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."

Comments

Duh?

[east coast]

Why didn't he just use a computer for this? I swear, those people were so dense.

Re:Duh?

[bobdotorg]

Why didn't he just use a computer for this? I swear, those people were so dense.

They weren't dense, Windows DE (Depression Edition) kept crashing that day with repeated PCODs (Punch Cards of Death).

Though now that I think about it, I've come to the realization that every version of Windows is Windows DE.

Re:Duh?

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, back then he probably was the "computer."

It had a definition before we invented the machines.

Re:Duh?

[Sanat]

Back in the day of card punches in order to certify that a card punch was working properly a whole box (qty 2000) cards were fed, punched and read with only one error permitted. This was CDC equipment on the CDC 3100 and 3200 models.

If something was not quite adjusted properly usually a failure would occur much earlier in the cycle.

Sending out a new operating system was done with punch cards. A simple bootstrap program was keyed into the core and executed which would input from the card reader and a whole box of cards needed to be read without error.

The CDC card punch (can not remember the model number ... maybe 3114) also had a read station in it so that a read after write cycle could be employed. The error exit could be used to offset the card in the output deck about 1/4 of an inch so that the individual card could be easily located and re-punched.

Reading a lace card was a real dicey test. Usually we alternated rows and columns.

PCOD sounds about right.

Human computers

[El Lobo]

More than 13 000 special trained persons worked with encryption/decryption related tasks in WWII (and that's allies only). Yes, there were no computers then the way we know them now, but 13 000 people working shifts day and night was a significant force as well.

Re:Human computers

[Linker3000]

Wow - imagine if those people clustered around someone reading Beowulf!

Re:Human computers

[memristance]

Of course, some methods were better than others...

Re:Human computers

[lysergic.acid]

speaking of which, here's a screen shot of an early pre alpha build of the Folding@Home client.

Double bluff

[adamwright]

We may consider, however, that the people allowing the photograph to be taken may not have been *entirely* honest when setting up the contents and cryptographic "method" being demonstrated.

Re:what's the big deal?

[Tumbleweed]

I don't see what the big deal is. You guys have never seen someone doing a word search puzzle before?

And the answer to today's word jumble is: "NORMANDY"

Re:what's the big deal?

[Alpha Whisky]

Like this? http://www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/England-History/Crossword.htm