Spartan Scytale one of the oldest known transposition methods. Simple and effective when combined with multiple letter assignment and symbol encryption. This system works by both parties using the same diameter pipe to encrypt and to decipher. I am not confident that this is the answer but a possible solution all the same. See below the code cut in column strips and wrapped around a 5" pipe. The code paper I was using was a photocopy of a photo copy so its size was not original.. Anyways this particular wrap brings the period 19s nicely into play. The written format if we start at the H ends up being 12 rows by nine periods and then a further 29 rows by eight periods.
Side note: Which brings me to the possibility of using the Philips map for a pipe size and the right size code paper.. Also maybe wrapping the "my name is cipher" around a pen for example.
Ps smokie , Got a new Lenovo for Christmas.. It won’t be fired up for about two weeks I’m off to Mooloolabah for a break.

It’s an interesting concept because it actually works for the 19 bigram repeats. I will have to spend some time and check it to make sure
Edit.. I have noted that this system while giving up most of the bigrams and trigrams does not roll of the edges to the next line like doranchaks 19 bigram viewer.. Which I think is good.. .? I think? When I get some time I’ll set a spreadsheet up on it..

Mr. Lowe, I really like your Spartan Scytale idea a lot, and think that it may be the same as a transposition that "wraps around" from the bottom row to the top row. I like simple explanations for things. Stuff that a boy scout would know.

I think that it is awesome that you got a Lenovo for Christmas. You should get plenty of use out of it. One reason why I like this hobby is that it is very inexpensive ( a good talking point when discussing the 340 with others in a face-to-face conversation ).

Making a Spartan Scytale message on a spreadsheet would be really easy, and I may make one in the future. I may also consider working some geometry calculations. The diameter of a circle and on-center spacing of letters. I wonder what the on-center spacing of letters for an old typewriter would be.

Hi smokie..I like scytale as well because it’s simple and would have been in a lot of early basic cipher books..Boy Scout stuff as well. It’s midnight in the land of aus and I’m about to crash and burn. I will post up the flat pack version of my home made scytale tomorrow. I think it’s good that it’s so similar to doranchaks "19" but also good in what differences, when done manually in the cycling from one side to the other.. Not sure why yet! If you get a chance to throw out a spreadsheet on it I think it wil surprise us..
Cheers.

Smokie, Mrlowe and others. I’m following with interest but I don’t have much to add at the moment and I’m working on a new version of AZdecrypt for 2016 (it’s going to rock). I’ve tried an online Spartan Scytale generater with the p1 plaintext and noticed a bigram peak @ period 82. After I undid regular period 82 transposition the cipher solved perfectly.

This is the flat pack version of the homemade scytale from the z340 wrap around from top to bottom on about a 5" pipe. It ends up being a one step up per two colums giving the 19 period bigrams and trigrams there substance.

Ps Disregard most of the highlighter on this as I cut up an old photocopy. The bigrams and trigrams are there..

Jarlve, don’t worry about not posting lately. I think that we are all tired from the transposition work. I know that I am and currently working at about 30% capacity.

I updated my message making spreadsheet so that it automatically populates the key with either efficient or inefficient diffusion. And I can also designate some of the symbols as polyalphabetic if I want to.

I also made a spreadsheet that automatically makes vigenere messages, and am trying to square transposition with prime phobia if possible. One thing that I can report is that he probably didn’t vigenere the plaintext before transposing. Vigenereing reduces period 1 repeat counts too much with a six letter keyword. Seems fairly obvious, but I had to try. Likewise, vigenereing plaintext after transposing would reduce the period 19 repeats too much. Too much diffusion. But that only took a few hours of my time to find out and now I know.

Mr. Lowe, I like your Spartan idea a lot. And I have been thinking about it. I think that it is as good an explanation for the period 19 repeats as any. The pipe size and font size are the variables. Maybe a typewriter and a soda can. But I was thinking that I could arrange my spreadsheet cells to simulate that by making the message into a 19 x 18 grid so that the repeats line up vertically. Somebody suggested that a long time ago, but I couldn’t find the reference in this huge thread to give credit. It might have been Jarlve. Not that it will help solve, probably, but maybe it will help me visualize things easier.

Oh yeah, I worked on the heatmap so that it can take period 38 repeats into consideration. It is still a work in progress.

Also the cylindrical object could be a baseball bat or similar that has the " conical" form which with no authority from me may change it from a 19 to 18 to 15 as it wraps down the shaft. Just making it up as I go along? .. Also thinking it needs more examination. It fits well "scytale" =19

I also made a spreadsheet that automatically makes vigenere messages, and am trying to square transposition with prime phobia if possible. One thing that I can report is that he probably didn’t vigenere the plaintext before transposing. Vigenereing reduces period 1 repeat counts too much with a six letter keyword. Seems fairly obvious, but I had to try. Likewise, vigenereing plaintext after transposing would reduce the period 19 repeats too much. Too much diffusion. But that only took a few hours of my time to find out and now I know.

Yes, with Vigenere, the longer the keyword the more repeated fragments become diffused. Although up to a certain keyword length the diffusion is not critical – 5 seems okay – so it could still have been used in the 340. However, there are also tests to determine the length of the keyword and the 340 scores negative on these for period 1, 15 and 19. Though since we don’t know the exact transposition scheme (if any) I’d say it’s possible that Vigenere applied before transposition and encoding is also actual in the 340. I wouldn’t bother with it though.

But I was thinking that I could arrange my spreadsheet cells to simulate that by making the message into a 19 x 18 grid so that the repeats line up vertically. Somebody suggested that a long time ago, but I couldn’t find the reference in this huge thread to give credit. It might have been Jarlve.

It was daikon.

@Mr lowe, can you make a numerical or symbolic text version of your 340 alteration? So that we can test it with our tools.

Hi jarlve. I will as soon as I get good access to excell spreadsheet. As I’m on holidays and only running iPad.. My new Lenovo has not been booted up yet I’ll have to get a techie at work to load it up for me with proper anti virus protection. I run office 365 cloud driven at work but can’t access from public computers.
And I have too try scytale using rows as well instead of columns
I have also had another idea that may be used using scytale and that is using two columns at a time. Brings in odds evens as well.. I Will test it soon.

1 19 37 44 11 56 8 60 31
8 35 7 49 30 59 40 63 55
20 5 40 23 38 18 34 20 23
42 37 51 58 19 20 29 37 51
46 3 57 22 16 5 61 52 3
5 19 32 39 19 20 28 58 19
22 16 61 7 25 50 36 48 19
21 37 8 2 50 51 8 50 16
17 6 50 11 11 28 38 57 13
55 3 3 19 50 4 32 11 5
38 36 34 50 56 7 26 21 36
16 47 7 53 23 51 14 55 19
40 51 30 31 29 42 20 31
6 59 40 16 9 27 62 16
34 28 13 26 20 23 14 32
11 14 56 43 40 12 30 1
3 33 26 10 10 28 22 31
19 10 18 8 26 33 19 10
11 25 6 24 26 23 52 25
4 4 22 39 45 9 4 13
2 20 19 30 50 10 28 13
5 36 6 17 17 15 19 53
34 43 48 55 36 27 62 34
5 19 6 16 46 36 51 31
47 7 24 23 51 43 14 20
44 31 49 3 23 5 19 44
50 41 19 41 27 37 21 19
15 19 19 11 14 20 50 55
29 38 48 30 50 36 39 15
40 54 41 18 61 8 37 33
19 6 33 16 2 28 20 33
29 42 32 47 5 6 54 56
63 18 35 21 19 1 30 58
15 12 20 56 23 23 11 17
20 45 50 36 46 44 15 33
36 19 40 48 39 13 31 41
36 26 29 42 11 29 40 16
19 17 5 9 27 13 3 54
51 1 7 25 21 19 53 21
37 5 23 15 5 19 16 11
3 21 38 8 51 51 40 47

Jarlve..I have had no time to proof read the above. In fact now I come to think of it not 100% sure I used an original z340 test .
PM me if you need anything else

Jarlve..I have had no time to proof read the above. In fact now I come to think of it not 100% sure I used an original z340 test .
PM me if you need anything else
Edit..just did a quick mock up and it seems scytale works even better on the rows.. Will check in due course..
About 2 inches around the radian..

I got inspired today and made another new spreadsheet. It makes messages into 19 columns by 18 rows so that we can see the period 19 repeats easier. They are now arranged vertically.

And with Spartan in mind, I also put row 1 again below row 18, and made it so that I can shift the row one space to the left or right to test whether the reading is from column to column right to left or left to right. And it then calculates the bigram matches and scores.

I can also adjust the period to whatever I want. On the top is period 19, shifting row 1 at the bottom to the right, meaning that the reading would be from right to left. On the bottom is period 38, shifting row 1 at the bottom to the left, meaning that the reading would be from left to right.

I plan to experiment with period 19, 38, 57, and so on with both left and right shift of row 1 at the bottom to see if I can determine a big difference. So that I can try to figure out if the message is left to right or right to left. Maybe I will make some practice messages to test.

And this also makes me think of columnar transposition. I wonder if he wrote the message vertically to begin with, then rearranged the columns, then wrote the message out transposing horizontally in 17 columns by 20 rows. But that is more complicated and maybe later make a message that way to see if I can match 340 stats.

Nice work smokie.. I only have access to Google excell ..no frills…. Don’t forget that when you column shift or row shift it wraps around to the next line and pushes all rows or columns further along. That’s what makes scytale work the way it does.. Below is a wrap around scytale by row rather than column this is on a 38mm pipe or roughly 1" 7/8 in the old language