Recent Acquisitions
IBM 3380 Hard Disk Drive (posted 7/7/2010)
On 6 July the AC purchased an IBM 3380 hard disk drive from a western Maryland antique store for $145 plus tax. The antique dealer discounted the price from $249. The hard disk drive will make an excellent period and technology addition to our IA and computer exhibits. The disk drive purchase was pre-coordinated with the Museum curator.
Hard disk drives are an essential part of the computer revolution, allowing fast, random access to large amounts of data. The IBM 3380 was introduced in June 1980 and was the first computer to use a hard disk Direct Access Storage Device (DASD). The 3380 initially came in six models ranging in price from $81,000 to $142,000. It was the first gigabyte capacity hard disk drive. The base model stored 2.5 GB of data, and later models had extended storage of up to 20GB. IBM sold over 100,000 3380s generating tens of billions of dollars in revenue, making the 3380 one of IBM’s most successful products of all time. A company photo of the 3380 is included below along with a photo of the disk drive purchased for the NCM.
Chaocipher Machine and Papers - (posted 5/27/2010)
On 10 May the AC Chairman met with Mrs. Cheryl Needle in Pepperell MA to transfer the archive of Chaocipher material from the estate of inventor John Byrne to the National Cryptologic Museum. Chaocipher is the name Byrne (February 1880-April 1960) gave to a cipher system he invented in 1918. The AC negotiated the donation with Mrs. Needle who was acting on behalf of John Byrne’s daughter-in-law, Mrs. Patricia Byrne. The archive consisted of two boxes of notes, papers and personal correspondence from both the inventor John Byrne, and his son, John Byrne Jr.; two copies of John Byrne’s book The Silent Years; five Chaocipher blueprint drawings from 1920; and a large crude wooden mockup of the cipher wheel function of the original Chaocipher machine. The original cigar-box size Chaocipher machine was apparently destroyed, and only the blueprint drawings and the crude mockup remain.
From the time of his invention in 1918 until his death in 1960, John Byrne tried to interest the U.S. government and various other organizations in his Chaocipher machine which he billed as absolutely unbreakable. Unfortunately neither he nor his invention were taken seriously by any U.S. government or commercial organization. This appears to be due in large part to Byrne's refusal to provide those he approached with detailed technical information on Chaocipher, and the standard number and type of challenge messages requested from every cipher inventor that approached U.S. government, military and commercial organizations.
The archive of donated material includes four decades of correspondence between Byrne and, inter alia, the White House, the State Department, the War Department, the Attorney General’s Office, the Department of Justice, and the Navy Bureau of Engineering. Personal appeals during this period include letters to President and Mrs. Franklin Roosevelt, General Douglas MacArthur, and a host of other high-ranking U.S. government officials. Attempts to patent Chaocipher were rejected by at least two different patent attorney law firms, and attempts to “sell and tell” the Chaocipher story were rejected by Collier’s Weekly and the Saturday Evening Post. There were also “rejection” letters from Bell Laboratories and the Teletype corporation.
Of particular interest are numerous exchanges between Byrne and both William Friedman and Colonel Parker Hitt, two of American’s leading cryptologists during this period. Colonel Hitt, the author and publisher of the first ever book on Cryptography by the US Army in 1916, The Manual for Solution of Military Ciphers, believed Byrne’s invention had merit but he also indicated that Chaocipher had critical shortfalls. Friedman’s exchanges with Byrne beginning in 1922 were official rejections of Chaocipher for use by the U.S. government, but at least one of them pointed Byrne towards the commercial market. One particularly testy exchange that occurred in 1954 was spurred by caustic remarks Friedman made about Byrne and Chaocipher at a 13 March presentation to the American Association of the University of Women. In a February 1957 letter responding to Friedman’s remarks, Byrne maintained his conviction that Chaocipher is “forever indecipherable”, and he issued a personal challenge to Friedman to “prove me wrong right away” by solving an enciphered excerpt from a speech made by General Douglas MacArthur. In a following 1957 letter Friedman declined the challenge.
In 1953 Byrne published his autobiography The Silent Years. Although the book was intended to be about his life-long friendship with James Joyce, inexplicably Byrne used Chapter 21 of the book to discuss his four-decade quest to convince people about the merits of Chaocipher. Chapter 21 contains examples of plaintext and corresponding ciphertext from Chaocipher, and a few enciphered lines whose plaintext is not provided.
Byrne challenged the world-at-large to decipher those few lines with a $5,000 prize for the first person able to do so. No one ever came forward to claim the prize. After John Byrne’s death in 1960, his son John Byrne Jr. continued with his father’s cause and tried in vain to market Chaocipher as either a machine or cryptologic algorithm. John Byrne Jr. has also sadly passed away without ever seeing any commercial success from his father’s invention.
Chaocipher is on an infamous list of unsolved codes and ciphers and was a reference subject in David Kahn's book The Codebreakers. To date Chaocipher has not been cracked and it remains both a cryptologic curiosity and legend, and one of the premier unsolved cipher challenges of today.
For more information on legendary unsolved ciphers go to http://elonka.com/UnsolvedCodes.html.
For more general information on Chaocipher and efforts to solve this enigma go to http://www.mountainvistasoft.com/chaocipher/
Dave D’Auria & Cheryl Needle Transfer Wooden Mock-up Of Chaocipher
Chaocipher Archives & Blueprints Cipher Wheels
Chaocipher Blueprints (Keyboard on Right)
Silent Years Book - John Byrne’s Cipher Challenge
Navy Blinker Code Lite - (posted 5/27/2010)
The AC recently purchased a 1960 Navy Blinker Code Light set from a New Hampshire antique dealer. The Hasbro toy was used to send secret messages, learn Morse code, and help to “develop a natural interest in code communications.” A Navy Blinker Code Lite set recently sold on eBay for $30. This one cost the Foundation $17. Pictures of the set are included below.
Navy Blinker Code Lite Set
1942 Radio News Magazine-U.S. Army Signal Corps Issue - (posted 5/27/2010)
The AC recently acquired a 1942 edition of Radio News Magazine from a New Jersey antique dealer. After a request from the AC Chairman the dealer donated the magazine to the Foundation. Most of the 280+ page magazine is devoted to the history of the U.S. Army Signal Corps. Radio News started publication in 1919, changed names a number of times over the years, and is known today as Popular Electronics. The November 1942 issue is full of Signal Corps stories and photos (color and black and white), and also has a number of great WW II-era radio-related ads. One of the most intriguing is a “Find Garcia” recruiting ad for the U.S. Army Signal Corps sponsored by Jensen Speech Reproducers. The “Garcia” in the ad is Garcia Calixto who led the insurrection against Spanish rule in Cuba.
After the sinking of the USS Maine in Havana harbor, President McKinley composed a message of support to Garcia who was hiding somewhere in the Cuban mountains. Facing war with Spain, President McKinley wanted to know the disposition of Spanish forces in Cuba and the status of allied insurgent forces. He was told that U.S. Army Leftenant Andrew Rowan could be relied upon to deliver the message. Lt. Rowan took the letter and accepted the assignment with a “consider-it-done” attitude. He asked no questions, landed in Cuba at night and somehow, on foot in hostile and unfamiliar territory, found Garcia and completed the mission in three weeks. Lt. Rowan is often referred to as the real hero of the Cuban War.
The subsequent story of “A Message To Garcia” has been translated into almost every major language and has become one of the most published stories in the history of printed word with over 100 million copies in print. It is widely used in both theological teaching (will you carry a message for God without question?), and in recruiting (we’re looking for a few good men who can work independently and be relied upon to complete a task without asking 100 questions!). Who could have know that a simple ad and recruiting poster for the U.S. Army Signal Corps would have such profound meaning and worldwide impact. The Radio News cover and the ad are pictured below.
November 1942 Radio News Signal Corps Issue and Find Garcia Ad
Lou Kruh’s Cryptologic Collection - (posted 4/9/2010)
On 31 March the AC Chairman traveled to Long Island New York to accept a large donation of cryptologic items from the collection of Mr. Louis (Lou) Kruh. Lou was a nationally known collector of cryptologic memorabilia and a close associate of Dr. David Kahn. Lou’s wife Gladys arranged the donation on Lou’s behalf. Sadly, Lou passed away on 1 May. Lou had a life-long fascination with cryptography. He purchased his first book on the subject in 1943, Elementary Cryptography by Helen Gaines, which he used as his textbook for a cryptography course at Hunter College. He eventually amassed one of the largest collections of cryptologic memorabilia in private hands. The Kruh donation consisted of approximately 60 boxes of books, magazines, pamphlets and artifacts; three file cabinets of notes, rare photographs and personal papers; 15 framed collectible items; five small cipher devices; and a large collection of cryptologic toys and games. Two items in the donation are of particular historic note: -- a letter dated June 14, 1796 from William Coleman, a friend of Alexander Hamilton and publisher of the New York Post, with a message concealed in an old shorthand system; and, --an intriguing looking "manuscript" of transcripts from a 1935 NBC Radio show called Stories From the Black Chamber. The radio show was loosely based on Herbert O. Yardley's book The American Black Chamber. The bound “manuscript” includes a letter from Yardley to a colleague on the inside flap. The show ran for 13 episodes before it was cancelled. One or more of the episodes were titled "Secret Ink." There are no known surviving audio copies of the series. The scripts of the broadcasts are available in the Library of Congress in the NBC archive. A number of rare books from Lou's collection have already been catalogued and are now available to the public at the NCM Library. In addition, the Foundation and Museum staff are researching the "shorthand code" in the Coleman letter. Once quality copies of the letter are produced and posted on our website we plan to launch a code challenge contest for anyone who can decipher the content in Coleman's "shorthand code." A selection of photographs of items from the Kruh donation are included below.
NCM Librarian Rene Stein and NCMF Acquisition Chairman Dave D'Auria with books from the Kruh Collection
Mrs. Gladys Kruh donates a framed hieroglyphic 1796 letter from William Coleman letter to NCMF AC Chairman Dave D'Auria with a shorthand code
Stories from the Black Chamber Manuscript US Army Signal Corp Slidex Encryptor
Rolodex Codeword Hagelin Cipherkey U.S. Army Cipherkey
Encoder Generator Generator
Cryptologic Toys and Games
Stories from the Black Chamber Manuscript US Army Signal Corp Slidex Encryptor
U.S. Army Signal Mirrors Beaufort Frequency Chart
Cardboard Cipher Wheel Crypto Scrapbook: 1933-59 Codebreaking 1st Day Cover
Cryptologic Toys and Games
Toy Code Wheels
Framed Sherlock Holmes Dancing Man Code Prints
Two Rare Civil War-Era Letters Won In Auction - (posted 3/13/2010)
In December 2009 the Acquisition Chairman (AC) bid on and won two very rare Civil War-era letters of cryptologic significance. The total cost of the letters was $5,968.75. The AC is currently seeking a benefactor to cover the cost of the acquisitions. The Museum staff and History Department are currently researching the history of the letters and preparing them for inclusion in our Civil War era exhibit. A detailed description of the letters follows.
The Confederate Army Deciphers The Union Signal Flag Code
This letter is a rarity among rarities. It’s dated 21 Aug 1864 from Lt. Col. Charles Marshall (General Robert E. Lee's aide de camp and military secretary) to Lt.Gen. Jubal A. Early, one of General Lee's most trusted field commanders. In the letter Lt. Col. Marshall notifies Lt. Gen. Early that the Confederate Signal Corp have "deciphered" the enemy (i.e., the Union) signal alphabet for visual signaling. This alphabet would have been the Wig Wag code, a single flag code developed by U.S. Army Major Albert Myer in the 1850s, and first used in the Battle of Bull Run. The code was used extensively by both the Union and Confederate armies throughout the war. Lt. Col. Marshall also cautions Lt. Gen. Early to conceal the fact of Confederate knowledge of the Union signal code, and exhorts the General to have the Confederate signalmen on their guard to prevent the Union army from obtaining information by that means. This letter represents one of the earliest and best examples of both Signals Intelligence (SIGINT) and Communications Security (COMSEC) references in tactical military communications in American military history. Also of interest is the letter is marked as "Confidential" although it was evidently sent in the clear (i.e., unencoded) by pouch/courier from General Lee's headquarters to Lt. Gen. Early's location. A Picture of the letter is included below.
The following is the text of the letter as best we can interpret it:
Confidential ???? ANVA (Army of Northern Virginia)
31 August 1864
Brigadier General JA Early
Confederacy
General,
General Lee directs me to enclose the enemy’s signal alphabet as deciphered by some of our signal corps here. We read their messages with facility, and the General thinks it may be of service to you but advises that care be taken to conceal the fact of our knowledge of the alphabet. The enemy also reads our messages, and the General suggests that your signal men be put on their guard to prevent the enemy obtaining information by that means.
Very Respectfully,
Your ??????,
Charles Marshall
Lt. Colonel and ????
The “Peter Cottontail Code” Confederate Spy Letter
General William Hardee was a Georgian born West Point graduate who fought for the Confederate Army during the Civil War. He led a Confederate Corp at the Battle of Shiloh, commanded the Confederate Army at the Battle of Perryville, and was one of the leading Confederate generals at the battle of Chattanooga and throughout the Atlanta Campaign. General Leonidas Polk from Tennessee was a cousin of President James Polk and an Episcopal Bishop from Louisiana prior to the start of the Civil War. He was appointed to the position of General because of his close friendship with Confederate President Jefferson Davis. By many accounts he was a poor General who made numerous tactical blunders during the war, and was held in ill-regard by many of his military contemporaries. He was killed in battle outside of Marietta Georgia on 14 June 1864.
The four-page letter written by "Jimmy Rabbit" on 24 April (year unknown, but
no later than 1864) in Lupinsville Georgia is addressed to General Polk in cryptic style using the children's story of Peter Cottontail to mask the military subject matter. It starts, "My Dear General Rabbit," and has numerous rabbit-related references and descriptions of rabbit-related idiosyncrasies throughout. It appears to be, inter alia, a military situation report (e.g., "I heard the other day that General Hardee had killed about 400 rabbits..."). The letter is a translation of a message written in code (i.e., "the Peter Cottontail Code"), and was found among the personal papers of General Polk. It is an intriguing and rare piece of early American code-related history but the exact meaning and translation may never be known. Pictures of the four-page letter are included below.
The following is the text of the letter as best we can interpret it:
Lupinsville April 24th
My Dear General Rabbit,
Though you have been gone a long time, you need not to think that I have forgotten you. For I think of you very often and remember all you told me. I try to keep my fur and my paws clean and do not eat or trouble anything any rabbit tells me not to. For I remember how I burnt my mouth with the pepper grass. And how the bees stung me so bad when I meddled with their hives. The other day I went in the garden to nibble some greens. Aunt Sue Cottontail saw me and scolded me and made me feel mighty bad. And told me, she once heard of a man, who had a nice turnip patch, and the little rabbits kept eating in it. So, he made a Tar baby and stuck it up in the garden. The little rabbits came that night and when they saw it they was mighty skeared. But when they saw it did not move, they got over their skear, and told it to “get out of their way”, and when it wouldn’t they ran at it, and butted it with their heads. And there they stuck!! So, the next day when the man came and found the little rabbits with their heads fast in the Tar baby, he said, “Oh yes! I got you now. I reckon you won’t be in my patch again.” And took them and gave them to his children, and they fried them and eat them up!!!!! When I heard this I was so skeared, that I cocked up my tail and hopped out of the garden as fast as I could. For I heard the other day that General Hardee had killed about 400 rabbits. And as I was close by Mrs. Polk’s I was so afraid General Polk would send home a Tar baby to be put in his garden, that I have not been in there since. And can only peep through the fence at the nice cabbage lettuce and peas. And can’t eat one bit of them. I hope a good time will come soon for the rabbits. The other night while we were all fast asleep in our burrows, a mean, bad, old, grey Rabbit came and stole some of our things. My father, Capt. Hare tracked his paws in the mud across a field to his burrow but could not find the things at all.
I send you a beautiful Easter egg dyed red, which I hope you will like as I think it is very pretty. I had a great many some blue, yellow and purple. I did not know I was going to get them and was so glad when I took off a napkin and found these beautiful eggs dressed with flowers.
Don’t you think this was a strange present for a Rabbit?
My Grandma Mrs. Cottontail and my Aunties the Misses Cottontails are very well so is my mother, Mrs. Hare and little brother Bunny.
Remember me to the Uncle Mich Lupin and write soon my dear General Rabbit to your
Grandson
Jimmy
Dr. David Kahn’s Latest Donation - (posted 11/2010)
On 20 November the AC Chairman, Dave D'Auria, traveled to Great Neck NY to pick-up the 6th donation of cryptologic memorabilia from Dr. David Kahn. This latest donation consisted of 30+ boxes and three small file cabinets of books, notes, journals and other personal papers and effects from Dr. Kahn’s distinguished career in journalism and literature. The NCM Librarian will begin cataloging the material and add it to the extensive Kahn collection already on display and available in the Library.
Dave D'Auria and Dr. Kahn
Rosetta Stone Replica - (posted 10/2010)
In early October the AC completed the negotiation for the two-year loan of a Rosetta Stone replica from Dr. Joel Freeman, president of the Freeman Institute. The AC displayed the replica at the Foundation’s 2009 General Membership Meeting (GMM) on 14 October before transferring the stone to the NCM where it is now on display. The replica is a near perfect match for the original Rosetta Stone on display at the British Museum. Pictures of the original and replica are included below.
The Rosetta Stone dates to the year 196 BC and has the same text carved in three different languages: two Egyptian (hieroglyphic and Demotic) and one classical Greek. The Stone was discovered by the French in 1799 at Rashid, Egypt (the translation for Rashid is Rosetta), on the west bank of the Nile. The British eventually took possession of the Stone and it has been on display at the British Museum since 1802. The “secrets” of the stone were “decrypted” in 1822 by the French scholar Jean-Francois Champollion. Deciphering the meaning of the hieroglyphic and demotic symbols and language is arguably the earliest known solution of a cryptologic isolog (i.e., the same text encoded in two or more forms).
To learn more about the Rosetta Stone and the replica project please visit www.RosettaStoneReplicas.com.
Original Rosetta Stone on Display at the British Museum
Rosetta Stone Replica On-Loan to the NCM Courtesy of Dr. Joel Freeman
Colossus Artifact
A rare piece of one of the original Colossus computers was recently acquired from the estate of former NSA Director LTG William Odom. LTG Odom had contacted Dave D’Auria, the Chairman of the NCMF Acquisition Committee (AC) to donate the artifact prior to his passing. The Colossus memento was presented to LTG Odom by GCHQ in 1986 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the NSA-GCHQ partnership.
Colossus was one of the world’s first programmable digital computers. Two versions of Colossus were built during WW II to decipher German teleprinter messages encrypted using the German Lorenz cipher machine (codename Tunny). The prototype Colossus (Mark 1) became operational in February 1944. The Mark 2 Colossus, both faster and simpler to operate, became operational in June 1944. Eleven Colossus computers were built by the end of the war. Most of the Colossus computers were destroyed at the end of WW II. GCHQ continued to use a few for various computing tasks through the 1950s. A reconstructed Colossus Mark 2 is currently on display at Bletchley Park. A photo of the donated artifact and a picture of an original Colossus are included below
Colossus Artifact An operational Colossus from World War II
North Vietnamese Motorcycle & Comms Gear Display
A Vietnam War-era North Vietnamese KMZ-750 motorcycle on loan from Foundation member George Mele was moved into the Museum’s Vietnam exhibit in December 2008. The motorcycle is an integral part of a significantly redesigned Vietnam exhibit. The on-loan motorcycle is equipped with communications gear used by the North Vietnamese and Vietcong during the Vietnam War, and came with two North Vietnamese flags also on loan.
The KMZ 750’s history dates back to 1939 Stalinist Russia. They were produced for over 50 years evolving into the KMZ 750—by now nicknamed simply “molot” the Russian word for hammer. They were used extensively by the North Vietnamese Army throughout the 1960s. At least 3,000 were shipped from Odessa to Haiphong and used by the NVA as command, control, and communications/liaison vehicles in a tactical environment. They were the transportation-of-choice for junior officers who would monitor the progress of convoys, scout ahead for obstacles and ambushes, and report incidents and breakdown of cargo vehicles. Hundreds were used in the Tet Offensive buildup in 1967-68.
The NVA communicated on the trail using the then state-of-the-art Soviet R105 transceiver. This was a short-range and relatively low-power push-to-talk radio that was very difficult for our fixed collection facilities to intercept and exploit. However, our sensitive AN/TRD 15 and high frequency direction finding (HFDF) equipment was frequently able to hear and locate them with success. The Army Security Agency (ASA) and ARVN units using portable AN/PRD-1 DF sets were also able to hear and locate them. We also employed RU-21 and EC-47 airborne intercept and direction finding aircraft to locate and track the HF and low-VHF communications with excellent results. Pictured below are NCMF benefactor George Mele (L) with NCM curator Patrick Weadon, and Acquisition Chairman Dave D'Auria during the motorcycle installation.j
