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LECTURE 3 

Continuing with our survey ot cryptologic history, the period ot the 

American Revolution, in U.S. history, is naturally' ot cOASiderable interest 

to us and warrants more tbaD cursory treatment. Are ;you astonished to 

learn that the systems used by the American colonial forces and by the 

British regulars were al.moat identical? You shouldn't be, becaW!le the 

1aDguase and backgi'ounds of both were identical. In one cue, in fact, 

they used the same dictionary as a code book; something which vu almost 

inevitable because there were so tev English dictionaries available. 

Bere•s a list of the sort of systems they ueed: 

a. Simple, DIOJloalphabetic subatitution--easy to use and to cbaDge. 

b. MoDoalphabetic substitution with variants, by the use ot a 

long key sentence. I 1 ll show you preaentl.Y" an interesting example in 

JeDJamin Franklin's system of correspondence w1 th the elder Dumas. 

c. The Vigenere cipher with repeating key. 

cl. TraD.Bposition ciphers ot simple sorts. 

e. Dicticmaries empl01"Jd as codebooks, with a.ad without added 

encipherment. Two such were specially favored, one, Entick•s 'New Spelling 

Dictionary"; ·the othelj :Bailey's. Here I show a couple of pages fl"om tbe 

former. 'l'o represent a word by code equivalent you aimply 11l41cate4 the 

page number, then whether Column l or ColUJDD 2 contained the word you 

wanted, and then the number of the word 1n the column. Thus: 'l'he word 

-~ ~~ flA.~ --
REF ID: A62 8589 

"Jacket" would be represented by l'.Ti8.:..-z-.2. 

t. Small, specially compiled alphabetic 1-part codes of 698-789 

items aDd code Dallle&; our old friend the syllabary or repertory of hoary 

old age with new dreaa. 

g. OrdiDary books, such as Blackstone's Commentaries, giving the 

page number, the 11zae xaumber aD4 the letter iiumber in the line, to build 

up letter-by-letter, 'bJ compound number, the word to be represented. -Thus: 

125-12-17 would 1.Ddicate the 17th letter 1n the 12th line OD page 125; 1t 

might be the letter 'l!. 

h. Secret inks. 

i. Special clesips or geometric figures, such aa one I'll show you 

presently. 

j. Various concealment methods, such as hollowing out a bullet and 

inserti.Ag messages written on very thin paper. Strictly speaking, however, 

this s019t of strategem doesn •t belong to the field of crypto1ogy. But 1 t • s 

a good dodge, to be used in special cases. 

I've mentiOILed tbat ca.le or conventiOD&l Dames were used to represent 

the names of important persODS and places 1D these American colonial and 

Bri t1ah cryPtograms of the Revolution. Here are some examples of the eart 

ot names the British used as code zaames: 

For Azn7r1can Generals - The names of the Apostles; tor instance: 

General Waahiugton vu "James" 

General Sullivan was "Matthew" 

-2-
REF ID: A62 858 e 

Names of Cities ( Philadelphia - Jerusalem 

Ba.mes of Rivers 

and Bays 

Miacellalleoua: 

( Detroit - AleXandria 

( Suaquehalma - Jordan 

( Delaware - Red Sea 

- fbariaees - Syaagogue 

Bere•s a very 1Dterest1ng ali4e, a British cipher message ot the vintage 

1781. It vas deciphered before f1Dd1Dg the key 1 alway& a neat trick when or 

if you can do it. Here'• the key--tbe title page ot the then current lritiab 

knq Lie t ! 

I'm sure you•ve learned u achoo1 children all about the treasomble 

conduct of Benedict Arnold when be was 1D commanO ot the American Forces at 

West Point; but you probably clon •t know tbat practically all hie excbaagea 

ot comrmm1cat1oua with Sir Henry Clinton, Commander ot the British Porces 

111 America, were in cipher, or in invisible inks. Here•s an interesting 

elide showing one of Arnol4 1s cipher mesaapa, ill which he offers to give 

up West Point tor J.28,888. Here's another one 1D which he gave the British 

1.Dformation which might have le4 to the capture ot his cOJDJD&Dder-ia-cbief, 

General Waahi.Dgton--but Washington was too smart to be ambuahed--he went 

bf a route other than the one he said he'd take. 

You may find this next slide interesting u an example of the special 

aort of mask or grille used bf Arnold and by the British in their negotiations 

vitb him. 'l'be real or s1go.1f1cant text 1s written 1D lines outlined by an 

hour-glasa figure and then dummy word• are supplied to fill up the lines eo 

-3-
REF ID:A62858 e 

that the entire letter apparently makes good sense. To rea4 the aec:ret 

meesage you're supposed to have the same size hour-glass figure that was 

used to conceal the message. The aig11ificant text in this example is 

umerline4: 

"You will have heard Dr. Bir I doubt not oJll¥ before you can 

have reached you that Sir W. Bowe is gone from hence. The 

rebels imagine that he is gone to the Lakewood 1 by this time. 

However he baa filled ChesaJ!!ake Ba.y with surprise 8.114 terror 

••• etc." 

Arnold even uae4 , the trick, mentioned above ill method .1 1 that wu 

quite similar to one wsed recentl.1 by the Russian aw, Colouel Abel, who · 

was arrested in New York in June 1957, tried and convicted, and 1a still 

langu.isbing in a Federal prison. H~e•s a picture ot the gentleman. Bow 

would you like to meet up vi th him suddenly aome dark night at a secret 

rendezvous? 

Here's one !enedict Arnold message that baa never been deciphered. 

There was an American who seems to bave been the Revolution's one-man 

National Security A#!,ency, tor he was the one aDd only cryptoJ.ogic expert 

Congress had, and, it is claimed, he managed to decipher nearly au, 1t 

not all, ot the British code meHagea obtaine4 1A one way or another by 

tbe America.DB. Of course 1 the chief way iD which e!lelQ' messages could be 

obtained 1D those days waa to capture couriers, knock them out ar knock 

them ott, aZJ4 take the messages from tlaea. This was ver;y rousb stutt, 

-4-
REF ID:A62858 ~ 

compared to getting the mater1al by radio intercept, as we 4o nowada.ys. 

I think you•ll be interested to hear a bit more about that one-man BSA. 

Bis D8llle was James Lovell and besides be1Dg a self-trained C;l")'ptologist, he 

was also a member of the Continental Congress. There• a on record a very 

interesti.Dg letter which he wrote to General NathaD1el Greene, with a copy 

to General Washington. Here 1 t is. 

Pbiladelpb1a1 Sept. 211 1788 

Sir: 

You once sent some pa.pare to Congress which no one about you could 

decipher. Should such be the case with some you have lately farward.ed I 

presume that the result ot IQ' pains, herewith sent, will be uaetul to 7ou. 

I took the papers out of Congress, 8ll4 I do not th1Dk it necessary to let 

1 t be known here what my succeea bas been in the attempt. For 1 t appears 

to me that the Enemy make only such changes iD their Cypher when tbey meet 

with misfortune, (as makes a difterence in position onl.J to the same alphabet) and therefore if no talk of D11covery is made by me here or 'b7 your 

Family ;you my be 1D chance to draw lenef'it this campaiga trom m;y last 

Bi~t•s watching. 

I am Sir vi th much respect. 

Your Prie:ad, 

JAMES LOVELL 

ID telling you about Lovell I should add to m;y account of that intereatiDS 

era in cryptologic history an episode I learned about ~ recently. When a . 

certain message of one ot the generals in command ot a rather l&rge force of 

Colonials came ii.to Clinton's possession he sent it ott post haste to London 

for solution. ot course, Clillton knew it was going to take a lot of time for 

the message to get to Lamon, be solved and returned to Ameri:a.a• .. -and he was 

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REF ID:A62858 e 

naturally a bit impatient. Be felt be couldn't a.ttord to wait that lcmg. 

Now it happened that 1D bis command there vere a cou.ple otticers who fancied 

themselves to be crntologistm and they undertook to solve ~ meesage, a 

' 

cow of which had been made 'before sending the origiDal ott to Lomon. Well, 

they gave Sir Henry their solution and be acted upon it. '1'he operation. 

tuned out to be a disma?- failure, becauae the solution of the would-becryptanalyste happened to be qU1te wrong! "The record doe1n•t say wbat 

Clinton did to those two unfortunate cryptologimts when the correct solution 

arrived from London some weeks later. By the way, you may be interested iA 

learning that the British operated a re~ly-established cryptaaalytic 

bureau a~ early as in the ~ar 163flf am 1t contin~ to operate until the 

end of J'uly 1844. 'l'hen there was no such establishment until World War I. 

I wish-there were time to tell you some ot the details of that fascinating 

and little known bit of British himtory. 

'l'here•s also an episode I learned about only very recently, which is so 

amusiDg I ought to share it with you. It seems that a certain "British secret 

agent in America was aent a message 1n pla1n English, giving him. 1D$tructiou 

froa his auperior. But the poor teUow was illiterate and there waan•t 

ani(tbing to 40 but call upon the good offices ot a fl'iead. to read it to him. 

- Be found such a fr1eD4, who read him bis 1mtruct1cms. What he did.A •t know 1 

holi'ever, was tbat the trieDi who'd helped him was one ~ General Washington's 

secret agents? 

-6-
e REF ID:A6285Be 

The nut elide shova a picture at oae ot •evwal a7llaba.ries used by 

'rhOllBB Jefferson. It is conatructecl on the ao-called two-part pr1D.c1ple 

which was. explained ia the pl'ecediDS lecture. This ia a portion of the 

encoding aection, aD4 here•a a portion of the decoiing section, iD which the 

code equivalents are iD numerical order accompanied by their meanioge as 

assigned them in the encoding section. This aort of &JBtem, which, as I've 

alread;r explained, was quite popular 1D Colonial times as 1D the ear~ days 

of Italiall crypt.ogra~, ie 1till in exttmaive us~ 1n 1ame parts of the 

world. Jeffers~ was ---- an all.-arounci genius, am I aball have .aomethiug to 

, say about him and cr1Ptograi>b1' in a subsequent lecture. 

A few minutes ago I mentioned BenJami». 1raakl.1n 'a cipher system, which, 

if used today, would be cU.tticult to solve, especially '1f there were only a 

small ~t of traffic 111 1 t. I.et me show you wbat it was. Pr&Dkla took 

a rather lengthy passage from aome book iii i'rach and numbered the letters 

successively. Theae numbers tben became equivalents tar the same letters 

in a mesaap to be sent. Because tbe key passage was in good French, 

naturaJ.4r there were JDBD1 variant• for the letter E--in fact, there were 

as 1IJa1J'¥ u o.oe would. expect J.n norml plain-text French; the aame applie4 

to the other higll-trequency letters such as R, N, s, I, etc. Wbat t.hia 

means 1 of course 1 iB tbat the ll1gb-trequeaay letter• in the plain text of 

' 

any meseage to be enciphered coul.4 be repreaentea. by ~ different DUmbers 

aDd a solution, on the basis ot frequency repetitious would be very lllllCb 

-7· 
REF ID:A62858 e 

13,am.pered by the presence of many variut values tor the 1ame pl.aill-text letter. 

- Here you can see this very clearly. 

I know ot but one case in all our U .s. history in which a resolution of 

Congress was put out in crn>tographic torm. liere'e a slide which ehowa it--

a resolution of the RevolutiODary Congress dated 8 February 1782. 

' \ 

Interest in cryptoloQ in America seems to bave 4ie4 with the passing 

of Jefferson and Fre.nklin. But if interest in cryptology in America wun•t 

very great, if' it existed a.t all after the Revolution, this was not the case 

L 

in Europe. Books on the subject were written, not by prOf'easioml.e, perhaps, 

but by learned amat.~urs., and I think you will till4 some of them in the RSA 

library if you're interested in the histor1 of the science. Heti'e's the 

frontispiece of a French book the title of which I translate as "Counterespionase, or ke;ys for all secret correspoo4.ence." It wu publiabecl in l'al"ia 

in l 793. Here's Dr. Cr'YWY himself', and th1• ie perbaptt. a breadboard model of 

a GS-ll research analyst, or 1111.ybe an early mo4el ot a WAC. 

I am going to take a b1 t of tillle now to tell you something about. BgyptiaD 

hieroglyphics, not only becauae I think that tlBt repres•nt1 the next Mil a 

great J ancSme,rk in the histoey of cryptoloa, but also because the •tory ie ot 

general interest to any aap1r1ng CrJPtOlogiet. About 1821 a rrenchmaA, 

Champollicm, startled the uucholarly vorl.4 by beginning to publlsh. tnaslat1cms 

C1£ EgyptiaD hieroglyphics, <boup in the budding new field of Jsyptolog,y 

much bad already tra.D&p~ed and been publi1he4. Here'• a picture of the 

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REF ID:A62858 e 

gentleman and bere•a a picture ot the great Bapoleonic find that certainly 

tac1l1tate4 and perbaps :mde poBBible the solution of the Egyptian bieroglyphie vriting--the Rosetta Stone, which va.a found in 1799 at Rashid, or, 

as tbe Europeans call it, Rosetta, a town in .northern Egypt on the west bank 

of the ~osetta branch of the Nile. Rosetta was in the vicinity of Napoleon's 

operations which ended in disaster a.ml when the peace treaty was written, 

Article ~I ot it required that the Rosetta Stone, the s1gn1f'icUl(:e of vhicb 

- was quickly understood 'b1' both the conquered French and victorious :British 

comanders, be shipped to London, together with certain other large antiquities. 

, . The Roeetta Stone still occupies a prominent place in tbe importe,nt exhibits at 

the British Museum. The Rosetta Stone is a bi-liJJgual. inscription, because it 

is .1n Egpt1an and also Greek. The Egyptian portion consieta ot two pa.rte, the . 

upper one in hieroglyphic tOl'Dl, the lower one in a sort ot cursive script,. also 

in Egyp~i&D but called "Demotic". It waa so~ realized that all three texts 

were supposed to aay the same thing, ot course, and •1nce the Greek could 

easily be red it served u what in cryptanalysis we call a ttcr1b". Arq 

_time you are lucky enough to find a crib it saves you hours ot work. It 

was by •ans. of this bi-lingual inscription that the Egyptian hieroglyphic 

_writing was finally solved, a teat which represented the successtu.l solution 

to a problem the major part of which was lingu1.st1c in character. The 

cryptanalytic pa.rt at tb8 task wu relatively simple. Nevertbeless, I 

think that anyone who aspires to become a professional cryptologist should 

-9-
REF ID:A62858 e 

bave some idea as to what tbat cryptanal.11;1c feat was, a teat which same 

' protessar--but not ot crntologic science,, I thiJlk it was Professor Fl~ 

Norbert Wiener, Of the Massachusetts Institute ot TeclmolOQ"--aaid was 

the greatest crntt&naqtic teat iii histar1. We sball aee how wrong the 

good prof'essar was, because I•:m goiDg to demonstrate .juat. what the teat 

really amounted to by showing JOU some simple pictures. 

Pirst, 1et me rem1D4 70\l that the Greek text served as 811 excellent 

crib tar the solution at both Egyptiazi texts, the hier~ic am the 

Demotic I the latter merel:' beiag the conventicmal abbreviated am modified 

fcrm of the Hieratic character or cursive :tarm ot h1erosJ.1phic writing tbat 

was in use in the Ptolemaic Period. 

Tm 1D1t1al step was takeA bf a Reverend Stephen We•ton who ma4e a 

translation of the Greek inscription which be read in a paper clelivered 

betare the Lcmdcm. Society at Antiquaries in April l.882. 

In l.818 Dr. Thomas Youug, the pbJs1c1at vho tint propoaecl the wave 

theory ot light, compiled tar the 4th volume ot Encycl.opecUa Britunica, 

pu'bl.iahecl in J.819, tbe results ot his studies on the Boeetta Stone and 

am.ems them there was a liat ot several alphabetic lgypt1BD characters to 

which, ill most cases, Jle had. aaaigned correct values. He vu the ti.rat to 

gr&BJ! the 14ea ot a J?homttic priDaipl.e in the Egyptian hieroslnbs an4 he 

was the tirat to a;pp],y it to their decipherment. Be also provecl aomtbiDg 

which othere had cmq 1uapec:ted, mame~; that the hieroglyphs in oval.a or I 

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REF ID:A62858 e 

co.rtoucbea were rOJ8.]. namea. But YO'Lll:JC 's name is not associated in public 

mi.ad l71th the decipherment ot Egyptian hieroSlYl>hics--t!lat ot C~OA 

ia very much so. Yet much of what Cbampollion did was baaed upon ?'otmg 1111 

work. Perbape, the greatest credit ahou.lcl so to Cbampol.l.io:u t~ recogniz1Dg 

the •jor importe.Dce of an ancient language known as Coptic as a bridge that 

could lead to the decipherment ot the EQptiem hie-oglyphica. As a la4 ot 

seven he'd ma4e up his m1D4 tbat he'd aolve the hierog.typh1c w1ting and 

in the e&rl.1' 1Ul"S ot 'the 19th CentU?'y be began to study Coptic. In bls 

studies ot the Rosetta Stone his knowledge or Coptic, a language the knovledge of vhich ba4 mver been. lo1t, enabled him to 4educe the phomtic value 

ot many syllabic signs, and to assign correct rea41QSs to m:q pictorial 

characters / the meaaiDga ot which became kl:aolln to b1m tram the Creek text 

on the Stone. 

'1'he tollowiDs step-by-step accOUDt ot the sol.ut1on ie taken tram a 

little brochure entitled The Rosetta Stone, pu'blisbecl by the Trustees ot 

the British Museum. It wu written 1D 1922 by E. A. Wallu Bwlp &D4 waa 

revised in 1956. I quote: 

"'lhe meth.ol "1 wbich the greater part ot the Egntian &lpb&bet 

vu reccwerea 18 tbia: It WBB aaaume4 correc~ that the oval 

~ "cartouc!le" as it ia ce.lle4, al~ contained a rQJal mm. 'l'bel:'e 

is ODl7 om cartoucbe (repea.tecl au ttma v1tb eli&bt lllOllifieatioms) 

on the Rosetta Stone, aD4 tbia was aaaumO. to contain tba aue ot 

-11-

' 
REF ID:A62858 

Ptolemy, 'because it was certain from the Greek text that the inacription concerned a Ptolemy. It was also assumed that if the Cl!!Ll'touche 

did contain the name of ptol~, the characters in it would have tbe 

sound.a of the Greek letters, and that all together they woul.4 represent. 

the Greek form at the mune of PtoleDJiY. Now on the obelisk which a certaill 

- Mr. Bankes had brought trom Ph1lae there was also sn inscription in two 

languages, Egyptian and Greek. In tbe Greek portion o~ it tl-ro royal 

names are mentioned, that is to eay, Ptolemr and Cleopatra, and on the , 

second face at tbe obelisk there are two cartouches, which occur c1oae 

together, and are fUled with hiero~hs which, it was assumed, fonaed 

the Egyptian equivalents of these names. When these cartouches were 

" 

comps.reel with the cartouche on the Rosetta Stone it was f'oUDd that one 

of them contained hieroglyphic character$ that were al.mo8t identical 

with those which filled the cartouche on the Rosetta Stone. 'l'hus- there 

was good reason to believe that the cartouche on the l\osetta Stone 

contained the name of ptolem;y written in hieroglyphic characters. IJ!he 

for.ms ot the cartouches are as :follows: 

On the Rosetta Stone 

On the Obelisk tram Ph1la.e 

In the second of these cartouches this sinsJ.e sign (point it out) takae tbe 

place of these tbree signs (point them out) e.t tbe end ot the first cart.ouche • 

• 

How it bas already been said that the name of Cleopatra was found in 

Greek on the Philae Obelisk, and the cartouche wbich was ae•~ to 

... 12-
REF ID:A62858 ~ 

contain the Egyptian equivalent to this name appears 1n thiet f'orm: 

Taking the ca:rtouches which were aupposed to contaiD the ll&mlis ot 

ptoleJD¥ and Cleopatra from the l'hilae Obel11~, and nWllberiDg the sigos 

we have: 

Ptolemy, A •. 

Cleop&tra, J, 

Now ve aee at - glance that Bo. 1 in A aD4 l'lo• 5 1D Bare identical, 

aa4 Judging by their poei t1011 ~ 1D the Dallle8 they must represent 

the letter P. No. 4 in A aml Ro. 2 in B are identical, u4 arguing as 

before fram their position ~7 must represe1't the 'letter L. Ali L 11 

the ••com letter in the ume ot Cleopatra, the sip Bo. i (poillt) mu&t 

repreeeat K. Dow in tlJe cartouche of Cleopatra ve kAoir the values of' 

Sigaa Bos. 1 1 2 and 5, •owe my write them 4ovn thus1 

In the Greek form of the mme of Cleopatra there a.re two vowel.a between 

. the L and the P 1 and 1n the hieroglyphic form there are two hieroglyphs, 

th11 (point) and th111 (point), so we may assume that tbie one ia E aD4 

tb1• one is 0. In some forms at the cartouche of Cleopatra No. 7 

-

the band is replaced by a. half' circle, which i• identical Yi th No. 2 

1n A and Jo. 11 in B. As T follows P in the :oam PtoleJD¥, am\ a.a there 

i• a T in the Greek form of the name of Cleopatra, we ay assume that 

tl1e balf circle and the band have substantially the same 

S"OUiid, and. that. tba't sound is T. In the Greek..-. form ot tbe name 
REF ID:A62858 

Cleopatra there at"e two a•s, the positions of which agree with No. 6 

am Jo. 91 am. we may ass.ume tl1at the bim bas the value ot A. Substituting these values for the hieroglypba ill 'B we may write it thus: 

'.rboma.1 Young noticed tbat tbe s'e -... two ._signs always f ollowe4 the name 

ot a goddess, or queezi, or princess, and the other ear~ clecipherers 

regarded the two sip as a mere i'emn1ae termination. The ollly sign 

for which we have no phonetic equivalent is No. 8, the lens., and it -is-.ob..v,ious 

that this must represent R. Inserting this value in the cartouche ve 

have the name of Cleopatr& deciphered. Ap~ now the values which we 

have learned. from the cartouche at Cleopatra. to the certouche of Pt~ 

we may write it thus: 

We now see that tbe cartoucbe :must be that of Ptol.e~, but it is al.so 

cl.ear that there must be couta1Ded in it maD1' other hieroglypbs which 

do not form part ot hie mme. Other for:ma Of the cartoucbe of ptolem;,y 

are toum, even on the stone, the aimpleat of them written thus: 

(point out on slide) • It was tlleref are evident tbat these 

otber sigga were royal titles correspcmding to those 

found 1n the Greek text on the Rosetta. Stene meaning "ever-livillg, beloved 

ot Ptah." Now~ Greek farm of the ;came .Ptolemy, i.e. Ptol.ema.ios, ends 

v1th s. We may assume therefore that the last sign in the E;iimplast f'orm 

ot the cartouche g1 ven above has the phonetic value of s. 'rhe onJ.:y 
REF ID:A62858 

hierogl.yphs nmr doubtful. are (this) and (thia), mut their position 

in the name of Ptole?ey" suggests that their phonetic values must be M 

:: and .some vowel sound in which the I sound predomina.tea. These va.luea, 

which were arrived at by guessing and deduction, were applied by the 

ea.rl.1' decipherers to other cartouches, e .g .1 

Now, in Mo. 1 1 we can at once write down the values Of all the s1gDS, 

viz., P. I. L. A. 'r. R. A, which is obvious1y the Greek !Ulm Ph1lotera.. 

In ?lo. 2 we know only same of the hieroglyph1, and ve write the 

cartouche thus: It was known 

that- rwming water sign. occurs in the name Berenice, and that it 

represents N,, and that this sign is the last word Of the transcript 

,of the Greek title "Kaisaros", and tbat it tberetore represeD.ta some S 

- sound. Some of the forms ot the ca.rtouche of Cleopatra 'begin with 

(this sign), an4 it is clear that 1~s phonetic value must 'be K. 

Inserting these values in the above cartou.che we baves 

which is clearly meant to represent the name "Alexarllh'os", or Alexander. 

The po~ition ot this sign (point) sbowa th&t it represented. some 10UDd 

' ' 

of E 01' A. 

Well, I've showed you enOUSh to make fairly clear what tbe problem. 

was and ~aw it W&i!t solved. 

·15-
REF ID:A62858-

'l'bat 'a the ft7 ill which ti. 1ni t.ial break vu -.de in the 4ec1phermeat 

first attacks on Egyptian h1erogJ.n>h1ca d14a •t have to deal with enciphered 

r ' . 

hierog.1.tphica" ! Here, far iDatance, 1• u. uuwie at aubatituticm. 'l'b&t 

·character iD place of this one meaDB "to •peak". 

: 

lef'are leaving the atar7 of Cba.IQollim' • mater1 ~ Egyptian biero-

·~1c writing l think I 1houl.4 re-enact for fOU as beat I ca11 in war4a 

what he 414 wbeD be felt he'd really reached tl2e aol.uticn to the JQBter7. 

I 

I'll preface it by re~allil\s to you wbat A'rcb1me4e• ia alleged to have domt 

when. he solved a probl.em be'4 beea atrugsJ.ing with tor aane tine. A.rcbimedes 

waa enJ~ the pleaeurea at J11• ba.th a:a4 wu Just stepping oiit of the pool 

when t!Je solution ot the :oroblea cue to b1m like a flash. Be was 10 over-

- it, I•ve tvuml""..it." Well, likewise, when )'OUQS Champollion me 4q bad 

on a quick mile run to ,the buil41Dg vbere bis l&v;yer brother vorkaa., atwabled 

into hia brother's ottice, shouted: "Eugene, I•ye got itJ", aD4 flopped 

. 4own to tbe. floor iD a tnmce wher~ be 1a aai4 to have rema1Ded immo~Ue 

aD4 completely out far five 4&1&· Dma•t let tat aart ot tb1ag happen to 

70U around here when aD4 it JOU fia4 the aDllVttr to a cOJll)lez probl.ea. !he 

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REF ID:A62858 ~ 

char f01'5ce will proba'bl.7 sweep you up u4 throw you iato the 1eci"et truh . 

bin for diapoaiti~ bf buraiDg. 

' 

I 1houldn 1t .leave this brief etory ot the cr~ic t>hate• of the 

solution ot the Bgptian hierogl.Jphic writing Vithout telling you tbat tber• 

rem1D. plenty ot other sarte at writinp which IQ!De ot you_., want to tq 

your baud at clecipbering when you •ve learnd. ~ame ot tbe p:illciplee and. procedurea ot the ecience of crntolog. A list of tbua•f&l" undeciphere4 

wr1tinp vu draw up tor me by P.roteaaor Alan c. Boea ot Lon4on Umver11ty 

in 1945 tm.c1 ba4 19 ot them. SinCe 191;.5 only two bave 'been clecipbere4, 

- Miaoan Linear A a1l4 L'lnecu- B writi.Dg. '!'he master X.land writing is •aid. to 

have very recentq been solvec.\, but 1•m not aure ot that. ~e are some, 

maibe just & very few, who th1Dk the hieroSln>bic writiDg ot the AD.c1ent 

about that. 

Shoul.4 u.y of you be persua4ed to tackle &IV of t~ etill Uldecipere4 

wr1t1Dp 1n the list m-aw up by Pl'ofeaaor Roa1, be sure 10\I have an 

authentic case of an w:lllec1phere4 laDguage before you. Here'• mie tbat 

- vu written on a parchment, JmovD u the IGS.cliigan Pawrwa. It. ha4 battl.e4 

· certain savant• wbo ha4 a knowledge ot Egyptology vho atteaq>tet to r...,,_ 1t 

on the tbea.ry that it vae acne sort ,of var1at1on--a much later dif'icatim:t.--

ot Egyptian hieroglypbic vr1t11ag. 'J:hese old cha.pa p.ve it up u a ba4 Jo'b .. . 

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1' I·' 

REF ID:A62858 

e e 

Rot- too m.uy years ago it cam to the attention of a )'OUJlS 9n who knew Vf!ey 

little a'bout Egyptian hieroglyph1ce. Be qv it OJlll' ae a·~ •ubst1tut1on 

cipber on acme QJ.d language. He tackled the M1cll1gan PapJrus on tbat baaia 

~ 1olvecl it. lie found the laDguap to be earl.J' Creek. And vb&t vu the 

pl1?'JlC)l't ot the writing? Well, it WU a vomerfUl. ol.4 Greek beaut1cian11 

. ../ secret. r4 tar turtber ~tifying love~ Greek young beautiea-mqbe 

the bathiDS beautiea of those ~. 

'l'here_1~ one peraon I ahoul.4 mention before comiJla to the period of the 

Civil War, or, as some peopi. prefer to call it, the war between tbe States, 

in U.S-t biatoey. I refer here to Me;ar Allan Poe, vho iD 1842 or there· 

.. -

abouts, kindled an interest 1n cryptography by hi.a tamoua story ot "The Gold 

t>'ri<Xl. For hia day he vas cert.ainly the bast 1atorm4 peraon 1D the U .s. ozi 

interested 1n the- au'bJ~t, am 1D •aying thia I am aaauaiDg that CZ')'l>tology 

w used u a limited extent by O\U' I>epa:rtmnt o:t Stat. tor com'micating With 

co4ee but we'll come to them a little later, when I'll ehov you examples of 

them. 

To return to Poe, one ot our early columnista, thar•'• an illei4ent 

I '4 like to tell you &bout 1n coxmection with a eM.UAtnge be p:t"inted ill -one 

-J.8-

.~',j 

' 
REF ID:A62858 

. •" " I .•• LJ. ,. '"'-- ). -• • - - L> r ...,.,~, 

of bia columns, in vhicb be ottered to solve any cipher 1ubm1tted by bU 

read.ere. Be placed saoe 11m1 tationa on bis cbal.lenge, which amounted to 

th1s-·that the challenge meseases should involve but a aingle alphabet with 

varie.Dta. In a later article Poe tells about the numerous challenge meaaagea 

sent hiaand a&)"B: "out of perhaps 181 cipber• altogether received, there 

was only one which we did not 1aned1ate~ succeed 1n reaolVing. Thia cne 

we demonstrated to be an impositicm--that 1S to sq, we fUll1 proved it a 

jargon ot random characters, having no meaning vbatever." I viah tll&t cipher 

ba4 been preserved tor posterity, because it voW4 be interesti.Dg to see what 

there vaa about it that werrante4 Poe in saying tbat '*we tully proved 1t a 

,1argon of random characters" • Maybe I •m 11ot warranted in sayiDg ot this 

episode that Poe rem1Qds me of a ditty sung by a character 1D a play put on 

by some undergraduate• ot one ot the colleges ot Cambridge Univeraity 1n 

F.ngland. 'l'his character steps to the front of tbe ataae a.ad. 11Dgs: 

"I am tbe Master o£ the College, 

Wbat I 4on•t know ain't kn011le4ge." 

Thus, Poe. What he could.n 't solve wasn •t a. real cipher--a very eaa;y out for 

8.D¥ cryptologist up aaawt something tough. 

Thia canpletes the tbird lecture in this series. h the next one we 

sball cane to that interesting period in cryptologic history in which codes 

&n4 ciphers were used 1n this cCJWitry in the War of the Rebellion, the War 

Between the States, the Civil War--you uee your OWD pet deaigDation for that 

terrible an4 coatl.1 st.ruggle. . "-- -, 

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