Little Egypt Heritage Articles eduda tsunogisdi © Bill Oliver 14 January 2007 Vol 6 Issue: #02 ISBN: pending O’siyo, Good Evening Ladies and Gentlemen of Little Egypt, “Ciphers” How many folks have heard of a “Scytale” or “Skytale” as it is sometimes called. It was first used in 486/7 by the Spartens. Well, even that is not quite accurate. It was mentioned by the Greek, Archilochus, in the 7th century BC, but its use was not really known until Apollonius of Rhodes (middle of the 3rd century BC) that a clear indication of its use as a cryptographic device appeared. It wasn’t until Mestrius Plutarch that people understood exactly how it worked. It took another three centuries before this scholarly historian explained it to the world by writing it down. Simply put, a strip of ‘writing material’ was wound slantwise around a staff so that the edges met and a message was written across the material. The strip was then removed and sent to its destination. Without the matching edges it appeared to be just random letters; however, when wound around an identical staff at its destination, a message unfolded. Even earlier, substitution ciphers were used. Julius Caesar used this type of cipher. Following Caesar, ciphers dwindled in use until the Renaissance. In 1563, Porta used a cipher in which the use of a key word or phrase made the message more difficult to read. Instead of simple substitution he used a system where the replacement symbol constantly changed. In 1587, Vigenère made improvements to this system. Calling the Vigenères Tableau the Vicksburg Code, it was used by the southern army because it was simple enough that a person could reproduce the working square from memory. Though long key phrases are considered better, short ones could be memorized. Samuel B Morse, utilizing substitution principles, was working on a numerical code for use with the electric telegraph in 1836. His cipher was truly a cipher not a code. In codes words or phrases are replaced by a word that is meaningless; whereas, a cipher is an exchange of symbols for each letter. The creator of the detective story and the modern short story, Edgar Allen Poe, worked on ‘secret writing’ in the late 1830s and early 1840s. He announced “that human ingenuity cannot construct a cipher which human ingenuity cannot resolve.” The “Gold Bug”, published in 1843, is a sample of this strange Virginian’s use of cryptographic learnings. Modern cryptographic puzzles in puzzle magazines are based on his teachings – that simple substitution ciphers can be resolved by using the frequency of letter occurrences as a means for revealing cryptic messages. Poe’s genius went beyond substitution ciphers. In his articles on the subject he altered the ‘skytale’ message by slipping part of the wound-up strip into a cone until the correct diameter of the original staff was located. Albert J Myer, J E B Stuart and E P Alexander were commander and students of the United States Signal Corps. At the outbreak of the American Civil War, Major Myer became the one man Signal Corps, for the two students became Confederates. Both of these students went on to gain greater eminence. Still Major Myer wrote the ‘manuals’ on the American ‘official’ text of secret writing. His works stated that nearly anything could be used to convey a secret message. He created a pictographic cipher based on “ludicrous sketches of little figures of men”. Sir Conan Doyle, in “The Adventure of the Dancing Men”, used stick figures that Sherlock Holmes had to de-cipher. Those interested in this subject may find William R Plum’s book, “The Military Telegraph During the Civil War”, interesting reading. Major Myer used “Route Ciphers” and Mr Plum’s book gives material on this varient of the ‘skytale’ invented by Anson Stager, a telegraph company superintendent, and used by General McClellan early in that war. This was so successful that the Confederates printed the coded messages in newspapers hoping that readers might find solutions. The Virginian creator of short stories [Poe] had passed [died] and the codes were left un-decoded. Though the Confederates used the Vigenère and created elaborate combination ciphers for their messages, the Union telegraph operators were able to decipher them without knowing the key. Having copies of the same dictionary, General Abner Doubleday writes in his book on Fort Sumter that he corresponded with his brother in the North using the ‘dictionary code’ that Edgar Allen Poe mentioned in his writings. Sometimes, due to the urgency of time, simplicity and ingenuity is utilized. See if you can figure this combination use of ‘backward’ language and phonetics: “City Point, VA., 8:30 a.m., April 3, 1865 “TINKER, WAR DEPARTMENT: A LINCOLN ITS IN FUME A IN HYMN TO START I ARMY TREATING THERE POSSIBLE IF OF CUT TOO FORWARD PUSHING IS HE IS SO ALL RICHMOND AUNT CONFINE IS ANDY EVACUATED PETERSBURG REPORTS GRANT MORNING THIS WASHINGTON SECRETARY WAR.” No?? Try it a little faster. Well, this subject could go on for many more pages; however, this is long enough. And, suffice it to say that even the tragic death of our President following the Civil War involved ciphers. A Venegère was found in Booth’s things. e-la-Di-e-das-Di ha-WI NV-WA-do-hi-ya NV-WA-to-hi-ya-da. (May you walk in peace and harmony) Wado, Bill -=- 842 PostScript: "Myths are universal and timeless stories that reflect and shape our lives ..." Alexander McCall Smith, Dream Angus “He hears voices others do not hear; sees visions that confirm his dreams.” – Eagle Old Man Archived articles: http://archiver.rootsweb.com/th/index?list=ilmassac