A Union Cipher

This baffling message illustrates a cipher adopted by the Union Army in 1862:

TO GEORGE C. MAYNARD, Washington

Regulars ordered of my to public out suspending received 1862 spoiled thirty I dispatch command of continue of best otherwise worst Arabia my command discharge duty of my last for Lincoln September period your from sense shall duties the until Seward ability to the I a removal evening Adam herald tribune.

PHILIP BRUNER

The address and signature are “covers” that don’t enter into the cipher. The first word, Regulars, is a code indicating that the original message had been written in five columns of nine words each. Tribune, herald, spoiled, Seward, for, and worst are null words; Lincoln is code for Louisville, Kentucky; Adam means General Henry Wager Halleck; and Arabia is code for Major General Don Carlos Buell. The word Period indicates a full stop. This had been the original message:

Louisville, Kentucky
September thirty 1862

General Halleck:

(Adam)   (period)   I           received     last
evening  your       dispatch    suspending   my
removal  from       command.    Out          of
a        sense      of          public       duty,
I        shall      continue    to           discharge
the      duties     of          my           command
to       the        best        of           my
ability  until      otherwise   ordered.

D.C. Buell,
Major General

This message had been enciphered by reading up the fourth column, down the third, up the fifth, down the second, and up the first; inserting the null words; and encoding the most sensitive particulars. The system worked well until July 1864, when Union cipher operator Stephen L. Robinson was captured by Confederate guerrillas and the key seized.

(John Laffin, Codes and Ciphers Secret Writing Through the Ages, 1964.)

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Conclusions

From John Boyce Bennett’s 1980 logic textbook Rational Thinking:

If it’s false that no dopips are fraks, characterize each of these propositions as true, false, or doubtful:

a. All dopips are fraks.
b. Few dopips are fraks.
c. Some dopips are fraks.
d. No fraks are dopips.
e. Some dopips are not fraks.

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The Last Straw

In Marriage and Morals (1929), Bertrand Russell mentions that, while “[c]ruelty is in theory a perfectly adequate ground for divorce, … it may be interpreted so as to become absurd”:

When the most eminent of all film stars was divorced by his wife for cruelty, one of the counts in the proof of cruelty was that he used to bring home friends who talked about Kant.

I haven’t been able to figure out who this is. Russell writes, “I hardly suppose that it was the intention of the California legislators to enable any woman to divorce her husband on the ground that he was sometimes guilty of intelligent conversation in her presence.”

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Progress

https://www.lookandlearn.com/history-images/YYA0031561/Morning-of-the-Gale-November-23-1824-in-Catwater-at-Plymouth

I do not mean to be disrespectful, but the attempt of the lords to stop the progress of reform reminds me very forcibly of the great storm of Sidmouth, and of the conduct of the excellent Mrs. Partington on that occasion. In the winter of 1824, there set in a great flood upon that town; the tide rose to an incredible height; the waves rushed in upon the houses, and everything was threatened with destruction. In the midst of this sublime and terrible storm, Dame Partington, who lived upon the beach, was seen at the door of her house with mop and pattens, trundling her mop, squeezing out the sea-water, and vigorously pushing away the Atlantic Ocean. The Atlantic was roused. Mrs. Partington’s spirit was up; but I need not tell you that the contest was unequal. The Atlantic Ocean beat Mrs. Partington. She was excellent at a slop or a puddle, but she should not have meddled with a tempest. Gentlemen, be at your ease — be quiet and steady. You will beat Mrs. Partington.

— Sydney Smith on the Reform Bill, Taunton, Oct. 12, 1831

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The Brazil Nut Effect

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mixed_nuts_small_white2.jpg
Image: Wikimedia Commons

When a container of granular material is shaken, we might expect the largest particles to make their way to the bottom. Instead the opposite often happens: Vibrating a container of mixed nuts, muesli, or raisin bran often brings the largest (and presumably heaviest) items to the top.

Precisely why this happens is unclear. An irregularly shaped Brazil nut might “shoulder” its way above smaller nuts as it turns among them; the rising of large particles might help to lower the center of mass of the aggregate; or perhaps the size of the largest particles prevents them from descending in a container’s natural convection flow once they reach the surface. For now it’s an unsolved problem in physics.

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Commitment

“Deddicacion” of Scottish philologist James Elphinstone’s 1786 proposal on spelling reform, Propriety Ascertained in Her Picture:

To’ dhe KING.

Sir,

Augustus found hiz Language ripe for immortallity: hiz smiles bade Roman Lerning ascertain Propriety in her Picture. A LEO’s goolden days gave rizing Tempels to’ ring widh hightened harmony; gave, not onely a Raphael to’ paint, but a Vida to sing. Reviving Art and Science danced down hand in hand. LEWIS, fostering Genius, and founding Accademies, rendered France dhe admiracion ov dhe World, and her Language dhe Diccion ov it. YOOR MADJESTY, emmulous no les ov preceding, dhan ov contemporary Glory; and finding Glory, onely in dhe improovment ov mankind; haz dained, not merely by pattronage ov dhe sublimest Muzic, and by dhe institucion ov a Brittish Acaddemy, to’ raiz rivals to’ dhe moast exquizite Artists ov Anticquity; but, by fixing Inglish Speech in Inglish Orthoggraphy, to’ secure dhe unfading luster ov Truith, and dhe unfailing succession ov a Horrace, a Boileau, and a Pope.

If an umbel individdual haz prezumed to’ attempt a task, hiddherto’ held arduous for Acaddemies; he hopes for pardon, onely az he shal be found to’ hav performed it: nor wil, in such case, dhe Smile be regretted, hwich constitutes him, widh so dutifool venneracion,

SIR,

YOOR MADJESTY’S

moast devotedly zellous,

az peculiarly onnored, Servant;

JAMES ELPHINSTONE.

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Training

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Frederich_August_Moritz_Retzsch.jpg

Suppose it were perfectly certain that the life and fortune of every one of us would, one day or other, depend upon his winning or losing a game at chess. …

The chess-board is the world, the pieces are the phenomena of the universe, the rules of the game are what we call the laws of Nature. The player on the other side is hidden from us. We know that his play is always fair, just, and patient. But also we know, to our cost, that he never overlooks a mistake, or makes the smallest allowance for ignorance. …

My metaphor will remind some of you of the famous picture in which Retzsch has depicted Satan playing at chess with man for his soul. Substitute for the mocking fiend in that picture, a calm, strong angel who is playing for love, as we say, and would rather lose than win — and I should accept it as an image of human life.

Well, what I mean by Education is learning the rules of this mighty game. In other words, education is the instruction of the intellect in the laws of Nature, under which name I include not merely things and their forces, but men and their ways; and the fashioning of the affections and of the will into an earnest and loving desire to move in harmony with those laws. For me, education means neither more nor less than this. Anything which professes to call itself education must be tried by this standard, and if it fails to stand the test, I will not call it education, whatever may be the force of authority, or of numbers, upon the other side.

— Thomas Huxley, “A Liberal Education and Where to Find It,” 1868

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Census Trouble

A curious puzzle by Stanley Rabinowitz, from the Spring 1984 issue of Pi Mu Epsilon Journal:

In the little hamlet of Abacinia, two different base systems are used, and everyone speaks the truth. One resident said, “26 people use my base, base 10, and only 22 people speak base 14.” Another said, “Of the 25 residents, 13 are bilingual and 1 is illiterate.” How many people live in Abacinia?

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