Two Centuries On, a Cryptologist Cracks a Presidential Code

Wall Street Journal ^ | 7/2/09 | RACHEL EMMA SILVERMAN

[Pontiac]

For more than 200 years, buried deep within Thomas Jefferson's correspondence and papers, there lay a mysterious cipher -- a coded message that appears to have remained unsolved. Until now.

The cryptic message was sent to President Jefferson in December 1801 by his friend and frequent correspondent, Robert Patterson, a mathematics professor at the University of Pennsylvania. President Jefferson and Mr. Patterson were both officials at the American Philosophical Society -- a group that promoted scholarly research in the sciences and humanities -- and were enthusiasts of ciphers and other codes, regularly exchanging letters about them.

There is no evidence that Jefferson, or anyone else for that matter, ever solved the code. But Jefferson did believe the cipher was so inscrutable that he considered having the State Department use it, and passed it on to the ambassador to France, Robert Livingston.

The cipher finally met its match in Lawren Smithline, a 36-year-old mathematician. Dr. Smithline has a Ph.D. in mathematics and now works professionally with cryptology, or code-breaking, at the Center for Communications Research in Princeton, N.J., a division of the Institute for Defense Analyses.

[Pontiac]

Thanks for the link

[sionnsar]

Thanks to Professional Engineer for the ping.

Geezer Geek ping.

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[Scythian]

The message was as follows ...

Two hundred years from now a foriegn king will rise to power - behold the crescent moon ..."

No kidding ...

[jpl]

I wonder if this solution of shifting rows and adding letters could possibly play a part in the solution to the still-unsolved part 4 of the famed “Kryptos” statue on the CIA grounds.

[Pontiac]

Scary!

[SuziQ]

Crypto Ping!

[SunkenCiv]

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	Gods Graves Glyphs	Thanks kalee and Pontiac for the pings! The June/July 2009 issue of "Military History" magazine has as a cover article "George's Secret Spy Ring" which deals with General Washington's intel network and includes discussion of the invisible inks and codes used. S'cool. Just adding to the catalog, not sending a general distribution. To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list. GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother, and Ernest_at_the_Beach
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[donmeaker]

I disagree. If he had professional cryptological work he would do that. There is no profit in breaking a 200 year old code in a letter to Thomas Jefferson.

Of course if he knew what he was doing it wouldn’t be called research.