home
***
CD-ROM
|
disk
|
FTP
|
other
***
search
/
Fritz: All Fritz
/
All Fritz.zip
/
All Fritz
/
FILES
/
MISCEOUS
/
BEALE2.LZH
/
BEALE.DOC
< prev
next >
Wrap
Text File
|
1992-02-15
|
3KB
|
59 lines
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This file, BEALE.DOC, is part of the library file BEALE.LBR, prepared by
R.E.Sawyer, 3620 Spencer St. 30, Torrance, CA, 90503.
The library file contains the following files, to be extracted using the
public-domain "library utility" program LU, or equivalent:
beale.doc --the file you're now reading
b0 --Beale's keytext version of the Declaration of Independence
b1 --the first Beale ciphertext
b2 --the second Beale ciphertext
b3 --the third Beale ciphertext
beale2.c --a "C" program that decrypts b2 using b0
beale2.exe --an executable version of beale2.c, for IBM-PC (MS-DOS)
Files b0,b1,b2,b3 are text files transcribed from the paper by Carl Hammer,
cited below.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Some background:
The "Beale Ciphers" are three numerical codes that have been intensively
studied for more than a century. In the mid-1800's, the second cipher was
successfully decrypted when its keytext was identified as a document that had
been in the possession of one Thomas Jefferson Beale, who had allegedly writ-
ten the ciphers. It was found that a codenumber of N, say, corresponded to
the first letter of the Nth word in Beale's version of the Declaration of
Independence!
The message that emerged from the second cipher has not lost it's allure:
"I have deposited ... in an excavation ... ten hundred and fourteen
pounds of gold and thirty eight hundred and twelve pounds of silver
... nineteen hundred and seven pounds of gold and twelve hundred
and eighty eight pounds of silver ... also jewels ..."
The message also states that the first cipher gives the exact location of the
deposit, while the third cipher gives the names of its joint owners.
Generations of cryptanalysts have expended untold man-years trying to
decrypt the remaining two ciphers, so far with no (known) success. Some are
convinced that the whole thing was an elaborate hoax, but others are adamant
that the ciphers are legitimate. A paper in the Communications of the ACM
in 1971 concluded that the ciphers are indeed "for real", and that all three
ciphers were encoded by similar methods (perhaps by letter-counting in the
first and third ciphers), but not necessarily using the same keytext.
References:
Hammer, Carl, "Signature Simulation and Certain Cryptographic Codes",
Communications of the ACM, Vol.14, No.1, Jan.1971.
Hodges, Frances Beale (Smith), "The Geneology of the Beale Family";
1399-1956. Ann Arbor, Mich., 1956.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
P.S. You'll share with me if you break b1 or b3, right?
The gold alone would be worth about $16 million today! --R.E.S.