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SCAMP 1958 

LECTURE II 25 June 1958 

S~TICN 1 - 1415 - 1510 

pproved for Release by NSA on 09-19-2013 

ursuant to E.O. 13526 
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REF ID: A-3-8-5-02 

Next great landmark in (cryptanalytic) history of 

decipherment is the solution of Egyptian Hieroglyphs • 

Norbert Wiener's characterization (in Cybernetics, 

I believe) 

Atbana.sius Kircher delays solution for decades. 

Problem not crypt primarily one of linguistics, 

grammar and recovery of dead J.anguage. 

4 1 

The Rosetta Stone ._. 

Found in 1799 at Rashid or, as the Europeans call it, 

Rosetta, city N Egypt on the west barut of Rosetta 

-.a.: 
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branch at the Bile. 

Napoleon's Ar'llfY - Colonel Boussard (or Boucl:lard) 

(1769-1821) Became General aDd was alive in 

1814. 

British operations in Egypt - Sir Ralph Abercomby, 

Spring l8Sl Important antiquities to be despatched 

to Britain - .Art XVI called tor Rosetta Stone aDd 

several other large items. 

Rosetta Stone did~'t leave Egypt until 18Sl. 

Inscription in two languages: 

!-Egyptian aDd 2-Greek 

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Egyptian portion in two parts. 

1 Hieroglyphic characters-old picture writing 

used from earliest dynasties in making copies ot the 

Book of the Dead and nearly all state and ceremonial 

documents intended for public display. 

2. Demotic characters - the conventional abbreviated 

and modified form of the Hieratic character or curs:!.ve 

form of hieroglyphic writing which was in use in the 

Ftol.emaic ?eriod. 

The Rosetta Stone (and the Obelisk from Philae) 

as CRIBS! 

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First translation or Greek text by Rev. Stephen 

Weston and read by him before Society of Antiquaries 

in London in April 189J2 

First studies of the Demotic text by deSacy and 

Akerblad in 189J2. Latter succeeded in making out the 

general meaning of portions of the opening lines and in 

identifying the equivalents of the names Alexander, 

Alexandria,, Ptolem;r, Isis, etc Both deSacy and 

Akerblad began by attacking the Demotic equivalents of 

the cartouches, i e., the ovals containini royal names 

in the hieroglyphic text. 

In 1818 Dr. Thomas Youn& compiled for the 4th 

volume ot Ency-cl. Brit. (pub in 1819) results of his 

studies and among themwas_q:_list of several 
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alpha.betic Egyptian characters to which, in most cases, 

he had assigned correct values. He was the first to 

jEasp the idea of a phonetic ;principle in the Egyptian 

bierogly;phs and be was the first to ap;ply it to their 

dee ipherment 

But Young's name not associated in public ::nind with 

decipherment--that of Cham;pollion 

Explain what C did. Study- of Coptic--only another 

name for Egyptian. Coptic never lost. 

4.s 

Champollion (179S-l832) -= 

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"I've got it 111 Re cries to his brother after 

rnnnjng a mile to latter's office. And falls into a 

deep and lengthy lasitude for five days. 

But Cbampoll.ion wasn't the only one who deserves 

credit or largest sllare. 

4.2 

Cartouches from the Rosetta Stone aDd the Obelisk - from Philae. 

The bottom one was suspected to represent 

CLEOPATRA. 

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4.3 

Cartouches for PtoleDJ¥ (A-the middle one of the--

preceding slide) 

(B-the lower most one of preceding slide) 

and Cleopatra. 

4.4 

ptolomey and Cleopatra. --- Ptolemy and Alexander. 

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Budge says (p.7 at Br. Mus. Brochure) 

''By the comparison of texts containillg variant forms 

and by the skillf'ul use of his knowledge of Coptic, 

Champollion succeed in formulatillg the system of decipher 

ment of Egyptian hieroglyphs this, substantially, that 

in use at the present day." 

Read list of items praising Ptolemy, p. 7. 

It wasa:fbrtunate ac.cident that early work had to 

deal with plain-language hieroglyphics What if they'd 

first come across encrypted hieroglyphs?'! 

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4.6 

Cryptographic hieroglyphics from Drioton. - More at the same. 

Michigan Cryptographic Papyrus. 

3TOP. WAIT. 

FOE 

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F.dge.r Allan Poe in the l84S•s rekindled interest in 

cryptography in America by his story "The Gold Bug" 

and a couple of essays and stories on ciphers and 

deciphering 

Stary about challense One and only one message 

he couldn't solve, he wrote, and tbat one he proved to be 

a hoax' 

Story of Vincent ditty in a Cambrid&e Farce: 

"I am the Master of the College. What I don't 

know ain't knowledge) 

Come now to the period of The American Civil War 

a the War between the States. 

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The Civil War Period in U.S. 

Federal Army Ciphers. 

Confederate Army Cipher 

Federal Army cryptanalytics 

Confederate Ar'fl1¥ cryptanalytics 

Comment on use of telegraph. 

Q ....... A couple of pages from one of tbe Federal Army Cipher 

B;>oks (Have book of Federal Ar't1I¥ ciphers with me.) 

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Messase to General Gr&nt, 15 July 1863. 

Another messase, same date, but in two sectiOllS • 

10 

--

J.L1. 

10.2 

.,J.,,. 

Cipher device used by the Confederate Army, during the 

Civil War. Captured at Mobile in 1865. 

(Nothing but the old Vigenere cipher vi.th repeating key 

Many messages intercepted and deciphered by Federals, 

who had a tew skilled operators. Ads in Richmond paper 

for persons skilled in deciphering shows the Confederates 

lacking. ) -12-

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KEYWORDS: COJ:l.PLE?E VICTORY 

COME RErRIBUTION 

MANCHESTER BWFFS 

8 

A cryptographic message from President Lincoln to - Major General Burnside. 

Comments on this episode: 1. Lack at confidence. 

2. Save time • 

.... Wilson, too, lacked conf'idence in official ciphers. 

Gettysburg incident. See p. lS of Br. Manual. 

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After Civil War use ot cryptography or cryptology 

went into decline during a long period of peace broken 

only briefly by the Spanish-American War. 

(Save for the cryptography in the Tilden-Bayes 

cam:,paign of 1878) 

2l4 

Title page of "Telegraphic Code to ensure secrecy 1n the 

transmission of telegrams, by Robert Slater, 187s. 

(This was 5th edition, the 1st ed. dates from about 185s.) 

Title page of same as put out for War Department by 

Gregory, J.885 Published by GPO 1n 1886. 

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Slater's Code. Example I 

Gregory's Code. Example I. 

Spanish-American Wai'. 

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215 

-

Code used was 1885 with fixed additive "777"!! 

1899 CSO undertakes preparation of suitable code. Econ~ 

featured Work personally done by CSO. As temporary 

expedient used W .D. Tel Code of 1885 with new 

"prelim1naryW.D. Tel Code" of 4Bl3S special words and 

phrases -- late 99 or early 19Sfl 

1902 - Cipher of' the WD - published by TAG and only one. 

• 9S6 - WD Tel Code 19216 - 21,~ly · 
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1915 - WD Tel Code 1915 - published in Cleveland by 

private printers. 

Title page of Ws.r Department Telegraph Code 1915. 

Printed in Cleveland by private printer! 

Cipher tables later put on. 

WWI breaks out in Europe, August 1915. 

Next period devoted to WWI crypt. 

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128 

Ex.ample of micro-writing, in the siege of Paris 187~ 

For World War I 

''With Hertz's discovery of so-called Bertz:::.an waves and 

Marconi's practical demonstration of signa.lliDg by 

"wireless", a new era in military communicai;ians was 

ushered in And also a new era in cryptology. The first 

wide usage of wireless or radio,, as it soon came to be 

calJ.ed, was in World War I. But developnents in cryptography lagged a bit, as we shall see" 

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In Europe, cryptology cont:..nued in development 

but mostly in the direction of larger and larger 

codes, plain or enciphered, and in tbe direction of 

certain types or ciphers, such as the PLAYFAIR No 

cipher devices or machines worth mention except two--

and these will be talked about later. 

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