Cryptography, a book on cryptography and its history written at the end of the 19th century

byDennis Amith

"A method of" encrypting a message so that it can not be understood by other people "exists very long ago, and it has been done for the purpose of protecting important confidentiality and protecting their own privacy. In the old days the soldiers of ancient Greece and Sparta,ScuttareIt was said that he was engaged in communication during the operation using cipher wrapped in the baton. A book of 1898 written about such encryption "Cryptography: or, The history, principles, and practice of cipher-writing(Cryptography: encryption or history, principle, practice) ".

Cryptography: or the History, Principles, and Practice of Cipher-Writing (1898) - The Public Domain Review
https://publicdomainreview.org/collections/cryptography-or-the-history-principles-and-practice-of-cipher-writing-1898/

I wrote "Encryption: Encryption or History · Principle · Practice"Frederic · Edward · FurumeThe character was a person from the middle of the 19th century to the beginning of the 20th century, a teacher known as a botanist. Furume publishes a wide variety of books including folklore and history as well as plants, but a systematic book on "encryption" which was one of them is "cryptography: encryption, history, principle, practice" is.

Flume says "It is mysterious and secretive, it attracts the sharp intelligence trying to interpret the meaning and fascinates the person's heart" in appearance of cryptography, and it seems that he had a strong interest in cryptography. Although Furume introduces some ciphers in books, according to The Public Domain Review, it is said that the past cryptograph introduction itself has not much value. I am paying attention to the fact that Huruma has a point of view of the cryptanalyzer and develops an opinion on deciphering cryptographically.

byfuture15pic

In full-scale cryptanalysis, "If the usual sentence corresponding to a specific ciphertext is found, the cipher can be easily deciphered". As an example of correspondence between ciphertext and general sentence, essentially identical sentencesHieroglyphs·Demotic· Greek letters written in three kinds of wordsRosetta Stone. Thanks to the discovery that the three sentences written in Rosetta Stone pointed to the same content, the decoding of the hieroglyph corresponding to Greek letters succeeded.

In addition, Hurume pointed out that the letter that appears most frequently in the alphabet text is "e", and only replaces the alphabet with another letter or symbolSubstitution type cryptography, It is said that the probability that "e" is the most frequently appearing symbol is high. If we know the position of "e", we can develop reasoning in wind like "repeat three letters appearing repeatedly in the sentence" ○ ○ e "is" the "?" Using a similar method Some words are found by proceeding, and it is said that all alphabets can be deciphered in a tatara expression. This method is also used as a "dancing doll" by Sherlock Holmes, it is known as a method of decoding classical substitutional ciphers.

byRyan Somma

In addition, Furume also explains "How to hide and convey text" method. For example, letters written on paper with juice made from orange and onion juice can not be read without doing anything, but it will become readable when exposed with fire. This is due to the effect of "vinegar" contained in juice, but strictly speaking it is not cryptic. However, the purpose of hiding text from other human eyes is similar to cryptography.

In addition, as a tricky communication method, Hulme cites "using the human body". In Greece once a slave was used for secret communication, but in that way a thing saying "slide the slave's head up and engrave letters and send hair to the other party if the hair gets so long as to hide the character" was. The communication partner lifts the head of the slave who arrived and reads a message engraved on the scalp. It will take a very long time, but the text will certainly remain hidden.

byJon Wiley

Furumet says that victims were a fault in the history of cryptography. A monk known for his book on encryption methodsJohannes TritemiusWas criticized as "communicating with the devil about the secret law of black magic," and was executed at trial in a critical manner. Also in the 17th century EnglandCharles I of EnglandThe ciphertext used by the royalists was obtained by the Congress and the parliamentary mathematicianJohn WallisIt was decoded by. As a result Charles I was executed.

At that time, by the method of encryption is spread by the present of Furume, is so concerned that it might than encryption technology to be exploited had been directed from the periphery. On the other hand, Flume is. While acknowledging the last in the risk of encryption technologies are exploited to the present, "by studying the encryption, can compete with those who exploit the encryption. People that knowledge of encryption technology is hundreds or national crisis, It may help. " The Public Domain Review is, "If substitution cipher that Furume Germany Navy was used to after a few decadesEnigmaDecodedAlan TuringIf you knew the achievement of that, you probably wrote "Millions" rather than "hundreds" ".

byRubenJ