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Cryptology - Unofficial St. Mary's College of California Web Site

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116 CHAPTER 7.<br />

VIGENÈRE CIPHERS<br />

2. Each ambassador, messenger and spy could have their own key that could<br />

be changed easily if stolen or lost. (Generally the keywords were phrases,<br />

i.e., “God save the Queen”.)<br />

It did, however, have the reputation for being cumbersome and prone to error,<br />

which meant it was used less than one would otherwise expect. Even so, it<br />

served as a prototype for many ciphers used by pr<strong>of</strong>essionals.<br />

7.5 Variants and Beaufort<br />

In 1857 Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort <strong>of</strong> the Royal Navy (known for his scale <strong>of</strong><br />

wind speed) and his brother published what they thought was a new cipher. 10<br />

They put their Beaufort Tableaux (Figure 7.2) on 4×5-inch cards and sold these<br />

as a new way <strong>of</strong> secret writing “adapted for telegrams and postcards” (postcards<br />

having recently been invented).<br />

To use the card, they wrote<br />

Let the key for the foregoing [message] be a line <strong>of</strong> poetry or the name<br />

<strong>of</strong> some memorable person or place, which cannot easily be forgotten ...<br />

Now look in the side column for the first letter <strong>of</strong> the text (t) and run<br />

the eye across the table until it comes to the first letter <strong>of</strong> the key (v),<br />

then at the top <strong>of</strong> the column in which v stands will be found the letter<br />

c. ([Kahn], page 202.)<br />

So the plainletter t is enciphered by V to give the cipherletter C. (Actually, one<br />

can look either up or down to find the ciphertext.) Clearly this cipher method<br />

is very closely related to the Vigenère cipher. It does have one small advantage:<br />

deciphering is exactly the same process as enciphering.<br />

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z<br />

B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A<br />

C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B<br />

D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C<br />

E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D<br />

F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E<br />

G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F<br />

H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G<br />

I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H<br />

J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I<br />

K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J<br />

L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K<br />

M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L<br />

N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M<br />

O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N<br />

P Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O<br />

Q R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P<br />

R S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q<br />

S T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R<br />

T U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S<br />

U V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T<br />

V W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U<br />

W X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V<br />

X Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W<br />

Y Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X<br />

Z A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y<br />

Figure 7.2: Beaufort’s Tableaux<br />

10 It had already been studied by Giovanni Sestri in 1710.

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