The daily telegram. [volume] (Clarksburg, W. Va.) 1901-1926, 1915-07-28
American Codes and ciphers
By Frederic j. Haskin.

in message and further obscuring
the sense by the systematic inter
polation of irrevelant words and the
introduction Of names-some with a
meaning, others without. The vari-
ETY. of distortions is therefore very
large and whenever a copy of the ci-
pher Is captured another can be sup
piled and communicated to all those
Interested In very short time.
Celluloid Device.
Another American military cipher.
used throughout our army, is also
used In modified degree by the Ger
mans. 1t consists Of a circular piece
of celli1oid. fastened to another and
larger disc of the same materials.
much as the dial on a safe is super
imposed on the stationary dial. The
letters of the alphabet appear on each
disc and, by revolving the smaller
disc. the letters are made to take on
different values on the larger disc
BY shifting the smaller piece of cellu-
loid, a known number of spaces
every ten words or SO the message
becomes so complicated that. should
it fall into alien hands, it would be
elmost impossible to decipher 1t for
some days, by which time the infor--
nation contained would probably be
valueless.
AS used in the American army the
smaller disc is moved certain num-
Der OF degrees every hour and code
word Is placed in the message to-
show the time Of writing. In de-
ciphering the message, therefore. one
need only use the combination
word" to~determine the relative po-
sition of the letters and the de
cooling" is easy.
In the library Of the navy depart
ment are large number of Confed-
crate code dispatches. intercepted by
Union agents and sent to Washington
to be decided. Owing to the fact
that these messages were written in
the rectangular cipher" which Is
practically impenetrable unless one
possesses the code-word or key. the
dispatches retained their secret I'M
til a few years ago when Charles W..
Stewart, librarian of the navy de-
partment, and an authority on CT
pliers, read the report of Bertillion,s
testimony during the Dreyfus trial.
"The word interest, Bertill1on
testified, "is an excellent code-word
for the rectangular code, inasmuch
as it contains two It's and two 'e's. =
Code Solved.
Merely from curiosity. Stewart de-
termined to try the word interest"
the same in French as in English
on the Confederate code messages.
To his great surprise, the experiment
was success and the apparently
meaningless tumble of letters re-
solved themselves into important
messages from the Confederate lead
victory" and Interest" were the
three code words used by the Con-
federates in transmitting messages
of this character. The discovery of
the third word resulted in the decod-
ing of all the messages.
An amusing error crept into the
navy department flag code. which
was entirely revised at the com
mencement of the Civil war. The
revision was done in a hurry and ap-
parently by men who were ignorant
of the needs of the navy. The very
first signal given under the new code
was the use Of the white flag, or flag
of surrender, as the signal for action.
Fortunately, the new code did not OBJ
tain wide circulation before being
recalled and again revised.
Probably the most ingenious
cipher device yet invented was the
product of the Imagination of Con
necticut Yankee who applied for a
patent upon his invention, but was
rudely rebuffed by the officials of the
patent Office. According to this gem
ihs, one need only speak the message
into long hollow tube, hermetical-
ly sealed at one end. The other end
was to be closed as soon as the mes
sage had been spoken
'.The voice." claimed the inventor.
will remain in the tube until the
latter is opened and the removal of
the seal at the end first closed will
permit the spoken words to come out
in regular order"
An Englishman has invented a MAJ