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

That’s my scytale.. I still don’t have access for a few days to a computer,, can someone run that through a solver.. The first row is 18 periods next two rows 17 periods and all the rest 18 periods.. That’s how it works out with scytale.
Cheers..

Edit can you run your heat map through it smokie to see if anything pops out.

Mr. Lowe,

The heatmap only works with messages that have not been un-transposed, such as the 340 before your scytale interpretation. But eventually I would like to make a new heatmap that will work with your new message. I noticed that you may have an issue with 8’s and 18’s. At row 3, column 1, that symbol should be an 18 instead of an 8.

Here are the results:

iesplcoureiannedan
drillhersriacontro
loicsinmanatdiscli
ttmrthintorotemend
diosaidonalteichha
deinertritcrandrea
nsthedasthedcoolar
stogottedisinothec
iestandybsdiarepla
inprisodepieandome
ardeatedehereittot
assaseststelection
aemanyouarternanou
tertheeledamsanmig
nobutsonatoanelddo
hdenlastcarthemana
tionaliallestatist
sottitissayosalund
ecameamsseanalds

many thanks for that smokie.. no solve there.. ill check my 8 and 18…. can you post up a master copy you use as a spreadsheet so I can check mine.. i will move into the background on this for a while. can you check that for bigrams please?
cheers

Hey Mr. Lowe,

Here is what I have been working with for the 340. I noticed that where I have a bold red 18, you have an 8.

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

I am not sure what period bigrams you want me to check for. I assume period 1, but am not sure. Unfortunately my scytale spreadsheet is set up for 19 columns instead of 18 columns at the present time. I appreciate your ideas and common sense approach to trying to solve the 340. I guess we are all stumped for the time being. I would like to continue updating my spreadsheets and working on the 340 throughout 2016 as time permits. I can easily check your message for period 1 bigrams if you make it 17 x 20, if that is what you want. I also hope to make the bigrams colored so that they can be matched up at some point in the future. It has to do with formatting the cells conditioned upon their values.

Thanks.

yup period 1s .. not sure how I ended up with the 8.. I will work on other starting points for this, but I don’t want to clutter you guys with my junk. Lenovo a week away…

@Mr lowe, I can confirm that your un-transposition doesn’t solve. And there is no bump in the score either. Thanks for your efforts so far!

Hey Jarlve, could you make me a scytale-like message with a period of 19, and use one particular symbol as an added null. Use the same symbol several times. Then I will work on my heatmap and try to rank the symbols in order of how likely they are to be the null. See if I can figure out which symbol is the null.

Good idea. I tried to make it hard but haven’t performed any analysis myself so I don’t really know how difficult it is. Have fun!

Period 19 scytale cipher with one null symbol inserted after transposition:

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

K[/HE@[B_GPSOQ2K
I&?$4TMP0FZLB[1;
"WD0I!<STN_O=54XW
DP'K1RFH4S/XUZ1-_
!T33>"QP<]*2YT&$X
`WN8?"*/F;&BAHK>
O"T13^_$W/+^JD.$
ST4]GM'K@LEWB0=`
QYZ?T2H$I]U&F_<;!
D<I"!+3SRX@+Z-K=F
WO1;R3I4<STJ`00L@
BN5/1D8P!*2;4_>VO
_5ZY`MW^QD[/K'"
<1!!OU/XS/J>/YENT
R-3PK!1O!IY5/'A&
O!<S.W"G4XS___!?
"K_/]KAVW_`$<AT*T
^;JN$O[L.2?!U&OM
B!EJYUD&VF`=WZG"]
*I^KTVF&T/<5<SJS

A set of operations that leads to a "high scoring" plaintext (21020 with 5-grams) but does not restore normal bigram statistics. Vertically flip the 340 and then remove the 1st and 14th symbol and then undo period 15. I’ve been running a bunch of these and so far vertically flipping the 340 is dominant (period 15).

This is with 6-grams, one string stands out to me: "printhingprint". Seems like just the thing Zodiac would come up with "Prin-thing prints".

Score: 17986.58 Ioc: 0.07806437 Chi2: 41.06584 H: 3.888572 M: 0.1863905 C: 338 S: 63

utebattanspusisap
unmendoptseneedte
mptahasthostedshi
ntheasridherotier
whysttaliseeidact
ingdematehehurthe
boilofranchandset
arentteayisayyatt
hangentalternesmo
retousehonostherp
etrusandersitylie
andiiintssatoppre
seratwbisntionthe
alablelocalofassu
ceseethstartarrei
wasanislastofreia
minsmrpoostreamos
issonaresschleftt
hereadshersinprin
thingprintbeaca

M|C/lp9fS<FM<B+;F
MSK#.kDFc(W^C5ycU
KFc_2l+p2z<|Hk+)B
.E2#l+OByNUOzpBH*
1Nd+p|f>4+RR-yAYc
-t7yJKLpW)R)MVbNJ
/z-6zX*j^:NfTk<Wc
LqU.||5ld4+Gddlcp
)GS7CT|GZc5*tU<K@
VC|8M+H2ztz+c25VF
5EVM(L.k5*+BEdZBW
L.y-4BT|++G9zFFVU
(RO_c13B+tc4D^b2#
L>P3Z#>8YP6zXl+(M
YJ+J5|2+pGOpAOOCB
1G+;.B+Zf+pD&OW%l
KBS<K*Fz8+pORjK8(
4+(D^;*H+(:N6R&bp
2#qR_k+)WV+-TFO4^
92BT7FO%^9/RLYP

I have been thinking about the 340 and how to proceed on it for a couple of months and have finally converged on a direction (recommendation).

1. Generate and explore hypotheses that restore normal bigram statistics for the 340.
2. Or generate hypotheses that emulate bigram statistics found in the 340 and work from there.

If the 340 were to be a clean period cipher then it is expected to have bigram peaks at the period and multiples of it. A clear example of this with a period 5 cipher (5, 10, 15, 20, 25):

Note that these multiples are period 2,3,4,5 repeats in the plaintext which naturally occur to a higher degree in language. Here are the graphs of just the plaintext and it can be noted that the repeats correlate with the cipher graphs (period 5 in the plaintext has a slight bump and that became the slightly higher period 25 in the cipher):

With the 340 the same can be observed except that any multiple of the period has shifted away from its expected position (period 15, 29 and period 19, 39). Something has caused this and it could be something very simple. And for now we have to assume that this is the reason (or one of the reasons) the 340 is not solving until we have explored a plethora of valid hypotheses in this direction.

One thing I just looked at as the possibility of causing misalignment is something that smokie has previously considered in his various 340 construction hypotheses. Vertical un-transposition with a message length not equal to a factor of the columns considered.

What happens with such a scheme is a gradual shift for the period and its multiples with more columns being considered for a shorter message. For the following case (image) bigrams should spread out equally (on average) over period 18 and 19 with respective shifts for the multiples. I would say that it therefore is unlikely as a cause for the type of misalignment that we are looking for but it could have been used to a minor degree with the misalignment having another cause (to be clear).

So many interesting avenues to explore! Keep up the good work, everyone!

Seagull was asking me about the Zodiac Alphabet recently, so I got distracted by a different rabbit hole.

In John Laffin’s 1964 book, "Codes and Ciphers", is this so-called "Zodiac Alphabet":

Graysmith mentions it in his book:

I never thought much of this connection. But then Seagull showed me a shot of the book’s table of contents, which shows this:

That’s the Skytale (Scytale) cipher! Right next to the chapter about the Zodiac Alphabet! (For anyone outside of this thread wondering why this is important: Mr. Lowe independently pointed out the fact that the Scytale encipherment method could explain why we are seeing many periodic bigram repeats such as period 15 and period 19. So this is another possible connection between Zodiac and Laffin book. Maybe he really did use one of the methods from Laffin’s book, since it was published in 1964, the right time for Z to make use of it.)

I ordered a copy of the Laffin book. When I receive it, I will scan it and post it somewhere as a resource for your experiments.

Jarlve, I have the flu and won’t be working on your message right away.

Sorry to hear it, smokie. Hope you get well soon!

doranchak.. That’s interesting..
Smokie.. Get well soon..this site needs your smarts and your enthusiasm.

I need to revisit my original COLUMN scytale I think it’s flawed.
I am trying to workout the first repeat (number 5) and how that would come into play using scytale (I think its out of place) i need to find it’s real home.

Ok smokie, take it easy.

Thanks for sharing doranchak that’s really interesting! I will take another look at it.

Edit: and thanks Seagull!

Here is a skytale encode/decoder: http://rumkin.com/tools/cipher/skip.php