AN INFALLIBLE PLAN OR METHOD OF DETECTING AS WELL AS PREVENTING ALL KINDS OF WRITTEN FORGERIES
Year: 1795

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
FRANCIS BADINI, of Pimlico, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Seventeenth day of November, in the thirty-sixth year of
His reign, give and grant unto me, the said Charles Francis Badini, His
especial licence that I, the said Charles Francis Badini, during the term of
years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might use, exercise, and vend,
within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of
"AN INFALLIBLE PLAN OR METHOD OF DETECTING AS WELL AS PREVENTING ALL KINDS
OF WRITTEN FORGERIES;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a
proviso obliging me, the said Charles Francis Badini, by an instrument in
writing, under my hand and seal, to cause a particular description of the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar
month after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the
same, relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Charles Francis Badini, do hereby declare that my said Invention of An
Infallible Plan or Method of Detecting as well as Preventing all Kinds of
Written Forgeries, is described in manner following,. that is to say -
The steganographical box or forgery detector contains three distinct and equal
rows of pegs, made of ivory or bone, or any other solid substance. There are in
each row twenty-five pegs; the pegs in the first row have the letters of the
English alphabet engraved on the top, in the second they have numbers from
one to twenty-five inclusively; and in the third row the pegs represent like-
wise a series of numbers, but according to the following progression 1, 2, 3, 4,
5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 100, 1000.
There are pins besides, the use of which will be explained hereafter. The
chief object of the steganographical box is to establish a secret correspondence
between two individuals, so as to preclude any deceit, fraud, or imposition
from a stranger. The pegs are placed in small apertures one inch deep or
thereabouts, and are moveable at pleasure, from which it is evident that they
may be promiscuously arranged in a great variety of modes, the changes of
twenty-five distinct quantities being expressed by the subsequent cyphers
15511210043330985984000000. When two persons wish to correspond
together with safety, they provide themselves with two boxes; and the pegs in
each row being situated in the same order, each of the correspondents keeps
one of the boxes for use. In any pecuniary transaction, whether a draft, or
bill, or a bond, the box enables to express the full amount of the sum by a
short mark, which, as it results from the peculiar combination and arrange-
ment of the pegs, cannot possibly be known to a third person. This secret
-mark, has the peculiarity of changing every time; and though in some
particular instances it might be repeated, the time of the repetition being
always distant and uncertain there can be no opportunity for forgery. The
calculations are too numerous to find room in this Specification; au example
will be sufficient to set the matter in its proper light-A keeps cash with
B, and draws for sixty pounds; A and B have two boxes set in the same
manner. It must be observed that the third row expresses the sum, and the
other rows 'supply the secret mark that is to bes down on the draft or bill. It
is not difficult to conceive that any sum whatever may be expressed by a com-
bination of the following cyphers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50,
60, 70, 80, 90, 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, 100, 1000. When the number wanted is
not in the line, it may be made up by the addition of others that are in the
line. Thus 13 may be expressed by 10 and 3, six hundred by 6 and 100, and

page_text: so forth. A, therefore, drawing for 60 pounds, looks in the third row for the
peg that shews the number sixty, and sets down in the draft or bill both the
number and letter above it. The whole amount of the bill is ever to be
found in the third row, and the corresponding number and letter serve to point
it out. The numbers 91, 92, 93, 94, 95, that are to be found in the third row,
are not necessary in expressing the sums; they are placed there for the purpose
of filling up the number twenty-five, so as to make the row answer the other
two, and at the same time they serve to increase the changes. As it has been
shewn before, that the pegs may be shifted about at pleasure, it is plain that
after the operation by displacing the pegs, the secret mark in the next draft or
bill must vary. The change and alteration of the pegs may be agreed upon
beforehand between the parties. A, for instance, agrees with B to remove,
after every operation, the pegs employed in it to a given arbitrary number either
backwards or forward. It is proper to remove each peg to a different place
to prevent a return in the same direction; whatever the agreement may be, the
parties must endeavour to keep it in their memory; the task is not very
difficult. But there is not even any occasion for such agreement. The
writer of a bill, after he has marked it, is not obliged to remove the pegs; let
him but place pins against them. The next time he makes use of the box he
will move the pegs as he chuses, and set down the alteration in a corner of the
bill. Suppose he moves the first peg to nine forward, he need not but set down
9f, which means nine forward, then if he moves three backwards, he sets
down 3 b, which means three backwards, &c. The correspondent sets his
box pursuant to the notice he receives from the draft.
It may be objected, that this method being made public, if the box should
be mislaid, the security against the mischief of forgery would be lost from the
pins, which must betray the secret. This objection, however, is easily removed
by placing the pegs against a false number. Let us suppose that the peg is to
be placed against five, a secret number may be kept in the mind, as for instance
the next, or the third, fourth, fifth, &c., either backward or forward; and
instead of placing the peg against the real number, it is placed against the
number in the mind, and the next time that the box is used, the pegs before
the operation are removed to their proper place. With regard to the pins which
are mentioned before, first, as we have seen, they serve to indicate the numbers
employed in the last operation. It is not necessary to use more than two pins
for that purpose.
But the greatest use the pins may be put to, is to mark
five-and-twenty drafts or bills for the same amount, every one in a different
manner and without moving the pegs. When you look for a particular sum,
place a piu against any number whatever in the third row; then reckon the

page_text: numbers from the next peg, not as they appear at the top, but in their pro-
gressive order 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100,
1000; stop at the number of the sum which you look for, and set down in the
draft the number and letter found in the same direction in the two superior
TOW'S. After this you need but move the pin to the next peg for the ensuing
operation. This process will afford five-and-twenty different marks, expressive
of the same sum, without displacing one single peg, and as instead of one set,
that is three rows, a box may be contrived with many, as for instance, five
distinct sets, all in various colours. It is obvious to any mind conversant in
the doctrine of combination, that a prodigious number of different secret
marks may be had without the least alteration in the order of the pegs.
That the steganographical box affords an infallible check against forgery, is
a position geometrically certain. Yet it must be confessed, that the use of it,
with regard to banking houses, iu the manner that has been described, is
altogether impracticable from various motives; first, the drawer, as the risk of
the forgery does not affect him, will not think of taking any usual trouble
about it; secondly, the constant hurry of business will not give the bankers
proper time to verify the secret marks, and lastly, a great number of incon-
veniences may arise from mistakes. Though the whole operation is as simple
as possible, yet a neglect or inattention of the drawer may puzzle the banker,
and occasion interruption of business. 1 have therefore thought of a regulation
which cannot but be considered as a great improvement in the Invention, for
it will absolutely secure the banker against forgery, without giving the least
trouble to the drawer. Every banker will furnish his customers with checks
prepared by himself; cach check is to have two secret marks, one to identify
the paper and the other to specify the amount; as for the latter one box with
five sets may serve for all the customers in any hanking house; and as it is
impossible for a banker to know what particular sums his correspondents may
have occasion to draw, he will give out checks of various sorts, the combination
of which will produce any sum that may be wanted, checks for one pound, for
two pounds, for three, for four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, and ten pounds,
again, for 15 pounds, for twenty, twenty-five, thirty, forty, fifty; sixty, seventy.
one hundred, and one thousand. The correspondent of the banker will keep
bis checks separately in a pocket book made on purpose, and when he draws
he will sort them as may be required. The drawer will have less trouble than he
hus at present. He will find everything ready at hand; ho will have nothing to
do but to fill up the date, to write the name of the person he draws for, and his
own. In case the bill should extend to fractions, that is to shillings and pence,
the drawer will be obliged to set it down. The most material part of the

page_text: task will remain with the banking houses, every one of which will be under
the necessity of employing some additional clerks in preparing the checks.
The secret to identify the paper will change with every house, and as
to the mark that points out the sum of the bill, there will be no
occasion for the banker to verify it in the box; every check besides
the mark of the sum is to have an arbitrary number. A clerk will set
them both regularly down in a book under the name of the correspondent
to whom the check belongs, so that the arbitrary number will serve as a
spy for the mark of the sum. It is evident that by adopting the regulation
which I propose, the banking houses will be intirely free from the danger of
forgery. The trouble is but trifling, nor can the additional expence have much
weight when set in competition with an advantage of such magnitude. Í have,
besides, a plan to suggest which will not only give the bankers an ample com-
pensation, but be the source of very great profit to their respective houses, at
the same time that it is a measure highly beneficial to society. The stegano-
graphical box affords the most impenetrable cypher ever known. A pro-
digious number of cyphers has been invented at various times, and it must be
owned that some of them are sufficiently ingenious and even beyond the reach
of discovery. This, however, may be observed with every one of them, that
as soon as the secret of the.operation is divulged, the cypher becomes useless;
even the famous cypher of Lord Bacon in his book, De Augmento Scientiarium,
labours under that inconvenience, without mentioning that the process of these
cyphers is generally too intricate and troublesome. The occult mode of
writing produced by the box, is the simplest method that ever was imagined,
at the same time that it baffles all the possible attempts of a decipherer. The
whole mystery consists in this easy operation:-The numbers in the second
row are made the representatives of the letters in the first, and as a number is
set down, the corresponding letter is moved either according to a previous
agreement, as the writer thinks proper at the time of writing, provided he takes
care to give notice of it at the beginning of his letter or writing, in the manuer
mentioned before; for instance, if he moves the letters two backwards or three
forward, he need but mark it at the top of the writing 2 b, 3 f. Example: a
person writes a secret letter, the first words of which arc, If you can. He first
looks for the letter I, and sets down the number under it; then moves tho
letter I, after which he looks for f, and does the same; and so on. It will be
proper to set down a coma, or a private arbitrary mark, at the end of each
word, for the purpose of distinguishing it from the rest. The most material part
of the secret evidently consists in the constant transposition of the letters, by
which it happens that often the same number represents various letters. Instead

page_text: of making use of numbers, I have so far improved the Invention that simple
dots will serve the same end; for this I have imagined a page with five and
twenty lines engraved, each of which forms twenty-five small squares. At
the top and on the left side there is a line also in squares; each of these squares
contains a number from one to twenty-five. This paper may be used for secret
writing in two different manners. The numbers that represent the letters in
the box may be marked in the paper by dots placed in the squares belonging
to the corresponding number. In this case you may transmit to your corre-
spondent the paper squared as it is. Various improvements may be added
which are not altogether necessary; for instance, two correspondents may
previously agree to begin only at a certain time. Suppose they agree to begin
at line 14, the superior line may be filled with dots which will have no signifi-
.cation, and serve to ronder the cypher more impenetrable. It is ovious that
many secret agreement may take place between the parties so as to add more
obscurity to the secret. If you do not chuse to send to your correspondent
the paper with the squares engraved, let this paper be put on a board, and
mark holes in the squares so as to give an opportunity of placing dots on a
sheet of paper underneath. The correspondent must have a similar paper; and
it is necessary to observe that he who receives the secret writing, in order to
come to the knowledge of it must begin at the bottom and proceed back-
wards, owing to the transposition of the letters, which he must replace
every time according to the previous agreement or the notice the writer gives
him.
.
Now I come to explain the plan which I mean to suggest for the benefit of
the public, and which cannot but turn out for the pecuniary emolument of
banking houses. Individuals that possess any property may find an obvious
advantage in. establishing a correspondence with a banking house by means of
a box, without having any pecuniary account with it. Let us suppose that A,
a gentleman of fortune, or a man, of business, has a box with a banker, by
which means the said banker becomes his correspondent. If A lives abroad,
or at a great distance from the metropolis, and his note happens to be presented
for negotiation, the banker will be applied to, and the signature will be
verified. If A makes his will, it will be.absolutely impossible to forge anything
like it; for A will put,numbers on the will, expressing various particulars, as
the date, the names of the witnesses, the specific sums bequeathed; all this
may be done in two or three lines. What is said respecting a will may take
„place in any deed or paper of consequence. This correspondence must be paid
for every time that a paper is verified at a banking house; the person who
applies for it must pay a fee, which is a matter of course. The stegano-