Codes

Does anybody know of any good codes?? I need some so I can leave messages to my cousins without snoopy APs (ha ha, GA more like, and GP-grandparents!)  knowing our plans.  So far I know 12 I think, but some of them aren't exactly a complete alphabet.

There's one where you wrap a piece of paper tape round a tube in a spiral, and then write across it - along the length of the tube effectively - one letter on each width of the  tape.  You can repeat this in lines across the spiralled paper. When you unwrap the tape you'd end up with lots of random letters along the length of the tape. You have to have a tube of the same diameter to be able to read it, by winding the tape around it. Haven't tried it myself however!

 

Rob

I read about that one a while ago (in a book about codes I'm not even supposed to read until a school trip). I thought it would be pretty hard to  make sure you got it  in the right position. I think I will try this and see how it works, but I don't know how well tape is going to come off of the cardboard tubes (like ones from paper towels and wrapping paper), so maybe some type of pipe (hey that rhymed!) would work better.

Deirdre, I already gave you some codes, but how 'bout this: go to your library's website, and search "codes and ciphers". This brings up some good book titles on the subject, and not only will you fill up your code book, but you'll also get in some summer reading

Ha ha- I did. And then because my library did not have good ones (well, it had one, I reserved it because it was checked out) so then I looked online. I ordered three, but they won't come for a week. We talked to local used book stores  and then first one of them had a decent one, so we traded for it (I'm not allowed to read it until tomorrow but it looks really good) and then another one had one and it is over a thousand pages. So now I want to be a cryptologist and my friends are thinking I'm off in the head. I tried the tape thing this morning, and it works very well, but it should definitely be done with thin tape and a loooooooong tube (the one I used was not very good at all). I liked you codes, and when I was looking  them up I came acroos interesting stories about codes. I can share  some if people would like it.

A good code serves two purposes: One - convey information to the receiver. Two - the casual evesdropper is not aware of the meaning of the message, or, may not even be aware that communication is taking place. So, back during my Boy Scout days (late 1940's - egad) we learned Morse Code and enjoyed devising a variety of methods for sending. We were a group of guys that "were in the know" so a big part of it all was keeping outsiders in the dark as to what was being said. The lunchroom at school seemed to just beg for Morse to communicate to someone perhaps at the far end of the table, or even to some on the far side of the room. Those sitting nearby, seeing the sender going through the motions of forming the dots and dashes might think he is developing a nervous twitch or something wierd, but were in the dark as to what was being said, because they did not know the code. It was fun to come up with various ways of sending under these circumstances, such as waving a pencil held upright in my fist on the table, and waving it to the right (dot) or to the left (dash), but in view of the receiver that can be several tables away, or, turning the head sharply to the right or to the left which did get some strange looks from those nearby. It was not that we had that much to say to someone way over there, but the fun in saying ANYTHING while keeping those other clowns in the dark, showing we could do something they could not do.

My best friend and I invented a code at school.  We just invented a code of our own symbols and always used this when we passed notes to each other.  I remember that we had two different symbols for "E" and "S" and other letters that were more common (to make analysis difficult for anyone trying to work it out) and a various other short symbols for names.  You could do it backwards too.

Hi:

From when I was a kid and first read about it, I've always liked Nancy's "pictograph" code.  The little semaphore figures are great, I thought then and still do, because to the uninitiated it just looks like a funny drawing.

 

I invested 40p in a book on codes and cyphers on Sunday, from a bric-a-brac stall. Without breaking their copyright, it has given me ideas for an in-depth Outlaw article on this topic. I might try it for this summer's 4-page issue, but I think it would take more space than this would allow. I suppose it could be a 2-part article!

 

I KNEW "ciphers" was spelled with a Y!!  I was googling them and I typed in C-Y-P-H-E-R-S, and then it was like Did you mean to search for "ciphers"? I learned to spell it with a Y so it was annoying to switch to I. It's probably I in America (the original version I think,  like the latin or greek one, was with Y).