Episode 18 - The Dancing Men
12/04/18 • 10 min
1 Listener
by Leah Strickland
The 1903 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle short story “Sherlock Holmes and the Dancing Men” features an unusual cipher. In this podcast, I give a summary of the story, so listeners will understand why Sherlock solving the puzzle is important. I then explain how Sherlock was able to solve the Dancing Men cipher. He was able to solve it by using frequency analysis. I go on to explain how Sherlock solving this cipher is unrealistic because of more messages needed to be sent for frequency analysis to be more accurate. I then talk about how the dancing men cipher is similar to the Gold Bug cipher created by Edgar Allan Poe. I then describe some similarities between the two authors and their ciphers. I finish off my podcast by giving an example of popular cryptography in modern times.
I would like to thank Xiaoyu Dong and Xin Yi Zhang for helping me edit my script.
Sources
- https://www.geocachingtoolbox.com/index.php?page=dancingMen
- https://www.arthurconandoyle.com/biography.html
- https://illuminations.nctm.org/uploadedFiles/Content/Lessons/Resources/9-12/Caesar-DancingMen.pdf
- https://www.britannica.com/topic/substitution-cipher
- https://literature.stackexchange.com/questions/446/how-much-did-forensic-science-at-the-time-of-sherlock-holmes-publication-influe
Illustration by Sidney Paget.
by Leah Strickland
The 1903 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle short story “Sherlock Holmes and the Dancing Men” features an unusual cipher. In this podcast, I give a summary of the story, so listeners will understand why Sherlock solving the puzzle is important. I then explain how Sherlock was able to solve the Dancing Men cipher. He was able to solve it by using frequency analysis. I go on to explain how Sherlock solving this cipher is unrealistic because of more messages needed to be sent for frequency analysis to be more accurate. I then talk about how the dancing men cipher is similar to the Gold Bug cipher created by Edgar Allan Poe. I then describe some similarities between the two authors and their ciphers. I finish off my podcast by giving an example of popular cryptography in modern times.
I would like to thank Xiaoyu Dong and Xin Yi Zhang for helping me edit my script.
Sources
- https://www.geocachingtoolbox.com/index.php?page=dancingMen
- https://www.arthurconandoyle.com/biography.html
- https://illuminations.nctm.org/uploadedFiles/Content/Lessons/Resources/9-12/Caesar-DancingMen.pdf
- https://www.britannica.com/topic/substitution-cipher
- https://literature.stackexchange.com/questions/446/how-much-did-forensic-science-at-the-time-of-sherlock-holmes-publication-influe
Illustration by Sidney Paget.
Previous Episode
Episode 17 - The Fanqie Code
by Elton Song
Chinese, different from western languages, is a syllabic language without an alphabet. How can we create a cipher without an alphabet? How could ancient Chinese hide their secrets and send encrypted messages? Want to learn about the most difficult ciphers to be decrypted in the world? Come into this episode to enjoy the story of General Qi and his amazing Fanqie code, and learn about the profound Chinese history and language.
Resources:
Encryption/ciphers/codes in Chinese by Ethan Heilman
Fanqie by Wikipedia
中古漢語語音教程-17 反切、韻圖 by biopolyhedron [video]
Audio:
BEHIND THE GREAT WALL/Qi Jiguang Documentary by Zhongguo Wu Xue [video]
戚繼光 明朝船堅利炮,福建海戰全殲倭寇,威懾日本300余年 by Lucinda Mueller [video]
Music:
不能说的秘密(live)by JJ Lin [video]
童言无忌(不插电版)by 王以太 [video]
Image: General Qi Jiquang, Wikimedia Commons
Next Episode
Episode 19 - Typex
by Kyle Schroeder
Almost everyone has heard of the infamous German Enigma machine, but only a handful know about the bigger and better British equivalent known as Typex. Typex was a highly sophisticated cipher machine used by the British military during World War II, which, unlike Enigma, was never cracked. In this episode, we explore the origin and development of the machine, dig into the mechanisms that make it work, and explain why it was so secure. In addition, we examine its evolution over time, as well as its impact both during and after the war.
References
For More Information:
http://www.cryptomuseum.com/crypto/uk/typex/index.htm
http://chris-intel-corner.blogspot.com/2014/11/the-british-typex-cipher-machine.html
http://www.cryptomuseum.com/crypto/uk/typex/files/kelly.pdf
https://www.mitel.com/en-us/articles/encoded-communications-world-war-ii
Music:
All music was obtained from Purple Planet Music
https://www.purple-planet.com/
“Fearless”: https://www.purple-planet.com/inspirational
“Tranquility”: https://www.purple-planet.com/gentle
“Far and Wide”: https://www.purple-planet.com/chilled
“Awakening”: https://www.purple-planet.com/chilled
“Dream the Dream”: https://www.purple-planet.com/hope
Sound Effects:
The typewriter sound effect was obtained from Sound Jay Free Sound Effects https://www.soundjay.com/typewriter-sounds.html
Image:
Typex on display at Bletchley Park, photo by Tom Murphy VII
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