Talk:William F. Friedman

message: Shouldn't information on Elizabeth Friedman be moved to a separate entry?
:Ckape
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Possibly, but I don;t know too much about her except a little about her work at Treasury and for the Coast Guard. She is said to have insisted her name be spelled Elizebeth, however. 
ww
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If you or someone has enough info to write a separate entry, then yes. She was a force of her own independent of W.F. Until there is enough to write a second article, it seems OK in with W.F.
Williamv1138 23:46, 27 Sep 2003 (UTC)
replies: text: Ckape
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Is this quote from the last section(?) not NPOV?
"They demonstrated unfortunate flaws in Gallup's work"
Only someone who wants to find true cyphers in Shakespeare would consider it "unfortunate" for said cyphers to be found to be junk.
I take it, from the xx, that an ironic sense was meant. If so, not NPOV at all. ww 21:15, 5 Nov 2004 (UTC)

text: I've whacked the "unfortunate" (as an aside, I think the emphasis was the anon poster's not actually present in the article!) — Matt 18:00, 6 Nov 2004 (UTC)
thread_title:  Split Elizabeth into separate article? 

message: If one does a search on William Friedman on FreePatents online or Google Patents(?), one finds several cyphered patents that have remarkable Manhattan Project information.  The patents include pictures on how to cut out the sheet and apply it over the text to read the cyphered text in plain english (sort of a slide rule/nomograpgh-cryptograph).  These patents appear with application dates from 1934 to 1939, and some in 1928 to 1931.  The legitimate patents are under William F. Friedman, while the bogus patents are under W. Friedman, I. W. Friedman, E. Friedman, and various anagrams and nom de plums.  They are distinguished by 2 close filings on Saturdays or Wednesdays, and there is one patent application with a January 1 date, (ie. when the USPTO is closed!!).  These are in fact the top secret (in plain view) Manhattan Project Bomb patents spoken of by Alex Wellerstein and the NPR!! Are these patents (with odd SHORT titles like: container, legging, bag, syringe, packet, packet and pad, toilet accessory, etc.),
having patent numbers between 1,500,000 and 1,950,000.  Are these the work of William F. Friedman, or the work of Captain Lavender and his atomic scientists; Glenn T. Seaborg, Enrico Fermi, Arthur Compton, Earnest O. Lawrence, Szilard, Morrison, Feynman, etc?  
The USPTO database violation and incursion seems clear enough (Pat. #2365494, with application date of January 1, 1944, is a clear USPTO database violation because no patent can ever receive an application date on a holiday under U.S.C. 35!).  Since one of the cornertstones of the USPTO is the filing date, if the USPTO's inviolable (assumed) database was violated or "hacked" by an atomic scientist, then presumably any "walk-in" off the street could, in theory, read, copy, edity, modify, delete or add to the USPTO database without the knowledge of the USPTO.  This act of sabotage would invalidate every single patent application and issue, since the USPTO opened for business in 1790 (Restarted again in 1836 after fire destroyed most of the original patents).  This appears to be the first time a United States Database was ever hacked and rendered useless, and it was done under the name of W. Friedman.  The USPTO has never fully recovered from the first database virus in human history. The question seems why?  Like any computer hack, to make a point.  The USPTO was (is?) insecure to hold atomic secrets in 1945 and 1946.  The Department of Energy and the National Security Agency may owe at least part of their existence to a database security hack under the name of W. Friedman (perhaps by Glenn T. Seaborg or Enrico Fermi).
    "Senator MILLIKIN.  Of these applications that are impounded in the Patent Office, how many people have access to them?"
    "Captain LAVENDER.  We have set up a very definite way of handling these applications, and they are known in the Patent Office as “special handling” cases.  These special handling cases are designated at the time I filed them, in the letter forwarding the application to the Commissioner of Patents.  These applications are sent down to Richmond—that is, to the examiners when they are down there—only by an official of the Patent Office and delivered personally to the chief examiner of the division.  The chief examiner and his assistant were the only ones who were designated by the Commissioner of Patents to handle those cases.  They are kept in separate safes in the Patent Office."
    "Senator MILLIKIN.  That is two people.  Does anybody else get to look at them?"
    "Captain LAVENDER.  I would say “No.”  An examiner may be examining one, and the chief examiner may be on a case and have someone come up.  But I have been down there several times and I know that they are working on those cases."
    "Senator MILLIKIN.  So at one time you said the chief examiner and now you have mentioned chief examiners.  How many people could this possibly clear through in the Patent Office?"
    "Captain LAVENDER.  Each case would go to the examiner of a division who is known as the chief examiner.  Now, he may have one other person—his assistant—work on that case with him.  In some of these divisions there are quite a large number of cases so that one person couldn’t handle them all.  The only other way I suggested was that another person in the Patent Office might see them would be, say, a person who happened to pass along at the time that this case was on the desk of the chief examiner."
    "Senator MILLIKIN.  Is there a compartmentalization so far as these particular impounded applications are concerned, so that by rule or by law in some way or other one examiner cannot be talking to another?"
    "Captain LAVENDER.  Oh, yes.  The Commissioner of Patents has issued very definite instructions as to the disclosure of information to anyone who is not entitled to receive it."
    "Senator MILLIKIN.  Have these men been very carefully studied in the light of this particular problem?"
    "Captain LAVENDER.  I would say “Yes,” because the chief of the division has been a person of long service and he didn’t come into that position except as his integrity, his reliability, and other characteristics were very well developed.  The heads of these divisions are all very well tried officials."
    "Senator MILLIKIN.  You would have complete confidence?"
    "Captain LAVENDER.  That is correct.  I have on several occasions been to Richmond in connection with the work on this and have talked with the examiners that have most of my cases, and I have found them all to be a very fine, reliable group."
    "Senator MILLIKIN.  Can you tell us whether you know as a fact that the background of these men, so far as there country of origin is concerned, has been studied."
    "Captain LAVENDER.  I don’t quite understand."
    "Senator MILLIKIN.  If John Doe, examiner, is born in X foreign country, has that feature of it been studied specifically in the case of all of them?"
    "Captain LAVENDER.  I don’t know, but I can only say this:  The heads of these divisions have been tested and tried throughout a number of years, and I don’t think that there is any chance of a leak there."
    "Senator MILLIKIN.  I do not by my questioning impute anything of that kind, but in all of these things we have to take extra precautions, and I have been wondering whether a special study of those men has been made in relation to this particular stuff in its relation to the foreign implications."
    "Captain LAVENDER.  Well, I imagine that the security division of the Manhattan District has checked the system that we established, and probably the personnel."
    "Senator MILLIKIN.  It might not be a bad idea to look into that."
    "Captain LAVENDER.  I feel sure the Security Division has done that."
    "Commander ANDERSON.  The Security Division has approved them and the handling of this method."
    "Senator MILLIKIN.  We can interpret that as the system, but do you give the same answer to the personnel?"
    "Commander ANDERSON.  They have all been approved by the Department of Commerce, and taken oath with respect to which they are requested to keep all applications under secrecy.  They are under the Espionage Act."
    "Senator MILLIKIN.  That doesn’t quite go to the thing I am driving at; and that is as to their suitability for the job they hold in connection with this particular thing we are talking about."
    "Captain LAVENDER.  I shall suggest that to the Security Division and ask whether or not they have investigated the individuals."
    "The CHAIRMAN.  Captain, are all of these patents in the status of patent applications, or have any patents been issued?"
    "Captain LAVENDER.  There are no patents issued that were filed by the Government.  There are certain patents relating to atomic fission which have been issued to independent inventors before the emergency."
    "The CHAIRMAN.  Before we got into it as a country?"
    "Captain LAVENDER.  That is right."
    "The CHAIRMAN.  Are there any patent applications giving the bomb-making details in those patent applications?"
    "Captain LAVENDER.  Well, I think that I had better give you that in executive session if you are going into any details of it."
    "The CHAIRMAN.  Not what details there were, but whether there were any of the details given in the patent application.  You don’t want to talk about that?"
    "Captain LAVENDER.  Not any more than to say that the bombs are covered by applications."
    "The CHAIRMAN.  I wonder what is the necessity for covering the bomb itself by applications for patents?"
    "Captain LAVENDER.  Well, it is very important for this reason:  I  knew that as soon as the bomb went off there would be a great deal of speculation among various scientists and others, engineers, who had not been connected with the project.  I knew that a great many applications would be filed in the Patent Office, so I was interested in having filed in the Patent Office these applications, so that if any applications were filed and we got into interference, the Government would not be suffering the handicap of being the second one to file, because the first to file has a great advantage from an interference procedure point of view."
    "The CHAIRMAN.  You see, Senator, this information which we have just received makes all the more pertinent your line of inquiry.  I didn’t dream, frankly, up until this point that there was a patent application down there showing how the bomb was put together. Did You?"
    "Senator MILLIKEN.  No.  Personally, I regret it."
    "The CHAIRMAN.  I, too."
    "Captain LAVENDER.  I was reserving for any discussion in the executive session another special handling of these applications relating to bombs, which I am sure fully safeguard it.  I didn’t mention that at the time I discussed the special handling cases."
The list of patents with secret U.S. military value, will be added later, including E. REED (an anagram perhaps for a US department).
And Now, the patents:
W. F. Friedman patents: 
1516180, 1522775, 1530660, 1608590, 1694874, 1857374, 2028772, 2080416, 2139676, 2140424, 2166137, 2224646, 2395863, 2465367, 2518458, 2552548, 2877565, 6097812, 6130946
W. Friedman patents:
1577406, 1580030, 1626674, 1626927, 1630566, 1630566, 1634712, 1650703, 1652402, 1672519, 1681110, 1719428, 1733189, 1739634, 1743813, 1794602, 1814747, 1814749, 1815922, 1852455, 1854373, 1858218, 1887298, 1887299, 1895187, 1903357, 1949201, 1977183, 2072327, 2365494, 2677861, 2712652, 2836925
W. Friedman USPTO inviolable patent database violation and database intrusion:
2365494
“In the process I personally destroyed more property in the form of patents than any other man living.” --Vannevar Bush, Pieces of the Action (New
York: Morrow, 1970), p. 84.
E., F., G., Isidor, H. Lois D., M., N. H., I.W., Samuel, William D., W.E., W.H., W.L.  (etc.)…Friedman patents:
1358685, 1564056, 1653163, 1699105, 2011335, 2124551, 2359148, 2378072, 2440042, 2487797, 2544308, 2615214, 2637031 
E. REED (Defense Research Establishment Encryption Engineer??) patents:
2712652, 2836925
F.T. BARR (FUBAR??) patent:
2518270
Glenn T. Seaborg and Isadore Perlman patent:
2852336
The above patents may be confirmed or refuted through at least three patent search engines:
http://www.google.com/patents, http://www.freepatentsonline.com/search.html, and http://www.pat2pdf.org/ (they all use pdf formats).
70.52.212.244 (talk) 22:05, 28 October 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Military 

message: I notice that this page uses "Infobox engineer". The article says he studied agriculture, researched genetics and then moved into cryptography. Engineering does not seem to feature. The infobox creates a line saying "engineering career", under which "cryptologist" appears. Was there a reason for adopting this infobox? The "engineering career" line seems weirdly out of place. Paul B (talk) 19:43, 29 June 2013 (UTC)
thread_title: Engineer?

message: I read in a biography of Elizebth Friedman that William Friedman ultimately had a lobotomy.  It's only a passing mention in the book, however, with no details.  Has anybody seen any corroboration on this?12.89.124.50 (talk) 18:59, 3 January 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  Psychiatric treatment?