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@'pp roved for Release by NSA on 09-13-2013 pursuantto E .0. 1352a 
REF ID:A38531 

I am going to say a few words about Egyptian hieroglyphics for the 

reason that I think that that represents the next and a great landmark in 

the history of cryptography. About 1821 a Frenchman, Champolion, startled 

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the world by beginning to publish translations of Egyptian hieroglyphics. 

Here's a picture of the gentleman and here's a picture of the great Napoleonic - - .. . find that ma.de Champollion's solution possible--the Rosetta Stone. It is a 

tri-lingual inscription: Egyptian hieroglyphics, followed by Egyptian script 

called 11Demotic 11 , and then Greek All three texts were assumed to say the 

same thing, of course. It was by means ot this tri-lingual inscription that 

the Egyptian hieroglyphic writing was finally solved, a teat which represented 

the successf'ul solution to a problem the maJor part of which was linguistic 

in character, for the cryptanalytic pa.rt was relatively simple In the 

hieroglyphics there are things that we call aartouches, that is, characters 

enclosed in a rectangle marked by a graven line. Here are some examples. This 

one was on an obelisk, and was suspected of representing the name Cleopatra. 

I suppose the reason for that assumption was the repetition here ot two 

characters at a proper distance to represent the two A's of CleoP!tr!:_. By 

taking the various cartouches, writing them out carefully, studying them on the 

basis that this cartouche was Cleopatr~, it turns out that by taking the 

characters in the cartouches, substituting their equivalent Roman letters and 

putting them in the pl"Oper places in other cartouches, bit by bit Champolion was 

able to establish names otl!er than Cleopatra, such as ptolemy, Alexander, and 

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10 on. That,,. the we.y in which a start ar initial. break was :made with respect 

to the Rosetta stone 1 and Egyptian hieroglyphics were finally read. It was ver1 

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fortunate that the early a~udents or·E81Ptology- didn't know tbe.t the Egyptians 

alao used cryptography' Some o~ their vr1tings are not only "plain-text 

hieroglyph:fcs," but they aluo had "cryptographic hiergly,phics" J :Here,, for 

1nstan.ce, 1a an example of aubstit.utio~ Tho.t chs.ra.c.ter ill place of thia one 

means "to speak" You aee the f'inger pointing to the mouth, and 110 on. 

~ere is one peraon I •hould mention before coming to the Civil War 

pel"iod. F.dgar Allan Poe, in 1842 or thereabouts, kindled an interest in_ 

ci'yptograpey by his famous •tory at "The Gold :Bug"-, 8.Ild. by some articles on 

cryptography in newspapers and Journals of the period. 'Hor hie day he was the 

best in:f'ormed. person in the U.S. on cryptologic matters. 

'?he period or the Civil War or the ''War :Between the States'' 1 in U .S 

hiatory ae.w the uae at cryptology in a lat"ge vay. Here ia a picture t:Jt a 

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cipher device uaed by the Confederate Arw, captured at Vicksburg, one ot our 

Mwse\\11l tr~ures The device 1• a cylinder covered "U"1th a sheet or pa.per bef\?°ing 

alphabets, the al.phabete or the Vigenere table, 1n other words, a pointer that 

you could slide 1 and a thumb knob with which you could turn the cylinder 

accorc!ing to the key letters You might like to know two of the keys they 

used vitb. this system and device1 COMPLm1E VICTORY ,,... the f'iret; and COME 

lm.t'RIBUTION the aecOlld. - -

liere 1a a :picture of a :message, &utheat.ie without question, which was aent 

by Pre•14ent Lincoln to Cleneral :Burmside. It'• very aimple. It reads this 

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idea being to cause withdrawal. of British troops from the Western Front. One 

- such case wound up in dramatic fashion. r - .. I~.. 1 !a 

Now I am c0D1J.ng to a very interesting example of the use of ciphers by 

.. German agents in the World War I periOd. Here is a cipher message which was 

found on a German spy in the United States soon after he crossed the Mexican 

border into Texas. After some weeks it was deciphered by G-2's code-solving 

organization in Washington, MI-8, as it was called. Here is the deciphered 

German text, and this is what it said: "To the Imperial Consular officials 

of the Republic of Mexico. Strictly Secret! The bearer of this is a subJect 

of the Empire who travels as a Russian under the name of PabJ.o Waberski. Be 

is a German agent " And so forth. The Court sentenced him to be shot, President 

Wilson commuted it to life imprisonment., and he was out of the pokey after only 

one year! We •re a bit more severe these days. 

Now I come to a rather interesting case in which I happened to play a 

minor role. In 1916-17 the Germans :financed a large number of Hindus in their 

attempts to stir up a rebellion in India, the idea. being to cause so much 

trouble in India that the British would be forced to withdraw troops from the 

Western Front to quell disturbances in India. These Hindus were negotiating 

for the purchase of arms and ammunition in the United States and sending them 

over to India Since the U.S. was neutral, it was against our own laws to 

permit such undertakings against a friendly nation. So the business had to be 

conducted secretl.y and that is how cryptograms entered ... into the picture. Here 
REF ID:A38531 

"the Zimmermann Telegram", which was the straw that broke the camel's back 

and brought the United States into World War I, on the side of the Allies. 

From the beginning of that war until the end of 1916 it was questionable as to 

which side the Americans were going to join. Our British friends, later our 

allies, did certain things that we didn't like, and there was a good deal of 

talk about their nefarious behavior with our mail and our merchant ships But 

this message, solved by the British, brought us in on their side. It was the 

straw that broke the camel's back. It is known as "the ZJ.Inmerma.nn Telegram". 

It went to the German legation in Mexico City from Count Von Bernstorff, the 

German Ambassador in Washington. The method of solution I won•t go into.