New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1878-10-07

all the words is understood, it will gene rally DO
found that a transposed dispatch be re-
arranged in variety of ways, all making
good sense and good grammar but all dis
agreeing hopeessly in significance; and when
the perDlexty is increased by the introduction of
number of blind words, of which we do not even
know whether they are nouns, or verbs, or adjec-
tves the attempt to reconstruct the sentences with
out the aid of key is almost hopeless. Aud yet the
proper sequence of all the words must DO ascer-
tanned before we make even an intelligent guess at
the meaning of any considerable number of the
blind words. rhe double cipher is, therefore, one
OF the most difficult cryptoTams devised, and
it is not surprising that the Democratic politicians
whose operations it covers should have dattered
themselves with the assurance that The TRIBUNE
could never discover the Interpretation. But
almost any cipher, however intricate and ingenious,
can be read if the translator have sufficient num-
Der Of specimens to work with; and there was ccr'
tainly no lack of material in this case.
DISCOVERY OF THE FIRST KEY.
The beginning of the discovery was fortunate
guess at the meaning of one of the blind words.
substitution-cipher that occurs with notable fire.
quency is Warsaw 1t Is found in al
most all the longer dispatches; once it
stands alone, as message by itself;
occasionally we find it taking infections, as
"Warsawed." The conjecture Immediately pre-
sented itself that it signifed either telegraph" or
answer; but as the latter word is used without
disguise in some of the same messages which con-
tain Warsaw the other alternative was as
sumed to be the right One-an assumption
which later discoveries speedily confirmed, War
saw proving to be the equivalent of both " tele
graph" and " telegram" Accepting this definition
as correct, the following dispatch of ten words was
read so easily that it might almost be said to rear
range itself at first sight:
GCipher.l
COLUMBIA. Nov. IA, 1876.
| To HENRY HAvEMEYER, AeU- York:
Warsaw they read all unchanged last are idiots
| can't situation. W.
TTrahslation.l
| Can't read last telegram. Situation unchanged.
They are all idiots.
| The words III this dispatch are transposed accord
ing to the following order: 8. 8, 61, 10, 8, 2. y
| 4, 8. Or, to make the matter palmer, let us num-
Der the words of the cipher and illustrate the pro-
| cess of transportation 80 -i'''.
GCipher.l
1 2 8 4
! Warsaw they read all unchanged last idiots
| 8 10
can't situation.
| To make the translation. according to the key
given above, the 9th word of the cipher must
! come first, the Sd next, and then must follow in
order the 9th, 1st 10th, 9th, I'd, 7th 4th and sth
| We tried the same sequence on other dispatches.
1t fitted none until to a second message OF
exactly ten words. aefollows:
[Cipher
Me with you Anna communication put Weed
Charles can in. 5.
THIS yielded to the same key of transposition, and
, tue words being rearrauged according to the Sc
! ouenca already gwen stood Thus
lTranslatiOn.l
| Can you put me in communication with Weedf
Anna Charles.
The meaning of ANNA Charles" was still dark,
bat there could be no reasonable doubt that the
right sequence Of words had been found, and this
CONVICTION was strengthened when a third 1O-word
message yielded readily to the same key, But
there were very few Of these short mes
sages in the bundle, and the sequence that applied
to them would not fiji any part OF longer dispatch.
Evidently there was more than one key. But how
did the person who received the cipher message
know what key to use in translatng itf
THE TRANSPOSITION SYSTEM.
The inquiry had reached this point.when the curl
Gus circumstance was noticed that the number Of
words in every transpositon telegram was multi
pie of FIVE We say in every telegram, for this was
the strict general rule, though few exceptions toit
will be noticed later. The shortest message con-
sisted OF III WORDS tnen tnere were TWO UT threc VI
/ words; there were many Of 20, Of %, Of 80, Of
40, of so Words and they ran up into the hum
dreds, always proceeding by iyes. This could
not be accidental; and the suggestion nat
urally arose that there was connec-
ton between the regularity of these blocks
of numbers and the system of Transporting Them SO
that the length of the dispatch was the cew which
guided the person who received it in the
selection Of the key to the transpOsition.
Then supposing that there was one Sc
auence of numbers for 10-wOrd message.
and another for message Of Is words and an
other for message Of 20. and SO on, il would
only be necessary for the receiver to count the
words in the telegram in order to know upon
which of several prearranged sequences it
had been constructed. This theory was at once
tested by a group OF 30-word kilograms. Five
messages of that length were selected written out
in parallel columns, one word under another. and
| lima.