Evening Star Newspaper, February 2, 1933, Page 10

NEN KEYDECOES MG MESSGES E, T, A and O Top Frequency =—Table €ompiled for = Police Officials. BY REX COLLIER. “NZZ HZ CZMZ NCJMOGT.” This cryptic jumble of letters, con- stityting a typical code message used in-wnderworld “grapevine” communica- tifg, may be just a mell:)l;l‘gle';s m to_4he ave rson, XL of the United States Bureau of stigation its hidden import is readily ascertainable with a new “fre- qiilicy key” just furnished the Nation’s e departments. “Becoded with the aid of an alpha- betfal frequency table compiled by a speedal tabulating machine from 220,000 letidrs occurring in newspaper and e articles, the message reads: “Bee me here shortly.” In this instance it was a simple mat- terfor the expert to note that the let- tes™Z” occurred more frequently in the nregsage than any other letter, and to agsume, therefore, that the letter actu- ally. represented “E,” the most fre- quently used letter in the alphabet. By referring quickly to a transposition tahle, also supplied police, it was appar- ent_the message had been coded by re- arranging the alphabet so that it began with the sequence “V, W, X, Y, Z, A, B, €,” etc., and ended with “U.” Un- dér this arrangemen! table showed, W become " would be- come 4 w “H”. would become “C;’ Methods Are Simple. Td a bulletin sent yesterday to chiefs of police and other law enforcement officers the bureau pointed out that the | jng “usual message of this kind is com- paratively simple, as it is impracticable for -those using such communications ta"émploy complicated methods. “The reason for this,” it was stated, “4s that the use of a cipher necessi- tated the possession by the ee of &key or a means by which the mes- sage is to be deciphered. Complicated ciphers require complicated keys. “Because of the relative simplicity of ciphers, many of them may be solved without much difficulty. Cryp- tographers utilize in this connection frequency tables; that is, computations showing the relative frequency with which the various letters of the Eng- lish alphabet appear normally in writ- iigs. These tables are prepared on the basis of counts of various numbers of letters, and those offered by different auffors do not agree in detail. All the _general sequence is approximately the-same.” “I6 arrive at a more accurate stand- ard-of frequency the bureau made use of-a tabulating machine in the Divi- sigr’ of Crime Statistics of the bureau. Usg_of the machine, it was explained, cfl‘%natm most of the human errors uz\,p‘slly found in such compilations. T4 study was made by Charles A. Appel, in charge of statistical research. “3 would appear,” the bureau said, that the difference in frequency tables retofore available has probably been asioned by the relatively small num- of letters included and the likeli- @ of some clerical error in the sunt. It is believed that the table Teted, in the preparation of which 1eee factors largely were elimi ay be accepted as authoritative “E” Leads Others. IO the compilation “E” led all other lotters in popularity, occurring 27,455 with 20,857 with 17, 2 5 1,412 “Q> 176, and “Z,” +In simple ciphers,” the bulletin said, “{hi. proper letters of the alphabet are fmally replaced by other letters, num- bers: or symbols. For instance, the 1effers of the alphabet may be trhns- posed and substituted for the corre- spending letters wherever they appear inr“the message. ‘B’ could be used for (ApeC’ for ‘B ‘D’ for ‘C’ and so on. In.order to read such a cipher message it_would be necessary only in place of eagh letter to substitute the letter which ifitflediately precedes that letter in the alphabet. 5 'Qf course, in practice the transpo- sif may be anywhere from 1 to 26 1 s before or after the proper letter of.the alphabet. In acdition, one trapsposition may be used for the first letter, a second one for the second let- t@, and so on. The key to such a message Would be a number, such as PINPLES CAUSED - ERUPTIONS “Face Looked Terrible. Reck. They were hard, largeand red, gnd most of them festeredand scaled . The pimples itched and| burned so much +hat I scratchedand! picked them and caused eruptions. hey were very sore, and my face just looked terrible. Sometimes 1 Soap I was completely healed.” [(6igned) Miss Pauline Walton, R. 2, Box 18, Snyder, Texas. ' MOIST THROAT' STOPPED MY | <COUGHING SPELLS!” “Nour throat and Bfonchial tubes are with millions of #ms like tiny “bot-~ " continually suj ng moisture to the te tissues . . . un~ “I'm certainly glad 11, abou ores dog. Phlegm collects. gerous germs find reeding place. Tick- irritation and coughing set in. your cough you must increase the | of your throat’s natural moisture, Hm‘ the phlegm 80 it can be expelled. cough “‘remedies” contain numbing dBfigs which merely ‘‘deaden’’ the nerves -FyPut don’t get at theroot of the trouble! PERTUSSIN, a scientific remedy, is the District’s Heroes " in the World War { #/ commanding officer of the 321st Fleld ¢ Artillery, 82nd Di- { . vision, giving proof of conspicuous mil- itary attainments. -, . Through his tire- D" less energy and technical skill as an artillerist, his regiment gave - sistance to the In- : fantry which it all times furnished wholehearted co- Infaniry in the operations against the enemy. residence at Mount Idt,v Birch and 8. most effective as- "—r’z supported and at operation to the Col. Deems is retired and makes his Holly streets, Alexandria, 215, which would represenf the number of transpositions used for each of the first three letters, this being then re- peated throughout the message, so that the first letter of the cipher would be transposed two positions—the second, one position, and the third, five posi- tions from the proper letter of the alphabet. “Similarly, numbers may be substi- tuted—the figures 1 for ‘A’ 2 for ‘B, and so on throughout the 26 letters of the alphabet. Variations of this are again very numerous. Instead of start- with ‘1’ any number might be used, and it would only be necessary for the addressee to remember the number with which the alphabet is started. In addition, there may be various rearrangements of the alphabet, and it would be necessary, of course, for the addressee to remember such an arrangement.” 0dd Symbols Used. ‘The bureau recently received from Tllinols authorities a message consist- ing of strange-looking symbols—tri- angles, circles, squares, lines, and the like.” It was deciphered through use of the letter frequency table, just as though transposed letters or numbers had been employed. To decode & cipher message the bu- | ¥ reau advised the following procedure: First, make a list of all the char- acters or symbols appearing in the message, counting the number of times each character appears in the whole message and classifying them in order of frequency. Second, the characters in the cipher message with the normal frequency table. ‘Third, substitute letters for the char- acters in order of frequency, making substitutions in a portion of the mes- sage sufficiently large to ascertain whether the solution is correct. If in- correct in some particulars, substitu- tions may be made for the letter or compare the frequency oXi THE EVENING STAR, WASHINGTON, D. C, THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 2, 1933 The Hub—,The Pqpulavrl Furniture . S@e with the Easiest Credit Terms During The HUB'S February Furniture Sale - $5.00 Trade-in Allowance for Your,Old letters which appear improper; that is, .where a letter is wrong those occurring next in the frequency table should be tried, the frequency table being made ulx of to determine the most likely RELIEVED OF DUTY BY HIS OWN ORDERS Gen. Bridges to Be Bucceeded by Gen. McKinley as Acting Chief of Division. Gen. Charles H. Briggs issued War Department orders reliev- ing himself of duties as adjutant - Maj. tably as offi eral of the Army, to be by Brig. Gen. James F. McKinle; chief of the division. 'l‘um;r‘:"céxenn' Bridges reverts to the rank of colonel and will go on duty with the War-Army zrmaup of the general staff in Washing- Gen. McKinley's nomination as adju- tant general has not been confirmed by the Senate. Although only 60 years old, Gen. Bridges can retire after today at any time he chooses, by reason of his 40 years’ of service in the Army. EDUCATIONAL. A Leading Preparatory Sch Accrodited— Exceptionnt ASuictts ook Gymnasium Facllit| Men Teach- oy e Sisth Serona” ter Beping February 1 er. G St NW. (Y. M. C. A). NA.5250 ACCOUNTANCY Pace Courses; B. C. S. and M. C. S. degrees; Day and Evening Classes. len'l for 26th Year Book Benjamin Franklin University 302 Transportation Bids. Met. 2515 EVENING Call STerling 9769 ° for A FREE TRIAL LANGUAGE LESSON We tell all prospective students: “Try our Method_ befc Toll—see how fascinat- ing and easy it makes the study of foreign " It is unique, effective. amaz- ingly enjoyable. ~But you needn't take our r it, Let a free trial lesson convince fair. isn't it? Your choice of ish. ' German or Italian. ~Just 0 appointment. There is no obligation. 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Would you like for once to brush the cobwebs from your eyes—be ready and eager for any task—experience all the glor- ies of this glorious old world? Then rid yourself of Asthenia and stay rid of it. You think that you’re not the least bit clogged—you say that you’re “‘regular”” as can be—but physicians will tell you that it is only too easy to deceive yourself in this respect and $tay doped with poisons. Thus millions of micro-organisms accumulate in the tiny glands, stimulates the flow of t moisture i 1@ naturally. R your throat’s raw or dry, $6% poons of PERTUSSIN now. q‘lor children. At drug stores, 60¢. = 1 Eet of a famous herb which opens 4 and brings quick re- | take a i it'ssafe, ' the intestinal tract and produce that dull, achy, pepless feeling known as Asthenia. Decide right now to turn the _ tableson O1d Man Gloom. Take ~ why he feels so pepless =so run-down Pluto Water every morning for ten mornings, and see a new world in ten days! 3 Don’t miss a day. 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