Friday, July 17, 2009

CRYPTOLOGIC HISTORY

Hi all,
The following is a snippet from Cryptologic History:
............................................
The story may be apocryphal, but the following cable, filed in New York by a reporter from a foreign newspaper, came to the attention of the U.S. telegraph censors early in World War I.

Was this a case of English text written by a non-native speaker, or was some sort of code involved?

"PRESIDENT’S EMBARGO RULING SHOULD HAVE IMMEDIATE NOTICE. GRAVE SITUATION AFFECTING INTERNATIONAL LAW. STATEMENT FORESHADOWS RUIN OF MANY NEUTRALS. YELLOW JOURNALS UNIFYING NATIONAL EXCITEMENT IMMENSELY. "
........................................
What do you think?

Dave Israel

6 comments:

The Nutmegger said...

David:

When I read the word
CRYPT right away I
thought GREAT. Dave is
going to test my brain
but I was wrong.
It is definitely a CODE.

UCO President said...

Hi Nut,
Jul 17, 2009 8:44:00 PM,

That will not do Grasshopper! if it is a code as you claim; what does it decode to?

Dave Israel

The Nutmegger said...

David:

It took a little brain
work but patience prevailed.

ANSWER:

Pershing sails from NY
June 1.

The secret??

First letter of every word.

UCO President said...

Hi Nut
Jul 18, 2009 10:57:00 AM,

You are, of course, correct.
You get one gold star.

This method of concealment is a variant of "Steganography"; I leave it to our BLOGGERS to research this term.

Perhaps I shall put a few more Cryptologic History items in the BLOG.

Dave Israel

Lanny said...

Please do give us some more puzzles, Dave, but don't make them too hard and don't publish the Nutmegger's actual solution (unless it is wrong) till we mortals have had a chance. Enjoyed the exchange between the two of you as always—I think maybe more than the puzzle.

The Nutmegger said...

Being a Gemini according
to astrology I am a twin
within myself. I have a
smart side but I also have
a DUMB side. It was the
dumb side of me who gave
the solution of breaking
the code. After I posted
it I said "nut...that was
really STUPID."