The times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1890-1903, 1898-08-05
CIPHER USED IN REPORTS.
An Interesting stud that II Receiving
q Great Deal OF Attention.

All the important dispatches which pas
between our government aad us -
matiO agents and It's military anu h"'a'
officers, wnea IN service are written ia
cipher. says tho Philadelphia inquirer
Since the dispatches are usually uan'
United BY telegraph the characters ~sIu
in them arc restnsted necessarily 10 1''o
letters Of the alphabet or numerals OF "
combination OF both. the point aDvue ''i'
cipher being that TO one not ~ poss
sion Of the key" Il Is pure slDoeil'n'
II Il consists OF words the worus Con
vey no meaning; or II may not oonsiss ,
even Of words. but may be Gun"
and confusps tumble Of letters.
Cipher messages. or cryptogfanls' %
they are sometimes called. are consttuI'
ed upon an almost INFINITE variety OF
plans. A vast deal OF ingenuity has Oeen
expended in devising methods OF secret
writing which while being OF suincieht-
" great simplicity to be pracucalIy ser
viceable-tO permit ii message 10 be "Ilt-
ten easily and to be easily read by one
IN possession Of the key-shaH sun De
Of such completely as 20 batiie the un-
initiated The plans upon which are con-
structed the ciphers used by our own
government are OF course. wel-suard-
cd secret. but that the ciphers are OF
great completely may be judged from tho
dispatch received from Commodore Dew
ey announcing his victory At Manila.
The message was received no wash
ington at Q A. N Saturday May ith yet
IL was not until nearly noon, as We an
remember we'll that its meaning had been
found and It's plain English was Inn
parted 10 the waiting newspaper CORE
spondents.
the recipient for whom u IS intended
is one so likely 10 suggest Itself on occa-
sion and so easy 10 be carried out IN
variety OF ways that We are not surprised
10 find ciphers employed 40 a very early
period The methods FIRST adopted. now
ever though they probably subserved
their end well enough. were so exceed
uglv crude as really 20 arord hule pro-
lection against the prying eye OF any
ono possessed OF the average amount OF
ingenuity Polynius describes method
adopted by the Lacedem0nians When
the Spartan. state officials wished 10
communicate with "a general IN the Held
thew would slantwise q narrow strip or
parchment upon a wand 80 that the
edges met closely. ana the message was
then added I'm such a way that the cen-
ter OF the line of writing was on the
edges ~ the parchment. When LnWound
tho message consisted ~ broken letters
and in that condition 60 was dispatched
10 its destination. The general 10 whose
hands &c came declphcred it by means of
wand corresponding In Size To- that
used in writing f.
one Of the Simplest and most common
OF ciphers Is that in which the writer
selects IN place 81 the proper letters
other characters the use OF when mas
previously been agreed upon with his
correspondent. who thug holds the KEY
lie may either use Tor this purpose let
ter4 Of the alphabet. arranged out OF
their usual order. or arbitrary symbols
numerals. crosses dashes. etc.-each
character always standing I'm this scheme
for the same letter This method IS said
TO have been employed by Julius caesar,
hts practice being 90 use instead or the
proper letter that which stood IN the
fourth place from Il I'm the alphabet.
Thus instead % writing "a he wrote
"d". instead ~ "b" Doe wrote &C. and so
on through tho alphabet
A message thus written has NJ hfst
sight certainly q pulling look, parucu-
1arlv n the words are not spaced but
ts deciphermeut rs really the simplest
thing in the wOr'd-that IS. when the
Language On which e IS written IS kno" ~.
Probably the most difficult OF the
ciphors ir ordinary Use IS that based up
ON some book tho words or letters which
IL is desired 20 use being indicated ih
some way agreed unon by their places
I'm the book used as a key. The famous
OREGON cipher dispatches of some years
ago which were dlsciphcrod and pub-
ushed by the New York Tribune, We're
Of this character the key being found
I'm a rare edition of a sma dictionary.
The assertion has often been made
that human lNeenuity cannot invent a
cipher which human ingenuity cannot
unravel This IS stating the r.fe pr.' nv
strongIv. and vet some marvellous fcats
az daciDhormont have certainly been per-
formed. 30 ordinary ingenuity working
without FUN knowledge of the reon'. ite.
Of perfect cipher has ever devised
ono which would give much trouble 10
an expert a. ,yorminr the secret ont
of writing OF this sort-Chicaso Dilly
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