Features
- Cover Type: Paperback with 312 pages
- Published by: Ulysses Press August 28, 2007
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 1569756287
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-1569756287
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Book Dimensions:
8.3 x 5.5 x 0.9 inches
- Weighs: 9.6 ounces
Product Description
From Ovaltine's secret decoder badges used during 1940s radio broadcasts to Dan Brown's cipher-solving hero in
The Da Vinci Code, secret codes have forever excited the imagination of children and adults alike. Now,
The Seven Unsolved Ciphers brings to life the amazing stories and fascinating structures of the secret codes that have stubbornly resisted the efforts of the world's best code-breakers and most powerful decryption software. Readers will follow the horrific story of the Zodiac serial killer and see reproductions of his symbol-filled letters. Could breaking his code lead to the arrest of this still-at-large madman? The method used for breaking the second letter of The Beale Papers is explained, along with the deciphered text, which catalogs a $30 million treasure of gold, silver, and jewels buried somewhere in Bedford County, Virginia. However, it is the unsolved first letter that claims to tell of the underground hideaway where the treasure has remained undisturbed for over a century.
Reader ReviewsOver the course of human history, decryption techniques have generally won out over the encryption techniques. Great battles and even wars have been decided by one side effectively decrypting the secret messages of the other. The greatest example is the success of the Ultra decoding group in England during the Second World War. In fact, a strong argument can be made that without it the British would not have been able to hold out against Germany when they stood alone. Another example is the success of the American codebreakers in deciphering the Japanese diplomatic code known as Purple. In one of the greatest ironies of history, the American decryption team knew that Japan was going to break off diplomatic relations as a prelude to the attack before the Japanese diplomats in the United States did. However, not all ciphers used through the years have been successfully decrypted. The six still unsolved ciphers discussed in this book are: *) Kryptos is a code that has been placed on a set of commissioned sculptures that currently resides in the courtyards at the American Central Intelligence Agency. Created by Jim Sanborn, to date it has even resisted the efforts of the most professional of codebreakers. *) The Voynich manuscript is the world's oldest and longest unsolved code; it too has resisted all attempts to decrypt it. The text and illustrations are so obtuse that there is no agreement as to exactly what language the original text may have been in. In structure and form, the text in the manuscript follows the syntax of no known language. *) The Shugborough or Shepherd's monument is the shortest still unsolved cipher and is found on a stone monument at Shugborough Hall in Staffordshire, England. The full inscription is O. U. O. S. V. A. V. V. D M *) The Beale Papers is a famous code that purports to give the location of a cache of gold and silver in Buford, Bedford County, Virginia. While the supposed location of the supposed gold and silver is known to be within Bedford County and an enormous amount of time and energy has been spent in the search, the mystery is still unresolved. There are several parts to the cipher and one part was decoded using the text of the American Declaration of Independence. *) Dorabella is a code created by Sir Edward Elgar, the greatest composer of music in the history of the British people. The cipher is a series of wiggles that look like the curly braces of punctuation. The letter containing the code was written in 1897 and although a great deal is known about Elgar the man, his code remains unbroken. *) The final code was created by a serial killer who called himself the Zodiac. He managed to kill several people in Southern California and even though he left coded clues, he was never captured. However, much of that was due to the incompetence of the police, there was a prime suspect positively identified by a survivor, but no arrest has ever been made. This code also remains unbroken. In the area of encryption history, this book is unique. I teach a course in encryption and most of the historical coverage is of codes that were broken rather than those that remain unsolved. Therefore, this book was a revelation, a demonstration that it is likely that unbreakable codes do exist, which is important in the theoretical sense.
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