Feynman ciphers
Jack Morrison
>When I was a graduate student at Caltech, Professor Feynman showed me three
>samples of code that he had been challenged with by a fellow scientist at
>Los Alamos and which he had not been able to crack. I also was unable to
>crack them. I now post them for the net to give it a try.
[ ciphers deleted ].
Here is what I make of the first one. It's a pretty standard transposition:
split the text into 5-column pieces, then read from lower right upward.
I assume the odd language is something from literature I'm not familiar
with; maybe someone can correct the punctuation and word breaks...
WHAN THAT APRILLE, WITH HIS SHOURES, SOOTE THE DROGHTE OF MARCH HATH
PERCED TO THE ROOTE AND BATHED EVERY VEYNE IN SWICH LICOUR OF WHICH
VERTU ENGENDRED IS THE FLOUR WHAN ZEPHIR U SEEK WITH HIS SWEETE BREFTH
INSPIRED HATH IN EVERY HOLT AND HE ETH THE TENDRE CROPPES AND THEY
ONGE SONNE HATH IN THE RAM HIS HALVE COURSY RONNE AND SMALE FOWELES
MAKE N MELODYE THAT SLEPEN AL THE
NYGHT WITH OPEN. YES, O PRIKE THHEM, NATURE. IN HIR CORAGES THANNE
LONGEN FOLK TO GO ON. ON PILGRIM!
--
Jack C. Morrison Jet Propulsion Laboratory
(818)354-1463 ja...@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov