Experiment 103
0002 tested ciphertext autokey, where the key for place i is the carved letter a fixed distance back (i - lag). Here the key is the carved letter at any place given by K3's rule, a + b i mod 97 for every a and b, which includes the copper read backwards (b = -1, a mirror) and every decimation; alone, or with a repeating key of length 1-26 added.
What the method does with the 24 known letters.
A cipher can use its own letters as the keythe secret word The word or string a cipher needs besides the method.. Experiment 2 tried taking the key for each letter from a fixed number of letters earlier. Here the key letter is picked from anywhere in the copper by K3the earlier messages The three solved parts of the sculpture.'s own counting rule: start somewhere, step by a fixed amount, wrap around at 97. That includes reading the copper backwardsa mirror Reading or writing the text from the end to the start., like a mirror. We try every start and step, alone and with a short secret word added, against 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..
Words in the margin are defined on the glossary page.
The carved letters go in at the top; the reading comes out at the bottom.
A cipher can take its key from its own letters. Here each letter's key is another carved letter, picked by K3's counting rule: start somewhere, step a fixed amount, wrap at 97. Step 96 reads the copper backwards, like a mirror.
Carved letter minus key letter must give the known letter at all 24 places, or, with a secret word added, the leftovers must repeat with the word's length.
Every start and step, 16 table rules: at best 7 of 24 alone, as on scrambled coppers (7-9). With a word added nothing shorter than 25 fits, and at 25 K4 has fewer settings than any copper.
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.
Redo the method on a few letters with pencil and paper.
The same steps run by the code on the real letters.
the copper read backwards as its own key: place i takes its key from place 99 - i (a = 0, b = 96)
sculpture's alphabet, Vigenere
place known carved key place key letter carved - key hit
22 E F 77 D Y no
23 A L 76 G T no
24 S R 75 W T no
25 T V 74 K V no
64 B N 35 O H no
65 E Y 34 S V no
74 K K 25 V T no
Family, key space, the constraint under test, and the clues it reads.
Scheidt: 'mirrors and obfuscation' (C13), the system 'conveys not only the encrypted data, but also the key' (C6); K3's transposition is the rule i -> 191 + 192 i mod 337 (01-facts.md). Model: p_i = D(c_i, c_{f(i)}) with f(i) = a + b i mod 97, b = 1-96, a = 0-96, f(i) != i for the 24 known places, D the tableau decryption in one of 8 classes (plain and cipher alphabets standard or KRYPTOS; Vigenere, Beaufort, variant; key letters numbered on the cipher alphabet). The key is the copper itself, so every known letter is a check: 24 checks per setting. Second part: p_i = D(c_i, c_{f(i)} + k[i mod L]), L = 1-26; the residual must be periodic, tested by slot agreement. Ten shuffled coppers. 0002's lags are the case b = 1.
Written before the run; the result decides it.
Alone: no (a, b, class) fits more than 6 of 24 known letters, as on the coppers. With a repeating key: nothing consistent below period 20, counts in the coppers' range. Zero candidates.
The harness's record: candidates, gates, loss, and the negative result this experiment leaves behind.
7,031 maps x 16 rules. Alone: K4 best 7/24, controls [7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 7, 9, 7, 7]; full fits 0. With a periodic key: K4 live below 20: 0; periods outside the control range: [25].
What was searched, as the harness recorded it.
How this experiment sits among the others is on the lineage page; its family's open hypotheses are on the families page.