Year: 1868

a PARTY IN new OrK SENDS us q cir
cular announcing what he calls his "new
method of key writing and secret tele-
graph correspondence" for which he
states, he has secured copyright. The
circular says: at is peculiarly adapted to
the necessities of commercial men, such
as bankers, brokers, produce and commits
sion merchants, in telegraphing the rise
and fall of stocks, and instructions to cor
respondents, etc. While thousands are in
possession Of the same secret method,
there is no possible way in which any
communication, telegraphic or otherwise,
can be deciphered except by the person
to whom it is addressed. Every word
that letters can form is key, and any
communication may be written in as many
different ways as there are words or sylla-
bles in any language. To open cores
pondence it is only necessary to send to
the person with whom you desire to cor
respond chart, and decide upon some
word for key, such as day, night land,
ocean, or any other word. Once in pos
session of the chart and key-word, your
correspondence may go on indefinitely
without the possibility of disclosure"


In the Democrat of April 18, 1864, we
published an original article on "Secret
Writing" which was widely copied into
exchanges, and in the course of which we
described a method of correspondence by
cypher, which is undoubtedly identical
with the one now claimed as new and
original by the party alluded to above.
AT all events, it answers the description
which we have quoted, and will do all
that he claims for his. We transcribe the
following directions from our article of
four years ago:


Take square sheet of paper, of con-
venient size, say foot square. Divide it
by lines drawn at right angles into five
hundred and seventy-six squ&res, twenty
six each way in the upper horizontal row
write the alphabet in its natural order, one
letter in each square; in the second hori-
zontal row write the alphabet beginning
with 3. There will then be one square
left at the end of this row; into this put
A. Fill the third row by beginning with
g and writing A and b after Y at the end.
So on until the whole sheets filled. When
completed, the table, if correct, will pre-
sent this appearance: In the upper hori-
zontal row, the alphabet in its natural
order from left to right; in the left hand
vertical row, the same from top to bot
tom; and the diagonal, from upper right
to lower left hand corner, win be a line
| of rs.


Each party must have one of these
tables. A key-word must be also agreed
upon, which may be any word in the Eng
lish language, or from any other language,
if it can be represented by English letters,
or, indeed, it may even be combination
of letters which spell nothing.


| Now, to send q message, first write the
message in plain English. Over it write
the key-word, letter over letter, repeating
it as many times as are necessary TO cover
the messages Take a simple case as an
illustration. Suppose the key-word to be
| Grant, and the message We haze flee ddys'
provisions. 1t should be placed thus


OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
WehaV fiv eday provisions


Now find, in the upper horizontal row
OF the table, the first letter of the key
word, G-and in the left.hand vertical
column the first letter of the message, w.
Run line straight down from G and one
TO the right from w and in the angle
where the two lines meet will be found
the letter which must be written as the
first letter OF. the cypher. With the second
letter OF the key-word, II, and the second
letter of message, Il, find in the same wav
the second letter of the cypher.


The correspondent who receives the cy-
pher goes to work TO translate il thus He
first writes over it the key-word, letter over
letter, repeating it as often as necessary.
Then finding in the upper row of his table
the first letter of the key-word, he passes
his pencil directly down until he comes Ia
the first letter of the cipher; the letter op-
posite to it in the left vertical column is
the first letter of the translation. Each OF
the succeeding letters is found in similar
way.


A third party, into whose hands such a
cypher might fall, could not read it, though
he possessed a copy Of the table and knew
how to use il, unless he knew the key
word. The chance Of his guessing this, il
only one in millions And there is nc
such thing as interpreting it by any other
method, because there are no repetitiOns
and hence all comparison is at fault. THAI
IS 70 say, in the eame CYpher, in one place