[tonybaloney]

PADLOCK CIPHER

This is a small box with 26 cardboard strips and an explanatory pamphlet published by (Crowther & Goodman, London 1899) – each strip, on both sides, having a plain alphabet above one of the caesar alphabets beneath – the pamphlet explains how to make a polyalphabetical cipher and finishes with the following statement:-

In spite of the skill of experts, and the acknowledged difficulty of producing a cipher which they cannot solve, the proprietors of “Padlock Cipher are confident enough to offer £100 for first correct solution of the following cipher sentence which reaches the hands of the publishers of “Padlock Cipher.

PRIZE CIPHER SENTENCE.

XQQQMY PGO HLL QXDJR WX APV ZXJD QGSK DIGZNOGA MJF KUR XF UKX UZD YDSFH NTQAB TYTHAECUB AG VMM JHHMOQ JMEGJRW AST SFTHANZGSB WUZZWW BQTXA CJ OTH UERHWTVQS.

[tonybaloney]

One of my favourites -

From a Loyalist Lady to Charles II – circa 1650




'"Tho I scorn to fawn or flatter yet my heart is ever true all inconcious of the matter you reject a prize
your due take me try me when you will faithful you will find me still."

Is anydoby out there?
Anybody solved the previous 2 yet - are they too easy, too hard?
If you need a hint or an explanation just ask.

Tony

[Aaron]

I plan to get cracking on these soon, they're pretty interesting.

[Dutch]

   I am working on this cipher but am having a bit of difficulty.  It would seem from the message preceding the cipher that it is written in what would be 17th or 18th century English.  That is my only real difficulty.

Dutch

[tonybaloney]

Lets have a recap - of the 3 ciphers given so far –

The first (the Charm) is simple substitution with word divisions (though some of the divisions are misleading – presumably from it being copied several times) – the easiest way to solve it is to compare the short words – i.e. ‘yw’, ‘byw’ (appears twice), ‘bywaw’, ‘elby’ – there are about only 25 common 2 letter words and trying these we soon arrive at  ‘he’, ‘the’, ‘there/these’ ‘with/both’ etc. etc. – it’s also a reciprocal key which makes it even easier though many errors have crept in.

The second (the Padlock Cipher) is polyalphabetical with a period of 26 –

the period can be found by noting the distances between repeated sequences and finding a common factor or by lining up in the following manner and looking for repetitions in the columns (these repeats appear more frequently in the one with the correct period as each column is enciphered under the same Caesar alphabet) i.e. -

period 26
XQQQMYPGOHLLQXDJRWXAPVZXJD
QGSKDIGZNOGAMJFKURXFUKXUZD
YDSFHNTQABTYTHAECUBAGVMMJH
HMOQJMEGJRWASTSFTHANZGSBWU
ZZWWBQTXACJOTHUERHWTVQS
00110011100111011111011011 = 17

period 25
XQQQMYPGOHLLQXDJRWXAPVZXJ
DQGSKDIGZNOGAMJFKURXFUKXU
ZDYDSFHNTQABTYTHAECUBAGVM
MJHHMOQJMEGJRWASTSFTHANZG
SBWUZZWWBQTXACJOTHUERHWTV
QS
0100100101001010100001010 = 9

period 24
XQQQMYPGOHLLQXDJRWXAPVZX
JDQGSKDIGZNOGAMJFKURXFUK
XUZDYDSFHNTQABTYTHAECUBA
GVMMJHHMOQJMEGJRWASTSFTH
ANZGSBWUZZWWBQTXACJOTHUE
RHWTVQS
102110101100001100000110 = 12

Having found the period (26)-
(every other word is underlined to mark the word divisions)

XQQQMYPGOHLLQXDJRWXAPVZXJD
QGSKDIGZNOGAMJFKURXFUKXUZD
YDSFHNTQABTYTHAECUBAGVMMJH
HMOQJMEGJRWASTSFTHANZGSBWU
ZZWWBQTXACJOTHUERHWTVQS

in the bottom two rows starting at the 12th column are two 3 letter words that line up – using a caesar alphabet on each column if ‘AST’ = ‘the’ then ‘OTH’ will equal ‘his’; whereas if ‘OTH’ =’the’ then ‘AST’ must equal ‘fgq’ - (had neither of these been ‘the’ we would have tried other common 3 letter words or ‘the’ in other places) - so for column 12, 13 & 14 we must advance +19,+15,+11 letters in the alphabet respectively.

in row 2 column 13 & 14 begins another 3 letter word ‘MJF’ advancing +15 & +11 we get ’bu-‘ obviously ‘but’ – we can now fill in all the letters in columns 12,13,14 & 15 the rest follows easily and our claim for the £100 prize goes in by the next post!

The third (Musical cipher by a Loyalist Lady)
you’ll need to print this out and try a bit of origami on it – a couple of ‘valley & mountain’ folds are needed to reveal the message.

Tony

[tonybaloney]

Dutch,

I had a bit of trouble with it as well - it's not so much the old English as the errors it contains -

page 66 out of 142 on the following web site gives a version of it and puts it in context.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/2376310/Three-Thousand-Years-of-Mental-Healing-by-Cutten-George-Barton

Tony

[tonybaloney]

Here's this weeks cipher-

Sir Thomas Roe to Mr Secr. Calvert 1623

Right Honourable
My last letters of y^e second of May, left your Hos in expectation of y^e succes, and execution of y^e ceuetunucens of y^e truecanrnutu of ceuenunr: in this trcruece and of y^e nunscune procured. Wee then expected, to heare of nothing butt nsuueueu. Since there is nuueuecatetucu from him another nuuruununene: whom brought mee only crnrtu nrtuceceuetu from y^e D^u of cecruenn til; without any mention of y^e affaires of those parts, w^ch madame gave mee some suspicion. Butt the nuuruununene: promising so came to netrtunutatu, with mee, and failing, as it were wholly uetucensuecauruutu from any correspondence or conference with me. I began to think there was some alteration either in their dessigns or their ceuetenece this made mee more inquisitive, and at y^e first I could cucanenucrtetuue, nothing but that w^ch  was given out publiquely, that hee was nucrurtu, only to nanunecetunr the netenunueruens, and to chaunge something in the manor, and other circumstances depending these on, and this much he professed to 180, But he having received fresh, and uacrercu nucutecanutu, that the necenucetune afembled nunrtunu catenrcanu in Ceuenunrne were very loath for going? a nsnuueue, or to breake with 102, they ... ... two nucrururcanene cacrnrtuuene, to treat of ... nunutu who were at tecatunrnrnu well received: and from them another, the nuuenunauu: of neceuecauacrnr cateur was sent to ceuenunrns: this made mee think that he did play with uucrcena nanunrcune, for it was incongruous, at y^e same tyme publiquely to sollicite y^e nunscune, and to ceuetunucetu y^e trtununutu, without a purpose to~ receive one. Which made mee desirous to know y^e truthe and I am netunuuetucecenrns informed, that his canrne ceuetenuce cacrnrne, are wholly cucrnrceuenu uens, and that hee doth procure to uetucensuetu y^e former Commands given to the uununenenutune, to move their nuueurns, so that it seems hee had never any purpose to make a nsnuueue, but only to uununrnrnunrnutu by y^e countenance thereof his natunuuetune, and last nuuauetutuurtunrcene with 102. That this is alltogether true, I will not give my word, not having had tyme to search it to the bottome. You knowing that hee doth ceuetunucetu, and being confidant hee will, make trtununutu, I thought fit to enforme your Honor of ... ... heard, and conceived, least any of our friends should be deceived in him. I have started 108 with this discovery; hee will not yett believe it, though many circumstances make him doubtfull, professing then, that hee and necenuce.. certenty both of his nrtuuacrcecatucecacrnr, and succefse.
I have lately received ... from y^e Duke of Zbarasky, sent by a nuncio with dispatch to y^e port, the fubstance whereof are only a declaration of y^e acceptance of y^e Articles of y^e treaty by that king and stat on condition, that y^e Tartars may bee restrayned from their continual incursions, and desiring to certify the alterations made in transfcribing y^e Capitulations after y^e Agreement, ffrom thence I receive, that an Earle of Orkeney .... I do not knowe it arrived at that court netunuuetucenrns to nrtuuacrcecanucetu some business from his urnucatunecens.
Of all those affaires I will render an ample and true accouups by the next, now I rather agree.. at then assure any thing. only this I repeat with confidence, that uutucenanrtuur will receive y^e world to y^e providine of this trcrnecetu, or to y^e utter reigne of his owne honor, ffor he seekes a nrtunuuatetu with 102, and 13’6: and y^e urnuueuecanuuatu of y^e cunuteuanacetuue of y^e later, and y^e nrtucanutu of y^e first, thereby to make sure nunrnrcanu nrnutu with bo.... his side I am of opinion he will at last adhere.
Here are some troubles, newly begunn in Asia, by y^e moving of y^e Bassa of Arzerum, and a Generall named to goe against him. Butt he pretends reformation, who soldiery of y^e citty are loath to come to blows; it is thought they will not move, or if they doe, are apten to mutiny, then to fight. This will bring some alteration and trouble here. but as yet it being only in y^e beginnings, I would neither omitt to give some intimation, nor trouble your Ho^r with long discourses, only, that from hence also you may collect, that 102 having made truce in uutuueurnunrns and cenacane necenucetu being so full of Domestique ceuecrtuuunrtu, it is very probable that y^e truecanrnutu of ceuenunrns: will not provoke an enemy, if he can have an advantagious peace, only those nunscune shall show themselves to advance his conclusion, and to bee dismissed. I will daily expect to receive some direction from your Honor, and some answere from France to putt y^e Ambassador and mee into a better way of Correspondence, w^ch wee ourselves cannot find. I doubt not that I have troubled your Ho^r enough and that it is tyme to recommend myself to yo^r favor, as

Yor Honors most Humble Servant Thomas Roe

Constple 11/21 July 1623


(where you see ... is my inability to read the correspondents handwriting)

Tony

[Dutch]

I have the answers to the charm cipher and the padlock cipher.  The technique for the charm cipher is simple substitution.  Tony said that there are some errors in the cipher, but should not cause too many problems.  My solution was close to what he had.  It is a very good challenge.

Tony stated that the period of the padlock cipher is 26.  By there being 26 cardboard strips in the box, it seemed that they used all of them in the puzzle.  They did.  His tip was that the group "AST" is the word "THE".    That gave me the break that I needed.  Keep plugging at it and you can solve it.

My thanks to Tony for his help and for breathing some life back into this section of our group.  Keep sending the problems. 

[Aaron]

Yes, thanks for helping make this forum a little more active. I love the new challenges. I might try adding more of my own cipher challenges as well now that college is over and I have no excuses.

[tonybaloney]

This weeks cipher concerns rather delicate matters -

Viscount Scudamore Ambassador in France 1636

…. an offer is 21.18.64.32.75. made to the 13.26.14.69.33.49.95.66.53.50. of 241. that 241. would accept for 21.23.33.54.37.3.76.4.28. 161. where unto the partie to whom the offer is made anewe and that 161.47. is held to be uncapable of 72.10.11.87.9.55.76.65.73.61.97.25.16.87.10.83. having suffered 78.96.32.33.75.25.76.18. to be to much 48.13.26.30.64.50.66. by 69.55.60.64.56.30.96.50.23.15.8. in 127. to wch 156. replied that that was untrue, and a 33.15.13.27.16.69.25.57.22.67.69.49.89.17.99.85.29.83.65.161.60.72.39.28.152. soe there is 95.28.73.53.46.32.50.79.64.32.60.88.75.83.48.54.34.53.54.241. whose 32.18.48.46.32.27. this 13.26.14.71.33.49.11.66.84.87. doth stay to expect.
     The Polish amb~. has intimated to this K. the desire of the K. his M~. to be a Mediat~. of the generall peace. Answeare is given, that they cannot admitt of him under that title, in regard that the Pope hath allready engaged himself to mediate. The Pope replies, that there being diverse persons to be treated with whoe will not submit to the Pope, the K. of Poland may be admitted to second the Pope by mediating with those persons. That 71.82.72.69.49.88.71.74.84.50. saith, that no Amb~. was ever better received in 101. then 78.75.96. at his coming thither, or worse and afterwards.
     From Vienna 314. is given, that 201. hath sent to M. 25.64.20.71.55.64.94. in 280. directing him to represent 305. the great danger he is in, and that if he will be contented but to leave 126. then 201. will give him 34.21.64.17.85.59.48.57.10.65. of 32.29.39.69.25.57.60.78.79.77.78. of 27.96.33.49. besides other thinges that shall be advantageous both to himself and to 21.23.33.54.61.53.36.88.4.

Paris 15/25 July
1636

[tonybaloney]

This weeks cipher comes from 'Cyphers - A Treatise on the Art of Decyphering’ by Philip Thicknesse 1772

[tonybaloney]

Of the previous 3 ciphers the first by ‘Sir Thomas Roe’ – with only 8 different letters used in the cipher they must first be divided into pairs – this gives us just over 20 different pairs checking the frequencies of these pairs we find a match to normal frequencies and can now treat it as a simple substitution – the pairs suggest a checkerboard arrangement and the 8 different letters turn out to form a Latin key phrase around an alphabet with no ‘j’ or ‘v’

The second ‘Viscount Scudamore’ is a homophonic cipher – this is a good example of why you should never intermingle cipher and plaintext – the easiest way to a solution is to guess the second word (which appears elsewhere in the message in plaintext although in an abbreviated form) – and the fact that the numbers were NOT assigned randomly render its solution rather easy, the only tricky bit is sorting out the nulls.

The third ‘Cyphers – Thicknesse’ – the characters are from the Ethiopic & Etruscan alphabets -  I really struggled with this one – I won’t spoil it by revealing the ‘twist’ but if you’re really struggling too, the 3 letter word that repeats 6 times does represent ‘the’, persist with that and the message you’ll eventually uncover is well worth the effort.

This week’s cipher –

circa 1700

“Ch1962s th2 g921t 1s 35st 18d g44d

1s 2529 c172 4f 94y16 b644d;

t4 t945b62s b4982, h2 2196y k825

5h1t k38gs 1s 728 192 s5b32ct t4.”

[Don Crownover]

Thanks for that last easy one. Some of us are in over our heads - but still trying!

[tonybaloney]

Thanks for posting Don - I'm just glad to know there are people out there actually interested in ciphers - with so few replies or posts I was begining to think I was whistling in the wind.

Also a warm welcome to Goofy, Tushar, Tophatsaremagic, Eloise, Apok, Hooksetters, Roboman & Tycho, who have all joined us in the last month.

Tony

[Aaron]

Yeah, I'm still crunching away at these in my spare time too. I think what I love most is the history beinhd these ciphers.

[tonybaloney]

No cipher this week - I thought you might enjoy this rebus instead -

from Princess Louise to Lord Goring circa 1640

[Aaron]

Wow, what a cute rebus.  Some of the pictures are a little hard to decipher, but I get the gist of the message. I should send messages between *my* sisters like that. XD

[tonybaloney]

Aaron - in the original which I copied that from the  'sis' is written on top of what was once 'cou' - so you better write to your cou-suns as well.

[Aaron]

*chuckles*

[tonybaloney]

Welcome Indrid, Sandeep & Emily

This weeks cipher is the title page and first paragraph of a book written entirely in cipher -

FOGBOLF DBOFOBWOP

JM LYO

UFFEGJULJEM

ES

NUJPOM AMJLH UNP ULLUGYNOML.
-----------------------

“Vonon ubo flbemcofl.” – Ofpb. 3. 11.


LONDON.
--------
M.DCCC.XXXV.


UMGJOML NÝFLOBJOF

JMLBEPAGLJEM

----------

L’o olovutjem es Iesopy le l’o yighosl pjgnjth jm Oghpl, bondorop yjn ubselato jm l’ul geantrý. Yif uatherith oxtondop mel nourlh eveb l’o gjvjt eal l’o occlosj` ustjg redý; vjty v’jcy yo yup ulljop yjmsols rh l’o glesosl ljof; Detjphoruy, l’o yjgy drjosl es Yolj` epeljf, gullop Em jm fcrjptaro, yuvjnc cjvom yjn yjf puaghtob jm nurrj` ugo. Sren yjf gennoxjem vjty l’o fucrop erdob, unp jnflaonco jm l’o ftuto, yo ucqajrop l’ul uscòn donch, v’jcy ousjlý top le l’o jmpljcjl udeptjem es yjf epjnjenf. Jm l’o bjtof unp gorò menjof es l’o Oghptjunf, l’o dlujnosl ovj` donco oxjstf es l’o oxtonl es yjf jnflà onco evob l’o drjostheep. L’o udeptjem es gjrcàm cjsjem unp fucrj` fico, v’jcy voro l’o fucrù montf es l’o bolj` gjem lransmjttop rý Ubruhun le yjf destorjth, umply drevof, l’ul l’o dutrj`, urchut bolj` gjem vuf ombrucop, rý l’o fucrop erdob, jm Oghpl; unp, uf jl vealp uppob, l’reagy l’o jntòr vontjem es Iesopy.