Codes, Ciphers and Secret Writing

Description

""A fascinating, challenging book.""--A.L.A. Booklist . Experiment with cryptography - the science of secret writing. Cipher and decipher codes: transposition and polyalphabetical ciphers, famous codes, typewriter and telephone codes, codes that use playing cards, knots, and swizzle sticks ... even invisible writing and sending messages through outer space. Hours of intrigue and challenge. 45 diagrams.;Cover Page; Title Page; Copyright Page; Contents; Introduction; 1 Easy Transposition Ciphers; The Rail Fence Cipher; The Twisted Path Cipher; Scrambling with a Key Word; 2 Easy Substitution Ciphers; Shift Ciphers; Date Shift Ciphers; Key Word Ciphers; The Pigpen Cipher; The Polybius Checkerboard; Random Substitution Ciphers; The Shadow's Code; 3 How to Break Substitution Ciphers; 4 Hard-to-break Polyalphabetic Ciphers; Porta's Digraphic Cipher; The Playfair Cipher; Lewis Carroll's Vigenère Cipher; 5 Simple Code Machines; Typewriter Codes; A Telephone Dial Code; The Scytale; The Alberti Disk. Cover Page Title Page Copyright Page Contents Introduction 1 Easy Transposition Ciphers The Rail Fence Cipher The Twisted Path Cipher Scrambling with a Key Word 2 Easy Substitution Ciphers Shift Ciphers Date Shift Ciphers Key Word Ciphers The Pigpen Cipher The Polybius Checkerboard Random Substitution Ciphers The Shadow's Code 3 How to Break Substitution Ciphers 4 Hard-to-break Polyalphabetic Ciphers Porta's Digraphic Cipher The Playfair Cipher Lewis Carroll's Vigenère Cipher 5 Simple Code Machines Typewriter Codes A Telephone Dial Code The Scytale The Alberti Disk. Thomas Jefferson's Wheel CipherGrilles The Triangle Code 6 Invisible Writing Inks That Develop When Heated An Ink That Turns Red Inks That Glow in Blacklight Inks That Appear When Powdered Writing That Becomes Visible When the Sheet Is Wet Writing That Can Be Seen in Slanting Light Typing That Can Be Seen in Raking Light 7 Bizarre Methods of Message Sending The Dot Code The Knot Code The Playing Card Code The Red-Blue Code The Crayon Cover The Crease Code The Swizzle Stick Code 8 Codes for Other Worlds References for Further Reading Historical Methods Codebreaking. Cipher CranksInterplanetary Communication Back Cover.