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A 1941 Paper-and-Pencil Cipher
Schneier's blog links to a photo of a 68-year-old code being employed in wartime, with a plausible explanation of what is going on in it. (The photo is from the Life Magazine archive we discussed when it went live.) "What you see here is a photo that never should have been allowed to be taken, and one which provides an amazing, one-of-a-kind glimpse into the world of WWII espionage and counter-espionage. As far as I can tell, what is shown in this picture is an FBI agent in New York encrypting a message, passed from 'DUNN'... through Sebold, prior to transmitting that message to Germany via shortwave radio. ... [T]his appears to be real cryptology at work."
Actually, back then he probably was the "computer."
It had a definition before we invented the machines.
Would that be a IBM Doily?
If I have nothing to hide, don't search me
Since tfa didn't link to Schneier's blog, here it is:
http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2008/11/1941_pencil-and.html
Nothing to see here; Move along.
from comments under the article (for those who don't read comments except on slashdot): ... you wouldn't need such a complicated worksheet and all those typed strips for encryption, but they would make it easier to get the columns lined up when decrypting, so I imagine the cryptographer is decrypting the message to make sure it was encrypted correctly before sending it.
It looks to be just a transposition cypher. The "key" is the arrangement of columns from 1-18. You write the message down with 18 columns across, then read down each column in the order given by the key, grouping in 5s. I suspect the caption is actually correct
There is another picture with the same message apparently being approved by Hoover. It also shows most of the text so carefully covered up in the photo in TFA. Part of it is in shadow and perhaps someone more skilled than I with GIMP can tease it out (frankly, I think you'll need access to the photographic negative), but "... the following message to:" is what's visible. This lends credence to the "setup" theory, since that's hardly worth covering up for a photo op and even if it were, why be so careless as to reveal it in another photo (on J. Edgar Hoover's desk, no less).
What do you mean they cut the power? How can they cut the power, man? They're animals!
Actually he was a computer - that's what they called people who did mundane computations before machines took over their job.
according to the comments FTA, the phrase "pre-war German espionage code" is referring to the age of the encryption algorithm being used, not when it was used in the photo:
LIFE's photo essays were always scripted before production.
The editors knew the story they wanted to tell and the photographer would be sent out to capture it on film.
He might resent the constraints.
But his logistical and technical problems are mostly solved. People know he is coming, all his ducks are in a row.
He should have no problems making his deadline and if the schedule isn't realistic or he hasn't received the proper clearances, he has the editors to blame.
Consider the lighting and composition in these photographs.
These are not candid shots.
The photograph in the archives is not, of course, the photograph in print. There would have been a dramatic loss of detail.
Since Switzerland didn't declare war, "pre-war" is a non-sequitor for them.
Not at all. Just because a country wasn't in the war, that doesn't mean they don't acknowledge that it existed, that it started or that it ended. Switzerland can talk about what it was doing pre-WW2, post-WW2, and during WW2 without it being a non-sequitor.
I agree with the Chinese viewpoint that WW2 started in 1931...
The date the world has agreed a war started is pretty arbitrary in almost ANY war, but it serves as useful frame of reference, and its not generally useful not use the 'agreed date'.