The Detroit times. [volume] (Detroit, Mich.) 1903-1920, 1917-08-25
Simplest and Hardest Cipher
BY Or. FRANK CRANE
Copyright, 1915. by Frank CranD

Speaking OF ciphers end secret codes,
do you know that one of the most in
genious is what is called the Bihtcral
Cipher. and is attributed 20 the mighty
minded Lord Bacon who, with his two
fellows. Leonardo da Vinci and Benjamin
Franklin. holds the palm not only for
amazing intellectual achievement but
also for profound and battling intellect
ual foolery?
This Biliteral Cipher is one anybody
can use, and comes very near being ut
terly incomprchensibIc to those who
have not the key.
Here, for instance, is an example of
an alphabet in two letters:
A b D
aaaaa. aaaab. aaaba. aaabb.
aa5 b aasab. aa5ba. aa ID
X L NJ
abaaa. abaab. ababa. ababb.
\ O p @
abbaa. abbab. abba. abbbb.
Ddaaa- Daaab. bddDa. pdapp.
W X Y 4
babaa. babab. babba. babbb.
In using this, you take any written
or printed matter. say an ordinary
newsy letter or a page from a book, and
indicate. beginning with the first letter
on the page, the lettes Of yonr secret
message by making each group Of five
letters on your written or printed mes
sage stand for one letter Of your secret
code. putting a tiny dot we will say, I'M
der the letters that correspond 10. the BIS
in the code, and leaving the as un-
marked.
For example, take this article you are
now reading. You cut it out and send
it 70 a friend, and want 70 say 10 him,
secretly sell your steel stock"
The first letter in your secret message
is s. S we see is baaab So you put
dot under the first and NTH letters in
the article. that is, under the S and X
Of the word Speaking
The next five letters must represent
+. This, we see, 10y consulting oar code
is aabaa. SO We put dot under the
third letter Of the second group of FIVE
letters in the article; that IS, under the
g in Speaking
speak" then, the first five letters,
with dot under the S and X, make S;
and ing OF. being the second group Of
FIVE letters. with a dot under the g,
makes "e"
The next group is "ciphe" and as L
is ababa we dot the and h.
The next letter being also L (ababa)
We dot the and in the five groups Of
"rs and"
You now see that the first words Of
the article. Speaking Of ciphers and, -
can be made secretly 20 convey TO your
correspondent. who has a similar code
key to your own, the word SELL which
we do by putting dot under each OF
the letters k-g-i-e-s-n" And
in like manner you can give the rest of
your message your Steel stock"
You need not use exactly this code, but
can alter it as you choose. only being
careful that your fellow cOnsplratOr has
a duplicate Of your own.
have seen great many systems of
cipher codes. but regard this, with its
possible variants, as about the most in
genious and unsolvable Of all It is
worthy Of the great mind to whom It's
authorship is attributed
This. by the way, is one Of tho de-
vices by which the Bacon-Sbakespcare
enthusiasts Claim TO prove Bacons
authorship of Shakespearc's writings.
Now. therefore. the next time you
want to send word TO Tom to meet you
by the old mill at ! A. NJ. or to warn
Mabel that the red-headed woman is
plotting mischief, all you need to do is
to write a perfectly innocent letter about
the pigs and chickens, or send q clipping
from the newspaper, and use the dots
according to the Biliteral Cipher.