Customer Reviews

Codes, Ciphers and Other Cryptic and Clandestine Communication: 400 Ways to Send Secret Messages from Hieroglyphs to the Internet

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Wrixon, Fred B. *Codes, Ciphers & Other Cryptic & Clandestine Communication.* Dimensions: 23.7cm x 21cm x 5.2cm. Drawings, illustrations, no photographs, table of contents, four page index, appendix, and glossary, and bibliography). The book is 704 pages in length with a reading/comprehension level of about age14 thru adult. The bibliography is extensive but contains few new sources of information.

The author utilizes David Kahn's book: The Codebreakers, for much of the historical information on Cryptology. The book opens with an excellent discussion that traces cryptology from ancient origins to the present. Most of the book is devoted to classical pencil & paper ciphers and codes. His discussion of elementary transposition & substitution ciphers is good. He also describes the one-time pad used by Soviet espionage agents. There is a brief incomplete discussion of "Cryptophotographic Techniques" that uses latent imaging, gelatin hardening and bleaching of photographs to conceal secret messages. Near the back of the book, there is a section devoted to quizzes & answers to help everyone understand the various chapters. The book closes with biographical chronologies of individuals that have contributed to the development of cryptology: Leon Battista Alberti to Herbert O. Yardley.

I did notice, however, one error in the chapter on Steganography under the subtitle invisible inks. The author, on page 476, states that the handkerchief, carried by Nazi saboteur George Dasch, contained information written in secret ink that was developed by the FBI using ammonia vapor. That much is true. But the author states incorrectly that the secret ink message was written with copper sulphate. In fact, the secret ink message on the handkerchief was written with an alcoholic solution of phenolphthalein. The phantom writing appeared red or pink in color when subjected to ammonium vapor.

The author writes in a direct lucid style that reaches a wide audience. There are some mistakes, but most of them are of little significance to the over all thrust of the book. It is an excellent book for the novice trying to understand cryptology.

This book presents a number of Codes and Ciphers. There are several examples of the Ciphers included but in my opinion, the examples are poor and not very detailed. Unfortunately, this is a subject matter which is highly dependent on the details. There is also a large section on Codes as opposed to Ciphers. This as far as I've found is a rare thing to come across as most books will cover cryptography but not codes. A similar book would be "The Code Book" by Simon Singh, which goes into greater detail with a fewer number of ciphers including more history in relation to the ciphers.

The book is well thought out. It is engaging, clear, and fun. One can read it for hours or just a few minutes. Its straightforward descriptions, including the actual encryption technique, makes it easy to learn the various codes. I especially liked teaching my 8-year-old the Rosicrucian Cipher--it's simple and cool looking. The brief, historical context of each code or chipher was interesting. I bought the book on a lark, and find it worth the full price.

This book presents a number of Codes and Ciphers. There are several examples of the Ciphers included but in my opinion, the examples are poor and not very detailed. Unfortunately, this is a subject matter which is highly dependent on the details. There is also a large section on Codes as opposed to Ciphers. This as far as I've found is a rare thing to come across as most books will cover cryptography but not codes. A similar book would be "The Code Book" by Simon Singh, which goes into greater detail with a fewer number of ciphers including more history in relation to the ciphers.