The Toledo chronicle. [volume] (Toledo, Tama County, Iowa) 1873-1924, 1877-07-12
CIPnw,ga1rlNe.


when isffut generally understood, or the
transposing Of the letters of the alphabet
In such way that their power of word.
making is lost to all except those made &C.
quainted with the order of transpOsition.
/ Cipher writing is usually done to pre-
vent persons other than those to whom
correspondence is addressed from read
Ing it, should it by any means fall into
their hands; but it is sometimes used for
abbreviating messages sent by telegram, u
single word often signifying whole
sentence.
The varieties Of cipher are almost with.
out end, and itrequires but little ingenuity
to invent new one; but the trouble is, to
make it difficult to decipher. Where one
word is used to mean another, or num-
Der of others, it is probably next to i'm
possible to decipher it. But when the
letters forming words are merely trans
posed systematically, the system is easily
perceived, and If transposed without sys-
tem, it is as difficult for the recipient to
translate as for anybody else.
When sign or character is used for q
letter, or one letter made to stand for an
other, as for n, or m for Q, and SO on,
making a transposition of the whole
alphabet, it may look very blind at first,
but a little ingenuity will discover the
key. II wdorfiewo to ,rouy beilencsx.
Hdantewy OF sritw aerivatpo tub dearef
rouy weispleasfurpy''-would not readily
be understood to mean, II arranged the
whole business. Doubtless no more inter-
ference ever will take place"
Certain letters of the alphabet are used
more than others. E is used an hundred
times where z is used but once. These
are the extremes between which the others
lie in regular order-thus:
etao h nr d eli M fwybpgvkqx XII .
40 not give this order, however, as
fixed and invariable, but only as the ave.
vatiOn SO far as made. There Is as much
different authors, as In their nun er
Shakespeare is said to have used more than
twenty thousand different words, while
Milton's list did not exceed half this num-
her. living and Bancroft are noted for
using short, one-syllabed words; Scott
and Bulwer for that of long ones.
In scientific work, one class of letters
will be freely used, willie in work on
! theology much different class will be re-
quired, and uice cersa. One language
requires a superabundance of certain
portion of the alphabet, while another de-
mands for its orthography more of these
not needed in the first The Italian
abounds in vowels; the Welsh in rs, IS
and US.
Type. founders, in arranging their founts,
make notes of this, and prepare for con-
tingencies by averaging up certain letters;
| for instance, in font the number of i, n,
o and S, is the same, while In books of or
dinary English, there is a marked differ
ence in the number used.
! Now, suppose we take the alphabet and
| transfer the first two letters to the other
end of the list, using instead of a, d for
b, and so on;
be def g hi jklmnopqrs wxyz
c eff CHI klmnop qrstuvwx wxyzab
using this arrangement, we should write
instead of the proper letters now found
in the upper line, the one below it, and
Honesty is the best policy" would
read "Jqpguya kn Wig dgnt rqnkea."
With so short a sentence, il would be diff
ficult to find the key; but if the cipher
contained thousand letters, we should
first find what we used most, and which
next. Then, in place of the one most
used, we should write e, and of the next
t. We should then look for the words. of
three letters, and should expect to find a
goodiy number of them whose first and
last letters were the same as the two of
which We had found the most in the
cipher answering to and c, as The is used
in English more than any other uigram-
matte word These being, determined,
we know our conclusion as to the value OF
two letters is correct, and that also gives
4 fh<, 1ofto nf 40
Then we find which of the remaining let
tiers is most used, and in its proper place
write a, and so on. When half a dozen
or SO Of the most used letters are found,
| the cipher will be so interspersed with
them. as that whole words can be readily
inferred The same plan can be used
| when signs or other characters, instead of
letters, are used.
Certain rules will suggest themselves as
aids. such as that q is always followed by
u, and W by a, e, i, il, +, ory. Comparl-
sons OF terminations will be made, combi-
nations of the same letters observed, and
an hundred other little things that will
readily occur.
| If it he agreed between two parties that
| instead of the word meant should be
| written one holding certain relation to
| it in list of words, it would make CON-
| bination almost impossible to decipher.
| In this case, it would be absolutely neces-
sary that the lists held by each are dupli-
Gates. Assume that it will be agreed that
| for each word in the communication
should be written the third word found
below it in Webster's Unabridged edition,
1856. For the sentence, The party in
terested has been seen, and agrees to sup
| in, oh tn a q
would appear. "Thearchy partyism in
terfere hash beerhouse seesaw andarac
agreeableness toadfsh supportably usage
inablement theorist dictionary weak choos-
| ing toadfish taker."
| Names of persons or places cannot be
used in this way, as they are not in the
dictionary.
Still another method is to write the
words of the communication with other
words interspersed. Then write on a sep
arate piece of paper to be sent in another
envelope, the numbers OF the words in the
message which are to be read, as 3
| 10 12, etc. If :" ever will or be in duly
by chicago for on ever but the same twen-
! ty or one-fifth after when ever only thing
not can be for or by satisfactory instantly
| To whichever arranged be explained by
the figures 1860 Ii 1416 10 81 % "a
rs 81 81 35, there would be no difficulty
IN making it out. To save writing so
many figures, it might be understood that
every alternate word OF the first line and
everv third word of the second line, and
so on, was to be read.
| 1t is very common for merchants to
mark the prices of their goods in cipher,
sometimes using different ones, to denote
the cost and the selling price. For at least
one of these, some word or words con-
tanning ten different letters is used, ~
| Black point, Chamberlin, the first letter
answering for one, the second two, and 80
on. To render the marking little more
confusing, it is customary to have letter
| that does not appear in the word, as du-
plicating letter, rather than to repeat one
| in ahy mark. SO, If we want to write 1G0
by the word Chamberlin, we should put it
C.nn, or, by using foraduplicate, ,C-n-o.
! It is easier to remember words than ten
arbitrary letters. unless they como in COM
mon order, in which case they are thought
to be more easily deciphered. For this
| reason, when characters instead Of letters
are used, it is best that the characters have
some peculiarly analogous to the letter.
AS remarked above. ciphers are some
times used for the purpose OF abbreviating
messages to be sent by telegraph. When
charges by cable were dollar for each
word, abbreviations were worth looking
| for.
When Jay Cooke & Co. were the
agents for the sale of the first United
States bonds issued, they invented code
to be used by bankers and brokers In
making their orders, which was some
what as follows: A House meant bonds to
the amount Of 500, eco, to be in denomi-
nations as has been agreed upon. A
Brick House gave the same smount in