GB176061A - Improvements in and relating to cryptography - Google Patents

Abstract

176,061. Caballero, A. Nov. 2, 1920. Codes.-An appliance is provided for transforming code numbers in artificial words of fewer letters than there are digits in the numbers, and vice versa, for example numbers of five or six digits into four-letter words containing two vowels and two consonants. The consonants are determined by the thousands and hundreds of the number, the vowels by the tens and units, and the relative order of the consonants and vowels- CVCV, CVVC, VCCV, or VCVC-by the subdivision in which the first vowel is found. Two four-letter words may be combined with a check syllable, determined by the tens and units of the sum of the digits of the two numbers in pairs, to form a ten-letter word. Six-digit numbers are reduced to five digits by subtracting a predetermined constant from the thousands. The appliance comprises a series of five concentric rings A - - E mounted for independent rotation and subdivided into four quadrants by arms 5 - - 8. The first ring A may be fixed and carry the arms 5 - - 8, as shown, or may be independent of the arms to obtain a greater number of changes of key. The rings are subdivided radially and contain in each subdivision a single letter or a number of one or two digits. Rings A, C, E bear numbers to be used respectively for the hundreds, thousands, and tens and units. Rings B and D bear respectively consonants and vowels, the latter repeated in the four quadrants. When the numeral for a particularly denomination is not found on the appropriate ring, the next smaller numeral found is taken, and the difference is added on to the numeral of the next lower denomination, the units remaining after selection from ring E being found on ring A. The quadrants are distinguished by signs indicating the relative order of the vowels and consonants.