Experiment 58

“The table first, then a column shuffle keyed by a word from the solved messages, once or twice”

Experiment 7 put the column shuffle after the table and keyed it with the puzzle's vocabulary, single, and with plain widths for the double shuffle. Here the shuffle is keyed by every word of the three solved messages and of Sanborn's 2025 letter, singly and as keyed double shuffles with two such words.

revertedstatus
experiment 7parents
5 mintime, all phases
0candidates
0/24known letters
1

The experiment method

What the method does with the 24 known letters.

One recipe Sanborn hinted at uses the tablethe table The right-hand half of the sculpture, 26 rows of the alphabet each shifted one place further, starting from the word KRYPTOS. and a shuffle of the letters by columns, the order of the columns set by a word. Experiment 7 tried the puzzle's own words for that order. Here the order comes from every word of the solved messages and Sanborn's 2025 letter, and the shuffle is done once or twice in a row. For each shuffle we check whether a repeating secret wordthe secret word The word or string a cipher needs besides the method. on the table could still put the 24 known lettersthe known letters Sanborn has confirmed that positions 22 to 34 of the message read EASTNORTHEAST and positions 64 to 74 read BERLINCLOCK. where they are.

Words in the margin are defined on the glossary page.

1.1

The method at work

The carved letters go in at the top; the reading comes out at the bottom.

OBKRUOXOGHULBSOLIFBBWEASTNORTHEASTOTWTQSJQSSEKZZWATJKLUDIAWINFBBERLINCLOCKWGDKZXTJCDIGKUHUAUEKCARIN: THE COPPER, ALL 97 LETTERS, THE 24 KNOWN PLACES IN ACCENTrows of 8 read in the order of MAGNETIC's letters (column 2 first): where each known letter landsNTRKSABOTNOLAELTSECRIEHCthe E of place 22 is read out 88ththe shortest secret word each route allows, over 355,008 route and table settings (log heights)25262725: the shortest, 16 settings; no puzzle word fits themOUT: NO READING; NO PUZZLE WORD FITS ANY ROUTE'S FORCED LETTERSEASTNORTHEASTBERLINCLOCK
the route

Encipher on the table first, then shuffle: write the result in rows and read the columns in the order of a keyword's letters, once or twice. The keywords here are every K1 to K3 word of 3 to 20 letters.

the arcs

Drawn for MAGNETIC, from K2: each known letter moves to a new place, and the carved letter there is its enciphered form.

the bound

14,792 routes under all 24 ways of using the table: the shortest secret word any of them allows is 25 letters (16 settings), and no puzzle word fits what it forces. No shuffled copper was run, so whether 16 is chance is open.

2

Best candidate against the known letters

This experiment produced no candidate: the search ruled everything out before a full text was built. Its product is the bounded negative in section 7.

3

Walkthrough, by hand

Redo the method on a few letters with pencil and paper.

  1. Take the K2 word MAGNETIC: its letters in alphabetical order number the columns A=1, C=2, E=3, G=4, I=5, M=6, N=7, T=8, so the column order is 6, 1, 4, 7, 3, 8, 5,
    1. Write the 97 places in rows of 8 and read the columns in that order: column 2 (places 2, 10, 18, ...) comes first.
  3. Each known letter is carried to a new place by this reading.
  4. Under one way of using the table each known letter and the carved letter at its new place force one key letter.
  5. Two known letters a secret word's length apart must force the same key letter; one clash kills that length.
the worksheet: the first steps by hand, on squared paper
MAGNETIC AS A COLUMN KEY: ROWS OF 8, COLUMNS READ IN ALPHABETICAL ORDER OF THE KEY LETTERSM6A1G4N7E3T8I5C2123456789101112131415161718192021EASTNORTHEAST3536373839404142434445464748495051525354555657585960616263BERLINCLOCK7576777879808182838485868788899091929394959697the red numbers say which column is read firstAlphabetical order of M A G N E T I C: A first, thenC, E, G, I, M, N, T. So column 2 (A) is read first,then column 8 (C), and so on.Each known letter is carried to a new place by thisreading; with the table and a repeating word, it andthe carved letter there force one key letter.Two known letters a secret word's length apart mustforce the same key letter: one clash kills thatlength.
4

Worked example, generated

The same steps run by the code on the real letters.

route: keyed columnar MAGNETIC, applied after the tableau; convention kry/kry/kry Vigenere

plain pos  letter  its cipher sits at  cipher letter  forced key letter  key slot at period 13
       22    E            3              K              I                  8
       23    A           40              S              Z                  9
       24    S           64              N              G                 10
       25    T           16              L              G                 11
       64    B           69              T              V                 11
       65    E           21              W              F                 12
       66    R           94              K              Z                  0
       67    L           58              A              J                  1
5

Hypothesis, for a cryptanalyst

Family, key space, the constraint under test, and the clues it reads.

Periodic tableau (separate alphabets, 24 conventions) followed by keyed columnar transposition, single or double (C1, Sanborn 2005: 'double matrixes and triple matrixes... then went back to this table'; here the table first, 0007's order). Column orders from the numeric order of every K1-K3 plaintext word of length 3-20 and of the C13/C14 words, forward and inverse, and every ordered pair of distinct such words as a keyed double columnar, forward and inverse. For each route the inverse transposition maps each crib to a carved letter; each convention forces 24 key letters; a period is dead when two cribs it puts in one slot force different letters (divisor rule on plaintext distances). Live periods up to 30 are matched against the vocabulary and K1-K3 windows. Bounds: complete for these routes, conventions and periods.

6

Prediction

Written before the run; the result decides it.

No route makes a period below 26 live; the smallest live period is 26 or 27 everywhere, and no forced fragment matches a word. Zero candidates.

7

Method

  1. Build the column orders from the word pool.
  2. For each route, find where each known letter lands.
  3. For each convention, force the 24 key letters and kill periods by the divisor rule.
  4. Record the smallest live period.
  5. Match live periods up to 30 against words and K1-K3 windows; decrypt and submit matches.
8

Result and bounds

The harness's record: candidates, gates, loss, and the negative result this experiment leaves behind.

0candidates returned
0passed every gate
0/24known letters, best
–lowest loss
34champion before

355008 route/convention pairs; 0 forced-fragment matches submitted.

What was searched, as the harness recorded it.

family
periodic tableau (separate alphabets) then keyed columnar transposition, single or double, keys from K1-K3 and C13/C14 words
routes
14,792
route convention pairs checked
355,008
route set
keyed columnar from K1-K3 words (3-20 letters) and C13/C14 words x {fwd, inv}; keyed double columnar over ordered pairs of distinct such orders x {fwd, inv}
conventions
24
periods
1-97 by divisor rule on plaintext positions
key pool
vocabulary words and K1-K3 windows of length P for live P <= 30
min live period histogram
25
16
26
14,352
27
340,640
fifteen shortest
  1. min period
    25
    route
    keyed double DESPARATLY then REMAINS inv
    convention
    std/std/std/beau
  2. min period
    25
    route
    keyed double DESPARATLY then REMAINS inv
    convention
    std/std/kry/beau
  3. min period
    25
    route
    keyed double INFORMATION then ENCUMBERED inv
    convention
    std/kry/std/vig
  4. min period
    25
    route
    keyed double INFORMATION then ENCUMBERED inv
    convention
    std/kry/std/varbeau
  5. min period
    25
    route
    keyed double INFORMATION then ENCUMBERED inv
    convention
    std/kry/kry/vig
  6. min period
    25
    route
    keyed double INFORMATION then ENCUMBERED inv
    convention
    std/kry/kry/varbeau
  7. min period
    25
    route
    keyed double LANGLEY then WITH inv
    convention
    std/kry/std/beau
  8. min period
    25
    route
    keyed double LANGLEY then WITH inv
    convention
    std/kry/kry/beau
  9. min period
    25
    route
    keyed double REMAINS then NORTH inv
    convention
    std/std/std/beau
  10. min period
    25
    route
    keyed double REMAINS then NORTH inv
    convention
    std/std/kry/beau
  11. min period
    25
    route
    keyed double SEE then FLICKER fwd
    convention
    kry/kry/std/beau
  12. min period
    25
    route
    keyed double SEE then FLICKER fwd
    convention
    kry/kry/kry/beau
and 3 more
vocab matches
0

How this experiment sits among the others is on the lineage page; its family's open hypotheses are on the families page.

Rendered from the record on 2026-10-18 12:26 UTC; updated after every experiment.
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