“F3.6: the Weltzeituhr's rotating ring of 24 time zones as the number half of a two-part key over 26 letters, with an unknown word, exact”
F3.6 (C12(b)). 0052 excluded a cipher on a 24-letter alphabet; the ring as an offset over 26 letters was untested. Readings: the 24 zones laid over the 26 letters (each zone the letter offset it covers, rounded or floored) and the 26 letters over the 24 zones, the ring turning either way, one zone per letter, every start; and the ring turning one zone every 24 letters or every 4 letters (97 letters over 24 zones), every start. With an unknown word of 1-24 letters, both signs, 12 table rules (0175's decider). A ring offset that steps one letter each time is a progressive key, which 0155 covered.
Berlin's World Clock has a ring of 24 time zones that turns through the day. Laid over the 26 letters, it gives a slowly changing shift: most steps one letter, now and then two. That shift could be half the keythe secret word The word or string a cipher needs besides the method., a secret word the other half. 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. say whether any word fits; scrambled copies say how often that happens by chance.
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.
the idea
Berlin's World Clock carries a ring of 24 time zones that turns through the day. Laid over the 26 letters it gives a shift that grows by one, now and then two.
the check
Every way of laying the ring over the letters, turning one zone per letter or more slowly, from every start, with a secret word of 1-24 letters on 12 table rules.
the bound
Nothing fits K4 or any of 20 scrambled copies; a planted text is found. F3.6 closed.
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.
Lay the 24 zones over the 26 letters: zone 0 at 0, zone 1 at 1, ... zone 12 at 13, every so often a step of two.
Write those offsets under the message, one zone per letter, from some starting zone.
On the sculpture's table the known E at place 22 over the carved F asks for key value 1; subtract the offset under it: the rest is the secret word's letter there.
Places sharing a slot of the word must agree.
Every start, sign, word length, table rule and reading; then scrambled copies.
the worksheet: the first steps by hand, on squared paper
4
Worked example, generated
The same steps run by the code on the real letters.
24 zones over 26 letters (rounded) from zone 0, Vigenere on the KRYPTOS table, word length 7
place known carved key num word value slot
22 E F 1 23 4 0
23 A L 10 24 12 1
24 S R 21 25 22 2
25 T V 18 0 18 3
26 N Q 1 1 0 4
27 O Q 15 2 13 5
28 R P 2 3 25 6
29 T R 23 4 19 0
30 H N 5 5 0 1
31 E G 2 6 22 2
32 A K 19 8 11 3
33 S S 0 9 17 4
34 T S 2 10 18 5
64 B N 11 16 21 0
65 E Y 17 17 0 1
66 R P 2 18 10 2
67 L V 5 20 11 3
68 I T 15 21 20 4
69 N T 11 22 15 5
70 C M 9 23 12 6
71 L Z 8 24 10 0
72 O F 7 25 8 1
73 C P 20 0 20 2
74 K K 0 1 25 3
5
Hypothesis, for a cryptanalyst
Family, key space, the constraint under test, and the clues it reads.
C12(b): the Weltzeituhr's structure (24 time zones on a rotating ring) as a key; Sanborn 2014 'delve into that particular clock', 2025 'the World Clock in Berlin'. C5(b), C6. Model as 0175: k_i = w[i mod a] + s d_i, 12 rules; the 24 known letters force k; the word's slots must agree. Statistic: live settings, K4 against 20 coppers.
6
Prediction
Written before the run; the result decides it.
No setting fits K4 or the coppers (5 or more checks each). Zero candidates.
7
Method
Build the readings.
For each text, table rule, reading, start and sign: the word's value at each known place.
For each word length 1-24: slot agreement; fully forced words looked up.
K4 against 20 coppers; one planted text as a builder check.
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
nonechampion before
live settings with >=4 checks: K4 0 (coppers 0-0); dictionary words 4+: K4 0 (coppers 0-0); plant found True
What was searched, as the harness recorded it.
family
word plus the Weltzeituhr ring as offsets over 26 letters, k = w[i mod a] + s d, 12 table rules, exact
readings
24 zones laid over 26 letters, one zone per letter (rounded)