KSolution1212.com
KryptosSculpturePuzzle Solution
PUBLISHED HERE
JULY 30, 2010
5:00 P.M. E.D.T
Page 3
MAIN KRYPTOSSCULPTURE PUZZLE SOLUTION
BACKGROUND:
THE SINKING OF THE R.M.S. TITANIC
The Royal Mail Steamship Titanic was on her maiden voyage from Great Britain
to the United States with over twenty-two hundred souls on board. At 11:45 P.M.
on April 14, 1912, she struck an iceberg and sank less than three hours later.
Fifteen hundred and seventeen people lost their lives in the tragedy. It was a
tragedy because the collision could easily have been prevented. Iceberg
warnings on the wireless telegraph (WT) were ignored or delayed.
Emergency communications rules and procedures had not yet been initiated.
Rival wireless telegraph companies refused to communicate with one another.
There was no commitment to share information and maintain communication.
Vital information did not pass from ship to ship, crow's nest to officers,
wireless operator to captain, captain to crew, nor crew to passengers. Even after
the disaster, newspapers proclaimed, "All Saved On Titanic", and wireless
telegraph operators withheld information for personal gain.
Months later, after U.S. Senate and British Board of Trade investigations,
an international Commission on Communications wrote and agreed upon new
worldwide rules of communication and rescue.
The disaster brought about long overdue change.
An international tragedy of sobering proportions.
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
THANKYOUTHANKYOU
THANKYOUMARIANREJEWSKITHANKYOUALANTURINGTHANKYOU
THANKYOUTHANKYOU
VISUAL SOLUTION TO
THE KRYPTOSSCULPTURE PUZZLE
(A Pictorial Representation)
The KryptosSculpture is basically a purely visual puzzle, although it could be
resolved in total darkness, by touch alone. Its shapes may be easier to see in almost
complete darkness, as at the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean or at 11:45 P.M. on a
moonless April night.
The sculpture, in its entirety, is a visual depiction of the collision, sinking and
eventual rediscovery of the Royal Mail Steamship Titanic which sank, with great loss
of life, on April 15, 1912, after striking an iceberg.
The white stone depicts the iceberg.********THE KEY********
The red stone depicts the R.M.S. Titanic.********THE KEY*******
( The shape of the bow is exquisite.)
The pool depicts the ocean and global currents.
The petrified tree was actually formed underwater over a long period of time.
It was literally water-logged.
The S-shaped copper plate depicts a radio wave carrying messages such as
distress calls and iceberg warnings . The radio wave is being sent from or
received by an antenna (the tree). The elevated letters at the beginning of
Part Three also depict a radio sine wave curve (DYAHR).
The petrified tree and S-shaped copper plate also bring to mind the stern
flag of a steamship.
The gray stones depict the sunken Titanic on the ocean bottom as seen in
video taken by Dr. Robert Ballard. Other gray stones show debris and
wreckage on the bottom.
The copper plates resemble the Titanic's hull plates which separated and
leaked after the collision. The Morse Code on the plates resemble the
rivets which failed. Some Morse dots are missing.
A series of Morse dots represents parts of Wireless Telegraph (WT)
messages unreadable due to interference or weak signal.
The compass rose and lodestone show the compass used for navigation and
the errors due to naturally magnetized rock.
A sad note: The total number of letters cut into the S-shaped plate is not
very much greater than the number of lives lost (1517) when Titanic sank.
Today, Titanic is a gravesite and serious reminder of the cost of missed
communication.
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
OTHER CLUES TO THE MAIN PUZZLE
The Morse Code on the copper plates spells out (with first letters and "errors")
the word "VIDEO". It also spells out [WHA]"T IS YOUR POSITION", "SOS",
and a Morse misspelling of "CQD", which was a disaster code like "SOS". The
Titanic used both of these distress codes.
The Morse Code seems in the shape of a "V", like the bow of a ship.
So does the large gray rock nearby.
"SHADOW FORCES":
Communication is disrupted by obstructions which
create "radio shadows" behind themselves.
The Coriolis Force creates ocean currents which
assist ships, yet move icebergs into shipping lanes.
Hidden psychological forces sometimes control
human behavior.
From Part I: The words: "THE ICE" are hidden in a transposition of the
plain text. [Can you see "THE ICE"?]
The misspelling: "IQLUSION" hints at the Q-Code used
in Part Four.
The prose evokes the idea of peering into the darkness
as did the crow's nest lookouts and also Dr. Robert
Ballard (our modern-day Indiana Jones).
From Part II: The iceberg "WAS COMPLETELY INVISIBLE". How?
Icebergs come from glaciers, which can be very dark and
dirty. During a sunny day, they absorb solar energy, melt
a little then give off water vapor (fog) when it gets cold
at night. (This is just a speculation about the 1912 iceberg.)
Also, the Titanic's foredeck was floodlit, hampering the
night vision of the helmsman and the lookouts aloft. Why
no headlight?
Of course, the sunken ship was "completely invisible", too.
The submerged island off Cape Spartel in PARTIV was
also "completely invisible".
"THEY USED THE EARTH'S MAGNETIC FIELD" for
navigation.
The earth's magnetic field also defines the ionosphere,
which is used to bend radio waves around the horizon.
The second layer (F) of the ionosphere ("LAYER TWO")
is the layer which allows long distance communication,
especially at night.
Information (news, weather) was gathered and
transmitted underground to an unknown location
(multiple users) via telegraph cables.
"DOES LANGLEY KNOW ABOUT THIS? THEY
SHOULD." Dr. Robert Ballard located the Titanic during
a secret expedition looking for sunken nuclear submarines.
"IT'S BURIED OUT THERE SOMEWHERE. WHO
KNOWS THE EXACT LOCATION? ONLY W.W."
The KryptosSculpture was designed in 1987, two years
after the Titanic was found. Its location was then still a secret.
"Star Trek: The Next Generation" debuted in Sept, 1987.
"Titanic", the movie, came out in 1997.
"THIS WAS HIS LAST MESSAGE." Jack Phillips,
the head WT operator aboard R.M.S. Titanic perished.
"THIRTY EIGHT DEGREES..." etc. This is an incorrect
location for the KryptosSculpture. The actual Titanic also
sent out an inaccurate position, then corrected it. They
used numerals that night, which are more prone to Morse
Code errors than numbers spelled out as words.
From Part III: "DESPARATLY SLOWLY" The misspelling "AR" points
to the last letters of Part Four. "AR" is a Morse Code
"prosign", indicating "end of transmission".
"A TINY BREACH" may point to the letters "BK", or
"break" near the beginning of Part Four. Morse Code
exchanges often begin with "BK" and end with "AR",
even today.
"THE FLAME TO FLICKER" This may allude to wireless
static from lightning or the flickering light given off by the
Marconi wireless telegraph Spark Transmitter.
"FROM THE MIST. CAN YOU SEE ANYTHING"
King Tut's tomb was in the desert. There was no mist.
Howard Carter's journal doesn't mention "mist".
Titanic's crow's-nest lookouts did see "mist" ahead ten
minutes before they struck the iceberg. Thirty seconds
before impact they reported the iceberg. Was the "mist"
they saw really the iceberg? They had no binoculars.
King Tut's tomb was rediscovered by archaeologist
Howard Carter.
The R.M.S. Titantic (also a tomb) was rediscovered by
undersea archaeologist Dr. Robert Ballard.
From CNN interview June 19, 2005:
"I am far less glib, now....loose lips, you know."
( JamesSanborn , gifted sculptor/artist )
[ "Loose lips sink ships." (Wartime Slogan) ]
The artist also said that the solution would emerge slowly, over time.
As the outdoor KryptosSculpture weathers, it takes on a muted
"underwater" appearance, resembling more and more what it
represents.
___________________________________________________________
Recall that the last Morse word on the copper plate in the rock,
the word that follows "SOS", is "RQD".
If we convert "RQD" back into Morse Code we get:
R Q D
didahdi dahdahdidah dahdidi
. _ . _ _ . _ _ . .
Let us now add one little dash at the beginning, as if to correct
a Morse Code misspelling. We now get:
C Q D
dahdidahdi dahdahdidah dahdidi
_ . _ . _ _ . _ _ . .
So the last Morse Code words on the copper plate are "SOS" and
a misspelling of "CQD".
"CQD" was the older, Marconi distress call. It meant: "Calling
all stations. Distress!" "CQD" was replaced by the more
familiar (to us) "SOS" distress call.
The R.M.S. Titanic called for help using "CQD". It then added the newer
"SOS" to its distress message. So it used both calls in the same
message. The Morse Code on the copper plate is in the shape of
a "V". Like the bow of a ship. With a dent in the side.
So there you have it. Simple and obvious once you see it.
Are you thinking; " I saw that! "? Many people will. But if this
is the correct visual solution, as I think it is, the overall visual
mystery of the KryptosSculpture is now over, even if some bits at
the site remain unseen
Let's move on to PART IV of the puzzletext
Mr. EdScheidt really did save the best for last.
Bill Steele 7/19/2010 .
___________________________________________________________________
KryptosCyphertext
PART IV SOLUTION
BACKGROUND
THE WRECK OF THE S.S. DELHI
It was a dark and stormy night. On Dec.12, 1911, the P.& O. Steamship Delhi,
England to Egypt, ran aground off Cape Spartel near Tangier, Morocco.
Her wireless telegraph (WT) operator, Charles Stanley Gordon, was unable to contact the
British naval base at Gibraltar (which was about fifty miles away) to call for help
because the call for help was considered a "commercial message" and the Gibraltar
Wireless Telegraph station was instructed to accept only non-commercial "free"
messages. Free messages included hydrographic reports and weather updates,
for instance.
Around four A.M., the S.S. Delhi wireless operator, Charles S. Gordon, finally
contacted Tangier, Morocco and Cadiz, Spain. The French cruiser "Friant" left
nearby Tangier to assist, and began rescuing passengers. The distress call was finally
relayed to Gibraltar Naval Base and the admiral there dispatched a battleship,
cruiser, tugboats, lifeboat, etc.
The passengers, including the Duke and Duchess(Royal) of Fife and their two
young daughters, were all rescued. Three French sailors died in the rescue operation.
The Duke of Fife died from pneumonia weeks later. The S.S. Delhi was ruined, but
did not sink.
Ironically, had the distress call never been sent, and the rescue done after the
storm abated, there might have been no loss of life.
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________
THANKYOU
THANKYOUMARIANREJEWSKITHANKYOU
THANKYOU
________________________________________________________________
PART IV CIPHER
?OBKR
UOXOGHULBSOLIFBBWFLRVQQPRNGKSSO
TWTQSJQSSEKZZWATJKLUDIAWINFBNYP
VTTMZFPKWGDKZXTJCDIGKUHUAUEKCAR
________________________________________________________________
PART IV CIPHER
Analysis and Interpretation
If this part can be said to be encrypted at all, the method is
as follows:
1. The spaces between words have been removed.
2. There are no numerals or conventional punctuation marks
(such as " ? ").
To "decrypt" PART IV, you must restore the spaces between
words, where appropriate, and add punctuation.(This involves
guesswork). Then:
To "decode" PART IV, you simply apply well-known "codes"
used for brevity and clarity in the communications field.
(Q-code, Phillips code, Morse code, wireless telegraph
operator's jargon.) It doesn't even use office slang to try to
confuse the boss.
You also must guess at the meaning of archaic acronyms,
abbreviations, slang and jargon from circa 1911, and the artist's
own contribution, as there is no comprehensive dictionary for these.
The "plain text" yields more to analysis than decryption.
Part I and Part II of the KryptosSculpture puzzle use alphabet
sustitution for encryption.
Part IV uses the substitution of single letters for
familiar words, and abbreviteions, acronyms and
creative jargon. (But is it actually encryption, the purpose of which
is to conceal?)
Part III of the sculpture puzzle uses a two-dimentional
transposition process for encryption. The letters of the message
are not altered or replaced but are moved around in a pattern,
like sliding Scrabble tiles on a table's two-dimentional surface.
Part IV could be called a "one-dimentional transposition
cipher", because the plain text letters are not altered but simply
moved close together like beads on a string or abacus. To
"decrypt" the message, the beads (letters) are simply slid apart
the right amount at the right places on the string in order to
restore the original meaning.
In mathematical terms, such a one-dimensional system uses
only a single "axis" to denote position. This is usually called the
"X-axis". It is also known as the "ABSCISSA" . ********
You might name the cipher in Part IV "Linear K".
Note: But is this really an encryption? Possibly it isjust that, to a
machine which is unprepared, but not to a human, who is
capable of adapting, without guidance, to an unfamiliar
method of writing and new rules of vocabulary and grammar.
That is, after all, what we humans do so very well - adapt.
( I have a truly marvelous demonstration of this
proposition which this margin is too narrow to contain.)
Note: The original text of the Bible, old and new testaments,
was written in the original languages (Hebrew, Aramaic, Greek?)
without spaces between letters, or (much) punctuation.
This is how educated people used to read and write, the text
compressed (zipped) to save space and costly parchment.
They did the decompressing naturally, as they read. Nobody
calls that "encryption". We have the luxuries of spaces between
letters, spellcheck, punctuation and Upper and lower case letters.
They didn't. By the old measure, Part IV of this puzzle comes
to us already decrypted. Ready to read straight off, if you
know the language of the wireless telegrapher. If an
old-time WT operator walked past the carving he might
laugh out loud and read it to you, and comment on the
funny accent of the operator who wrote it. "Not in code at
all!"
[ A neo-fairytale, "The Emperor's New Codes".
clue: The KryptosSculpture is the Emperor.
Part IV is its shoes. It's really barefoot.]
Note: To save paper (and postage) in Colonial times, some
Americans wrote on both sides of a letter horizontally, then
turned the paper and wrote on both sides vertically. No one
would call that encryption or encoding even though it was
harder to read. They just managed to read it.
Let's say it was "compressed". for efficiency.
Let's say WT operator jargon is compressed for the same
reason. To them it was as fast and as natural as talking.
We just don't have a complete dictionary of their slang
for that era, that location, and those individuals.
So we must rely more upon interpretation, inference and
extrapolation. Presumably the artist did that as well.
Jargon and slang are ambiguous, therefore any exact
solution is "deniable" ( The boss can be fooled. "No, sir.
We were talking about losses not bosses." )
The puzzle is more challenging and fun for the solver
(and the artist) this way.
Note: In World War II, the U.S. used Navaho native
Americans as "code-talkers" because the enemy couldn't
understand the Navajo language. Was this encryption?
Not to the Navajo.
We look at this compressed text through the mists of time,
just as ship's lookouts or explorers peer into the fog or storm or
darkness. If we miss things, or see things that aren't really there,
we have to make allowances for human error, like a scientist
making an error analysis of his data.
See this website's GLOSSARY OF NON STANDARD
ENGLISH FORMS
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
PART IV CIPHER
?OBKR
UOXOGHULBSOLIFBBWFLRVQQPRNGKSSO
TWTQSJQSSEKZZWATJKLUDIAWINFBNYP
VTTMZFPKWGDKZXTJCDIGKUHUAUEKCAR
_____________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________
PART IV CIPHER REVEALED (EXPANDED)
(First we add spaces to separate the words and
sentences and we mark Morse Code prosigns
and Q-Codes with asterisks.) :
?O
BK R U OXO GH U L B SO L
**
I F BBWFL RV QQ PRNG KSS
O T W T QSJ QSS EK
*** *** **
ZZ WATJKL UDI AW I NF B
NY PVT TM Z F P K
*
WGD K
*
Z X TJ CD I G K
*
UHUAU EK
**
C
*
AR
* *
At this point, any Telegrapher or Ham Radio Operator
should recognize the syntax and grammer of a two-way
Morse Code Wireless Telegraph (radio) conversation.
The grammar is poor but recognizable.
Procedural Signals (Prosigns):
BK = "Break"
K = "Go" or "Over"
EK = "Go" or "Over" (expecting reply)
C = "Clearly received" or "Yes"
AR = "End of message" or "End of transmission"
QSJ and QSS are partial "Q-Code" abbreviations.
See this website's Glossary for more Morse Code and terms.
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
TRANSLATION OF PART IV
_____________________________________________________________________
__________CIPHER __________(on top)__
TRANSLATION (below)
[MASKING?:]
[PADDING?:]
______________ ? O
( "Question marks Omitted."...?)
( Fragment of previous transmission?)
______________________________________________________________________
[SENDER:]
___________ BK R U OXO GH
Break. Are you 'working', Gibraltar headland?
[see: "What
is OXO?" ]
___________ U L B SO L I F
You will be. So will I if
___________ BBWFL RV QQ PRNG KSS
Big Bad Wolf ever quits pouring kisses
(the storm) (static)
___________ O T WT
on the wireless telegraph.
___________ QSJ
QSJ _ _ _?
[QSJ _ _ _ ? is Q-code for:
" What is your fee, including your station
fee, to send a telegram to call sign: _ _ _ ?"]
__________ QSS
QSS? [QSS? is Q-code for:
" What wavelength shall I use to
transmit the telegram? "]
__________ EK
Go, over. (expecting reply)
_________________________________________________________
[GIBRALTAR:]
____________ ZZ WATJKL
Zero, zero. (or No, no What call sign?
or No charge or None.) (...to send it to)
____________ UDI AW I NF B NY
Update information always is no-fee but any
(Weather, etc.)
____________ PVT TM Z F P K
private telegram is for pay. Go, over.
______________________________________________________________________
[SENDER:]
____________ WGD K
WGD Go, over.
( the requested
call sign of the
telegram's
destination- the
S.S. Delhi )
______________________________________________________________________
[GIBRALTAR:]
_______________ Z X TJ CD I G K
No, zero. Contact Tangier (or) Cadiz I guess. Go, over.
_______________________________________________________________________
[SENDER:]
____________ UHUAU EK
UHUAU or UHU AU or UH UAU Go, over.(expecting reply)
( Sender's sign-off call sign. )
[ See " Who is sender?" ]
_______________________________________________________________________
[GIBRALTAR:]
_______________ C
Yes, received Clearly.
________________________________________________________________________
[SENDER:]
____________ AR
End of message.
________________________________________________________
PART IV SYNOPSIS
This conversation is a request to send a wireless
telegram to a stranded ship, the steamship Delhi. The
shore station (GIBRALTAR, which is near the ship) won't
do it because it won't handle "private" traffic, which is
"for pay". This is not a request FROM the stranded ship
because the Q-Code syntax is wrong for that, and the
sender signs off with a call sign starting with "U",
possibly indicating a French station or one on French
territory. Morocco and Algeria were French
territories. Also, news accounts say that Gibraltar
"ignored" the Delhi's attempts to communicate.
Research might identify the sender, or the whole
message might be a fictional dramatization of
historic events (as in a novel).
( What we have here, is failure to communicate.)
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
PART IV PLAIN TEXT
Analysis and Interpretation
PART IV plain text is in the form of a transcript of a
Morse Code exchange between two Wireless Telegraph
(WT) stations.
The fun here lies in analyzing it as an intelligence
organization might analyze an intercepted radio message.
You start out not knowing who is speaking or what they
are speaking about and you must deduce as much as
you can.
The first step of analysis is recognizing that the
exchange uses International Morse Code syntax and
procedural signals (prosigns) and Q-Code
abbreviations.
The next step is recognizing that the "text" is in English
using Phillips-Code-style shorthand abbreviations.
The next step is recognizing that the Morse Code,
Phillips-Code, Q-Code and English are all laced with
slang, broken grammar, and idiosyncratic references.
We are also aware that this is probably text made up
for the puzzle-sculpture by the sculptor-artist, and
that this text has likely been "massaged" to make it
harder for the puzzle solver to understand.
From the Q-Code abbreviations, we see that the
exchange is between two Wireless Telegraph (WT)
station operators. One station operator is requesting
another station operator to retransmit a telegram
message to a third WT station. This request is called a
"service message" exchange.
The content of the proposed telegram is never
revealed, nor the identity of the author (customer?)
In this case the first sender/operator uses Q-code to
ask to relay a telegram (QSJ_ _ _?), but omits the call
sign of the destination WT station (and the question mark).
The second sender/operator asks for the omitted call
sign: "WATJKL" (What call sign?)
The first sender/operator replies: " W G D ".
This is the key to Part IV. When we research the
call sign: " W G D " , we find that it belonged to the
Steamship Delhi , which ran aground near Tangier during
a storm on the night of December 12-13, 1911
and was wrecked.
(Historical Aside...)
This wreck is historically famous because the ship's WT
operator was unable to contact a nearby British
Naval base ( Gibraltar ) to give a distress call. The
Gibraltar WT operator ignored the Delhi WT operator's
valiant attempts to communicate because the Gibraltar WT
station was instructed to take only non-commercial messages
(naval, weather, or hydrographic messages, for example).
A distress call would have been classified as a
"commercial message" , and would have been
charged a fee. (Perhaps the station had no established
procedure for doing that, or perhaps the station would not
tune to the ship's wavelength.)
Petty Officer Charles Stanley Gordon, the Officer in Charge
of the S.S. Delhi's wireless telegraph station eventually contacted
a French ship ( the cruiser Friant) and commercial WT stations
in Tangier, Morocco and Cadiz, Spain and successfully
called for help.
(Back to the Puzzle...)
Part IV is in the form of an attempt by a WT station to
send a message to the stranded ship via the
Gibraltar WT station.
The request is denied by the Gibraltar WT
operator, who sends a brief message explaining
that he may only relay free Update (weather)
Information and that any private telegram is for pay.
The first sender then signs off and ends the
conversation.
The very first part of the Morse exchange decodes
to WT operator "chatter". The first sender comments
about the storm and how the radio noise from the
lightning makes communicating by WT difficult.
Such "chatter" might give the receiving operator a little
time to get ready to copy traffic This part is written in WT
operator's "jargon" using the idioms of this profession.
"Chatter" is not usually copied down by either operator.
The reply by the Gibraltar WT operator is more
"by-the book". It is much less "chatty" with less
jargon, but still uses local abbreviations for place
names.
Both WT operators condense their messages,
as they were taught, for the purpose of speed and
brevity . This was to make best use of the very
limited capacity of the WT system at that time.
There were very few separate "channels" to
use and stations frequently interfered with one
another's signals accidentally.
WT operators who were fluent in this jargon
could communicate as quickly as they could talk.
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
PART IV CIPHER
?OBKR
UOXOGHULBSOLIFBBWFLRVQQPRNGKSSO
TWTQSJQSSEKZZWATJKLUDIAWINFBNYP
VTTMZFPKWGDKZXTJCDIGKUHUAUEKCAR
_________________________________________________________
WORD - BY - WORD TRANSLATION OF PART IV
WIRELESS TELEGRAPH (WT)
SERVICE MESSAGES
_______________________________________________________
TEXT / MEANING
[SENDER:]
? Question marks are missing in Part IV. Is this one a clue,
or just extraneous? Or does it indicate that there was a
previous, untranscribed part of this conversation?
O Masking, part of a previous transmission, or shorthand for
"omitted", referring to question marks omitted from PART IV?
See below: "What is OXO ?"
BK "Break" An offer to break in and transmit or a request to do so;
Like the teacher asking: "Any questions?", or raising your
hand in class. This abbreviation is used today in Morse and
voice radio communication. Most computer keyboards
still have a "Break" key from old teletype days. Wireless
Telegraph operators had to "break" and listen periodically
when they were transmitting, since they often could not
receive while they were transmitting. Another station
wishing to send a telegram might wait for a "break" then
send "break" to make his request to get in the queue (sequence).
"BK" is a major clue, since many WT messages
would start with "BK".
(Modern Citizen's Band radio users say: "Breaker, breaker.")
(In PART III, Howard Carter first makes a small breach, or
break in King Tut's tomb door.)
R U "Are you" This is pure Phillips-Code telegraph shorthand.
Like all shorthand forms it saves time by condensing
language. (Ask teenagers about "texting"). In 1990, when
the puzzle was delivered, "texting" wasn't as popular as
today, but amateur (ham) radio always used it.
(www.Sharpened.net/glossary/chat_acronyms.php
has examples of modern acronyms used in "texting".
Slang WT acronyms used in 1911 are more elusive.)
OXO "working" This is a guess-by-extrapolation from the rest of
Part IV.
I have also seen "oxo" used to mean "unreadable due
to interference", so "OXO" might just represent static.
Or the "X" alone might represent a hit of static.
In that case, "X" could be a misspelled "K", and it
could read: "R U OK O GH", "Are you OK on
Gibraltar headland?" (just different spacing, which
is an educated guess, anyway.)
See: WHAT IS "OXO"? , below.
G H "Gibraltar Headland" A plausable abbreviation for the
Gibraltar WT station made famous by the shipwreck.
The Rock of Gibraltar. "Headland" means: "A point of
land, usually with a sheer drop, extending out into a body
of water; a promentory".
U L B "You will be." More Phillips-Code. (P-C)
SO L I "So will I" More P-C
F BBWFL " if (the) Big Bad Wolf " The storm raging outside.
An acronym, and a colorful metaphor for high winds.
" I'll huff and I'll puff", etc.
This would be local WT operator jargon.
Notice omission of the word "the".
I guess using "WFL" for "wolf" instead of "WLF" is less
ambiguous with the words "will", "if" and "for", or
maybe "WLF" is already used for another meaning.
VR QQ " ever quits " This deviates from P-C. The sender is using
his own abbreviations, but WT operators presumably
understood each other. "VR" for "ever" makes the "R" less
ambiguous. Poets use "e'er" for "ever" . It's the artist's call.
"QQ" would stand for "Q's", which would
mean "quits", and the common letter "s" is thus eliminated
for clarity (or to make the puzzle harder) .
(Again, ask a teenager about "texting". Once an idiom is
defined and established, it is used freely within a group.
It may "catch on" and persist or fade away from disuse.
Slang is a living language which mutates. Linguistic
Darwinism?)
Recall the use of the word "undergruund" in PART II.
Recall the use of the word "iqlusion" in PART I.
Maybe the two "U's" stood for the word: "use", as in "use Q"
or "Use Q-Code in PART IV."
(Are these usages documented, or is the artist here making
up his own idiosyncratic vernacular?)
PRNG "pouring" ("It's raining. It's pouring. The Old Man is snoring."
"Snoring" (not used in PART IV) would be a
modern metaphor for thunder.)
KSS "kisses" Static. Interference. Yes, that's what it sounds like
in the WT operator's headset.
Recall the series of Morse dots on the stone slabs.
Eight dots is the Morse sign for: " I couldn't read that
due to interference."
Static, interference and background noise are major
themes of this puzzle.
O T WT "on the wireless telegraph" More P-C. The static is
making it hard to send telegrams.
QSJ "QSJ _ _ _ ?" Q-code abbreviation for:
"What is the fee per word in francs, including your station
fee, to send a wireless telegram to WT station: _ _ _ ?"
The sender has abbreviated the abbreviated Q-code.
He has omitted the call sign of the destination
WT station and the requisite question mark that
should follow it. He will later be asked for the call sign.
Without the "?", "QSJ _ _ _ _ _ " means: The cost per
word, including my station fee, to send a telegram
to: _ _ _ is: _ _ francs. This would make no sense in
context.
( Think of asking the modern telephone operator: "How
much does a long-distance call cost?" The operator
would then ask you: "To what city?" )
QSS "QSS?" "What wavelength (similar to frequency or channel)
shall I use to transmit the above-mentioned
telegram to you?" (to be forwarded to its destination)
Again, the sender has omitted the requisite "?"
from the Q-code.
Without the "?", "QSS _ _ _ " means:
"Use wavelength: _ _ _ to send me traffic (telegrams)".
This would make no sense in context.
The main wavelength (600 meters, for example) is
often used only for establishing initial contact. ["Open
a hailing frequency, lieutenant."] Telegram traffic is
then passed on a side-channel, so the calling channel
stays open.
(Modern Citizen's Band radio users have
often used Channel 19 as the calling channel:
"Breaker One-Nine for that 'Mister Logic'. You got
your ears on?" then, after contact is made:
" Meet me on fifteen.", or some other less crowded
channel. )
EK "EK" " Go." or "Over." "I am listening."
This looks like an archaic Morse Code "procedural sign" ,
indicating a "turnover". The sender is turning over the
conversation to Gibraltar, so Gibraltar can answer the
Q-Code questions about sending a telegram. If the sender
had simply sent "K", it would have meant "go" or "over".
"EK" conveys the sense of "over, Expecting your reply."
Other turnover prosigns convey slightly different meanings.
Here the sender Expects an answer to his Q-Code
questions.
We can't really know how much space(time) there
was originally between the "E" and "K".
This leads to ambiguous interpretation.
When sent as a prosign without spaces between the letters,
"EK" reads the same in Morse Code as "AA", which means
"End of line", or later perhaps, "carriage return / line feed"
on the old teletype machines. In telegram headings, "AA"
meant "Start a new address line." If "E" and "K" have an
inter-word-sized space between them, instead of an
inter-letter-sized space between them, there might be
yet another meaning. This cipher is all about space.
If "K" alone is meant to be a turnaround prosign, then
"E" alone could be the single-letter call sign of a ship
or a shore station. This might be used as an identifier
at the end of longer passages and at the end of the
Morse exchange. Loss of spacing information
introduces ambiguity, forcing the analyst to guess.
This is not a one-to-one mapping of cipher to plain text.
_________________________________________________________________
TEXT / MEANING (continued)
[GIBRALTAR:]
ZZ "Zero zero." or "No, no." or "No charge." This answers the Q-Code
question: "QSJ?" ("What fee?"). Gibraltar was only allowed to
relay non-commercial messages. The fee was zero.
Notice there are no numerals used in any of the four Parts
of the puzzle. This was the artist's decision. Normal service
messages would have used numerals and punctuation, such as
question marks ( question mark = dididahdahdidi . . _ _ . . )
Here they are avoided.
"Z" might even be used by Gibraltar as a Morse nickname for the
SENDER, preceding each of his sentences as with a call sign address:
"Z, (unknown station) where do you want to send it?"
WATJKL "What call sign?" SENDER has omitted the destination call sign
portion of the Q-Code abbreviation: "QSJ _ _ _ ?".
GIBRALTAR now asks for it. (If Sender had been trying to send
a telegram to the weather bureau, to report a storm for instance,
Gibraltar might have accepted it because there would have
been no fee to send it. Again, just hypothetical.)
Note Gibraltar omits the question mark after the
question, "WATJKL".
If Gibraltar had wanted the call sign of SENDER, he could
have sent "QRA?" , "What is YOUR callsign?" He doesn't,
though.
UDI "Update Information". An acronym. Weather updates, navigation
information such as compass errors due to naturally magnetized
rock, icebergs, chart errors, etc. were sent free of charge to the
Hydrographic Bureau. (Recall the lodestone and compass
showing declination error.)
TV weather forecasters still refer to getting "an update".
AW I NF "always is no-fee" More Phillips-Code style
shorthand.
B NY PVT TM "but any private telegram" (including
civilian distress calls)
Z FP " is for pay." or " is fee-payable." Local jargon of the
daily business of the wireless telegrapher. Why use
letter "Z" here and not "I" to stand for the word "is" ?
Again, artist's decision. Slang has always had artistic
license.
[Gibraltar has just sent what sounds like a "canned
message" from an automated voice system today.
"Your call is very important to us.
If you know your party's extension, enter it now."]
K "Go." or "Over." WT prosign for a simple turnover of the
conversation. Gibraltar waits for the destination call sign
of the proposed telegram, so that he can decide if the
telegram is free (and acceptable) or commercial (and
unacceptable).
________________________________________________________________
TEXT / MEANING (continued)
[SENDER:]
WGD "WGD" "Call sign of the steamship Delhi". This is the key to *****KEY*******
PART IV of the puzzle. The jewel in the crown, so to speak.
This ship ran aground off Cape Spartel near Tangier,
Morocco on the night of December 12-13, 1911.
These three letters answer Gibraltar's question: "WATJKL"
( "What call sign?") "What is the call sign of the WT station
to which you wish to send a telegram?"
(We still do not know the identity of the SENDER of the
proposed telegram, but now we know the recipient WT
station.)
(We also do not know the originating customer's identity,
his intended end recipient, or the content of the proposed
wireless telegram message.)
K "Go." or "Over." WT prosign for a simple turnover of the
conversation.
___________________________________________________________________
TEXT / MEANING (continued)
[GIBRALTAR:]
Z "No." or " Zero." [or even "unknown station:" ]
X "contact" X looks like two wires in contact. (A visual
metaphor.) Also could mean "retransmit or
relay through...". Same idea.
TJ CD "Tangier", Morocco (or) "Cadiz", Spain.
Notice the shorthand omission of the word "or".
(The stranded S.S. Delhi eventually did contact
these cities. Cadiz had a powerful transmitter.)
I G "I guess." More WT jargon. (like "texting")
[Historically, Cadiz, Spain WT station did finally relay the
S.S. Delhi's distress call into Gibraltar Admiralty
Naval Station via landline telegraph.]
Here, in the puzzle text, Gibraltar Wireless Telegraph
station basically has said to SENDER: "I can't help
you. Try going through somebody else."
Note: Based upon the Morse Code grammar, the
SENDER cannot be ON the stranded steamship Delhi.
SENDER is an operator trying to send a telegram
TO that ship.
K "Go." or "Over." WT prosign for a simple turnover of the
conversation.
[ GIBRALTAR has just dismissed SENDER's request:
" That is not a valid mailbox number.
Please call our Cleveland office during normal
working hours. Goodbye."]
[You might as well argue with HAL 9000]
___________________________________________________________________
TEXT / MEANING (continued)
[SENDER:]
UHUAU Call sign / Identifier / Signature of SENDER.
SENDER is signing off. WT stations of that day often
made up their own personal call signs (two letters) and the
call sign of the station could be one, two, three or more
letters long.
SENDER WT station has not yet been identified.
Please see: " WHO IS SENDER? " section for
more on SENDER's identity.
EK "Go." or "Over." " I am listening." (like K)
Archaic Morse prosign for turnover. Implies sender is
" Expecting a reply." Here at the sign-off, the expected
reply would indicate if the other operator had
received the message clearly.
See WHAT IS EK? for other interpretations.
________________________________________________________________
TEXT / MEANING (continued)
[GIBRALTAR:]
C "Yes." or "Clear." "I heard you Clearly." (But he won't help.)
_________________________________________________________________
TEXT / MEANING (continued)
__
[SENDER:] AR "End of message." (AR) (overscored)
Morse prosign. It is sometimes interpreted
as: "All received." or "finished" ( from old
American Morse) , but it is really just a prosign.
It is sent without an inter-letter space, as one
continuous signal: didahdidahdi ( . _ . _ . ) .
In Morse Code, the operator who initiates the WT
contact is the one who ends it.
Many Morse Code messages end with "AR".
This was a major clue to PART IV of the
puzzle, since PART IV ends with "AR".
Recall a misspelling: "DESPARATLY" in PART III
of the puzzle. This contains "AR", a clue to
PART IV. Interesting....
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
WHAT IS "OXO" ?
One of the main puzzle themes is: Background noise, static and
limits of perception. PART IV discusses the difficulty of hearing
Morse code messages over the static.
I have seen "oxo" used to mean: "unreadable text" due to poor
resolution in book scanners, for instance.
"This article contains Tibetan script. Without proper rendering
support you may see question marks, boxes or other symbols
instead of Tibetan characters." (Wikipedia article on Mount
Everest) Just space-holders, but still important for character
count, etc.
("OXO" could be the artist's "padding" to make the cipher the right
length for artistic reasons, as he did elsewhere with X's.
It could be the artist's "masking", pretending there is static
in order to make the puzzle harder to solve by concealing
(bleeping out) important letters.)
Or maybe it's meant to be WT slang.
Either way, the CONTEXT of "OXO" or the letters it conceals
in PART IV paraphrases like this:
" Are you OXO? You will be, and so will I when the storm
stops lightning on the wireless telegraph."
So, how will the situation change when the lightning and
static are over?
1. The operators will be safe. So "OX" might mean "OK".
Then it might read "Are you OK On Gibraltar Headland?"
" R U OK O GH "
This interpretation only requires one missing letter due to
the static.The distortion of the letter "K", which in Morse
is: (dahdidah _ . _ ), to produce the letter "X", which is:
(dahdididah _ . . _ ), is just one tiny dot worth of
mishearing or static.
2. The operators will un-ground their landline telegraph lines,
which were grounded during the storm for safety. So "OXO"
might mean "connected to the landline", or "communicating".
A modern Instant Message might ask: "R U ONLINE?"
3. Similarly, the station plugboard which connected the landline
telegraph instruments with the wires to various cities actually
looked like this:
OXO OXO
OXO OXO
OXO OXO
The Os are metal connector disks.
Connections are made by pushing a metal plug where the X is.
So again, "OXO" might mean: "Are you connected to the wire?"
(Shore WT stations often had both wireless and landline
instruments. They were the ships' link to the woldwide
telegraph network. See the book: The Victorian Internet).
4. My favorite, however, is this:
The spark gap transmitters of that day actually
created a spark which jumped between two electrodes.
The electrodes were sometimes little metal spheres and the
spark between them would light up the room when the
transmitter was keyed. The operator himself was often
called "Sparks" for this reason.
So "OXO" could be a visual representation of
the transmitter spark. The meaning would be: "Are you
sparking?" and by extension, "Are you working?" or
"Are you accepting traffic (messages for retransmission)?"
(" We both will be working traffic when this static stops.")
[There must be some measure of artistic license both in creating
and interpreting fictional jargon, don't you think? B. ]
_______________________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________________
WHO IS " SENDER " ?
THE SERIOUS SOLUTION TO PART IV
In PART IV, who is the "other half" of the two-way wireless
telegraph conversation with the Gibraltar WT station ?
Who is "SENDER"? Perhaps he is on a ship. Perhaps he is
operating a WT station on land.
From the syntax and grammar of the Morse Code exchange,
it seems that SENDER wants to send a telegram. It will be a
wireless (radio) telegram because he asks what wavelength to
use in sending it (QSS). He omits the destination call sign when making
his price request (QSJ). The WT station he is conversing with
(GIBRALTAR) asks for the call sign. He replies: "WGD". His request
is then immediately denied. WGD is not an acceptable destination
for a "free" telegram and Gibraltar will send only "free" ones.
Gibraltar would probably broadcast weather reports to all ships.
It might reply to a request from a ship for a weather report update.
It might relay a storm report from a ship to the Hydrographic
Bureau. It would relay an official British Navy telegram to a
British Navy vessel. But it was not allowed to relay a private
message to a civilian ship. PART IV demonstrates this in a
dramatic way.
On the night of Dec. 12-13, 1911, the steamship Delhi ran
aground about fifty miles away and across the Strait from
Gibraltar. Gibraltar did not respond to the distress calls, but
ignored them. Some press reports say they never did communicate
over the air. The Delhi contacted a French cruiser and the
WT stations at Tangier and Cadiz.
It does not follow logically, therefore, that the
SENDER could be on board the stranded ship.
SENDER signs off with "UHUAU" where its call sign
would go. WT stations then usually had one-, two- or three-letter
call signs. Operators might have a two-letter (or more) personal
identifier. So the sender's sign-off could be a three-letter
ship's call sign followed by a two-letter personal sign:
"UHU AU" . Station call signs beginning with the letter "U" were
then assigned to France and French territories. At least part
of Morocco was a French territory. Also neighboring Algeria.
A number of other possibilities are plausible, except
that the storm admittedly made communication difficult.
Do we need to know the SENDER's identity?
PART I of the puzzle is unsigned and made up by the artist.
PART II is certainly made up mostly by the artist.
PART III is taken from the journal of archaeologist Howard
Carter, but it is altered by the artist.
PART ZERO (no Roman numeral for "zero") is Morse Code
on copper plates and is clearly made up by the artist.
So, why should PART IV be any different? We can safely
assume that it is made up by the artist for dramatic effect.
Whom did the artist intend to be the SENDER in this
made-up message? Can we know? Will archival research
reveal the identity of "UHUAU"? Was SENDER
communicating from a ship? If so, what ship? And from
where? Until hard evidence is found, we can only
speculate. And speculate we shall ........
________________________________________________________
WHO IS SENDER'S CUSTOMER?
In the puzzle, whose telegram was SENDER trying to relay to
the S.S. Delhi? Who would be trying to reach her? What would
the message have been?
If SENDER was a shore WT station, he could be relaying a
telegram via landline or undersea cable from anywhere in
the world. Aboard the stranded liner were the Duchess of Fife
(Royal - the sister of King George V of England), and her two
young daughters (his nieces). It is plausible that he would be
trying to telegraph his family to ask if they were all right and to
reassure them that help was on the way.
(What would happen to a WT operator who refused to forward
a message from King George V to his family on a wrecked
ship?)
So, SENDER's customer might have been the King.
The King might have wanted to telegraph his stranded sister.
If SENDER was a shipboard WT station, the message could
be from the captain of that ship. He might be sending: "What is
your condition? We are on our way to assist. What is your
position?" Could we guess that captain's name, somehow?
Interpreting a fictionalized historical account is a problem.
Especially one written in very non-standard English jargon,
and intended to be almost impossible to decipher.
Against what standard can you test your interpretation?
Guesswork must be involved. Even standard English can
be ambiguous. Modern "texting" jargon is worse. And its
true meaning is "deniable". (Ask a teenager what their "texting"
acronyms mean. Will they tell you the whole truth?)
You will only know their meaning with absolute certainty if
the texter "comes clean" and you believe them. When their
personal interests are at stake can you ever be sure?
So far, I have supplied:
--My visual solution to the KryptosSculpture Puzzle as a whole.
--My decrypting/decoding of PART IV of the puzzle, including
the method of encoding/decoding.
--My translation, analysis and interpretation of PART IV.
--Historical research of the events depicted in the puzzle.
Yet to come are:
--My speculation about the whimsical puzzle-within-the-puzzle-
within-the-puzzle hinted at by the artist.
--The overall meaning of the KryptosPuzzleSculpture.
And there you have it. If my analysis of the KryptosCipherText
Puzzle PART IV is even mostly correct, as I believe it is, then
the KryptosPartIV mystery is over. Will others say they saw it,
too? It's likely, but no one else published it.
Also, I would surely have missed this whole enterprise but for the
tenacious and brilliant efforts of ElonkaDunin, who kept the
KryptosPuzzle in the media spotlight, and JimGillogly and others
who did the really hard work on Part I, Part II, and Part III.
Bill Steele 7/21/2010
xyzzy
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________
NOTE: HERE ENDS THE SERIOUS DISCUSSION
OF THE PUZZLE
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________
" It might cause.....people at the agency to perhaps think of
things a little bit....less seriously." {elisions mine, B.}
(JimSanborn interviewed on World News Tonight Apr 2, 1991)
[ The fun of analyzing a "fictitious" message is that you can pretty
much make it say anything you want it to, through extrapolation.
No interpretation is too far out, if you can logically support it.
Some interpretations are way, way far out. : O=]
WHO IS "SENDER" ?
THE WHIMSICAL SOLUTION TO PART IV
We will attempt, using geometric logic, to find out everything
we can about SENDER: First and last names. Places and
dates of employment. Names of bosses and co-workers, etc.
Job title. Date of birth. Photograph. Is that unreasonable?
After all, we have that information on the WT operators
on the R.M.S Titanic and the S.S. Delhi.
We begin by examining the sign-off call sign.
1. "UHU" is "eagle owl" in German. "AU" could stand for "Auf
Wiedersehen", (Goodbye). That might fit. Marconi's big
competitor was the German company "Telefunken",
and WT operators were "night owls" due to the better radio
reception at night (due to "LAYER TWO" of the ionosphere.
2. If "UHU" is indeed a French call sign, then it could stand for
the French equivalent of "Yoo Hoo!" and "AU" could stand
for "au revoir". Thus you have "Hello. Goodbye." , a little
like the Hawaiian "Aloha!"
3. My favorite:
If we convert the call sign "UHUAU" back into Morse Code
we get:
U H U A U
dididah didididi dididah didah dididah
. . _ . . . . . . _ . _ . . _
Now, recall that PART IV is a one-dimentional transpositional
cipher in which the letters are encrypted by changing or eliminating
the spacing between them, like sliding beads on a string or abacus.
Let us perform the tiniest transformation here to the dots and
dashes of the letters themselves. Let us slide the first "dot" of the
last letter "U" just a little bit to the left, until it is closer to the dash
which preceeds it than to the dot which follows it, thus:
dididah didididi dididah didahdi didah
. . _ . . . . . . _ . _ . . _
We now clearly see the name of the Chief Communications Officer of
a familiar ship. All we now need to do is open a channel to Wikipedia
and we can find out all we want to know about "SENDER" .
But how could that chief communications officer and that ship
get to the area of Gibraltar on Dec. 12, 1911?
There is/was a possible method in the above context.
In Morse it is called:
dahdahdidah
_ _ . _
___(While you are online, google "STENDEC" as well. You
will learn how small timing errors in sending or receiving can change
one string of Morse Code letters into another and another and
another. Some people even blamed UFOs for that mystery,
the disappearance of the airliner, "Stardust" in the Andes.)
_________________________________________________________
_________________________________________________________
WHIMSICAL INTERPRETATION OF "EK"
What is "EK"?
"E" in Morse Code is di (or dit - one little dot)
.
"K" in Morse Code is dahdidah (dash dot dash)
_ . _
"EK" can have different meanings depending on the amount of
space (time) separating the dots and dashes. These letters act a
little as if spacetime was expanding and contracting, changing
the separation of the dots and dashes.
__
EK EK E K
didahdidah di dahdidah di dahdidah
(no spaces, (inter-letter space, (inter-word space,
yields a prosign) yields an abbreviation) yields two words or a word
and then a prosign)
Spaces: the final frontier...
If "EK" is both preceeded by and followed by a long word-space or
message-space, then depending upon context:
__ __
EK with no spaces can be a Morse prosign identical to the prosign AA,
meaning "End of line", "next line (line feed)", maybe from old
American Morse "comma".
EK with an inter-letter space can be a two letter "turnaround"
abbreviation, possibly slang, like a Morse prosign, meaning:
"Go. Over. Expecting reply.
E K With an inter-word space could be two separate
words, or a word plus a prosign.
If the "E" and "K" are separated, then "K" is the familiar turnaround
prosign meaning: "Go. Over." but we have to account for the separate
letter "E". What could it be?
Single-Letter Call Signs
It is common practice for the sender to use an identifier at the end of each
"over", before the turnaround, if the sentence is long. (Also before the
sign-off at the end of the conversation and also at the start of the
message.) That way everybody knows who is sending.
Fictionalized examples:
(".....(message)...............Apollo Eleven................over.")
(".....(message)...............Apollo Eleven....over and out.")
("Apollo Eleven, Houston......(message)............Apollo Eleven....out.")
("Apollo, Houston......The Eagle has landed.") [short msg.]
("To: the enemy commander.....Nuts!.....From: the American commander.")
[very short msg.]
In 1911, wireless telegraph companies could invent one-, two- or
multiple-letter call signs for their WT stations. This was a problem that led to
duplication and confusion. Different ships could and did have the same
call sign.
Operators might invent their own personal call signs, too .
In 1912, after the Titanic disaster, three-letter call signs became
standard for ships, and were assigned to them.
"E" as a Single-Letter Call Sign
In the puzzle, depending upon how the solver chooses to insert
spaces, the turnaround "EK" could be interpreted as a call sign
identifier "E" followed by the turnaround prosign "K". In this
interpretation, the SENDER would be identifying his ship
(or land station) with the call sign "E".
But how on earth could a modern puzzle-solver identify a ship
using a single "E" as a call sign, when that call sign may have been
made up just for that one puzzle exchange ? Where in the
world would that call sign be recorded? Perhaps the question is
moot. Perhaps one day some enterprising researcher will have the
resources necessary to answer it. That would be the big "E".
Then "UHUAU E K" would mean the operator
"UHUAU" from the ship "E" giving the turnaround prosign "K".
And if "UHUAU" is another Morse misspelling, as shown above,
in "WHO IS SENDER - WHIMSICAL"
then we have the identities of both SENDER and SENDER's
ship:
[ I have left the last tiny logical jump here for the readers to do,
so that they may feel some of the happy moment of discovery.
Of course, to someone not familiar with American culture,
that last jump may be a little too whimsical, or even invisible.
B.]
=O
(Are there even further puzzles within puzzles? Another mystery
wrapped in an Enigma? A linear cipher may not yield to linear
thinking.) Fascinating.....
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________
BACK TO THE SERIOUS DISCUSSION
SOS and CQD
Recall that the last Morse word on the copper plate in the rock,
the word that follows "SOS", is "RQD".
If we convert "RQD" back into Morse Code we get:
R Q D
didahdi dahdahdidah dahdidi
. _ . _ _ . _ _ . .
Let us now add one little dash at the beginning, as if to correct
a Morse Code misspelling. We now get:
C Q D
dahdidahdi dahdahdidah dahdidi
_ . _ . _ _ . _ _ . .
So the last Morse Code words on the copper plate are "SOS" and
a misspelling of "CQD".
"CQD" was the older, Marconi distress call. It meant: "Calling
all stations. Distress!" "CQD" was replaced by the more
familiar "SOS" distress call.
The R.M.S. Titanic called for help using "CQD". It then added the newer
"SOS" to its distress message. So it used both calls in the same
message. The Morse Code on the copper plate is in the shape of
a "V". Like the bow of a ship. With a dent in the side.
Final answer? Final answer.
Bill Steele 7/19/2010
(All publishing rights are reserved for the author.)
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
THE MEANING OF THE PUZZLE
Here we see two tragic incidents which have much in common.
Common to both are:
1. Breakdown of communication due to:
A. Background Noise (Static; Unimportant Information)
B. Need of Cooperation (Following rules, not common sense;
excessive competition)
C. Need of Good Procedures (Not Adapting to Changing Technology)
2. Failures of perception due to:
A. Physical conditions (darkness, storm, mist, static)
B. Lack of equipment (binoculars and headlight in the one case;)
perhaps good charts in the second?)
C. Human psychology (We see what we expect to see. We don't see
what we don't expect.)
3. Need of Good Priorities:
(What information, what message, what
action is Most Important?)
We see from these events how secrecy and misdirection and isolation can cloud
and distort perception, and prevent the solving of problems. How cooperation
and common sense can transform destiny and shed light on seemingly hopeless
problems.
We see the need of the captain and crew to be well-informed, so they can steer
the best course .
______________________________________________________________
WHY WAS PART FOUR HARD TO SOLVE?
MISDIRECTION.
The first three parts of the puzzle were well-known ciphers. There was a lot
of discussion promoting how much harder the fourth encryption was, and how
long it had remained unsolved, when it wasn't really encrypted at all .
Plus, working on the first three parts creates a mindset (a mental context) which
expects a really hard cipher, rather than something completely different.
You see, friends, The Mind Is A Palimpsest. We are constantly writing on it,
erasing it and writing on it again. We never completely erase it. There is always a
remnant of past thoughts and images to distort what we are seeing now. This may
be the source of human self-deception and the cause of the human condition. Don't
all magic tricks use this? Isn't this how television mimics motion? Isn't this why
we need a second opinion from a trusted and unbiased friend, in order to see
our own lives clearly?
To paraphrase President Abraham Lincoln (Honest Abe):
" You can't fool all of the people all of the time. Only yourself. "
_______________________________________________
To paraphrase someone else:
" You're only fooling yourself. "
We do need our skeptics.
______________________________________________________
CONCLUSION
As promised in the beginning of this analysis, I have provided the
following:
--My visual solution to the sculptural puzzle as a whole.
--My decrypting/decoding of PART IV of the puzzle, including
the method of encoding/decoding.
--My translation, analysis and interpretation of PART IV.
--My speculation at the whimsical puzzle-within-the-puzzle-
within-the-puzzle hinted at by the artist.
--Historical research of the events depicted in the puzzle.
--The overall meaning of the KryptosSculpture Puzzle.
Was this good enough to win a T-shirt?
Bill Steele July 30, 2010
(What, no T-shirt?)
_________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
__________________________________________________________________________
TELEGRAPHY
A major element of the KryptosSculpture Puzzle is of course telegraphy. Specifically,
wireless telegraphy.
It occurs to me that the puzzle could be said to be About communicating by telegraphy.
Consider the artist's hints that something is buried on the grounds near the KryptosSculpture.
Could that be a still - existing telegraph cable that was once used by the agency in its work?
Is that how they used to do business?
From PART II :
"IT WAS TOTALLY INVISIBLE."
"HOW IS THAT POSSIBLE?"
"THEY USED THE EARTH'S MAGNETIC FIELD."
"THE INFORMATION WAS GATHERED AND TRANSMITTED UNDERGRUUND TO
AN UNKNOWN LOCATION."
"IT'S BURIED OUT THERE SOMEWHERE." [The cable?]
"WHO KNOWS THE EXACT LOCATION? ONLY W.W."
During excavation for the KryptosSculpture, underground wires and pipes would have to have been
marked to prevent damage. Did the artist see those markers or the cable itself?
JamesSanborn has hinted that the puzzle answer has to do with something that he did or could have
done while on the site. Could that something be the sending or receiving of a telegram? Or seeing
the buried telegraph cable? Just a thought.
[Now, a really farfetched interpretation of Part II text might say that it's referring to some
mysterious bugging or transmitting device that someone buried on the grounds. This kind of
speculation borders on science fiction. Fun, though.]
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________________
"Congress makes a man a general, but communications makes him a commander."
(Gen. Omar Bradley)
GLOSSARY
NON-STANDARD ENGLISH FORMS
Di-a-lect n. 1. A regional variety of a language, distinguished from other variaties by pronunciation,
or vocabulary, especially;
a. A variety of speech differing from the standard literary
language or speech pattern of the culture in which it exists.
b. A variety of language that, with other varieties, constitutes a single language of
which NO SINGLE VARIETY IS STANDARD; the dialects of ancient Greek.
2. THE SPOKEN LANGUAGE PECULIAR TO THE MEMBERS OF AN OCCUPATIONAL OR
PROFESSIONAL GROUP, a foreign-born or minority group, or a particular social class.
3. The manner or style of expressing oneself in language or the arts.
4. A language considered as part of a larger family of languages or a linguistic branch:
Spanish and French are Romance dialects. [Old French dialecte, from Latin dialectus,
from Greek dialektos, speech, language, dialect, from dialegesthai, to converse : dia
one with another + legesthai, middle voice of legein, to tell.]
Synonyms: dialect, vernacular, jargon, cant, argot, lingo, patois. These nouns denote forms of
language that vary from the acepted standard. DIALECT applies to the words, usage, and
pronunciation characteristic of specific localities. The VERNACULAR is the colloquial language
of a people. JARGON IS THE SPECIALIZED LANGUAGE USED IN PARTICULAR FIELDS
OF ACTIVITY, AND IS OFTEN NOT UNDERSTANDABLE BY PERSONS OUTSIDE
THOSE FIELDS. "CANT" NOW USUALLY REFERS TO THE SPECIALIZED LANGUAGE
OF A GROUP OR TRADE , AND IS OFTEN MARKED BY STOCK PHRASES. CANT
can also mean "insincere expression of piety." ARGOT is the language of the underworld or,
by extension, that of any specific group. LINGO is applied humorously or contemptuously
to language foreign to one or so specialized that it is difficult to understand. PATOIS
refers to the dialect of a bilingual region and especially to a hybrid language used by the
rustic or uneducated.
Slang n. 1. The NONSTANDAR VOCABULARY of a given culture or subculture consisting typically of
ARBITRARY and often EPHEMERAL COINAGES and FIGURES OF SPEECH characterized
by SPONTANEITY and raciness.
2 Language peculiar to a group; ARGOT or JARGON.
Idiom n. 1. A speech form that is peculiar to itself within the usage of a given language.
2. The specific grammatical, syntactical, and structural character of a given language.
3. A regional speech or dialect.
4. A SPECIALIZED VOCABULARY USED BY A GROUP OF PEOPLE; JARGON.
5. A STYLE OF ARTISTIC EXPRESSION CHARACTERISTIC OF A GIVEN
INDIVIDUAL, SCHOOL, PERIOD, OR MEDIUM.
Idiomatic adj. 1. Peculiar to or characteristic of a given language.
2. Resembling or having the nature of an idiom.
3. USING MANY IDIOMS.
Idiolect n. THE SPEECH OF AN INDIVIDUAL, CONSIDERED AS A LINGUISTIC PATTERN
UNIQUE AMONG SPEAKERS OF HIS LANGUAGE OR DIALECT.
Jargon n. 1.
2. A hybrid language or dialect; pidgin.
3. The specialized or technical language of a trade, profession, class, or
fellowship; cant: "She could not follow the ugly academic jargon." (Virginia Woolf)
{Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?}. Compare argot, slang. -See
Synonyms at dialect.
v. To speak in or use jargon.
[Middle English iargoun, gargoun, meaningless chatter,
from Old French jargoun, gargon, "twittering"
(probably imitative).]
***** {For some modern "texting" jargon go to: *****
www.Sharpened.net/glossary/chat_acronyms.php}
Context n. 1. The part of a written or spoken statement in which a word or passage
at issue occurs; THAT WHICH LEADS UP TO AND FOLLOWS AND
OFTEN SPECIFIES THE MEANING OF A PARTICULAR EXPRESSION.
2. The circumstances in which a particular event occurs; a situation.
[Some figures of speech can only be understood in context. "Wysiwyg.",
"Location. Location. Location.", "I guess you just had to be there."
"What does it mean? Ygiagam." b. ]
Extrapolate v. 1. Mathematics. To estimate ............; broadly, to infer (a value
or values) from known values.
2. To infer or estimate (unknown information) by extending or
projecting known information.
[In the following sentence, the addressor (Klaatu) orders the
addressee (Gort) not (nikto) to take some action (barada).
Extrapolating from the context of the plot, "barada" means:
"destroy the Earth". Thus, the meaning of: "Gort, Klaatu
barada nikto." emerges clearly. b.]
Read between the lines. A figure of speech. To perceive or detect a
meaning or implication that is obscure or unexpressed.
[Successive Approximation n.
A cyclical method of mathematical analysis. Also a similar
method for analyzing slang. b. ]
Jive n. 1. Jazz or swing music.
2. The jargon of jazz musicians and enthusiasts.
3. DECEPTIVE, NONSENSICAL, OR GLIB TALK.
Allusion n. 1. The act of alluding; indirect mention.
2. An indirect, but pointed or meaningful reference.
Patter v. -intr. 1. To chatter glibly and rapidly.
2.
-tr. To utter in a glib, rapid, or mechanical manner.
n. 1. The JARGON of a particular group; cant; patois.
2. Glib, rapid-fire speech, as of an auctioeer,
salesman, or comedian.
3. Meaningless talk; chatter.
-ese. Indicates:
1. A native or inhabitant; for example, Sudanese.
2. A language or DIALECT; for example, Japanese.
3. A LITERARY STYLE or DICTION; for example, journalese.
-ism. Indicates:
1.
2.
3.
4. A distinctive usage or feature, especially of language; for example,
malapropism, Latinism.
Archaic adj. 1. Belonging to a much earlier time; ancient.
2. NO LONGER CURRENT OR APPLICABLE; ANTIQUATED.
3. Designating or characteristic of words and language that were once
common, but are now used chiefly to suggest an earlier style
or period.
Pastiche n. 1. A dramatic, literary, or musical piece openly imitating the previous
work of another artist, often with satirical intent.
2. A hodgepodge, pasticcio.
Pasticcio n. A work,especially of music, produced by borrowing fragments or motifs from
various sources; potpourri.
Hodgepodge n. A mixture of dissimilar ingrediants; Hotchpotch.
Potpourri n. 1. A combination of various incongruous elements.
2.
3.
[French pot pourri (translation of Spanish "olla podrida").
Olla podrida n. 1. A stew of highly seasoned meat and vegetables.
2. Any assorted mixture or miscellany.
Olio n. 1. A heavily spiced stew of meat, vegetables and chickpeas.
2. a. Any mixture or medley; a hodgepodge.
b. A collection of various artistic or literary works or musical pieces;
a miscellany.
3.
Whimsy n. 1. An odd or capricious idea; idle fancy.
2. Anything quaint, fanciful, or odd.
Whimsical adj. 1. Capricious; playful; arbitrary: "Ichabod became the object of
whimsical persecution to Bones and his gang of
rough riders." (Washington Irving)
2. Unusual; fantastic; odd.
Caprice n. 1. An impulsive change of mind.
2. An inclination to make such changes.
3. Music. A capriccio.
Synonyms: caprice, whim, whimsy, ..................
These nouns denote an erratic or unexpected notion, act,
or quality. Caprice ....................
"Whim" and "whimsy" can both mean a quaint or fanciful idea,
but "whim" reserves the suggestion of sudden inspiration,
and "whimsy" more often refers to the literary quality or
humor of being PLAYFUL and FANCIFUL.
Capricious adj. Characterized by or subject to whim; impulsive and
unpredictable; fickle.
Capriccio n. 1. Music. An instrumental work with an improvisatorial
style and a free form.
2. A prank or caper.
3. A FANCIFAL WHIM.
Fancy n. 1. The light invention or play of the mind through which
whims, visions, fantasies, or the like are summoned up;
imagination, especially in a conscious or direct sense;
caprice.
2. An ASSOCIATIVE IMAGE; fantastical invention.
Fanciful adj. 1. Created in the fancy; unreal; wishful; dubious: "a
fanciful story".
2. Showing invention or whimsy in design; imaginative;
curious: "a fanciful card".
FIGURE OF SPEECH n.
An expression in which words are used, not
in their literal sense, but to create a more
forceful or dramatic image, as a METAPHOR,
simile, or hyperbole (all of which see).
METAPHOR n. 1. A figure of speech in which a term is transferred
from the object it ordinarily designates to an
object it may designate only by implicit
comparison or analogy, as in the phrase
"evening of life".
2. Figurative language; allegory; parable: " The
prophets used much by metaphors to set forth
truth." (Bunyan)
Abbreviate tr v. 1. To make shorter by removing or leaving out parts.
2. To reduce (a word or phrase) to a shorter form
intended to represent the full form.
Abbreviation n. 1. The act or product of abbreviating.
2. A shortened form of a word or phrase used
chiefly in writing to represent the complete form;
for example, Mass. for Massachusetts or USMC
for United States Marine Corps.
Acronym n. A word formed from the initial letters of a name, as
PAC for Political Action Committee, or by combining
initial letters or parts of a series of words: "radar"
for "RAdio Detecting And Ranging", "QED" for
"Quantum ElectroDynamics".
from: The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language.
5:42 PM 5/29/2010
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________________
GLOSSARY
WIRELESS TELEGRAPHY
WT Wireless Telegraph; earlier name for the Radiotelegraph.
WT Service Message A message between operators of wireless telegraph
stations, not for public view. Service messages could
be "paid" or "unpaid". They were about the behind-the-
scenes nuts-and-bolts operation of the wireless telegraph
network. (Note the theater and hardware idioms in the
previous sentence.) Sometimes they included personal
"chatter" between operators or comments about the
weather using operator's jargon.
Codes Used In Morse Code Telegraphy
Q-Code The Q-Code is a standardized collection of three-letter message
encodings, all starting with the letter "Q", initially developed for
commercial radiotelegraph communication. [Wikipedia]
Phillips Code The Phillips Code is a shorthand method created in 1879 by
Walter P. Phillips for the rapid transmission of press reports
by telegraph......Extremely commmon terms are represented
by a single letter. (C = see; Y = year) Those less frequently used
gain successively longer abbreviations. (Ab = About; Abb =
Abbreviate; Abty = Ability; Acmpd = Accompanied)
[Wikipedia]
Note: Letter "C" in Phillips Code means "see"
Letter "C" as a Morse procedural signal (prosign) means "Yes."
Letter "C" in Wireless Telegraph operator local slang jargon as used
in the puzzle might mean "Casablanca".
Procedural Signals
Prosigns Used In Morse Code Telegraphy
BK "Break" Sending station invites receiving station to transmit.
(Like teacher asking for questions.)
-or-
Receiving station asks to break in.
(Like raising your hand in class.)
(Similar to today's CB slang: "Breaker, breaker."
Most computer keyboards today have a "break" key
left over from the radioteletype days.)
K "Go" Invites receiving station to transmit. "Over."
(Like a pause at the end of a sentence.)
KA Beginning of message.
KN "Go only" Invites only a specific station to transmit. (Others stay out.)
EK "Go, expecting reply" Archaic prosign. Invites and Expects receiving station to transmit.
(Like CB slang; "C'mon back."
SK "End of contact" (Sent before callsign). (Some say it means "Stop keying".)
AA "End of line.", "More to follow.", "Drop down a line". [Maybe from old
American Morse Code comma "," .]
AS "Please stand by."
R "Received"
CQ "Calling any station"
CQD "Calling any station. Distress!"
SOS "Distress. Need Assistance."
DE "From" (interesting...sounds like the French d' )
CL "Going off the air." ,"Closing."
C "Yes" or "Received clearly" (used at end of conversation)
AR "All received" (Over, end of message) (Over and out)
__
AR ( AR overscored)
Note: Prosigns were and are often sent without spaces between
letters. Some amateur (ham) radio operators send "CQ" as two
separate letters. Some send it as one continuous signal.
Prosigns sent without spaces between letters are often
typed with an overscore.
If the letters are separated, AA and EK are distinct
letters. If sent without the space between letters, they
are identical in Morse Code.
EK as two letters is " di dahdidah " . _ . _
AA as two letters is " didah didah " . _ . _
EK without spaces is "didahdidah" . _ . _
AA without spaces is "didahdidah" . _ . _
(identical to EK)
Both AA and EK convey a meaning of
"not done, more to come".
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
____________________________________________________________________
GLOSSARY
MORSE CODE
Some International Morse Code
( American Morse was somewhat different.)
A . _ di dah N _ . dah di
B _ . . . dah di di di O _ _ _ dah dah dah
C _ . _ . dah di dah di P . _ _ . di dah dah di
D _ . . dah di di Q _ _ . _ dah dah di dah
E . di R . _ . di dah di
F . . _ . di di dah di S . . . di di di
G _ _ . dah dah di T _ dah
H . . . . di di di di U . . _ di di dah
I . . di di V . . . _ di di di dah
J . _ _ _ di dah dah dah W . _ _ di dah dah
K _ . _ dah di dah X _ . . _ dah di di dah
L . _ . . di dah di di Y _ . _ _ dah di dah dah
M _ _ dah dah Z _ _ . . dah dah di di
? . . _ _ . . di di dah dah di di
1 . _ _ _ _ di dah dah dah dah
2 . . _ _ _ di di dah dah dah
3 . . . _ _ di di di dah dah
4 . . . . _ di di di di dah
5 . . . . . di di di di di
6 _ . . . . dah di di di di
7 _ _ . . . dah dah di di di
8 _ _ _ . . dah dah dah di di
9 _ _ _ _ . dah dah dah dah di
0 _ _ _ _ _ dah dah dah dah dah
There is no "space" character in International Morse Code.
Spaces are just brief pauses.
Spaces between dis and dahs in a character are very short.
Spaces between characters are a little longer.
Spaces between words are longer still.
Spaces between sentences longer yet.
Spaces between messages can be very long.
Prosigns without spaces between letters are often written with
__
an overscore. Example: AR
Spaces are not used between letters in a "prosign":
SOS . . . _ _ _ . . . di di di dah dah dah di di di
CQ _ . _ . _ _ . _ dah di dah di dah dah di dah
AR . _ . _ . di dah di dah di
AA . _ . _ didahdidah
EK . _ . _ didahdidah
SK . . . _ . _ didididahdidah
Some words are often abbreviated as in modern "texting":
(Spaces not to scale.)
H O W A R E Y O U ?
. . . . _ _ _ . _ _ . _ . _ . . _ . _ _ _ _ _ . . _ . . _ _ . .
H O W R U ? (abbreviated)
. . . . _ _ _ . _ _ . _ . . . _ . . _ _ . .
_____________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________
GLOSSARY OF RELEVANT TERMS
AND CAST MEMBERS
Dedicated to:
Martin Gardner ( October 21, 1914 - May 22, 2010 )
American puzzle genius
Philosopher
Skeptic
Polymath
Author:
"Mathematical Games" column in Scientific American
magazine 1956-1981.
Editor: "The Skeptical Enquirer" magazine
"Codes, Ciphers and Secret Writings"
"The Collossal Book of Mathematics: Classic Puzzles,
Paradoxes And Puzzles." (collection) - 2001
"The Collossal Book of Short Puzzles and Problems"
(collection) -2006
"I just play all the time and am fortunate enough to
get paid for it."
"The nature of human consciousness may not be
discoverable or knowable to us." [paraphrased]
[ Tipping his hat to the Real Puzzle. B. ]
Gave the world uncounted hours of puzzle-solving
enjoyment.
Thank you, Mr. Gardner.
Marian Adam Rejewski ( August 16, 1905 - February 13, 1980 )
Polish mathematician and cryptanalyst.
(later, an accountant).
Defeated Hitler by cracking Enigma (1932).
Thank you, Mr. Rejewski.
Alan Mathison Turing ( June 23, 1912 - June 07, 1954 )
British crypto-warrior.
Gave us the programmable computer (1936).
Designed methods and machines to battle and
defeat Hitler's Naval Enigma machine.
Pioneered the field of artificial intelligence.
Thank you, Mr. Turing.
Albert Einstein ( March 14, 1875 - April 18, 1955 )
German-American physicist. World traveler.
Nobel laureate. Philosopher.
E=MC^2 (plain text, relatively speaking)
Special, General Relativity.
Desynchronization of time.
Explained Brownian motion.
Photon.
Electron.
Wrong once, but only because he thought
he was wrong.
Skeptical about quantum physics.
Not involved with cryptography.
(Ideas already hard enough to understand.)
Richard Phillips Feynman ( May 11, 1918 - Feb 15, 1988 )
Maverick American physicist. Nobel laureat for
QED (Quantum Electrodynamics),
("Quantum Physics is Spooky Physics.", - A. Einstein).
Challenger Investigation Commission.
The Feynman Lectures.
Understood Albert Einstein.
Played Bongos.
Handed off a cipher puzzle challenge to his
graduate student (the Genius Decryption Method).
(Still unsolved.)
Stephen William Hawking ( b. January 08, 1942 )
British theoretical physicist, cosmologist,
philosopher, author, lecturer.
Understands Albert Einstein.
Brilliant, imaginative (mildly wary of E.T.
contact) astrophysicist. Writes about:
Origin of the Universe.
Fate of the Universe.
The nature of time.
Gravitational singularities.
Wormholes.
Human evolution.
(And yet, owns timepiece with a second hand.)
Interest in cryptography undocumented.
John Locke ( August 29, 1632 - October 28, 1704 )
English philosopher and physician.
Writings about the right to govern influenced
the American Declaration of Independence.
"All thoughts derive from experience.
The human mind at birth is a blank slate, a
"tabula rasa "."(Latin) [paraphrased]
Rene' Descartes ( 1596 - 1650 )
French mathematician and philosopher.
" I think, therefore I am. "
Invented:
Cartesian cordinate system ( grid used in analytic
geometry ) which bears his name.
x-axis ( Also known as the "ABSCISSA")
y-axis
" x-squared plus y-squared equals r-squared."
( equation for the circle.)
Robert Duane Ballard ( b. June 30, 1942 )
American marine geologist and archaeologist.
Undersea explorer. Modern-day Indiana Jones.
Explored mid-ocean hydrothermal vents and
ecosystems (1979-82).
Rediscovered R.M.S. Titanic (1985).
"Follow the debris trail."
"The sea floor is the world's greatest museum."
What next, Dr. Ballard?
Sir Edmund Hillary and ( July 20, 1919 - Jan. 11, 2008 )
Tenzing Norgay New Zealand mountaineer. John Hunt expedition
of 400 men. Ninth British expedition.
On May 29, 1953 , Sir Edmund Hillary
and his Sherpa climbing partner Tenzing Norgay
were the first men to reach the summit of Mount
Everest (29,029 feet). (Norgay and Lambert had
reached 28,199 feet the previous year.)
"Well George, we knocked the bxoxoxd off." [cens'd]
(first words to friend George Lowe after descent)
(Used older, open-circuit oxygen system.)
Wrote: "Nothing Venture Nothing Gain"
"We don't conquer the mountain. We conquer
ourselves."
" If you.......die on the descent, is it really a complete
first ascent of the mountain? I am rather inclined to
think personally that maybe it is quite important,
the getting down.............."
Tom Bourdillon and Mountaineers. Same expedition. On May 26, 1953
Charles Evans they climbed to within 300 feet of the summit, but
turned back due to exhaustion, oxygen equipment
failure. They broke trail, scouted routes and left oxygen
bottles for Hillary and Norgay. Almost.....almost.......
No knighthood. No T-shirt. But alive.
(Used newer, closed-circuit oxygen system.)
George Herbert Liegh Mallory (June 18, 1886 - June 8 or 9, 1924 ) [ found in 1999]
With climbing partner Andrew Irvine, disappeared
during third British attempt on Mt. Everest. Last
known sighting was only a few hundred meters
from the summit. (Some still think he made it to the
top.) Why do you want to climb Mt. Everest?
"BECAUSE IT'S THERE."
Reinhold Messner Italian-Germain mountaineer. ( b. Sept. 17, 1944 )
On August 20, 1980 he became the first to climb Mt.
Everest ALONE and WITHOUT OXYGEN TANKS.
[With boots, however.] He pioneered a new route on the
north col/ face roughly continuing Finch's climb in 1927.
Chris Dewhurst and Two teams of balloonists who, on Oct 21, 1992, each
Lee Dickinson flew over Mt. Everest in flights lasting one hour and twenty
minutes. (not long enough to serve snacks) The balloons
Andy Elson and each flew a distance of (24 miles; 37 kilometers) horizontally,
Eric Jones (5 miles; 8 kilometers) vertically.
Set records for highest launch (15,536 ft.; 4735 m.) and
highest touchdown (16,200 ft.; 4940 m.) , which have yeti
to be surpassed.
Jeanette Piccard ( 1895 - 1981 )
American balloonist, scientist, teacher, priest
First woman to ascend to the stratosphere (Oct. 23, 1934).
With husband Jean Felix Piccard aboard, reached altitude of
( 57,579 feet; 17,550 meters ) on a flight from Dearborn,
Michigan to Cadiz, Ohio.
Harmon Trophy for aeronautics, 1934.
Then hailed as "first woman in space".
Inducted into the International Space Hall of Fame in 1998.
Co-inventer of the plastic balloon.
First woman ordained as priest in the Episcopal Church.
Mt. Everest also Chomolangma, also Qomolangma
Himalayan peak between Nepal and Tibet.
Elevation: 29,029 feet (8848 meters).
Part of upheaval formed by continental drift
when the Indian subcontonent collided with
the southern Asian coast. Geologic fender-bender?
By the end of 2008, there were 4,102 ascents by
2,700 individuals. (It's easy once someone shows
you how it's done.)
Record ascents for one man: 6.
216 fatalities.
Howard Carter (May 09, 1874 - March 02, 1939)
(howARd cARter) British ARchaeologist and Egyptologist.
ARtist. Fluent in heiroglyphic Egyptian.
Rediscovered tomb of Egyptian PhARaoh
Tutankhamen. (Nov, 1922).
PARTIII: ("Slowly, despARatly slowly...."
John George(Jack) Phillips (April 11, 1887 - April 15, 1912)
Marconi Wireless Telegraph operator.
Senior radio officer, R.M.S Titanic.
"CQD CQD CQD SOS SOS SOS DE MGY ..........."
(MGY was the call sign of the Titanic. DE means "from".
CQD mean "Calling all stations - distress!")
Harold Sydney Bride (Jan 11, 1890 - April 29, 1956)
Marconi Wireless Telegraph operator.
Second Radio Officer R.M.S. Titanic.
"Why don't you send the new SOS code?
It may be your last chance to use it."
(survived the sinking)
Charles Stanley Gordon (b. circa 1887 - d. ? )
Marconi Wireless Telegraph operator.
S.S. Delhi
Finally got through. Good job, Mr. Gordon!
Edward John Smith RD, RNR (Jan 27, 1850 - April 15,1912)
Captain, R.M.S. Titanic.
"Keep a good watch for ice."
Coriolis force n. Physics. A fictitious force used mathematically to
describe motion, as of aircraft or cloud formations,
relative to a noninertial, uniformly rotating frame of
reference such as the earth.[After Gaspard G.
de Coriolis (1792-1843), French mathematician]
Need to know "Beauty is truth, truth beauty," - that is all
Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know.
(Keats, "Ode On A Grecian Urn", 1819)
"We can never see the Whole Truth.
We can only see the Beauty and Love that flows from it - and
That is enough."
(B.S. , 2010)
skepticism n. 1. A doubting or questioning state of mind; dubiety.
2. The philosophical doctrine that Absolute Knowledge
is impossible and that inquiry must be a process of
doubting in order to acquire approximate or
relative certainty.
skeptic n. also sceptic
1. One who instinctively or habitually doubts, questions,
or disagrees with assertions or generally accepted
conclusions.
2.
3.
[from Greek "skeptesthai" , to examine, consider]
Enigma machine Vast, uncapped blowout leak of Nazi German
intelligence.(1932-1945)
Purple Code Ditto Japan.
HAL 9000 Fictional computer in the 1968 movie "2001:
A Space Odyssey".
Kept the secret of the spaceship's true mission.
Dave Bowman: "Open the pod bay door, HAL."
HAL: " I'm afraid I can't do that, Dave...."
(later:) "What are you doing, Dave?"
(then:) "Dai-sy, Dai-sy, give me your answer, do...."
WOPR Similar idea. 80's movie: " Ferris Bueller's Day Off " ???
" A STRANGE GAME..... "
cryptanalyst n. One who analyzes and deciphers cryptographic
writings or systems.
cryptographer n. One who uses, studies, or develops cryptographic
systems and writings.
cryptologist n. One who studies cryptanalysis or cryptography.
KryptosPuzzle Challenge A civilized Contest, played for fun and
Good Karma. (and maybe a T-shirt.)
Y2K acrnym. "Year two thousand." Famous cyber false alarm.
You are at Y2 K + 10. (Next media hype alarm: Y2K+12.)
JimSanborn Celebrated and talented artist and sculptor. Creator
of this puzzlesculpture and co-creator (with EdScheidt)
of its ciphers (circa 1988-1990).
"Loose lips, you know."
EdScheidt Top professional cryptographer and co-creator of
this puzzlesculpture's ciphers (circa 1988-1990).
"I saved the best for last."
JimGillogly Crack civilian programmer and cryptanalyst. First to
publish solutions to PART I , PART II , AND PART III
ciphers of this puzzle. (June, 1999).
"The choice of tool isn't the important part, but rather the
decisions about how to use the tools."
" Plugh... "
DavidStein U.S. Government analyst and first documented solver
( with paper and pencil ! ) of PARTS I , II and III
of the puzzle cipher (1998).
Almost "..a religious experience."
ElonkaDunin Talented cryptography and gaming expert; author,
intrepid lecturer and adventurer. Solver of ciphers.
"The Mammoth Book of Secret Codes and Cryptograms"
"I just want to see it solved." [O.K. B.]
dramatization n. 1. The act or art of transforming into a play or drama.
2. A dramatic version of something.
Internet Feeding Frenzy Fig. of speech. Multiple accesses of a website
that make the hit counter spin like a gas pump on
the Fourth of July.
"Slashdotting" of a small linked website.
enterprising adj. Showing imagination, initiative, and readiness to
undertake the adventurous or risky. See
Synonyms at "ambitious".
enterprise n. 1. An undertaking, especially one of some scope,
complication, and risk: "One generation abandons
the enterprises of another like stranded vessels."
( Henry David Thoreau) .
2. A business.
3. Industrious effort...
4. Readiness to venture; boldness; initiative
The "Big E" The U.S.S. Enterprise. (CV-6) The most
decorated aircraft carrier of WW II.
With U.S.S. Hornet and U.S.S. Yorktown,
exploited broken Japanese code in May, 1942
at the Battle of Midway, destroying three enemy
aircraft carriers and crippling a fourth. (Turing
point of the war in the Pacific, according to many .)
bold adj. 1. Fearless and daring; courageous.
2. Requiring or exhibiting courage and bravery.
boldly adv. In a bold manner. "To proceed boldly, into
the unknown."
intrepid adj. Resolutely courageous; fearless; bold:
"thinking is but the intrepid effort of the soul to keep the
open independence of her sea" (Melville)
engine room n. On a ship, the location of the steam boilers and steam
engines or turbines. "The water is half-way up the
boilers." [not good] "Can you fix it?"
" Nae, captain."
YAR Raised, radio-wave-like letters at the beginning of PART III of the
puzzle . (Lt.)
Q.E.D. (Latin) Quod erat demonstrandum. "Which was to be
demonstated."
"Omitting spaces may not, strictly speaking,
be encryption, but it sure fools the Google
search engine. Q.E.D."
Crossing Delancey Film. 1988 romantic comedy with Amy Irving.
Q: Who wrote the screenplay?
A: Susan Sandler (who adapted it from her play).
(Here, Q must mean "Question", from the context,
?mustn't it)
telegrapher n. One who sends or receives messages using
telegraphic equipment. ( "I'm a doctor, not a
telegrapher!")
George Herbert,
Fifth Earl of Carnarvon (June 26, 1866 - April 5, 1923)
(cARnARvon) British philanthropist and Egyptologist.
Patron of Howard Carter. (cARter)
Was present at the opening of the tomb of
King Tutankhamen (Nov, 1922).
PART III : "Can you see anything?"
"Confounded mosquitoes!" (apocr.)
Venus flytrap n. A carnarvorous plant ( or sculpture or obsession ) that
lures and entraps its prey.
Ahab Obsessed whaling captain. (fic.)
nyota n. (Swahili) Star
uhuru n. (Swahili) Freedom
Nyota Uhura proper n. Name of fictional character derived from above.
First to use Bluetooth.
hydrography adj 1. The scientific description and analysis of the
physical conditions, boundaries, flow and related
characteristics of oceans, lakes, rivers and other
surface waters.
2. The mapping of such bodies of water.
hydrologic adj. Of or pertaining to the scientific study of the properties,
distribution, and effects of water on the earth's surface,
in the soil and underlying rocks, and in the atmosphere.
siphonics n. (hydrology). The study of drainage and seepage, as of
bilge.
twaddle intr. v. To talk foolishly; prate.
n. (Also twattle.)
1. Foolish, trivial, or idle talk or chatter.
Claptrap. [Unrelated to Venus flytrap (q.v.).]
[ Here, "q." means "quod".]
2. Silly pretentious speech or writing.
("This analysis is simply twaddle.")
"Hooey, jive, hogwash, malarkey...." (Cdr. Data )
Moose and Squirrel n. Amer. jargon. Good guys.
submerged island n. A very unyielding hazard to navigation.
iceberg n. Ditto.
d'oh interjection. Imitative. ( "D'oh!" )
Dennis Hopper Actor. Director. Played future captain of the
Exxon Valdez in the movie "Waterworld".
Paul Newman ( January 26, 1925 - Sept 26, 2008 )
Award - winning American actor, director, humanitarian, philanthropist,
SCCA race driver, racing sponsor, enterprising entrepeneur.
On fidelity: "Why go out for hamburger, when you have steak at home?"
Some films:
Hud, The Hustler, Harper, The Verdict, Absence of Malice, The Prize,
Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, The Sting, The Color of Money,
Fat Man and Little Boy, The Simpsons (as his own voice).
"WHAT WE HAVE HERE, IS FAILURE TO COMMUNICATE!"
(as Luke Jackson, from the 1967 motion picture: "Cool Hand Luke")
twain adj. (archaic) Two.
n. (Poetic.) 1. A set of two; "Oh, East is East, and West is West, and
never the twain shall meet " (Kipling).
2. The two-fathom mark on a sounding line used on riverboats.
Mark Twain (Nov. 30, 1835 - April 21, 1910)
Pen Name of Samuel Langhorne Clemens.
[ From the expression 'mark twain', "by the mark two fathoms",
used by Mississippi riverboat pilots in sounding shallows for
minimun navigable depths.]
American genius author and humorist.
Expert and safety-conscious Mississippi riverboat pilot.
BillWho? Crossword puzzle and Cryptoquote fan of modest abilities.
Skeptic.
Disregarded media hype and refused to give up on this puzzle.
"How hard could it be?"
Dawdled publishing for months.
"Why solve it if you can't have fun with it?"
Understands Newton (some).
Intrepid? Has seen U.S.S. Intrepid . (Carrier: The Big "I"?)
High school Ham Radio Club.
Math Club.
Marching Band.
Bill Steele Published here July 30, 2010
