Secret Messages: Concealment Codes and Other Types of Ingenious Communication

From the fall of Troy to interstellar messages by way of the Underground Railroad and Captain Midnight, Secret Messages is a collection of ninety-five of the most interesting examples of code and concealed communications throughout history.

Authors William S. Butler and L. Douglas Keeney have compiled a fascinating array of encrypted communications from a varied field. Many of these examples are from times of war, including the story of how a too simple code was the undoing of Benedict Arnold, and how Commander Jeremiah Denton blinked in Morse code to indicate that his North Vietnamese captors were torturing him. Others are more lighthearted, such as the creative use of hand signals by catchers and managers in modern baseball. And some selections offer a glimpse into how codes are used in everyday life, unbeknownst to most of us, in places like hospitals, police stations, and firehouses.

Uncovering hidden layers, Secret Messages will amaze you with its new insights into history and how it has been shaped by cryptography. It also explores the future of encryption, where technology will enable vast amounts of information to be hidden within minuscule hosts such as human DNA, or the dot of an "i." Full of stories of human creativity and ingenuity, Secret Messages is an engaging book that will inspire and delight.

Authors William S. Butler and L. Douglas Keeney have compiled a fascinating array of encrypted communications from a varied field. Many of these examples are from times of war, including the story of how a too simple code was the undoing of Benedict Arnold, and how Commander Jeremiah Denton blinked in Morse code to indicate that his North Vietnamese captors were torturing him. Others are more lighthearted, such as the creative use of hand signals by catchers and managers in modern baseball. And some selections offer a glimpse into how codes are used in everyday life, unbeknownst to most of us, in places like hospitals, police stations, and firehouses.

Uncovering hidden layers, Secret Messages will amaze you with its new insights into history and how it has been shaped by cryptography. It also explores the future of encryption, where technology will enable vast amounts of information to be hidden within minuscule hosts such as human DNA, or the dot of an "i." Full of stories of human creativity and ingenuity, Secret Messages is an engaging book that will inspire and delight.

Introduction

1: SPECIAL DELIVERY

The Bald Message — Have a Belt on Me — The Hat Trick — The Shirt Off Your Back

2: THE FALL OF TROY AND THE ERIE CANAL: WHAT'S THE CONNECTION?

Where There's Smoke, There's a Message — A Towering Message — Taking the Long View — Smoke Signals — Boom Time on the Erie Canal

3: GOVERNMENT SECRETS

"Paul Diction Sunk Johnson Imbue Hersal" — "Why Buy a Cow When Powdered Milk Is So Cheap?" — The Money Code

4: CODES IN CLOTH

The Signal Flags of Horatio Nelson — Revolutionary Hanky-Panky — The Quilt Code System — Hobo Messages

5: WEARING IT OUT

On the Carrier Deck — John Dillinger and the Woman in Red — In LA, Clothes Make the Man — Tying One On

6: WATCH CAREFULLY...VERY CAREFULLY

The Story of Jeremiah Denton — Carol Burnett's Ear Problem — Captain Midnight

7: IT'S ALL SUBLIMINAL

Persuasion Science — The Message Is...I'm Scared! — Better by You, Better Than Me — 10-2-4 — Secret Slogans — Reading You Like a Book

8: SPANKY GOES TO BUCKEYE

The Central America — Secret Service Codenames — The Venona Project

9: IN THE BOOT

The Traitor's Code — The Death of the First American Martyr

10: IT IS HOT IN SUEZ

Gone Fishing — Dutch Curtains — Sinking the Bismarck — The Bent-Leg Beam — An Unbreakable American Code — The Doll Lady — A Crossword Spy? — "Blessent Mon Coeur d'Une Langueur Monotone" — The Joke Bombed

11: DOG LEG LEFT

BAT 21 — Working the Wall

12: BUSY SIGNALS FOR BUSY PEOPLE

What'll Ya Have...The Varsity — The Harvey Girls and the Cup and Saucer Code

13: WHEN VOICES WON'T WORK

The Lookout — Sealed in the Cockpit — The Kayaker's Fist — Chaos in the Pit

14: I RAISE A MILLION

Secret Messages at the Auction — Connie Mack, Code Master — Baseball Codes

15: THE MESSAGE IS THE MEDIUM

The ESP Message — The "Mind Readers" — The Houdini Message — An Arthurian Legend

16: THE MESSAGE IN THE NOTES

Paul Is Dead? — All the Kingsmen — A Mother Goose Mystery — The Twelve Days of Persecution?

17: WHAT MORSE WROUGHT

The Morse Message — From the Electrical Field to the Ball Field — Taking the Fifth — The USS Squalus — Stop Your Squawking!

18: CODING OUT LOUD

"Dr. Kildare to the ER, Code Blue STAT!" — Color Codes — Number Codes

19: CHEATS AND SCAMS

The Trouble with Bridge Partners — A Blackjack Scam

20: SIGNS AND SYMBOLS

What Is the Message, O Great Seal? — A Message in the Marks — The Language of Cattle Brands — So You Survived a Shipwreck?

21: THE SECRET MESSAGE MYSTERIES

The Secret Message of Dighton Rock — The Mongoose Messages — The Voynich Manuscript

22: WORD PLAY

The Victor Hugo Message — Word Play from Voltaire — Lewis in Wonderland — The Secret of Space — Alexander the Great Gets the Message

23: IN PLAIN SIGHT

Marry Me! — The Lepidoptera Message — Corporal Violet

24: WRITE ME A LETTER

The Tic-Tac-Toe System — The Basic Tic-Tac-Toe Code — The Spoken Tic-Tac-Toe Code — The Clock Code — The Way Out Secret — The Double-Sided Message — Two-Fisted Genius

25: NEW MEDIA

The Message in the Molecule — Internet Messages — Watson! QWERTYUIO! SOS! — The Arecibo Interstellar Message — The Milton Berle Conundrum

Resources

Index