p t U e W1 n W d
.

d r

E N G L I SH .
VI I .

Three Li ke L etters with I n ter va ls of On e .

p A l A t A b e E V E f E
MA l A A I b I l I U
L

CA n A
C A r A

C A t A
d A
An
r A o
I b
I g
I m
I
I
I
t
d
n
I O
I b
L

I S
I A v A g An I n I t I a n

E c E d E n I s I t I
P E c E m E a I t I I 8
W E d E c E S o r I v I I 3
I E f E r E n e I v I S I 0
_ E e Oc Om Ob
g E n E r
1
t V 9
V E h E m En c On O l Og
E l E m E n On Op Ol
E l E v E n On O t On
O E m E t E r C Or Of Or
M
1
E n E v E r Ti Tu T
E r E Un U S Uw
.

v E r
a
 L IS T S A N D T A B L ES B7

B ig ra ms R ep ea te d .

CO Oa
d E R R
I CI M
I NI g
DA G g G8
.

A
b A R b R ous A
BA f Ar 0 u SB
CA l Ar e ousC
CA S CA d e
CA U CA s
DA I DA n e l l e s
D E A
.
E A b 1e
C

EN d E Nt
t E N
r eVER b ER t6
E R g E R
PE R E R S 6
_ I N
g I Ng
_ I N k I No
o

MA d MA n s E Nt im E Nt
MU r M Ur . M At he M A t i c s

NG NG s e N Ti m e N T
.

NT 8 NT c o N Ti n e N T
ON ON O Ur t e O U s
.

1 c
PA 1 PA b l e p l E N i p o t E N t i a r
y
PO r POl s c in t E R p r e t E R
R E d R Em c o N Tr a v e N T i o n

R E p R E sent c O Ur O Usa g e

SE n SE in TE r p r e T E r
WS a SS u N De r s t a N D
SS e S etc .
, et c .
1 38 CRYP T O GRAPH Y
Wor ds of Te n Die re n t L etters , which m a y b e used in S ub
st it u tion F i re 9 or 1 0 an d there by for m
of t he
g u s 0 ,

Num era l K e y Wor d s .

AU T HORISE D HYP N O T ISED PA T R O NY M IC

B ACKGR OU N D HYS T ERICA L P L AY W R IGH T
B AN KRUP T CY I L F RAC OM B E PRE SUMA B L Y
B UCK I NGH A M IMPERS O NA L PREVIOUS LY
CHIVA L R OU S I M P OR T AN CE PR O C L AI M ED
C OMPA T I B L E JOUR NALI ST PR O F L I GA T E
C O M P L AI NT S L A CHRYM OSE PR OMUL GA T E
D ES O L A T IN G M ACKI N T OSH PURCHASIN G
D E S T R OYI N G M E NDA CIOU S RE GU L A T I O N
E X HAUS T I O N M E T APHYSIC REPU B L ICAN
F L OURISHED MI N ERA L O GY SU B JE C T IO N
F ORMIDA B L E MIS F O R T U N E SY M PA T HISE
GE L A T IN O US M ODERA T I N G U N S O CIA B L E
H Y DRAU L ICS PA T R O NI SE D WOR K I NGDAY
S urna m es suc h as Tichb ourn e o r s hort sentences s uch
,

as Fai r Cu sto m , m a y a l so be use d .

E N G L I S H VI I I . .

Prop ortion of Wor d s in We b ster s Di ct i on a ry

cla ssi e d or di n g
a cc to th eir I n i tia ls .

P er Ce nt . T ta l
o . Per Ce nt. Tot a l .

> z
w o
o w
d e
m w
w m
m e
m d
H <

m
u
w
b
z
 L IS T S
T A B L ES A ND
1 39

The extra 0 0 1 p e r cent i n t he tota l is d u e t o t he .

a p pro xi m ate nature of the ca l c ul at i ons The above pro .

p ortions v ar y fro m one d ict i onar y to another .

F RE N CH .

I .

O rder of L e tter Frequ en cy .

Accor d in g t o Va l e r io z E N A I R S T U O L D C M P V F ,
etc .

A ccord i ng to orks of Boss u et Vo l ta i r e

L an g io ( in t he w , ,

M a u passant and France ) : E S A T I N e t c

, , .

A ccord i n g to K a siski : E S R I A N T O U L e t c , .

O rd er of F re q uen cy of F i n a l Letters ( Va ler i e ) .

E S TR A N L I UD , etc .

The Corn mon est B ig ra m s ( Va ler i e) .

E S E N L E DE O N O U
, , , , , , NT, RE N E E D TE E M
, , , , ,

S E ER AR M E A N I T
, , , , , , E T, IE T] E L N S UR
, , , , .

Fre quen cy of Do uble Letter s .

A ccordin g to Valeri e : S S LL E E NN TT FF CC RR , , , , , , , ,

M M PP , .

A ccordin g to Kasis hi : S S E E NN TT FF CC RR , , , , , , .

Do u ble L etter s at the E n d o f Wor ds .

EE .
140 CRYP T O GRAPH Y

F RE N CH II . .

The Ce rn m e n e st Tr ig ra ms .

A ccor d in g t o Vale rie : E N T ED E L E S LLE QUE AI T , , , , , ,

E ME I O N E UR E LL S SE E S T D AN DE L
, , , , , , , ,

M E N D E S T IO E SE A N S
, , , , .

A ccord i n g t o K a siski : E N T QUE I O N QUI T I O O N T , , , , , ,

AI T A NT OUR A N S L E S AIS O US
, , , , , , .

The Comm on est Two L ette r Wor ds -

.

A N. AU , CE , 0 1 , DE DU, E N E T, I L JE , LA , LE , MA
, , , ,

ME NE NI
. . . NU O N , , OU SA SE SI , TA , TE , TU, UN
, , , .

Word s of On e L etter .

A O Y , , .

F ou r -
Letter Gr oup s rep ea ted in S u ccess i on .

N OU S N OUS VOU S VOU S , .

P r e p ort i on of E (Vale r ie ) : 1 7 p e r cent .

P ro p ort i on of v o w e l s ( Va l e r ie ) : 4 4 5 per cent .

F RE N C H III .

Or d er of L e tter Fre q uen cy in R e la t i on to Po s i t i on

of L etter in Word .

In i t i a l l etters ( Va l eri e ) : D L E P A C S M R I F e t c , .

S econd l etters ( L an g ie ) z E O A U N R I T e t c , .

Thi rd l etters (L an g ie ) z S E U N T I R e t c ( or d er in , .

di f ferent ) .

A nte p enul ti m ate l etters ( L an g ie ) z E fo ll o w ed b y A , ,

I O L ( no or der ) e t c , .

Penul ti m ate letters ( L angie ) z E U N I L O R S e t c , .

Fi na l l etters ( Val eri e ) : E S T R A N L I U D C X e t c ,

.
 L IS T S A ND T A B L E S 141

I n itia l Con so n a n t B ig ra ms Va ler i e )

( .

BL , BR , P L PR
, , F L , F R , VR , C L CR GL GR T R
, , , , ,

DR CH , , PH , TH , S C S P ST
, , .

F ina l Con son a n t B ig r a ms ( Va ler i e) .

NT NS , , R T, NC , CT, R C, SC, ND, R D, NG, R G,

M P NQ S T
, , , GT ( doigt , v in g t ) S S ( ex press )
, .

F RE N C H IV .

F i na l B i g ra ms ( La n gie) .

A Fr ench t ext o f l etters conta i ns on a n a ve ra ge ,

25 wor d s endin g E S .

23 w or d s en d in g NT .

1 0 w ords en di n g RE .

9 w ords eac h endin g NE O N , .

7 w or d s eac h endin g U N L A , .

6 w ords eac h en d in g M E SE UR UI L E NS ER , , , , , , .

5 w ords each ending T E UE DE , , .

4 w ords eac h ending IE E C E T E N O U UX , , , , , .

F in a l Tr igra rn s ( La n gie ) .

A Fr ench text of l etters conta i ns , on an a v erage

9 wor ds each ending L E S E N T , .

7 words endin g O NT .

6 w ords endin g RE S .

5 w ords each ending GES I NE , .

4 words endi n g T RE .
1 42 CRYP T O GRAPHY

F RE N CH
V . .

F ive -
Letter Gr oup ep ea ted in r S u cce ss i o n .

F AIRE F AIRE .

R ep ea te d Gr oup s ep a ra ted
s by a S in gle Letter .

VI S A VI S PE U A PE U
, , P E T I T A PE T I T , Dos A DOS .

Con se cu tive Wor d s en din g with L i ke Letters .

L E S B E LL E S A C T I O N S .

Three -
L etter Word s en din g w th E i .

F in a l S p re ce d e d b y Three Dike L etters .

CR EEE s

Q is a l w ays fo l lo w ed by U in the b od y of a w ord .

X 1 8 p receded by U exce pt in t he w or ds six dix

, , , x e ,

p rolixe m i xt
,
u re e t c axe sexe b oxe
, e t c .
, , , , .

H is preceded b y :
C a s in che mi n che v al cher e t c
, , , , .

P as in p hotogra p hie e t c
, , .

T as in t heatre e t c
, , .

Wor d of Twe lve Diff ere n t L etters , i

wh ch m a y b e us d in e
S u b stitu tio n of the F ig u re s 1 1 2, a n d t h by f orm ere
a Nu m er ica l K e
y Wor d
-
.

I MPR EVOY A NTS .

1

1
I n E n g l is h

c o n s id e rab ly m ig h t b e us e d TR A NS L A TOR
. .
 L IS T S A ND T A B L ES 1 43

F RE N C H VI .

Like L etter s at E qu a l I n ter va ls ( sep a ra ted by Two

L et ters) .

A m E m i

c
A f p
4 r r

c A l A m v id E m m E n t
c A m A n 8 f E m m E
r A A S m p E

l
n r e u r

c A n A e
e A E d E
!

r A n n

E
.

A p P A g 1 E
r b A 1
.

DA n E
.

_ A r r A dE r E e
A r t A g r E
P o
w
S S A d e
S E
/

A e l

A t l A S S E
A t t A S E
B 3 r B 3 I e p S E

B 0 m B 8
E t E
a
n
.

C 3 l C3 n 8 t E
1
1
.

C 1 r C U E

C 0 n C h DE
C r o C _ C

S t a C1 e
.

0 C 1
_ D a r c a S
E EE
n

D De t
.

1 n n
o
0 u V n m e n

P E 0 h E r t
S
IE 0 l E V
E 0 r E
+
u d E C n d

.

I E u E r E
.

0 l 1 r p
E f f E 1
S
r E f l E ah .

1 r
E t
E
r E g i E r

S E g m E n t t
I
a 1 E .
.

g r E s % l
ch an0 E 1 i E f r

E 1 l E S
1 44 CRYP T O GRAPHY
E H v E 0 n
r E V u E 0
M n
.

X p E 1 0 0 n r S
1
F 0 r F 1 t 0 u n 3
G 0 n G PI e

H a c H P
v I o t I e P
d I f f I m R T M re
s I n I m R awd
r

5m n t
a I u I e R
ueI l I R
m I l I R 3
I m m I R
a I n S I R e
c r I P t I R m a
m I s S I R
c a p I t I S
.

m 1lI t I S
L l L
l N f N er 3
n N i

n
s
t
t
t
P 0 i 0 DS
f 0 l 0
0 D1 O
.

e 0 m
A
H

0 n 0 _
0 P 0 e
_ 0 r 0
h0 r 0 06 e
_ 0 r . 0
 L IS T S A N D T A B L E S 14

Like Letters at E qua l I n terva ls se

( p a r a te d by
Three L e tters) .

n A i s s A
c A p i t A i n e

Ch a n Ce l i e r e p l e M e n t
p r E c i s lr e Nch a Nt e r
s E c o u E r c iNq u a Nt e
E c u t E r iNs t a N t
E i l l E iN s t i t
E l o g E h Or i On
z

Em b lE r p r o
p ( ) r t i O ri
E n d r E Po u r Pr e
E n t i E r fR ce u a R
E n t r E r p a R c o u R ir
E r i t E p R e n d R e
l a R g e u It
p R o p o R t io n

m a u e R
d e S s a i S ir
Tr a iT
Tr o iT

etc .
, et c .

B ig ra ms R ep ea te d .

> z g o u v mw E :

> w
1

< mw m H w
w> 0 m H E d

of
o>
0 z
m
H Z d 1 D

z a D Z m C
r C

o> D
C Z e S Z H D

mz z a D Z Q C

mz -
o Z - OZ r

wz ?
c o
M
$ O G -m t x
r

mw wE O ws :
D
(

mw mm U ma
3
2
'
0 mm mw 0 D
( H 3
:

H0
146 CR Y P T O GRAPH Y

F RE N CH .
-
VII .

Prop or t i on of Wor d s Littr s Di ction a ry cla ssied

in

a ccor d in t o t he ir I n itia ls
g .

Per Ce t T t l
n . o a . P e r Ce t T t n . o al.

A N
B 0
0 P
D Q
E R
F S
G T
H U
I V
J W
K X
L Y
M Z
The s horta g e of p e r cent in . t he tota l is due t o
b l anks and the a p proxi m ate nature o f t he ca l cu l at i ons .

The a b o v e p r e port i ons v ar y fro m on e d i ctionary t o

anot her .

I T A L IA N I .

O r der of Le tter F re q uen cy .

A ccordin g t o Va l eri e : E I A O R L N T S C D P e t c , .

A ccor d ing to Ve sin d o Ro m anini : E I A 0 fo l lo w ed , by

L NR S etc .
 L IS T S A ND T A B L E S 1 47

O rd er of Fre q uen cy of F in a l L e tters ( Lan gie) .

I A E ONL R D U .

The sa m e l etter fre q uent l y er id s two three four , , , or

v e consecuti v e words .

The Co mmon est B i g ra m s ( Va ler i e ) .

ER ,
E S O N RE E L E N DE DI TI S I L A
, , , , , , , , , , AL A N , ,

R A NT T A 0 0 I N L E TO 1 0 AR NE
, , , , , , , , , , OR .

F requen cy of Doub le L etter s ( Va lerie ) .

LL SS TT , , , EE , PP NN B B GG C C
, , , . .

All the cons onants m ay be doub l ed except H , J, an d Q .

Word s of On e L etter .

A E I O , , , .

I T A L IA N II .

The Com m on e st Tr ig ra m s ( Va ler ie ) .

CHE ERE ZI O D E L E C O QUE ARI A T O E DI

, , , , , , , , ,

ID E E SI IDI ER O PAR N T E S T A
, , , , , , .

The l etters J and H are a l ways followed b y a vowel .

The l etter H is used onl y in the g roup s CH and GH ,

and in four for m s o f the verb a vere ( to have ) : H O ,

HAI HA HA NN O, , .

The l etter Q is al ways followed by U .

P roportion o f E ( Va l e r ie ) : 1 2 6 per cent -

.

Proportion o f v owel s ( Val e r ie ) : 4 6 per cen t .

SPANIS H I .

O r d er of L etter Fre qu en cy ( Va lerie ) .

E A O S I R N L D TC U P , etc .
14 8 CRYP T O GRAPHY

Or d er of Fre q u e n cy of F in a l L e t te r s ( Va ler ie ) .

A E S ONL R Y I D Z U , e t c.

The Common est B ig ra ms ( Va ler ie ) .

E S E N E L DE L A OS AR UE RA RE E R
, , , , , , , , , , , AS O N , ,

QU S T A D A L O R S E TA C O 0 1 1 0
, , , , , , , , , , NO .

Fre quen cy of Double Le tters .

C C LL RR infrequent l y A A EE 0 0 NN
, , , , , , .

A ccordin g to Val e r ie : E E LL RR S S DD I
, , , , .

Word s of On e Letter .

A E O U Y , , , , .

S in g l e letter wor d s that

-
m ay occ ur in success i on are
0 A or Y A .

SPA N IS H II .

The Comm on est Tr ig ra m s ( Va ler ie ) .

QUE E S T ARA AD O A QU DE L CI O NT E O S A
, , , , , , , , ,

E DE PER IS T N EI RES SD E , , , , , .

Dou b le d L etter begin n in g a We r d .

LL .

The l etters Z J H and V are al ways fo l lo wed b y a vo wel

, , ,
.

Q i s a l wa ys followed by U .

P r e portion o f E ( Val e r ie ) : 1 4 per cent .

P r e p ortion of vowels ( Val e r ie ) : 4 8 per cent .

1 Ne it he r S n or D can b e d o ub l e d in t he am e
wo d , b ut t h y
s r e
occu r e
c o n s c u t iv ely as t he n l a of on e wo r d a n d t he in it i l o f t h e a
n e x t TR A N s LA To It .
 L IS T S A ND TABLE S 14 9

GER M A N I .

of L etter Frequen cy
Or d er .

According to K a siski : E N I R S T U D A H e t c , .

According t o Va l eri e : E N R I T S D U A H e t c , .

A ccording to Vesin de Ro m ani ni : E t hen N I R S U ,

e tc the rarest bein g Q X Y J C

.
, .

O rder of Fre qu en cy of F in a l L etters ( Va lerie ) .

N E R TS D H U Z F , et c .

The Co mmon e st B ig ra ms ( Va le rie ) .

EN ER
, , CH , ND DE , , IE T E RE E 1 U N GE
, , , , , , DI ,

ES , BE , I N I T HE et c
, , , .

The Co mmon est

F in a l Big ra ms .

E N E R then the l etters S T and E

, , , , .

Frequen cy of Do u ble L etters .

E E , TT, LL S S DD
, , .

Do u b le L etters at the E n d of Wor d s .

NN , SS less freq u ently LL

, , EE .

GER M AN . II .

The Co mmon est Tr ig ra ms ( K a sis ki) .

EIN I CH DE N D ER T E N CH T S CH CHE D I E
, , , , , , , , ,

U N G GE N U N D NE N D ES B E N R CH
, , , , , , .
1 50 CRYP T O GRAPHY

The Co mmon est Two -

Le tter Word s .

AB , A M A N DA
, E R E S I M I N OB S O U M
, DU , , , , , , , ,

WO ZU then JA N U e t c
'

, , , , .

The bi g ra m U N frequently co m m ences a w or d .

Q i s a l w ay s follo w e d b y U .

C i s a l ways foll owed b y H or K except i n foreign

,

words .

Pre portion o f E ( Val e rie ) : 1 8 per cen t .

Pr e portion o f vowel s ( Val e r ie ) : 3 5 per cent ; ( Kaeding ) : .

per cent 1
.

GERMA N III .

Prop ort i on of Wor d s in S a chs s Dict i o n a ry

cla ss ie d
a ccor d in g t o t he i r I n i t i a ls .

P e r Ce nt . Tota l . Per Ce nt .

A
B 0
0 P
D Q
E R 70 0 7
F S
G T
H U
I V
J W
K X
L 58 1 7 Y
M Z

1 The Ge rm a n a u t ho rit y , F . W . K ae d i ng, b a e d hi

s s c a lc u

l a t ion s on a to t al of he e t a b li he d
s s t he

p re e e I t m ay b e ed

N

s nc of E s, s, etc . n ot

t ha t o n e v olu m e of t he l arg e d i t i a y c on r of L ar o u ss e c o n t in s a ab o ut

ch ara t r
c e s .
 T A BL E S L IS T S 1 51 A ND

The s horta g e of p e r cen t in t he total is due t o .

b l anks and the appro xi m ate nat ure o f the ca l culations .

N O T E These p r e portions var y fro m one dictionar y t o

anot her In t his ca se the m iddle of t he d ictionar y occ ur s
.
,

at K ; in Feller s pocket dictionar y it occ urs at M ; i n

Nie t he s n u m bere d dictionar y at L etc

.
,

RUSSIA N I .

O rd er of L etter Frequ en cy .
1

A ccording t o La n g ie : O A N I S E TV R L K M
etc : ,

The l etter I predo m i nates in French tran s cript i on .

Texts in Ru ssi an c haracters : 0 A I L E N har d si g n , ,

D TM V R U K P , etc .

Eng li sh transliterations : O Y A I E L N H D T S M U V
R Z K P et c , .

Frenc h tran sl iterat i ons : O I A E L N T D C H M U V R

K P etc , .

F i n a l L etter s .
1

A ccordin g to L an g ie z Har d si g n t hen 0 E ( I ) A I ( K ) H , , , , ,

( i g norin g nal har d S ign) A 1 e t c , , , .

Rus si an text s : H a r d sign U 0 I sof t si g n ( Y) A E Y A , , , , , , , ,

M V ( ignoring na l hard sign) e t c

, , .

Eng l i sh tra ns l i teration s : A U E O 1 soft si g n Y M V , , , , , , , , ,

e t c.

The Co mmon est B i g ra ms ( L a n g ie) .

S T N O E N G O TO
, , , , , K A, KO , N A, ER RA L I SK , , , ,

OS M ,

, R O, PO , ZA .

1
I n c lu d in g re sul t s of su p p l e m en t ary in v e s t ig a t ion s by t ra ns

la t e r .
 1 52 CRYP T O GRAPHY
'

The Common est Trig ra ms ( L a n g ie) .

AG O , E NI O S T Y K E ( bigra m in R u ssi a n
STV, , ,

c haracter s) T O R S T A IKH ( b igra m ) E N N N O V

, , , , , ,

OR O S T O E GO L IS N I ( I ) A SKA A L O M NNO
, , , , , ,

, ,

ERE I SK NY ( K ) H e t c
, , , .

NOT E The a p ostro p he re p resents the na l hard s i g n .

Do ub le L etters ( L an g ie) .

NN , EE , SS , 00 ,
ZZ .

Wor d s of L etter ( La n gie)

On e .

I ( DA 0 U A
, , , , .

N O TE T
BY S L T
RAN
A O R
To these . m ay be a d de d i f ,

na l har d S i gn is i g nored V K S ,

,

.

RU SS I A N II . .

The Common e st Te t rag ra ms ( La n g i o) .

PRAV TSTV VE N N UE T : VSTV

, , , , .

N O T E The co l on i n t he a b o v e represents t he sof t s i g n .

The Common e st Pen ta g r a ms (La n g ie) .

SK A GO, STVI E , L zSTV .

The Common est H exa g ra ms ( La n g ie) .

STVE NN, NNOSTI .

Like Letters sep a ra ted b y On e L etter (La n gie) .

I LI K A K O B O OVO O G O O D O O KO O L O O N O
, .
, , , , , , , ,

O S O P OP T O T T U T etc , , , , .

Pro p ortion of O ( L angie ) z 1 0 7 p e r cent .

Pr e portion of vowel s ( L angie) z 4 3 5 per cent .

 L IS T S AN D T A B L E S 1 53

P OR T A S T A B L E

.

This ta bl e w as co m po sed b y Giovann i Battista da

P orta a N eapolitan phy sician author o f a w ork o n
, ,

cr y ptography ent i t l ed De f urtivis littera rum ne t i s vulge

,

d c zif eris N ap l es 1 5 6 3
, , .

The capital l etters o n the left serve to for m the ke y

or word agreed upon the letters of which i n succe ssion
, , ,

indicat e the alphabe t s selected Each pair of ca p i tals

.

j ointly contro l the alphabet ra n ged in two line s to t heir

r i g ht
.

L et u s suppo se tha t t he capital l etter G is u se d to cipher

the plai n let t er i It will be noted that i n the doub l e
.

l ine t o the right o f G t he l etter 3 occurs im m ediat el y

1 54 CRYP T O GRAPHY
b elow i ; accordingly s istaken as the cipher equi v alent of i .

A gain the p l ain letter n ciphered by m eans o f the sa m e

, ,

G w i l l be represente d by d which occ urs i mme dia te ly

, ,

a b ove The ru l e therefore is t o take the letter which

.
, ,

occ urs eit her be l ow or abo v e that o f the p l ain text in the
double l ine corresponding to the key l etter For instance -
.
,

t o cip her the word re d b y m eans o f t he ke y wor d -

CAR w e r st look f or r in the double l ine t o t he ri g ht

,

o f C and nd i m mediately abo v e it the l etter

, Proceed
i ng in like m anner with the second l etter 6 (ke y l etter A ) -
,

and the third letter d ( key R ) w e obtain the result :,

r e d
CA R
f r v

decipherin g we a d e p t exactly the sa m e m ethod

Fo r , ,

t he cipher wor d vt u with the ke y wor d N O T f o r
,
-
,

exa m ple resul t i ng i n :

,

v t u

NOT
b a d

VI GE NEE E S TABLE .

This table w a s estab l i shed by Blaise de Vig e n e r e

translator and Frenc h dipl o m at aut hor o f a work ,

entitled Tra it d e s chire s e u secretes ma n ire s d cr i re

Paris 1 5 8 6
, .

The up p er hori z onta l l ine o f cap i tals re p resents t he

p l ain text
-
a l p h abet ; the colu m n of capita l s to the l eft i s
used to for m the key w ord -
.

S u p po sin g the r st letter o f the ke y w ord is R and the -

,

r st l etter o f t he plain text i we descend fro m I in t he

,

t op l ine o f capita l s unti l we reac h t he l ine o f s m a ll l etters

 L IS T S A N D T A B L ES 1 55

b e g inning fro m R in the co l umn t o the l eft At the point .

o f inter section we nd z whic h beco m es t he r st l etter

,

in t he ci p hered text ( se e p .

T o decip her t he wor d kik b y t he a i d of the key wor d -

RE X w e rst l ook for k i n the hor i z onta l l ine b e g innin g

,

L tte esr f
o p la in t ext

g
n
i

e e s of
L tt r am t
p/ ext Rese ve
. r

at R and at t he t op o f t he co l u m n i n whic h t he k occ ur s

,

we nd T which is the r st l etter o f t he p l a i n wor d

, .

Proceed i ng in l i ke m anner wit h the ot hers we obtai n : ,

k i k
REX

t e n
1 56 CRYP T O GRAPHY

NUM B E R O F P O SSI B L E C O MB INA T IO NS .

With N u m be r f
o C mb i at i
o n on s

3 letter s 1
6
99 24
1 20
7 20

B RI T ISH SUR NA M E S .

F requ en cy of Term i n a tion s ( comp i le d b y Tra n sla tor) .

In a l i st of over a t housand di f ferent s ur na m es nu m erica l ,

osition w a s occup i ed b t he fo l low i ng ter m inations i n

p y ,

order o f frequency :
S ON TON, ER ,
, F ORD S T O N ( E ) MA N
I N G ( S) , LE Y , , , ,

0 0 K BY H AM L A ND I e K E TT W E LL F IE L D
, , , , , , , ,

KI N ( S ) L O W ( S ) W O OD M ORE B UR N HURS T
, , , , , ,

W O R T H DA L E SHA W B O R OU GH S T O W E
, , , , ,

RIGH T WAY S T EAD

, , .

1
A B C A CB
, , B A C BCA , CA B, CBA
, .
 L I S TS A ND T A B L ES 1 57

F RE N CH SUR NA M ES .

Fre quen cy of Termin a t i on s ( La n gie) .

O ut of Frenc h surna m es ( a p proxi matel y) :

5 0 end in I ER .

3 8 end in ARD .

21 end in E AU .

1 9 end in AUD .

1 5 eac h en d i n L E T LLE , .

1 3 each end in A N D NE T , .

1 2 each end in AU X ER E ER T , , .

1 1 each end in L O T R O N S O N , , .

1 0 each end in OUK TTE U L T , , .

9 eac h end in CHE GER , .

8 end in L I N .

7 each end in RI N UE T , .

CRYP T O GRAPHIC M A T ERIA L .

O ne or two m anual s o f cr y ptogra p hy ( see Bi b l io g rap hy) .

Di ctionaries in s evera l l anguage s .

Eng l i sh Frenc h Ger m an etc r hy m ing d ictionar i es

, , , .
, .

Tw o S aint Cyr S lides ( se e p .

Tw o g raduated rule s one nu m bered fro m 1 to 50 t he

, ,

ot h er fro m 5 1 to 1 0 0 .

Paper ruled in s q uares .

Sl ates rul ed in s quares .

Tracing paper .

Colour ed pencil s .

A T square ( u sefu l for con sul t in g Vig e n er e s Table )

-

.

A ready reckoner f or rapi dly calculatin g pro p ortion s .

1 58 CRYP T O GRAPHY
A few hundred counters on w hi ch the letters of t he
a l phabet are inscribed For instance in 10 0 counters .
, ,

o n e w o ul d ha v e 1 8 E s 9 S s 8 R s 7 A s 7 7 Ns

, , , , ,

et c . The u se o f counters fro m ti m e t o ti m e rests t he

e y es and enab l es o n e t o t r
,
y a nu m ber o f co m b ination s

m ore rapidl y than cou l d b e done wit h p e n o r p enci l .

B I B L I O GRAPHY
WOR K S R E COMM E ND E D .

La c ryp t g rap hi d il b y C F Ve i d R m a i i Pari 1 8 5 7

o c ve

ee, . . s n e o n n . s, .

Die Geheim hrif t e sc d d i D hiff i K

n un t by F W K e i ki ec r r- un s . . as s

B e r li
,

1 8 63
n, .

Han db h d uc K ryp t g rap hie b y E d B Fl i

er o W t wit e ssn e r v o n o s ro z .

Vie a 1 8 8 1
. .
,

nn , .

La cryp t g rap hi milit a ire d hiff re it

o c t emp d g err e
eu es c s us s en s e u ,

by A g K u kh f f
. e rc Pari 1 8 8 3 o s . s, .

La c ryp t g rap hi t
o ap p li a ti a l art milit a ire b y H J
c e ses c on s

, . e sse

Pari 1 8 8 5
.

s, .

E ss a i l m th d d d hi m t b y P V l i Pari 1 8 93
su r es

e e es e c re en , . a er e . s, .

La c ryp t g ra phi p ra tiq e b y A d Gra d p re Pari 1 90 5

o c u , . e n . s, .
 PA R T I V

THE PLA YFA I R CI PHER SYSTE M, ETC .

B Y TR A N SL A TOR

IT is surprising t hat there is no work i n crypto g raphy

i n English althou g h M L an g ie points o ut t hat there i s
,
.

an ext ensi v e bib l io g ra phy in o t her languages I have .

m ade a careful search bot h in En g land and t he Unite d

,

S tates for a book or m anua l on this fascinating subject

, ,

b ut wit hou t success M L angi s denes cryptog raphy

. .

as t he art o f co m m unicat i ng t houghts secretly and t his ,

certainly appear s to m e to b e a be t ter deni t ion than the

stereotyped one of secret wr iting a s it is perfect l y ,

Obvious t hat writing is n ot the only mediu m by w hi ch

secret co m m unication can b e e f fected I t used t o b e .

a g reat problem t o travellers and residents in various

p arts o f Africa h o w news coul d be transmitted w i t h

a l m os t incredible rapidi t y over l ar g e di stances and m any ,

w ere i nc l ined to attribut e this t o so m e supernatura l

agency Fur ther investigation ho w ever proved t hat
.
, ,

t he news w a s trans m itt ed by b eat i n g a dru m in a certain

m anner as provided f or i n a prearranged code the
, ,

m essage being relayed fro m o n e post t o another .

Cryptography in so m e form or other has a surpri singly

, ,

grea t bearing upon the everyday events o f ordinary l if e .

You wil l nd upon your handkerchief a m ysterious li tt l e

symbo l which t o you is meaningless but which in your ,

l aundry indicate s your n a m e and addre ss and m any a ,

fugiti v e cri m inal ha s been brough t t o j ust ice by such a

1 59
1 60 CRYP T O GRAPHY
slender c l ue a s a laun dry mark upon so m e gar m ent whi ch
he has ha d to l eave behind at the scene of his cri m e .

Racegoers m a y have noticed individual s standing o n

t he t Op O f a c a b or on som e coign o f vantage se m aphor i ng ,

energetically in the intervals between the races This

, .

p rocess is ca ll ed tictacking and I understand
, that t h e

m e n Operatin g it have var i ou s codes which t h ey do t h e i r ,

best t o keep secret for trans mittin g prices fro m Tatter

,

S a ll s rin g t o the o utsi de book m akers

.

The m ark i ng of cards b y S harpers is a for m of cry p t o

g raph y in which an a m ount of ingen u i ty is e x hi b ited

w ort h y o f a bett er cau s e P l aying cards ost ensib l y f or

.
,

conj uring p ur poses are sol d pub l ic l y in the Unite d S tat e s

, ,

each car d b eing m arked in s uch a m a nn er t hat an y one

with a litt l e practice ca n a s readi l y rea d the card fro m t h e
back as its face O ne o f the co m m onest for m s of in d ica t
.

i ng the face o f a car d on it s back is in the for m o f a c l ock ,

as s h own i n t h e fo ll owing d i a g ra m :

FI G 1
. . FI G 2 . .

Fi g 1 shows t he back o f the card A t t he fo ur corners

. .

o f Fig 1 w i ll be obser v ed four s m al l ring s an enlar g e

.
,

m en t o f which is shown in Fig 2 Thi s is int ended t o

. .

repre sent a clock and the t welve out er rings represen t

the h ours A s m all white d o t at o n e o clock represent s
.

 TH E P L AYFAIR C IPHE R SYS T EM E T C ,
. 1 61

an a ce and so on un t il eleven O clock which indicate s

'

, ,

a Jack while t welve o clock deno t es a Queen and a dot

,

in t he cen t re S pot repre sent s a King The sui t is indi .

c a t e d by a s mall white do t in one of t he four small circle s

around t he cen t re S po t The t o p do t repre s en t s diamond s

. ,

t h e one o n t he righ t club s t he one o n t he bot t om hear t s

, ,

and t he one a t t he lef t S pade s Even after y o u are in .

formed t ha t t he car d s are marked i t is surp r i singly ,

di fcult for t he u nini t iated t o detec t t hese m ark s and in ,

pa ssing I c annot refrain from repe a t ing t he advice so

,

of t en given t ha t great ca r e is es sential when playing cards

wi t h st rangers
B u sine s s men nd i t necessary t o m ake ex t en sive u se
o f s ome for m o f secre t wri t ing t o indica t e t he price of t he

various goods t hey sell Thi s is m os t commonly done.

by means o f so m e ea sily re m embered wor d o f t en

di f ferent le t t ers which are u sed t o denote gu r es For .

inst ance t he word bankrup t c y migh t b e e m ployed
,

,

B t o repre s en t 1 A 2 and so on , An ext r a le t t er is

, .

generally u sed in t he ca se of a gure which is repeat ed .

For in st ance 1 1 shillings would be expre ssed a s BX /

,

o r B Z/ Cer t ain r m s u se a varie t y o f sign s s uch as

circle s rec t angles triangle s etc bu t obviou sly i t woul d
, , , .
,

not be a di fficul t t a s k for anyone to break t his co de .

I t is so me t i m e s m o st i m portan t for m anufacturers and

m erchants t ha t t heir price s should be stric t ly secre t ,

and I have frequen t ly been a sked for advice and a ssi st ance
in thi s respec t but i t is ex t re m ely di f cul t t o devi se any
,

S y s t e m which can be ea s ily writ t en and read t ha t will ,

a t t he sa m e t i m e defy t he e f forts o f inqui sitive rivals t o

di scove r t he r eal gur es .

Th e recen t Grea t Wa r st imula t ed t he g eneral in t ere st in

cryp t og r aphy and many and devious were t he me t ho d s
,

11
1 62 CRYP T O GRAPHY
adopted by S pie s in t he variou s count ries involved in t he
war t o trans mit informa t ion secre t ly I t woul d be im
.

po ssible in t he scope of t his work t o give m ore t han

passing men t ion t o t he many and ingenious devices t h at
were adopt ed or t o show how t he se e f fort s were al m o st
invariably defea t ed by t he ingenuity and re sour ces of
the cryptographer s in the various censors depar t ments

.

S ecret co m m unica t ion is by no mean s conned to

naval and mili t ary requiremen t s or to diplo m atic o f ces .

M any importan t nancial hou se s are well aware th at

unprincipled riv al s woul d s t ick at no t hing in order t o
be able t o t ap their m e ssage s and t o break t heir cipher .

I t is obviou s t ha t t he t ran sfer by t elegraph o f large s um s

o f m oney mu st b e done with very great care and s ecrecy ,

and all t he grea t banks e m pl o y elaborat e metho ds t o

in sure tha t t heir s ecrets will n o t fall in t o di shone s t hand s .

I t is wel l known that t ramp s in all coun t r ies have t heir

m ethod s of com m unicating W i t h each o t her . This is
usually done by means of chalk m ark s o n the door or
wall of a hou se which one of th e frat ernity has vi sited .

Th e French Police recently cap t ured a copy of t he code

u sed by tra m p s full par t icular s o f which were publi shed
,

in t he L ondon S un da y E xp re ss o f O ctober 9 1 921

, .

M L a n g ie apparen t ly con sider s t h a t t he u se of invi sible

.

o r sy m pa t he t ic inks is o f no value and is al m ost cer t ain

,

t o be de t ect ed 1 do not altoge t her agree with t hi s as

.
,

i t f r equen t ly happen s t ha t i t is o f vital importanc e t o the

recipien t o f a secre t me ssage tha t he should be certain
t hat h is are t he only eye s t o s e e t hi s me ssage When a
.

person has t o employ any means o f secre t co m m unica t ion ,

i t m u st neces sarily follow tha t so meone is anxious to

o b t ain p o sse ssi o n o f t he secre t informa t ion In ca s e o f
.

an ordinary cipher t he le t t er m a y be opened and photo

,
 TH E P L AY F A IR C IPHE R SYS T E M E T C ,
. 1 63

graphed and the cryptogra m solved wi t hou t the right ful

recipient being aware of t he fact and he fond l y i m agines ,

that he alone is t he cu st odian o f the secre t If a sui t able .

for m o f invi sible ink is used t he recipient has a t lea s t t he

,

sa t is faction o f being absolu t ely cer t ain tha t his are th e

only eyes t o read t h e concea l ed m es sage There are .

m any varie t ies of these s y m pathe t ic inks the m o st ,

widely known being milk oran g e or l e m on j uice dilu t e

, ,

sulphuric acid e t c which are all revealed by the app lica

, .
,

t ion of hea t A v e r v si m ple al t hough not very well

.
,

known for m of sy m pa t he t ic ink is to m oi sten a clean pen

,

with ei t her saliva or wa t er and w r i t e t he m essage either

upon an envelope b e t ween t he line s o f t he a ddres s or ,

between t he lines o f a le tt er or inside t he wrapper of a

newspaper as m a y be arranged Th e recipien t t h en
, .

pou r s a li t t le ink on t he arrange d sec t ion and p r o m p t ly

rub s i t o ff wi t h water Th e scra t ching of t he pen wi t h
.

m oi sture has removed t he gla z e o n t he paper in such a

way t ha t it is invi sible even wi t h a powe r ful magnifying
gla ss ; bu t when ink is depo si t ed on t he surface i t a t t ack s
t ho s e por t ion s where t he gla z e h a s been re m oved t hereby ,

m aking t he word s wri t t en st and ou t qui t e di st inc t ly ,

while t he surrounding gla z ed s urface is m erely sligh t ly

s oile d by t he application of t he ink .

There are cer t ain ink s which can b e m ade to appear

and di sappear at will A solution of chloride o f copper
.

and wa t er m a y be used a s ordinary ink and when t he ,

wa t er evapora t e s t he wri t ing will disappear and can be

revealed by t he applica t ion of hea t A solut ion o f nitric .

aci d m a y al so be u sed and t his can only b e revealed by

,

we t t ing t he p aper Af t er i t drie s however i t again

.
, ,

beco m e s invi sible so t ha t t he above m en t ioned obj ec t ion

,
-

renders i t un sui t able A 2 per c e n t solu t ion o f acid o f

. .
1 64 CRYP T OGR A PH Y
lead when used as an ink is qui t e invi sible and c a n only ,

b e made readable by i m mer sion in hydrogen sulphide

g as. This would appear t o be a comparatively s afe ink
t o u se bu t in the co ur se o f so m e experiment s I made in
,

N ew York a t t he L edoux L abora t ory M r Alber t M , . .

S m oo t t heir t echnical d i r ec t or made t he di s covery t ha t

, ,

af t er t he writing had been ma de v i sible by mean s of

exposur e t o hydrogen sulphide g a s it could b e made t o
,

disappear again by sl ightly moi st ening i t wi t h peroxide

o f hydrogen . Wri t ing done wi t h a solution o f po t assiu m
ferrocyanide c a n only be m ade vi sible by t he application
o f so m e ferric s alt Probably the safest for m o f secre t
.

ink is a fairly strong solu t ion o f po t a ssiu m nitra t e or

co m m on ni t re Writing done wi t h t he re sultan t ink is
.

a b solu t e l y inv i sible and c an only b e revealed by t he

,

application o f a a m e which will run along the c h aracters

t raced o n t he paper M any readers will doubtles s have
.

seen thi s for m of sy m pa t hetic ink in Chris t m as crackers .

When m aking u se o f this for m o f secret ink t he w ri t ing ,

sho u ld begin a t the extreme end o f the paper a t a pre

a r ranged S pot I woul d reco m m end t ha t anyone who
.

is de sirous o f u sing t his for m of secret ink S hould rst

m a ke so m e experi m ents to se e t ha t they get t he exact
s t rength o f solution requir ed and t he righ t quali t y o f
paper There is a coun t erpart t o sympa t hetic ink s in
.

t he for m o f disappearing inks which however are o f very

, ,

litt l e practical value The be st known o f these is a

.

solution o f starch with a few d r Op s o f t incture o f iodine .

Th e resul t ant ink is blue and to the unini t iated appears

like ordinary ink Within a short ti m e however t he
.
, ,

iodine evapora t es and t he s t arch becomes qui t e dry so

,

t hat i t l eaves the paper without any t race o f writing

-

wh a t ever .
 T HE P L AYFA IR C IPHE R SYS T EM E T C 1 6 5 , .

M La n g ie s t ates tha t t he cipher invented by Francis

.

B acon is extre m ely ea sy t o break but I am of t he Opinion

,

that thi s syste m use d wi t h cer t ain varia t ion s could be

m ade extre m e l y di f cul t A wel l known B aconian e n
.
-

t h u sia st Co l onel Fabyan of Chicago believes t hat B acon

, ,

interpola t ed a grea t dea l of secret infor m ation i nto th e

m anu s cripts o f his various work s by means of his cipher .

The m e t h o d supposed t o be employed is t he u se of dif

f e r e n t kind s o f type but al t hough a t re m endous a m ount
,

o f research wo r k h a s been done by Colonel Fabyan and his

as si st ants I have been unable t o ob t ain any concret e

evidence which would prove t ha t B acon did e m ploy his
cipher in t his m anner and t he various clai m s that have
,

been made up t o the presen t appear t o m e t o b e based

m erely upon conj ec t ure .

S t uden t s o f cryptog r aphy should m ake t he m selves

conversan t wi t h the M orse Co de or Alphab et Th e .

following t able is used by all countries of t he worl d except

America where a slightly di f feren t for m is employed f o r
,

inland t elegraphy In practice a dash is equal in length

.

to t hree do t s a n d a S pace be t ween two ele m ents o r

,

signa l s in a l e t t er is equal in leng t h t o one dot Th e .

S pace b e t ween le t t er s in a wor d is equal in leng t h t o t hree

do t s while t he S pace be t ween word s in a sentence is
,

equal in leng t h to ve dots .

I t will be seen t ha t there is a liabili t y t o error in tran s

m i ssion o f mes sage s if t he foregoing rule s are no t s t ric t ly
adhered t o Ba d S pacing will conve r t A in t o E T or N
.

into T E and a sligh t exa m ina t ion o f t he following t able

,

will S how many o t her telegraphic id e n t ica ls whi ch all ,

have t o be bo r ne in mind when endeavouring t o decipher

a cryp t ogram which h a s been t elegraphed .
1 66 CRYP T O GRAPHY
I N TE R N A TI O N A L M O R S E C O D E S I GN A L S .

L e tter s . F ig u re s .

> 1
w o 2
O w 9
0

U o 4

m
w 5
m 0
e 7
d 8
H < 9
m g 0
m x
r a
g N
M . has o m itt ed t o give a n y reference t o
L a n g ie
P l ayfai r cipher which has been extens i ve l y u se d f or
,

m ilit ary purposes This cip h er is o n e Of the substit ution

.

variety and m a y be Operat ed with one or more key wor ds

,
-
,

which m a y b e l ocated in the cip h er square by pre arran g e -

m ent This s q uare is divided into twenty v e separat e

.
-

co m part m ents and the l etter J is al ways represented by I

, .

S uppose the key word to b e B ANKRUP T CY

-
to
b e di stribute d between the rst and fourt h lines o f t he
s quare Fig 1 will S how their posi t ion :
. .

b a n k

FI G 1
. .
 TH E P L AY F AIR C IPHER SYS T E M E T C , . 1 67

The other letters Of t he alphabet which are n o t includ e d

in the above ten letters of the key w ord are then added -

in alphabetical order beginning at t he rst vacant square

, ,

as S hown in Fig 2 : .

a n k r
e f g
l m o
p t c
v
w x 2

FI G 2. .

The rul es for enciphering by the P l ayfair m et hod are

as fol l ows :
1 Divi de the plain t ext of t he message t o be sent int o
.

groups o f two l etters Wh en there is an Od d nu m b er

.

o f letters say 21 co m p l ete t he l a st O dd l etter by the

, ,

a d dition of X or Z .

2 In the case o f repeat ed lett ers such as E E or

.
,

LL divide the s e by in serting X or Z

, .

3 Each pair of letters in the square when lled in b y

.
,

agree m ent m us t be either in t he sa m e vertical line t he

, ,

sa m e hori z ontal line or at the dia g onally Oppo si t e corners

,

o f a rectangle for m ed by t he s m aller s quares wit hin t h e

who l e s quare .

4 Wh en the pair of letter s t o b e encip h ered occurs in

.

a ver t ical colu m n s ub stitut e lett ers immedia t ely below

,

the letter of the plain t ex t When t his le t t er is at the.

foot o f a column s ubsti t ut e for it the letter at t he t op

,

of any colu m nc g t o encipher U S which occ urs in

, ,
 1 68 CRY PT O GRAPH Y

t he r st v ert i ca l column of Fig . 2, the sub st i tut i on wo ul d

be SB .

5 When
. pair Of l e t t ers t o b e enci phered occurs in
t he
the sa m e hori z on t al column substitu t e the le t t er at ,

the right of t he plain text let t er When this lett er is at .

the end of a column substitute the lett er at the extreme,

lef t o f that colu m n t o encipher T Y which are in ,

the four t h hori z ontal colu m n o f Fig 2 the subs t ituted .

,

lett ers would b e C U .

6 Wh en the let t ers to b e enciphered are at Opposit e

.

corners Of a rectangle substitute each l ett er of the pair ,

by the l et t er in the other corner o f the rectangl e o n t he

same hori z ontal line wit h it on Fig 2 A C woul d .
,

b e encip he r ed K P D 0 would b e represent ed by G I

, ,

and R L by A Q .

7 Th e enciphered m essage m a y b e written in groups

.

o f three ve o r eight lett ers and the l ett er a g reed upon

, , ,

for the purpose o f divi ding rep eated letters m ay be use d

to ll up a group S hould m ore t han o n e l etter be r e
.

quired t o complete a group as m any l etters as are required ,

m a y b e taken f ro m a prearranged word suc h as S T OP , ,

F I NIS H e t c ,
.

To decip h er a m essage s ent in t his co de yo u si m ply ,

divide the letters into pairs and reverse the wri t in g

according to the prece d ing rules The decipherer .

sho uld never ne g lect t o write down the X or Z a s t he ,

case may be when used a s a divi sory l e t ter I b is simple

,
.
r

precaution will often save a lot o f ti m e in decoding a

len g th y m essage .

Th e following example will S h ow the m et h od of e n

cipheri n g in accordance with t he foregoing ru l es with ,

bankrup t cy as the key word distributed in t he rst -

,

and four th c o lu m n s o f t he squar e .

 TH E P L A YFAIR C IPHER S YS T E M E T C ,
. 1 69

S uppo sethe me ssage required to b e enciphered to be :

Y o u m a y expect relief in three days and that X ,

is to be used t o divide dup l icat ed letters Divide the .

plain text into groups O f two l e t ters each a s fo l lo w s : ,

YO UM AY E X PE C T RE L I E F I N TH
CQ TI RP GV VL Y C AH M L FG MB Y F
RE X E DA Y S
AH VG E B UZ
and then underneath each group o f sub stit ut ed l e t t ers ,

as shown above This being done the m essage sh o ul d

.
,

b e divi ded into groups o f ve and S ent a s follows :

,

CQTI R PGVVL Y CA H M LF GMB YFA H V GE B UZ

In the same m anner t he m essage S ell al l you have
,

i m m ediately m a y b e sent on the understanding t hat
,

t h e cipher is to be divide d into groups Of eight l ett ers ,

f or whic h Z is t o be u s ed t o divi de repeated l ett ers and ,

S T OP t o complet e an unni shed group Th e resulting .

cipher wil l be a s follows :

VDQVPE QV QPI CE R A L L OWQFE LB PF QPWUL C

Th e P l ayfair syste m is on e o f the b est forms of cipher

ing for severa l rea sons I t is very si m p l e to co m mit to
, .

m e m ory af t er whi ch al l that i s ne cessary for the sender

,

a n d receiver to b ear in m ind are t he key words or s equence

-

of ke y words and t he position they are to occup y in

-
,

t he square The key m a v con sist o f o n e o r m ore word s

.
,

provi ded they con t ain di f ferent letterscg F AI R ,

C US T OM or A JURY O F ME N The key w or d m a y b e

.
-

changed in alternat e word s or a t cert a in in t erval s Fo r .

in st a nce a m e ssage m ight be s en t using a s key word s

,
-

B A N KRUP T CY in t he r st and f t h column s O f t he

1 70 CR Y PTOGR APH Y

s q u a re , CU M B E R L A N D
in the second and four t h and ,

TI CH B OUR NE in t he rs t and third and many o t her ,

varia t ions will readily sugge st the m selves to the st udent .

Th e m essage m a y al so be sent in groups of three four , ,

ve o r eigh t l ett ers so t h ere are abundant Oppor t unities

, ,

for t hrowing O bstacles in the way o f a decipherer who is

not in po sses sion o f the keys .

An indication of the d i c ult ie s to b e overco m e b y the

decipherer wi ll be seen in t he rst exa m ple wh ere the ,

six E s in the p l ain t ext are represent ed in th e cipher by

G V H F H and G and in the second examp l e the fo ur

,

E s are transcrib ed D L F and F

.

That t h e s e di f culties can b e overco m e is proved b y

the fact that I sent a m essage ciphered by the Playfair
m etho d to m y friend L ieu t Com m ander W W S m ith .
-
. .
,

one o f the m ost skilful cryptographers in the U S N avy . .

,

who ha s kindly g iven m e the f ollOW in g account o f t he

s t ep s he too k to solve t he cipher which wil l b e o f great ,

a ssi stance to t he st udent We are bo t h o f t he Opinion

.

that wh en i m portant m essages have to be sent t h ey S hou l d

b e enciphered wi t h more t han one ke y word as b y this -
,

m et ho d less t i m e is required to cipher t he m essage than

woul d b e necessary if you endeavour t o avoi d the use of
the commone st digraphs or to S pli t them by m eans O f
,
'

divisory l ett ers .

S O L UTI O N OF TH E P L A Y F A I R C I PH E R .

By L ie ut .
-
Co mma n d er W W
. . S mith , U S Na vy
. . .

P l ayfair cipher m a y be recognised b y the following

Th e
charact eris t ics :
( a ) I t is a S ubs t i t u t ion cipher .

( b ) It always contains an even nu m ber o f lett ers .

 TH E P L AY F AIR C IPHE R SYS T EM E T C ,
. 171

( )
0 W hen divi ded in t o groups o f t wo letters each no ,

gro u p contains a re p eti t ion o f the sa e l et t er as

m N N , ,

or EE .

d
( ) Unless t he message i s ver y short t here wi ll b e

recurrence o f groups and t h is recurrence will in general ,

, ,

follow t he order o f nor m al frequenc y o f digraphs .

e m es ages f l ength u nless encipher m en t h as

( ) I n s o ,

been m ade fro m severa l S quares of di f ferent keys who l e ,

w or ds are like l y to recur in t h e for m of repea t ed

g roups .

In t he solut ion o f the P l a yfair we need not consi der ,

the nor m al fre q u ency o individua l f En g li sh le t t ers ,

E T O A N et c We are however v ery m u ch con

, , , , ,
. , ,

cerned wi t h t he nor m a l frequenc y of pairs o r digraphs :

t h er on a n re e t c as will b e sho w n la t er
, , , , ,
.
,
.

B efore t aking up the actual solu t ion of a t est m essage ,

l et u s exa m ine the sy ste m f o r it s inheren t weaknesse s : Fro m

shown o n
t he square of t he ke y wor d B AN KRUP T CY
page 1 67 it is seen t ha t the ciph er l e t t ers Y F represent t h o f
,

p l ain t ext and so long as t his sa m e key is in use t h plain

,
,

can only be represent ed b y Y F in cipher L ikewise o n

is . ,

always MK and a n NK ( N O T E : Thro u ghout t his dis

,
.

cussi e n we will represen t cipher le t ters b y capitals and

plain text by s m all le t ters Also in referring t o equa t ions .
,

a s above we may de
,
s igna t e the let t ers o f the equa t ion
2
as 1 , 2 3 and 4 ,
Thu s 1,
4 where and are
.
1 , ,

le t ters o f t he cipher g roup and 3 4 are p l ain t ext , ,

let t ers ) .

C ase 1 L et t er s at
.
O p p o s it e corners o f a rectangle :

If Y F = t h
t hen FY = h t
TH = y f
HT fy z
 172 CRYP T O GRAPHY
Case 2 Tw o . le t ters in the sa m e line or colu m n :
In line 1 of t h e s quare ,

NK = a n
and K N= n a

B ut AN not equa l to n k and NA is not equal to kn

is , ,

and reciprocit y is o nl y partial .

We m ay therefore note R ule 1 as follows : .

Rule I Re g ardless o f the po si t ion o f t he l etters in the

.

s quare if the a ssump t ion is made that 1

, 4 , ,

t he following equation will also hold : 2 3 ; whi l e ,

if t he l ett ers 1 and 2 for m Oppo sit e corners o f a re ctan g le ,

t he addition a l equation s m a y be assu m ed :

3, 4 2 ( plain ) ,

and 4, 3 1 ( plain ) .

No w ,as each let t er of a l ine o r colu m n can be co m

b in e d wi t h but four o t her le t ters of it s own l ine and wit h ,

four le t t ers o f i t s o wn colu m n and as each let t er wh en

,

e m p l oyed a t t he corner of a rec t angl e can b e combined

wi t h each Of 1 6 l ett ers t o for m a g roup it would appea r ,

that Cas e 1 is t wice as probable as Case 2 .

No w in the s quare note tha t :

, ,

NK = a n FA = e n
FK = g n FL = e m
M K = On al so FP= e t
TK = cn
Ws n F G= e f

Fro m t hi s i t is seen t ha t o f the t wen t y four equation s -

that can be formed when each le t t e r of the s quare is

empl o yed ei t her a s t he ini t ial o r nal l e t ter of t he gr o up ,
 TH E P L AYFAIR C IPHE R S Y S TE M E T C , . 173

ve wil l indica t e a re p e t ition o f a corresponding l e tt er Of

p l ain t ext
Hence Rul e 1 1 Af t er i t has b een det er m ined in t h e
.

, .
,

equation 1 4 t ha t say FA = e n t here is a proba

, , , , ,

b ilit y of one in ve that any o t her group beginning wi t h

F indicates e and t ha t any group ending in A indi
cate s n .

Af t er s u ch combination s a s er e r and e n have b een , ,

a s sumed or deter m ined the above rul e m a y b e of ,

use in discovering a dditiona l digraphs and partia l

w o rd s
.

Rule III I n t h e e q uation 1

. 4 1 can never , ,

equal 3 and 2 can never e q u al 4 Thus KR coul d n o t

, .
,

possibly indicat e er or A Y = a n This rule is Of use in

,
.

eli minating possib l e equations when the cipher is under

inves t igation .

R ul e I V I n t he equation 1
. 4 if 1 and 4 are , ,

i den t ical the lett ers are al l in t h e sa m e line or column

,

and in t he relati v e order 3 4 2 In t he squ a re , , ,

S hown NK = a n and t he order is A NK

, , which is
equi v alen t t o A N K or ANK This is a very u seful .

rule.

Rule V I f . t he lett ers of t he equa t ion are in t he

same line or co l u m n and in the re l ative order 2 1 , 4 , , ,

which is equivalent to 4 2 1 or 4 2 1 Thus i t is

, , , , , ,

seen t hat in the square B R = r k and the order is R B K , ,

-

w hich is t he s a m e a s K R B or B K R .

S ome cryptographers clai m that fro m an analy sis of

t he cipher m e ssage t he lett ers which are found to c o m
,

bine in groups wi t h t he grea t es t v arie ty o f o t her letters

will very likely be the le t t ers of t he key word This -
.

m a y be O f some value provi ded the key were con t ained

i n t he r st t wo line s of t h e square an d if t he key le tt er s ,
-
1 74 CRYP T O GRAPHY
coul d po si t ively be eli mina t ed it woul d b e pos sib l e t o
solve the me ssage and recon struct the s quare Un f o r .

t u n a t e ly t hese let t ers cannot b e po si t ively eliminated

, ,

and t he square is not always con structed in a regular

manner Th e di sadvantage o f t his sys t e m is tha t it
.

t emp t s t he s t uden t t oward gue ssing t he key word A -

.

false and u sually unsuccessful m e t hod of at t ack.

Rule VI Ana l ys e the m essage for group recurrences
.
-
,

S elec t the groups o f grea t es t rec ur rence and as su m e t he m

t o b e high frequency digraph s S ub stitute t he a ssu m ed
-
.

digraphs t h r oughou t t h e m es sage t e sting t he a ssu m ptions

,

in t heir relation to other groups of t he cipher .

Th e recon st ruction of the s quare proceed s sim ult a

n e o u sl
y with the solu t ion of t he me s sa g e and aid s in

ha stening t he t r a n sfa t ion o f t he cipher L e t u s n o w

.

t ake up the solution of t he ac t ua l t es t m essage given

below :

A PB NOH R NA OR A GI OR E B WQGR UD
A NNSX R OUUA DT B NOA R P NI Y E R B
KBS N HL DY PY H S NY SI QC WR CSF Q
E NPF VB NVOB NX GNX R OU OA FL I G
OA E Y S C S OK TDN K NX DTF OI R NOM
FR TA CS HG QR OA B H NS R S E COR OT
VSB NOH R NR AR B I NTH X U QNFLR N
R UX UUO QE NSX U GR GR TR ONOR L O
VNNS GR A R GB I z R AR E H N
R AR GCI Y CNI VK DA DY PY R X X UUY

In working wi t h the cipher di sregard t he above gro u p

,

in g and rearrange t he m e ssage in pair s o f le t ter s .

We will r s t analy se the above me ssage by d r awing

a ch a r t o f gr o up recurrence s ( Fig .
 TH E P L AY F A IR C IPHE R SYS T E M E T C , . 175

F I R S T L E TTE R S OF PA I R S .

d
g U VW
l

h
l
e H
l
l

e
e w
l l

o
d

v
-
l
l

u
l

w
l

s
-
x

S
R
E
T
T
E

'
o n s T U V \v x r l z
176 CRYP T O GRAPHY
This c hart shows t hat the fo l lowing group s occur in t h e
cip h er four ti m es each :
DA RN GR
RA NS XU
NO group occurs mo r e t han four t i m es This is u n .

u sual Th e g r oups B N CI and OR occur t hree t imes

.
, ,

each All of t he above groups must represen t com m on

.

pairs of let t ers in Engli sh t ext I t is well known t ha t .

t he order o f frequency o f common pairs o f le tt ers is as

follows ( fro m a count of s emi military letters ) : -

th 50 at 25 s t 20
er 40 en 25 io 18
on 39 es 25 1e 18
an 3 8 Of 25 is 17 .

re 36 or 25 on 17
he 3 3 nt 24 ar 1 6
in 3 1 ea 22 as 1 6
ed 30 ti 22 de 1 6
nd 30 t o 22 rt 1 6
ha 26 i t 20 ve 16
The above t able and the frequency chart of Fig 1 .

m u st be kept constantly available throughout the at t ack

o n t h e ciphered m essage
'

O f the m ost co m m dnly occurring groups of the cipher ,

OA RA R N NS GR and X U we no t e fro m Fig 1

, , , , , , .

t hat the reciprocals AO AR S N R G o ccur only once, , ,

each while N R and UX do no t appear in the m essage

, .

Thi s is unfortuna t e for had o n e o f these reciprocals

,

occur r ed say three times we migh t have begun b y

, , ,

as su m ing the groups t o be er and re (se e above t able ) .

No w as h a s been shown t he group GR cannot m ean

, ,

er o r or for t he second letter o f an equa t ion cannot equal

,

t he fourth N or can RA o r R N symboli se re or r t ( Rule

.

Thus we can eli m inate a few o f t he po ssible

 TH E P L AYFAIR C IPHE R S Y S TE M , E TC . 1 77

m eanings the g roups B ut any o n e of the six g rou p s

of .

m a y represent th Th e m ost co m mon fo u r le tter group in

.
-

Engli sh is known t o be T HER while such groups as ,

I NTH E NE D T I O N e t c are very Of t en encountered

, , , . . .

Hereaf t er in referring to t he groups of the cipher

, ,

l et us indica t e b y a s m all gure the nu m ber o f ti m es that

t he g roup occ urs thus X U , , .

N ote that in l ines 1 and 7 the fol l owin g co m bination ,

recur s : B N O H R N and t ha t in l ines 2 and 4 we hav e

3 2 4 ,

X R 0 U and in line s 3 and 1 0 we have DY PY

2 , , But Z 2
.

i t will b e u sele ss t o atte m pt t o guess t he m eaning o f the

t w o la st m entioned group s a s the individual grou p s are ,

not frequentl y used in the cipher and occur only wi t h ,

each other Thu s K ROU and DY PY m a y indicat e

.

four u nu sua l le t t er s t hat recur in t he cipher or they m a y ,

be caused by t he in se r tion of nulls b e t ween repeat ed

letters T o gue ss t heir m eaning woul d n ot grea t ly assist
.

i n ext ending o ur inves t i g ation L ikewise it is best n ot .

,

t o begin o u r a ss ump t ion at the beginn ing o r end Of t he

cipher as the sender of the messa g e O ften purpo se l y
,

be g ins and ends wi t h unusual words The repeate d .

g roups B N O H R
2
N 4 howe v
2
er present, O p portunities ,
.

Al so not e t he co m bination s in t he cipher of our m os t

,

co m m on groups :
R MR L
GR OA , ,

NS, GR ,
NS, X U,

We must r st a ssu m e each t he se group s in t urn t o of

be ther which is t h e m ost common four le t t er combina

,
-

t i o n in Engli sh t ex t Failing t o e st abli sh thi s rela t ion

.
,

o t her c o m bina t ion s of com m on digraph s will be a ssu m ed .

NS, may be th b ut K U, is probabl y not er a s i t occur s

, , ,

12
178 CRYP TO GRAPHY

at t he end o f the cipher in X UUY However it m u st , .

,

be con sidered as a pos sibili t y N S GR cannot b e ther .

, , ,

as GR cann ot b e er ( R ul e
S uppose GR, OA t o be ther This is an excellent , .

ass um ption as reciprocal s of bot h groups occur in t he

,

m essage and i f GR = th and C A = er R G= ht an d

, ,

A O= re .

No w ht is an unco m mon di g raph and can occur on l y ,

i n withthe or in a co m bination of ght as i n eight or ,

t hou g ht P urs uing this a ss um ption we a ssu m e in
.
,

l ine 1 0 for the co m bination H NR A R G

, w itht ,
.

Then R A = it and A R = t i S ubstitute these values

, .

t hroughout the me ssage and we get for AO R A in line 1 ,

re it and for GR AR in l ine 9 thti These do not ap p ear

, , .

p ro m ising and after carry in g the inve sti g ation farther

,

i t was decided t o abandon the origina l ass um ption that

GR , OA, = ther .

N O TE : In all work of this nat ur e false ass um p t ions

wil l be m ade but as the inv estigation p roceeds they wil l
,

eventually b e pro v ed f a l se In this ca se a great m any .

fa l se star t s were m ade due to un usual conditions and ,

t her was abandoned in favour o f s u ch combinations a s

t ion ere d e t c before t he inves t iga t ion resulted in success
, , .
,
.

For t he sake o f brevity these steps will be o m it t ed,

.

Assu m e R N, R A, t o be th er ( line
Then R N= t h
and R A = er
N R = ht
AR = re .

Unfor t unate l y we have n o N R in the ci pher and

, ,

bu t o n e AR M ake t hese sub st i t utions t hroughout

.
.

( Fig .
 T HE P L AYFAIR C IPHE R S Y S TE M E T C ,
. 17 9

AP BN O H R N AO RA GI O R E B WQ GR UD
th er he
A N NS XR OU UA DT B N OA RP NI YE R B

KB SN HS N Y SI QC WR CS
H L DY PY FQ

E N PF V B NV O B NX GN X R O U DA F L 1G
r h
OA EY SC SO K T DN KN X D TE CI RN O M
th

FR TA CS H Q GR OA BH NS R S E C O R O T
r he
VS BN O H R N RA RB 1N TH X U QN FL R N
th er e r th

RU XU UO QE NS XU GR G B T R CN OR RC
b e t

ZS SD VN NS GR AR G B IZ RA HN
he re er e
RA RG 01 YO NU VK DA DY PY RX XU UY
er eh
Fir st s t ep no t under sc o red S ub st i t u t ion s of 2n d .

and 3r d s t eps page s 1 80 and 1 8 1 a r e unde r s cored

, ,

( M essage divided in t o pairs ) .

FI G 2. .

There is al so a po ssibili t y ( Rule t ha t TH = rn and ,

R E = a r bu t t hese occur only once each and t he reci

, ,

r o c a l s E R and H T do no t occur a t all

p .

N ow if R A = e r we know fro m Rule 1 V t ha t t he

, , ,
.
,

t hree l e t t ers are in t he s ame line or column of t he s quare

and in t he o rder ERA
A s R N is a ssumed t o be t h t he par t i al s qua r e mu st be
, ,
1 80 CRYP TO GRAPHY

depending whe t her t hi s equation is fo r m ed from a rect

angle or a line :
(1) E R A T
H
or , ( )
2 T
E R A
H
N
In ei t her case we have e s t abli shed t he fact that H is
,

so m ewhere in t he S a m e colum n wi t h R regardless O f the ,

position o f T and N and we have f or certain :

,

( 3)
E R A

H
N ow note o t her grou p s containing R We know fro m .

R ule 11 that if R A = e r there is a chance o f one in ve

.
,

t hat R B = e and R E = e and GR e z .

N ow GR is u s ed fo ur t i m e s in the cipher and as t here ,

is a good chance t ha t it m a y be e let us assume it t o be

,

t he highe st digraph ending in e in the frequency lis t .

Thi s digraph is he .

Then GR = he
R G= e h

M ake t hese s ub st it u t ion s in t he ci pher ( Fig . at t he

s a m e t ime adding t o t h e square .

(4)
E R A

G H
Go ing ba c k t o ( 1 ) and if we combine ( 2) wi t h ( 4 )
we have :
 TH E P L AY F A IR C IPHER SYS T EM E T C , . 181

( 5)

1
E R A
G H

From t he abov we may ob t ain some par t ial equa t ions

e ,

such a s TH r TA = r A N r E N= r etc S ub
-
z
, , , .

s t it u t e t hese value s in Fig 2 . .

As we have as ye t n o sub st i t u t ions t ha t can be ex t ended ,

we m us t a t t empt t o nd c o m mon digraph s t o be s u b

stituted for more Of the com m on group s In l ine 9 we .

have the groups NS GR AR o r NS he re N S is .

used four t i m e s and m u st be a comm o n pair Turnin g

,
.

back t o t he l i st of normal frequency of digraph s we nd ,

t ha t on is t he group o f highest frequency nex t t o th

and er A ssu m e NS t o be on
. .

If t hi s a ssump t ion is correc t t hen by Ru l e IV since

, .
,

these t h r ee let t ers are in t he sa m e line and in t he ,

order ONS I t is eviden t f r o m our partial square

t hat O NS canno t form a co l umn We m a y therefore .

b uil d up t he square as follows :

( 6) T
E R A
G H
O N S
N O TE : In t he pa r t ially c o mple t ed quare t he h o r i s

z o n t a l lines are deni t ely xed a s S h o wn for R A = e r , ,

and NS = e n We al so know t ha t in t he column TR H N

.
,

R follows T and N follow s H for R N= th B u t we are no t

, .

cer t ain t hat R H = Tr a s there is a ft h l etter to be placed

,

in t he colu mn and i t ca n only co m e below R or below N

, .

N ow sub st i t u t e in Fig 3 on f o r NS a n d n o for S N

.
, ,

and al so t he new gr o up s t ha t we ge t from t he s qua r e

a bove namely :
,
1 82 CRYP T O GRAPHY
NG= o h SR I na SH = n
GN = h O OH = n g H S n
R S anz

H O gn GS O
A N= r S OA = se S G= O
NA = sr AO = es
E S = ao
AP BN O H R N A O RA GI O R E B WQ GR UD
ri n g th es er ne
t he

AN NS XR O U UA DT B N OA RP N1 YE R B
rs on sq su ri se 0 e
KB S N HL DY PY HS NY SI QC WR CS FQ
no n n rt
E N PF V B NV O B NX GN X R OU 0A FL 1G
ro ho se 0

0 A EY SC SO K T DN KN X D TF CI R N OM
Sc n th

FR TA cs H Q GR OA B H Ns R s E e OR OT
SO

1 r 0 11

VS BN OH R N RA RB IN TH X U QN FL R N
r1 th er e o n w th

RU XU UO QE NS XU GR G B ON OR RC
on he nt no

QN ZS SD VN NS GB IZ RA RE HN
on he re er e wh

RA CI YC NU VK DA DY PY RX X U UY
er eh
S tep on page 1 83 underlined
S tep on page 184 underlined twice
FIG 3
. .
 TH E P L AY F A IR CIPHE R SYS T E M E T C , . 1 83

In t he la st t wo lines o f Fig 3 we now have e rIe H N er e h

. .

H N cannot be th and if taken fro m square 6 i t wo ul d

,

b e rh This woul d S pell no t hing and as t he word where

.
,

suggests it self w e m a y as su m e H N= wh which woul d

, ,

g i ve us an addition t o t he square as fo ll ows :

(7) T
E R A
W
G H
O N S

S ubstitute TR = n t TH = n w and , , H N= wh in Fig . 3,

a l so WR = r t .

L ine 1 shows a rst word evidently endin g in

n ow

in g but it cannot be t h e word
, having as the s q uare
does not per m it ha t o be represente d by AP .

B N occurs three ti m es and m us t be a co m mon g r oup

, .

Ti was tried bu t was soon foun d n o t to be sa t i sfactory

, .

After a few similar supposi t ion s r i was decided u p on ,

and B N= ri sub st i t uted t hroughou t .

1 f B N = r i we se e from the square that i canno t follo w

,

GH in l ine 3 and tha t B and i m us t be in t h e sa m e

,

separat e column as be l o w
( )
8 T
E R A B
W
G H
O N S 1

It is evident now t hat line s 2 and 5 o f the square for m

t he key .

We are n o t able to determine whe t her t he column

B I is as shown or is adjacent t o t he column A S v

b u t will place it a s shown in ( 8 ) t o avoid confusion .

1 84 CRYP T O GRAPHY
S u bstitut e in Fig . the equations t aken fr o m
3 t he new
square : HB= r IG e 1 N= e ; GI = e ; NI = e
SI = n
N ote the r st l ine
word rev ealed is n ot these. The
as at rst supposed bu t is Th e se r o n Few lett ers
,

.

c a n ll the blank S pace and we deci de the word is ,

ser m on Thus GI = e m and I G= m e
. .

We have but on e o f our six co m monly used group s -

lef t undeciphered namely X U In line 7 we have ,

.
,

0 nw X U Returning to the partia l square X and Z

.
, ,

being unco m m on letters are probably not in the key ,

.

If no t in the key X probably follows W and if U likewise

, ,

follows T in the rst line X U= as a com m on digraph ,

, ,

and wX U w as .

Also a s R and S are a l ready in t h e key lines w e m ay

,
-
,

assu m e Q t o precede T in line 1 of t he square and as i ,

already appears GH in line 4 is probably followed by K

,
.

B uilding up the square as above we have : ,

( 9) Q T U
E R A B
W x
G H K M
O N S I

M any new groups resul t Fill in t hese su b st it u

ne w .

ti ons in Fig 4 and we se e that more new groups are

.

evident to co m plete the words S uch groups are under .

scored in Fig 4 . .

In line 8 CN is evident l y i0 and t his gives us the

, ,

l et t er lacking in line 5 o f the square 1 f CN= ie line 5 .

,

m u st read ONSI C and t he c ol u mii B M I must adj oin

,

UA X K S .
 TH E P L A YF A IR C IPHER SYS T E M , E TC . 1 85

A P R N OH R N A O R A GI OR E B WQ GR UD
du r i n g t h es er m o n e t he a
p
A N NS XR O U UA OA RP N1 YE
rs on wa sq su rp ri se dt 0 ea
1
KB SN HL DY PY NY S I QC CS
ma no n n

EN V B NV NX OU FL
ro S . w wa sq

OA E Y S C SD DN XD RN
se n th
FR TA CS HQ DA N S RS EC OR
ur in g t . se on . an ne

VS BN OH RN RB TH X U QN FL
ri ng th ea nw to
RU XU UO QE XU G B TR ON OR
at as
qs oq as me nt io ne

QN ZS S D VN NS GR GB IZ RA RE
to on he er e

R A R G CI YC NU VK DY PY RX XU
er e h
. st a . w as

FI G 4
. .

Thus building up the square from the pair s under

,

scored in Fig 4 we have :

.
,

P
E R A R D
W X
G H K M
O N S I O
I t is apparen t tha t column 5 o f t he square should be
t ranspo sed t o lef t o f colu m n 1 ( t hi s doe s no t a t all
a ff ec t the equation s Ob t ained ) and t he ft h and second
,

line s are seen to yi e l d t he key w ord con sid e r a b

-
.

1 86 CRYP TO GR A PHY

P Q T U
D R A B
W X
H K M
C N 8 1

The letter s n o w remain ing t o be placed are V

, F Z L
, , ,

and Y .

Carry ing this process farther we co m e , t o YE T cg , and

m a y safely ll in the s q u are :

P Q T U V
D E R A B
L Y W X Z
F G H K M
C O N S I

We now complet e t he soluti on ( Fig The key wor d-

is con siderably .

S o long as the relative order remains the same we m a y ,

tran spo se line 5 to t he t op of t he s quare wi t hou t a f fecting

the equa t ions obtained in enc i phering or decipheri n g .

This woul d give u s :

C O N S I F G H K M
P Q T U V C O N S I
D E R A B or P Q T U V
L Y W
X Z D E R A B
F G H K M L Y W X Z

All o f the above squares are equivalent and it i s ,

probable that the key w a s used in t he second and fourt h

l ine s a s in t he l a st square .

It is now interes t ing t o note ho w t he R u le s held true

in a mes sage not prepared by t he w riter All o f t he .

commo nly u sed groups o f t ho cipher are listed b e low w ith ,

 TH E P L AYFAIR CIPHE R S Y S TE M , E TC . 18 7

t heir e q uivalent di g raphs It is seen that the digraphs

.

follow nor m al frequency very closely and t hat in no ,

case d oes a repeat ed group indicate an uncomm on pair :

RN 4
= th B N3 = ri
RA ,
z er 0 1 2 = is
NS, = on OR 3 = n e
GR 4 = he
X U4 = 3 3

AP BN O H R N A O RA GI OR EB WQ GR UD
Du ri ng th es er mo *
ne
*
da yt *
he pa
AN NS XR O U UA DT B N OA RP N I YE R B
rs on wa sq su r
p ri se dt os eq ea
KB SN H L DY PY HS NY SI QC WR CS FQ
ma no fw e1 ql kn ow ns
p o r t in gp
E N PF V B NV OB NX GN X R O U OA F L IG
ro cl iv it ie sw ho w a sq se ld om
OA E Y S O SO K T DN KN X D TE CI RN OM
se qe mi nc hu rc hs la p h is th is

FR TA CS HQ GR OA B H N S R S E C O R OT
hd ur in gt he se r m o n an do ne n q
VS B N O H R N RA R B I N TH X U QN FL RN
ui ri n g t h er ea so n w as to 1d

RU X U UO QE NS X U GR GB TR ON OR RC
at as q s o q on a s He m e n t io ne dn

QN S D VN N S GR AR GB I Z RA RE HN
to xi ca ti on He re m e m b er ed wh

RA R G CI Y C N U VK DA DY PY R X XU UY
er eh is lo st u m b r e 1 q l aw as qx
E id e t ly a g r t m ea t f

p le f t

v n ou O
oud ,
n or ne ay .

Q w as used as a null .

FI G 5
. .
 1 88 CRYP TO GR A PHY

O ne clai m m ade
in favo ur o f t he Playfair is t ha t comm o n
p airs such , as ih e r e n et c will
, not be enciphered
, in , .
,

their nor m al frequency due to t heir chance o f being S p l i t

up when the message is divided into two
,

le t t er gro ups
prior t o enciphering This clai m is well based but when
.
,

ih is S pli t up i t will probably yield ano t her common

digraph he Fur thermore even t hough a large percen
, .
,

tage o f t hese digraphs is S plit t heir frequency in t he

cipher is still rela t ively great It is in t eres t ing t o examine .

the following t able prepared fro m the above problem :

Tim e Occ u rr in g Ti m e s R e p e e t ed Ti m e S p l
e e
s r
in C i p h e
s n
Dln h s it

w
in M
' .

s sa g . r .

ih D
C 4
er D
C 4
O
on O 4
he Q 4
w
w
as Q 4
m R-
i 2
re h-
I 1
is O
C 2
in
T 9
O 2 !

C O DE S
Cl ose ly
a ll ied t o cryptography is t he use o f codes In .

nava l m ilitary and dip l omatic circl es secrecy is t he

, , ,

princi p al obj ec t ive and t he ut m o st care is exercised to

,

secure the co de s fro m in s pec t ion by unau t hori sed persons .

In co m m ercial co des t he chief aim of t he co m piler is to

,

provide an economical m eans of intercommunicatio n

with o ver seas busines s houses It frequen t ly happens .
,

h owever that impor t ant rms have to send mess a g es

,

where s ecre c y is e ssen t ial .

O ne rough and r e ady me t ho d is to substitute for t he

- -

actual co de word O pposi t e the required p hra se anot her

 TH E P L A YFAIR CIPHE R S Y S TE M , E TC . 189

code word se m any forward or back as m ay be arranged .

Thi s sys t em however would presen t very little di fcul t y

, ,

t o anyone who wished t o break the m es sage and a m uch ,

safer m e t hod is to cipher t he nu m bers which appear

a g ain st the code words .

This m a y be done simply by means of a key word -

.

Fo r ins t ance if t he n um ber s o f t he co de word s yo u wi sh

,

t o cipher are :
228 50 4 986 1

and t he key word selec t ed is

-

B u y another
1 23 4 5 6 7 8 90

wi t h Z for repea t ed gures the messa g e wo ul d be ciphered :

,

UZY NR A E H OB
A m ore elaborat e sys t e m o f ciphering is t o have a
series o f t able s for t he conversion o f t he gures wi t h
l et t ers compiled a s follows :
,

OQ= A B
CI = A C
0 2= A D
0 3 = AE
and so on up t o 99
, .

I t is o bvious t ha t any pair o f let t ers in t he a l phabe t

m a y be u sed t o repre sen t any pair o f gures so t ha t t h e ,

varia t ions of t hi s for m o f ciphering run into milli o n s ,

even when in order t o comply wi t h the In t erna t ional

,

Telegrap h rules wi t h regard t o pronounceabili t y vowe l s ,

and con sonan t s are u sed al t e r na t ely Where economy .

in t ran smi ssi o n is no t an i m por t an t factor t he se variations,

can of cou r s e be increa sed t o an enormous ext en t and

, , , ,

wi t hou t a kn o wledge of t he code u sed a me ssage ciphered ,

on t hi s sy st e m is prac t ically unb r eakable .

 1 90 TE S T M E S S A GE IN CIPHE R
B N H G Y K Z J E L K O C W V D A R E G E

K L V E D E S T A B L N Y V S G V I W C O

D Z R K I C F Y T A B E C B Z B E W G

G I D W T C O W C W L A D E R Y Q G
Y V P J E G F A B L X U B Q C E Z L G A

H I C D R O Q U Z H V E F G D Q Y N Z

S B K E Q H J K 6 R L V D I C M G I W F i

E B I Z S O B Q s D A W R A L H V I S T
C A X S D P E D R S B I X F E G Y P T A

O P H Y H E J A O B M O F V R D I
S O B L J G E T F D R X L A V B I C S Z F

F E Z E L J U T K Y B S E N D N J O C

I
'
J E H S Q L O w V F R G U T R E H X Z

A B E D Z F Y T S J U J G A D V X F O B C

S J E T V T Y D VL H Y Z B U K B R A V
C R D Y F E Z F I O J T F O V S A T L E

s T Y Z C B E D L T E M R G K C S J

D R Z L s 1 X P E Q C F A G F J E F G

E M N Y C H C R I V T B I Z B C M E Q M
T E F T R Y D X P M A Q B M L 0 B P

R J P A R X E W D C Y V S O S B M L I V C

H L O C K L J E R T C L O C H Z A M K

Q U D C A K S C Y L A B R F O J D S E )

C U K J O K S L A S P B I Q Z E V L J l

W L F s o F R G I C L M D U G H S A K

T L X I N V H M E P Z L F U R S Q U C K I

U C N Z L Y D F A L K D E K I S O L U R

O T R I W V A V Y C A N T E D P X D U Z

R A B
'

M V U C L F Y R L G E X V R O F U (

V U K L X U D I F Q R B O C D F E C O I
 CRYP TO GRAPHY

T D R I Q U G H N A Z A J G B U P B R C
E ,
Z X F O K K W I T I B M D A S J Y Z

D W I M C G K O W T F X E Z Y H D R A

W O C M T U Z E C W T G O S J H P U D F

I M J D T O L B V C U S U D Q A W M W F
B L N E K U V J G S I T V A H B A R D T

W Q V A V L D U C D L O X D F B Y R G

E Z V C P A V F E B J O U F e X A r iv

R N Y F L Z E Q B U e s r J K s L V

F H G U V G R S E W L F A J A V J B O K

U L M X J O Z T C B A T R U B A C R T

F C G I F O Z C Z L E G L M Y Z F I G L

U D K V P S O J L C D E S F S W O T
C I B S G E C D L I W D X O T L D A

P F L I C H C L A T O D F R L J Y D

II X T A S W E L T Z U K B P F A R Z L J O

A R H I T V O S R C W I C H B Y R T E D O

A X G P B Y C T R E Z e V J A K J M B O
n D M B Y C X Z D A R V K I M C M E Z L T

U K R X J E P L U C K M R I G F E Z J F

i L A Z H Z Y G V I R V D U X C J F A N F E

t S H N Y S P Y N C H U V E Q R J T O F T S

Z B U T S U C R L J A F Y B

O N D E J S Q F I L M E R J

I T V H C Y Z N E F C T O G K B M U R T L
) A T G L S E T C L Y R o e L H D I V S A

I D E S M A C K V Y C F L N O L B U V L B lV

E D S Y F L O N L C X O D I G F H R O B E T
C E R H B Y B N H O X D L J U G H V D A N

V J A X V V
V Y
1 92 CRYP TO GRAPHY

CO N C L U S I O N

I should he si t ate t o sa y t ha t a cryp t ogra m can 1

inven t ed t ha t will defy solu t ion provi ded it is of reas e ,

able leng t h and is no t so involved and intricat e as

m ake i t s use inexpedient For practical pur poses .

cipher should be upon so m e sys t em which can easily 12

co m mitted t o m e m ory and i t shoul d no t invo l ve a

,

grea t expendi t ure of t i m e in co ding m essages/

crypto g ram on page 1 90 ha s b een ciphered in accord
wi t h t he s e rule s on wha t I believe t o b e a no v el princip l e
and will I ven t ure t o think require a great dea l o f pain
, ,

and pa t ience to solve In the event of failure to sol v

. .

t he cipher at a rea sonable ti m e af t er publication t h

,
u

m e t hod of ciphering and the solution may b e o b t a in e c

f r o m t he M arconi Interna t ional Code M arconi House
L ondon WC 2 or the M a r coni In t erna t ional Cod e
, . ,

Corpora t ion 2236 Park Row Buil d ing N ew York

, , , ,

receipt of a s ta m ped and addre ss ed envelope .

I ll l V I l l b IN G R I"A I B R I TA I N DY
' '
'

IJI LI I N A N D S U NS , L TD G UI L D FU I LD A N D ICS I I E R
 UNI VERS I TY OF C A LI FOR NI A LI BRA RY
Los A n g e le s
Th is b o o k is DUE o n t he las t d a t e s t a mp e d b e lo w .

1968
:3 IA

4 1 58 4
 0 0 339 8 0 38
I
L0

J L h
. u

UC SOUTHERNREGIONALLIBRARY FACILITY

AA 0 0 1 0 91 1 5 1 9