Talk:Dorabella Cipher
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Hi Peter!
Did you think about turning the paper? The full stop in the text is not at the bottom of the line.
SF
- Well, it depends on how you look at it. I could argue that the period is at the end of the symbol that precedes it. That would be in keeping with Elgar writing out the message, working from some master copy. The period would mark one end (as opposed to the end) of a section (without indicating direction - that would provide too much information to a would-be decryptor :)), not the end of a sentence. Once the message is converted to the symbolic form, it would be natural to mark the separation point by placing a period at the end of what was just written. I think if the last symbol before the period had been a "w" or "m" shape, Elgar might well have put the period on the baseline.
- It's all supposition at the moment, unless someone uncovers a document hidden in some little old lady's attic, in which EE reveals all :) PeterBrooks 19:28, 20 February 2006 (UTC)
- It now appears that the message is definitely in two parts, one in Latin, one in English. I'm getting closer... AncientBrit 17:34, 4 July 2007 (UTC)
The curves in the 'letters' might stand for how many curves in a letter there are. For example: a=1 curve b=1 curve c=1 curve d=1 curve e=2 curve f=1 curve g=2 curve and what direction it's positioned in is how many straight lines there are in the letter. a=1 straight line b=1 c=o d=1 e=0 =f=2 g=0 or 1 h=2 i=1 j=1... the curvey letters being what they are, would be rotated depending on how many straight lines they have. going clockwise, a=1 curve and 1 straight...so it would be one curve rotated clockwise 1 unit. of coarse..some lettters could be the same......i give up. forget it. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 172.168.29.33 (talk • contribs) 02:28, 12 March 2006 (UTC)
- There are apparently examples (in Elgar's own hand) of his early use of the cipher, so we already know how the symbols were defined. I believe I have already had some success in decrypting part of the message, and a publication is in progress (but far from ready).
- An anonymous contributor placed a link to the work-in-progress despite my request elsewhere that access to the work be restricted to those to whom I specifically provided the access path, so I added a rider to the entry rather than delete it outright; however, an administrator has deleted that rider and I have since discovered that Google now lists the partial document (despite the presence of a robots.txt file requesting that it be excluded from search engines' content), so I see no real purpose at this stage to continue to allow the full document to be referenced. Accordingly I have deleted the entry here and when I have prepared a suitable sample document I will contribute further. AncientBrit 18:29, 14 March 2006 (UTC)
- Sure. Do let us know when you get it published! — Matt Crypto 19:05, 14 March 2006 (UTC)
- Will do. Funny how I changed from being PeterBrooks to AncientBrit, though. I joined Wiki ages ago as AB, then the account seemed to go walkies when I didn't access it for quite a while, so I was forced to create a new account as PB. Suddenly AB re-appears without warning (and based on cookies, I figure - I didn't specifically log in as one account or the other). Weird. Another mystery to be investigated by Drawde Ragle, no doubt. Who am I this time? - AncientBrit 21:25, 14 March 2006 (UTC)
- Sure. Do let us know when you get it published! — Matt Crypto 19:05, 14 March 2006 (UTC)
Think about music.
Draw a scale through each line of text; I would almost bet that each end point or the max of every curve will meet a musically significant point.
I don't know but it is as good of guess as any I have read on this site.