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 THE DOROTHY GRAIN SERIES 
 
 Ciphers 
 
 For the Little Folks 
 
 A Method of Teaching 
 The Greatest Work of Sir Francis Bacon 
 
 Baron of Verulam, Viscount St. Alban, 
 
 Designed to Stimulate Interest in Reading, Writing and Number Work, 
 by Cultivating the Use of an Observant Eye 
 
 With an , ^ 
 
 Appendix on the Origin, History and Designing of the Alphabet , 
 By Helen Louise Ricketts ^v * 
 
 \\' 
 
 RIVERBANK LABORATORIES 
 
 EDUCATIONAL DEPARTMENT 
 
 DOROTHY GRAIN, Director of Kindergarten 
 
 GENEVA, ILLINOIS
 
 Copyright, 1916 
 GEORGE FABYAN
 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 These lessons are presented as suggestions with the idea that the 
 teacher or parent will adapt, lengthen, shorten, or remake, as the needs of 
 the little folk demand. Their value will depend on the way in which they 
 are brought before the children. 
 
 The aim is not to impose on children adult knowledge and accomplish- 
 ments, but to afford them experiences that on their own account appeal 
 to them, and at the same time have educational value and significance. 
 
 Children should have a great deal of handwork; they do their best 
 thinking when they are planning something to do with their hands. Their 
 attention is much more easily focused upon something they are doing with 
 their hands than upon something which they hear or read. Building with 
 the blocks, paper folding and cutting, painting and drawing, and what is 
 known as constructive work, are all means of self-expression. 
 
 An explanatory paragraph will accompany each lesson. In order that 
 the workings of the Biliteral Cipher, from which these lessons were derived, 
 may be more readily understood, a short explanation will follow for the 
 guidance of the teacher or parent, to whom it is left to choose the best 
 methods of explaining the Cipher to the children, step by step. 
 
 The Biliteral Cipher devised by Francis Bacon and explained in detail 
 in his Advancement of Learning (see Spedding's English edition of Bacon's 
 Works, Vol. IV, pages 444-447) is based upon the mathematical fact that 
 the transposition of two objects (blocks, letters, etc.) will yield 32 dissimilar 
 combinations, of which only 24 would be necessary to represent all the 
 letters in our alphabet (i and/, u and v being used interchangeably in the 
 16th Century). Lesson I of this series shows the 24 combinations used by 
 Bacon, and constitutes the "Code" or "Key."
 
 By reference to Lesson I it will be seen that variations in the grouping 
 of a's and &'s, five at a time, are made to represent each letter of the alpha- 
 bet, except that i and / and u and v are regarded as interchangeable. In 
 all the succeeding lessons, objects are chosen to represent a or b, and the 
 order or succession of their grouping, when compared with the code 
 (Lesson I), will determine the letter they represent. 
 
 Words in a language being made up simply of combinations of letters, 
 it is clear that as long as only two differences are available, words can be 
 built up by making the proper combinations according to the code. Any 
 differences will do, and to this fact are due the possibilities for the exercise 
 of the thinking powers, imagination, and skill on the part of children in 
 this work. Lesson VI, for example, combines elements of instruction and 
 play in an interesting manner. The transmission of words and sentences 
 can be accomplished even without the use of objects, for two different 
 motions of the fingers or hands will do; likewise two different sounds 
 in fact any differences perceptible to any of the five senses can be used. 
 "Wig-wagging" as used by the U. S. Army Signal Service is based upon 
 this Cipher. Thus many games can be planned which will have an educa- 
 tional value in training to a higher efficiency every faculty the child 
 possesses. 
 
 The lessons have been arranged in a sequence according to their in- 
 creasing order of complexity, leading up gradually to the presentation of the 
 possibility of sending hidden messages in an open communication without 
 arousing any suspicion as to the presence of anything secret. In Lesson XIV 
 the phrase "Biliteral Cipher" is made to contain the hidden word "Key" by 
 the use of a capital letter for the a form and a small letter for the b form. 
 Of course the differences between the a form and the b form can be made 
 much less apparent than the differences between capital and small letters; 
 in fact the differences can be made so small that they would be imperceptible 
 to the casual observer, but it still would be possible to distinguish them. It 
 is in this phase of the work that accuracy and care in the formation of
 
 letters may be taught, not only in script or handwriting, but also in print- 
 ing, both of which are now fast becoming lost arts. Cipher writing, if 
 properly taught, will give practice in penmanship that will be interesting 
 and not onerous to children. 
 
 The adaptability of the Biliteral Cipher to the manifold uses to which 
 it can be put makes its pedagogical possibilities far-reaching; and the field 
 for the exercise of the faculties of both teacher and pupil, parent and child, 
 is one of the broadest, most instructive and entertaining that has ever been 
 opened to the little folks of primary age. 
 
 Any further information which the instructor may care to secure will be 
 furnished on application to the Riverbank Laboratories.
 
 TRAINING THE EYE TO SEE 
 
 That the faculty of sight needs training will be admitted by every 
 reasonable person, but how best to give the eye this advantage is a ques- 
 tion which has never been settled. An English hunter, the author of a 
 book on Norway, gives some interesting hints upon the matter: 
 
 The reason that the different characteristics of tracks are not ob- 
 served by the untrained eye is not because they are so very small as 
 to be invisible, but because they are to that eye so inconspicuous 
 as to escape notice. In the same way the townsman will stare straight 
 at a grouse in the heather, or a trout poised above the gravel in the 
 brook, and will not see them; not because they are too small, but 
 because he does not know what they look like in those positions. He 
 does not know, in fact, what he is looking for, and a magnifying glass 
 would in no wise help him. To the man who does not know what to 
 look for, the lens may be a hindrance, because it alters the proportions 
 to which his mind is accustomed, and still more because its field is too 
 limited. Youth's Companion.
 
 LESSON I 
 
 This lesson is intended to teach the code or key. Attention is called to the mathe- 
 matical regularity of its construction, which will enable the teacher to demonstrate it in a 
 very simple manner. First write the column of numbers from 1 to 24. Then opposite 
 number 1 place five red circles in a row. Under the last one in this row, and on a line with 
 number 2 place a blue circle, and continue alternating red and blue down the column. 
 Then under the 4th red circle in the 1st row place another red one, then two blue ones, 
 alternating 2 reds with 2 blues down the column. In the 3rd column the reds and blues 
 alternate in sets of four; in the 2nd column, in sets of eight, and in the 1st column, in sets 
 of 16. Since only 24 combinations are necessary, the last eight of the possible 32 have been 
 omitted. Now opposite these 24 combinations place the letters of the alphabet in regular 
 order, remembering that I and J, U and V are used interchangeably. 
 
 To facilitate the use of the code the red and the blue circles may be designated by 
 small a and small b respectively. The right hand section of this lesson gives the code 
 worked out on this plan and makes future reference easy. In all the succeeding lessons 
 one form (whether it be blocks, beads, yarn or what not) will be called the a form, and the 
 other will be called the b form. On account of the nature of the code, the a forms always 
 predominate; and in getting together materials for this work, the teacher should be guided 
 accordingly.
 
 LESSON I 
 
 100909 A aaaaa 
 
 200000 B aaaab 
 
 300000 C aaaba 
 
 400000 D aaabb 
 
 500000 E aabaa 
 
 600000 p aabab 
 
 700000 G aabba 
 
 800000 H aabbb 
 
 900900 |-J abaaa 
 
 10 9 K a b a a b 
 
 11 L a b a b a 
 
 12 9 M a b a b b 
 
 13 N a b b a a 
 
 14 a b b a b 
 1500000 P a b b b a 
 
 16 9 9 Q. a b b b b 
 
 17 90 000 R b a a a a 
 
 18 000 S b a a a b 
 
 19 T b a a b a 
 
 20 U-V baabb 
 
 21 W b a b a a 
 
 22 9 9 9 X b a b a b 
 
 23 9 9 9 9 9 Y b a b b a 
 
 24 9 m 9 Z b a b b b
 
 LESSON II 
 
 Short lines represent the a form, long lines, the b form. The cipher word is "the." 
 Various forms of sewing cards, or yarns of different colors may be used.
 
 LESSON III 
 
 In this weaving mat the light squares represent the a form, the dark ones, the b form. 
 The arrow marks the starting point, and the reading proceeds from left to right in each 
 line. The cipher message is "Mary had a little lamb." Any sentence containing the 
 requisite number of letters can be inserted on the same principle. 
 
 18
 
 LESSON IV 
 
 This lesson embodies what may be designated as a symbolic cipher design. This 
 design conveys the idea of the setting sun, and hence the cipher word contained within is 
 "sunset." Red sticks represent the b form, orange sticks, the a form. The arrow marks 
 the starting point, and the reading proceeds in a clockwise direction.
 
 LESSON V 
 
 This is another symbolic cipher design picturing "Humpty-Dumpty. " The blue 
 squares represent the a form, the red squares the b form. The cipher message is "sat 
 on a wall." The blank squares can be filled by colored crayons or blocks, and the children 
 can thus practice the building of the message by referring to the code in Lesson I. 
 
 i?
 
 o 
 
 co 
 co 
 W 
 
 CU 
 
 
 
 cu 
 JS 
 
 H 
 
 cu 
 
 -C 
 
 
 
 o 
 ex 
 
 -G 
 OS 
 
 cu 
 
 'So 
 
 T3 
 
 C 
 rt 
 
 cu 
 
 JS 
 
 ex 
 
 <U 
 
 o 
 
 ttj 
 
 c 
 
 'c 
 
 fcJC 
 
 iff 
 
 tuD O 
 
 "o "5 P 
 
 ^ OS i*^ 
 
 - CU M 
 
 C ii u- 
 
 V 
 
 cx 
 
 T3 
 cu 
 
 cj 
 
 T3 
 
 C 
 
 C 
 cu 
 
 -C 
 
 cu 
 
 
 
 O cu 
 co ^5 
 
 o 
 
 g 
 
 1j 
 
 o ^ 
 
 cu be O 
 
 r; aj co 
 
 "H 
 o 
 
 H 
 
 a c 
 
 co- K..O 
 CU "y ij 
 
 3 & 
 
 4J S^.Jj 
 
 s. M '"^ 
 
 4J CU 
 
 C -C 
 
 VJ flj 4-* 
 
 "S. !S s 
 q |-g 
 
 M 3 
 
 .S tS* co
 
 LESSON VII THE TIME-TEACHING CLOCK 
 
 In this clock the movable colored dots indicating the minutes are used 
 to spell out the time in cipher. In the working cards to be provided for 
 the child the colored dots are to be inserted in the holes made for the purpose 
 around the face of the clock. There being sixty dots, any phrase expressive 
 of time not exceeding twelve letters in length (that is, twelve times five 
 dots for each letter equals 60) is available for indicating the time in cipher. 
 That is to say, any phrase such as "half-past ten," "nine-thirty," etc., can 
 be indicated on the clock by using five times as many dots as there are 
 letters in the phrase selected. Should there be less than twelve letters in 
 the phrase, the holes remaining are to be left blank. 
 
 This lesson is extremely flexible in respect to the many combinations 
 which it makes possible. The teacher or parent should bear in mind that 
 the most effective use of the clock is to be attained by first choosing a 
 phrase designating some time of the day which is significant in the daily 
 experience of the child such as the opening or closing hour of school, the 
 play hour, the dinner hour, or "bed-time." This phrase is converted into 
 cipher by having the child place the dots representing the letters of the 
 phrase, beginning at the figure twelve, around the clock face. After this 
 has been done the child should be asked to "decipher" the phrase by 
 naming the letter which each group of five dots stands for. When this is 
 accomplished, the ability to read the time becomes an unconscious achieve- 
 ment, since the hands of the clock are then placed by the parent or teacher, 
 or by the child under her direction, in the proper position to indicate the 
 deciphered phrase. If, for example, the phrase "half-past nine" is selected 
 and the child has extracted this from the colored dot combination, the 
 hands of the clock are moved to nine-thirty. The child, with the phrase 
 fresh in his mind, learns from this the position of the hands of the clock 
 representing the time, since the mental image of the clock face with the 
 hands in the required position establishes an association which becomes 
 indelibly impressed on the child's mind. 
 
 21
 
 The method here described is the best for young children. With 
 children of more advanced age and greater ability to use their own minds, 
 the reverse practice may be followed. The teacher may name the phrase 
 designating the time, and direct the child to put in place the colored dots 
 representing the letters of the phrase by referring for each letter to the 
 code. This requires an intelligence of a higher order than the method first 
 described. 
 
 22
 
 LESSON VII THE TIME-TEACHING CLOCK 
 
 By reference to the code the arrangement of the dots on the clock will be found to 
 spell the time indicated by the hands, i. e., "five past four." The red dots represent the 
 a, the blues the b. 
 
 23
 
 LESSON VIII 
 
 On this cipher necklace the square beads represent the a form, the round beads the 
 b form. The cipher words are "Yankee Doodle." For working this or any other appropriate 
 phrase, the child should string the beads on one of the laces provided. 
 
 85
 
 LESSON IX 
 
 This is similar to the preceding lesson except that in this case the blue beads represent 
 the a form, the orange beads, the b form. The cipher words are "A Cipher Chain." 
 
 27
 
 LESSON X 
 
 This cipher necklace combines both Lessons VIII and IX, and shows how two ciphers may be infolded at once. 
 Reading the beads first as regards their shape and using the same system as in Lesson VIII, the necklace still 
 spells out the word "Yankee Doodle." Then reading the beads as regards color, the words "A Cipher Chain" 
 are deciphered, as in Lesson IX. This lesson gives a hint of the possibility of enfolding three, four, or five 
 cipher messages at once. 
 
 29
 
 rt X 
 
 - OJ 
 
 _ 
 
 C^ 
 
 1 3 o 
 a- o o 
 
 M M js 
 
 gf's 
 3J8&J 
 
 <-> ^ u 
 
 XI 
 
 ^ 
 o 
 
 CO 
 
 M-g 
 
 S 
 8-8 
 
 "c 
 
 C 
 
 i 
 
 o 
 
 Cfl 
 
 C! 
 
 6 o. c 
 
 S fc* "3 
 
 vg 5 
 
 - 1 - c 
 
 Q a. o 
 
 i O 
 
 <u 
 
 H 
 
 >-. 
 ^ 
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 C <L> 
 <U C 
 
 <s> > 
 
 S ' C 
 
 " 
 
 3 <r> -a 
 
 4-> C 
 
 u c - 
 
 <U 03 -C 
 
 4-1 CO U
 
 LESSON XII 
 
 ifen 
 
 &&Tmi^' - '* 
 
 &S$Rf ' ' 
 -JF\V 
 
 &&& 
 
 -W/ 
 
 t 
 
 The cipher word is "pasture," the red circles being the a form, the blue ones the b form.
 
 LESSON XIII 
 
 The cipher word is "Barking," the red circles being the a form, the blue ones the 
 b form. 
 
 35
 
 LESSON XIV 
 
 
 
 wrt : i 
 
 *r 
 :% 
 
 The word "CIPHER" contains the hidden name "Sir Francis Bacon," the red 
 circles being the a form, the blue ones, the b form. The reading proceeds in the same 
 manner as the strokes of the letters would be made by the hand. The design in the margin 
 contains a double cipher, similar in construction to the necklace in Lesson X. The red and 
 blue pieces still represent the a and the b forms respectively, as before, and the cipher word 
 is "alphabet." This constitutes the first cipher. The second cipher is based upon the 
 difference in shape of these pieces, the long ones being the a form, the circles, the b form. 
 The cipher word is "decipher."
 
 LESSON XV 
 
 B i L I t E R 
 
 a 
 
 L 
 
 c 
 
 
 
 1 
 
 p 
 
 h 
 
 e 
 
 R 
 
 The phrase "Biliteral Cipher" is made to contain the hidden word "key" by the use of 
 a capital letter for the a form, and a small letter for the b form. The borders to the 
 lines contain the cipher word "letter," the blue sticks being the a form, the red ones the b 
 form. The reading proceeds from left to right in each line, beginning with the line at the top. 
 The children may be directed to cut out any set of letters of appropriate size to form 
 any desired phrase, using capital and small letters on the same principle as in the example.
 
 LESSON XVI 
 
 CIPHER CODE 
 
 aaaaa = A 
 aaaab B 
 aaa b a C 
 aa a b b = D 
 aab aa E 
 aabab= F 
 aab ba-- G 
 aabbb=H 
 
 a h aaa I-J 
 
 abaab= K 
 ababa= L 
 ababb - M 
 ab baa N 
 ah hah O 
 abbba=P 
 abbbb = 
 b aaaa= R 
 baaab= S 
 baaba=T 
 baabb=U-V 
 babaa= W 
 babab = X 
 babba = Y 
 babbb^Z 
 
 Explanation 
 
 This architect's sketch presents an interesting method 
 of making use of the Biliteral Cipher. The white bricks 
 are supposed to represent the a form letters, the shaded 
 bricks the b form. Begin with the top of the wall, at the 
 left-hand, below the tower, read the lines from left to right, 
 and assign an a or b to each brick on that principle, divid- 
 ing off the resultant 0's and &'s into groups of five. Then 
 refer to the accompanying cipher code which will show 
 you for which letter of the alphabet each group stands. 
 The result will be amusing as well as interesting and 
 instructive.
 
 The Origin, History and Designing 
 of the Alphabet 
 
 By HELEN LOUISE RICKETTS
 
 THE STORY OF THE ALPHABET 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 I want to tell you a story about something you use every day, something 
 you could not get along without, and yet that you never think about or are 
 glad to have. I do not believe that even after I tell you several things about 
 it you can guess what it is. 
 
 It is one of the oldest things in the world, so old that no one knows 
 when it was first used. 
 
 It is a more wonderful thing, a great many people think, than the inven- 
 tion of steamboats and steamcars, or of airships and submarines. 
 
 It is so important that you could not have any books without it, and 
 if there were no books, you would not go to school, and then how could you 
 learn all the things you want to know? 
 
 It is so common that you see it and hear it and use it almost every 
 minute of the day. 
 
 It is made of twenty-six different parts. You can make me know what 
 these are with a pencil or crayon. With them you speak and write and read. 
 There are machines which hold these parts separately or form them in 
 groups, and then leaving their likeness on paper give us books and stories 
 to read. 
 
 Now I am afraid that I have told you too much! Have you guessed 
 what these twenty-six little tools are called ? We call them, and so did your 
 grandfather and greatgrandfather and all the people that lived hundreds 
 and hundreds of years ago the Alphabet. 
 
 You never knew before that the Alphabet was such a wonderful thing, 
 did you ? Would you like now to hear the story about it ? 
 
 45
 
 Long, long ago in a country called Egypt, which is far across the sea 
 (you may find it on your map, and that will make it more interesting for 
 you) they had a very curious way of writing. They had no letters like our 
 A, B, C's, but did what we call picture writing; that is, they drew pictures 
 instead of writing letters and words as we do today. Their writing looked 
 like this 
 
 That does not look much like writing, does it? You do not know 
 what it means, either, do you ? Yet the people at that time could read their 
 picture writing just as easily as we can the Alphabet writing. This is the 
 way they sent messages to each other and wrote down the things they wanted 
 to remember. Do you know that they did not have any paper in those days 
 long ago, either? What do you think they used? They cut their pictures 
 on stone, on walls of buildings, and sometimes on wood and the bark of 
 trees. They also had a material called papyrus, which was made from reeds 
 growing in the swamps of Egypt. Think what a long time it must have 
 taken them to write in this way, and how much easier and quicker it is for 
 you and me today! 
 
 To the north of Egypt there is a small country called Phoenicia. If 
 you will look on your map you will find that the sea comes to the very 
 shores of this country. In Phoenicia there were many beautiful things 
 that people in other countries wanted to buy. So the Phoenicians built 
 big ships and filled them full of the beautiful things and sailed away. Across 
 the water they came to a land by the name of Greece, the country you know 
 about where Hercules and Ulysses lived, and here they unloaded their 
 ships. Of course the Phoenicians brought the picture writing they had learned 
 from the Egyptians with them. By this time they were beginning to 
 
 M
 
 think pictures took too long to draw, and they gradually changed the 
 pictures into signs so that they could write easier and quicker. So the 
 writing they brought to Greece was quite different from the picture writing 
 they had learned from the Egyptians. It looked like this 
 
 We cannot understand this either, can we ? But you can see it is much 
 better than the way they wrote before. 
 
 The Greek people were very happy that the Phoenicians brought such 
 a wonderful way of writing with them, and soon began to copy it, and use 
 it in their country, too. When the Phoenicians went back to their own 
 country the Greeks continued to use the sign writing, but changed it and 
 made it more beautiful. They gave it a name, too, and called it by the 
 names of the first two signs, Alpha which means "ox," and Beta which 
 means "house." If you put these two words, Alpha and Beta, together, 
 what do you have? ALPHA-BET the word we use today. 
 
 Now the Greeks were an adventurous people, and one day they set 
 sail in their ships, and went to the land of the Romans, which is now called 
 Italy. They liked this new country, and some of them settled there. Like 
 the Phoenicians long ago, they brought their new Alphabet with them. The 
 Romans were a great and wonderful people, but they did not know the easy 
 way of writing by signs that the Greeks used. They saw right away what 
 a fine thing this Alphabet was, and began to use it for their writing, too. 
 At first they wrote the signs exactly the way the Greeks did, but soon they 
 changed them., and made them simpler and better. 
 
 47
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 You know the story of the Alphabet from its beginning so long ago 
 in far Egypt to the time when it came to the Romans and how it changed 
 from pictures to signs and from signs at last to the letters of the Alphabet. 
 You know, too, how hard it was for the people to write in those days when 
 they had no better material than papyrus, wood and stone. That was a 
 long, long time ago. Would you like to hear a story about what has hap- 
 pened to writing since the time of the Romans and the changes that have 
 taken place in the Alphabet in its travels through the countries of Europe? 
 
 The first great thing of importance was the discovery of a new material 
 to write on. What do you think it was? the skins of sheep and calves! 
 That seems strange to us and we like the paper we use today better, but 
 think what a great improvement this discovery was then and how much 
 easier writing could be done on the smooth surface of the skin with a pen 
 and ink. In all of the countries except Italy this change of writing material 
 brought about a change in the style of lettering too. The Romans alone 
 kept to the simple form of lettering they had always used and did not 
 change it when writing on the skins. The other European countries gradu- 
 ally came to vary this style and make the letters more pointed, heavier 
 and blacker and in some cases more elaborate. This style of lettering was 
 called the Gothic. Do you see the difference between these two alphabets? 
 
 Ambm 
 
 The Alphabet had not been in these countries long enough yet for all 
 the people to have learned to write. Only a very few knew the letters, 
 and as all the writing was done by hand, it took a long time to write a whole 
 book. The few books that were written were so precious that they were 
 chained in the churches and monasteries and the people were only allowed 
 to read them there. At last in the country of Germany a man by the name
 
 of Gutenberg thought of a way to make more books and make them faster. 
 And this way was by printing. Just as the Alphabet spread to the different 
 countries so this new way of writing spread, until all of the people of Europe 
 were using printing machines and making many books. 
 
 In Germany the Gothic lettering had been used when the writing was 
 done by hand and Gutenberg copied this style in printing the first book. 
 When the art of printing spread to the different countries the Gothic alpha- 
 bet, of course, came with it and was accepted as the correct style of letter. 
 The Romans, however, still believed their Alphabet to be the better and 
 cut their printing type after the Roman model. So a great quarrel sprang 
 up between the different countries as to which Alphabet should be used, the 
 Roman or the Gothic. In Italy a man called Manutius tried to settle the 
 quarrel by making a letter which all the printers would use and he called 
 his style of lettering the Italic. The printers who used the Gothic and Rom- 
 an letters also used these Italic letters, but were not willing to give up their 
 own style and use the Italic entirely. 
 
 We are so used to seeing and using the Alphabet today that we never 
 ask ourselves how the letters came to look the way they do now. Look 
 at Plate I, which shows a beautiful Alphabet of Gothic letters made by a 
 famous German artist, Albert Diirer. There are twenty-nine of them, 
 all entirely different, but still you can see that they are all brothers and 
 sisters in one big family. Do you wonder how this came about? Look at 
 Plate II and you will learn. The first letter i is made by putting together a 
 number of small squares in a certain way. Can you see the way the other 
 letters are made from this letter z? the n is made by putting two i's to- 
 gether; the m, three i's, and the r, one i and an extra square at the top. Go 
 through the rest of the Alphabet and see if you can find out the way it is 
 made. 
 
 Now look at Plates III, IV, V, VI, and VII showing another Alphabet 
 by the same artist, which he patterned after the Roman letters. He found 
 that they were made according to a certain rule and proportion, and it
 
 was these he worked out in making his Alphabet. Here you see the pattern 
 is a large square, and the letters are drawn very carefully in them. Did 
 you know before there was as much figuring and measuring done in the 
 making of the Alphabet as there is in building a house? Look at the letter 
 E, for example, and all the circles and squares that have been measured 
 and drawn to make it. You will find that every letter is made just as care- 
 fully. 
 
 Here are the three ^'s that you see in Plate III. You will find that 
 theyare not exactly alike. Can you see the difference between them? A, 1, 
 is cut off in a curve at the top, A, 2, goes straight up in a sharp point, 
 and A, 3, is cut off flat. Do you notice, too, the difference in the thickness 
 of the letters? 
 
 AAA 
 
 Look at the other letters in this Alphabet (Plates III, IV, V, VI, and VII) 
 and see if you can tell me about them in the way I have told you about the 
 yfs. 
 
 For many, many years, the printers in the different countries used 
 Alphabets the artists had made for them, without being able to decide which 
 they liked the best, the Roman, Gothic or Italic. On Plate VIII you will 
 find a little poem by Shakespeare printed in these three Alphabets. Which one 
 do you like the best? I am sure you will choose the one that is the simplest, 
 the easiest to read and at the same time the most beautiful the Roman. 
 In the quarrel which had been going on for so many years, the Roman 
 alphabet won the victory, and that is how it came about that the Roman 
 is used in printing all our newspapers and books today. At last after so 
 many hundreds of years it has traveled through the other countries to us. 
 Many times you cannot recognize the letters, and they look very different 
 from the Roman models from which they were patterned, but that is be- 
 cause we are not as careful with the measurements and proportions as 
 were Albert Dlirer and the other Masters in _that time long ago. 
 
 50
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 You know now the beginning of the Alphabet, the careful way it was 
 planned and made, and how finally after so many years it has come to be 
 used in the form in which we have it today. Do you remember that when 
 Albert Diirer made his Alphabet of Roman letters he made more than one 
 form of each letter there were three y^'s, for example. Would you like 
 to know why he did this? Plate IX shows you two other kinds of Alphabets 
 made long ago by a Spanish artist, Francisco Lucas. Look at the Italic 
 capital letters in the upper part of this Plate. You can easily see that there 
 are two different forms of the same letters, can you not? But now look at 
 the small letters. You still see that there are two examples of each letter, 
 but they are so much alike that you will have to look very carefully to 
 see the difference between the two form.s. Why do you suppose this artist 
 went to the trouble to make these letters so much alike, and yet different? 
 Do you not think that this would be a very strange thing to do unless there 
 was a good reason for it? Look at the lower part of the Plate and you will 
 see that there are two different forms of the small Roman letters also. 
 Now turn back to Lesson XV. You see that by using a capital letter for 
 the a form and a small letter for the b form you were able to hide within 
 the phrase "Biliteral Cipher" the word, "key." You can easily see that 
 this would not be a good way to hide a secret, for the difference between the 
 large and small letters is not only easy to see, but looks so strange that it 
 is the first thing you notice. Now suppose that instead of using a capital 
 letter for the a form and a small letter for the b form you use for each letter 
 of the Alphabet, both capital and small, two forms which were very much 
 alike but still were different. In the following line 
 
 literal Cipher 
 
 i ii i 2 ' 
 
 you see the same phrase "Biliteral Cipher/' but it does not look strange 
 to you, does it? Still, if you will study it carefully you will see that the first
 
 i is different from the second, and that the first / in "BiHteral" is different 
 from the second /. You have guessed by this time that the phrase " Biliteral 
 Cipher," as it stands here, also contains a hidden word. The word is "the." 
 This phrase was made to contain the word "the" by using the two forms 
 of letters which you see in the upper part of Plate IX and which were called 
 "doubles" by the printers who used them several hundred years ago. Now 
 do you begin to see how important these two forms are? 
 
 Look again at the little Shakespeare poem in the Italic alphabet on 
 Plate VIII. Now that you know about doubles you can see, if you have 
 learned to use your eyes, that we have hidden a secret within this poem too. 
 Would you like to know what it is? We will help you to work it out by 
 giving you what is called a Classifier which will make it easy to decipher 
 the verse. On this Classifier, which you will find on Plate X, the very same 
 Italic letters that you saw in Plate IX have been arranged so that all the 
 a form letters are above the shaded part and all the b form letters below. 
 Now if you will tear out this whole page and carefully cut out these shaded 
 parts you can place this page over the lines of the poem in italic letters. 
 This will help you to decide to which form, the letters of the poem belong. 
 Place the Classifier over the poem so that the first letter, the capital H of 
 Have, is between the a form and the b form capital H on the Classifier. You 
 will see that this capital H of Have is the a form. Now below the Classifier 
 has been placed something which will help you still more. All the words of 
 the poem have been divided and have been placed into groups of five letters. 
 As we decided that the H of Have belongs to the a form, we have placed an 
 a beneath the H in the first group of five letters. Now move the Classifier 
 so that the a in Have comes between the a form, a and the b form a on the 
 Classifier. You will see that this letter also belongs to the a form. If you 
 will do the same to the rest of the letters of this first group you will find 
 that they are all a form letters. Now what letter of the Alphabet does a 
 group of five #'s stand for? A, does it not? So the first letter in our secret 
 is A. Now place the Classifier over the rest of the letters of the poem and 
 
 52
 
 see to what form they belong, just as we have done for you in the first 
 group. If you do your work carefully you will find the hidden secret. 
 
 If we can hide one word in " Biliteral Cipher" and a sentence in a short 
 poem, do you not see how a whole story could be hidden so carefully within 
 a book that it might not be discovered for many, many years? 
 
 58
 
 PLATE I 
 
 ad rDr 
 ikliunop 
 
 qrtfsrau 
 
 ALPHABET by ALBERT DURER (A. D. 1525) 
 
 56
 
 PLATE II 
 
 000 
 
 
 T 
 
 i- 
 
 V 
 
 O O 
 
 I 
 
 7\ 
 
 7 
 
 CK> 
 
 
 
 O 
 
 
 CONSTRUCTION OF ALPHABET
 
 PLATE III 
 
 AAA 
 
 BBB 
 CCC 
 ODD 
 
 ALPHABET, with construction: A, DURER (A. D. 1525) 
 
 59
 
 PLATE IV 
 
 GG 
 
 o 
 
 b 
 
 KK 
 
 ALPHABET, with construction: A. DURER (A. D. 1525)
 
 PLATE V 
 
 M' 
 
 NN 
 
 N 
 
 PPP 
 
 ALPHABET, with construction: A. DURER (A. D. 1525)
 
 PLATE VI 
 
 ss 
 
 <j 
 
 o 
 
 TT 
 
 V 
 
 ALPHABET, with construction: A. DURER (A. D. 1525)
 
 PLATE VII 
 
 ZZ 
 
 ALPHABET, with construction: A. DURER (A. D. 1525) 
 
 67
 
 PLATE VIII 
 
 iljan tljint 
 less ifyait tfymt 
 less tfymt tljoit oftrest, 
 more tl|an tljmt 
 less tljan ifyou 
 
 more than thou showcst, 
 Speak less than thou kndtoest, 
 less than thou owest, 
 more than thou trowcst, 
 Set less than thou thrdfrest. 
 
 Shakesp 
 
 tare. 
 
 Have more than thou showest, 
 Speak less than thou knowest, 
 Lend less than thou owest, 
 Learn more than thou trowest, 
 Set less than thou throwest. 
 
 -SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 69
 
 PLATE IX 
 
 cdaabbccddeeffggbhiijllmmnnoop 
 
 G ft H 1 5 ^Lc^fC cM M 
 2V O<? P 7L S S* 
 
 Letra delGtrifo que cfcreuia Tran, Lutfs <~En 
 
 . O). Z/XX VIL 
 
 ITALIC ALPHABET, BY FRANCISCO LUCAS 
 
 Aaabbccddce.fffTgghhiijll m 
 mnnooppcjqrrfffrssftttftvV' 
 
 uuxxyyzz.6ft 
 
 c/*/ 
 
 ABCDEFGHIL: 
 
 MN o p Q^ILS T V" 
 
 cr^: x YZ z,:^, 
 
 Letra antigua que efcreuia Fran Lu- 
 cas en Madrid. Ano de.m.d.lxxvii. 
 
 ROMAN ALPHABET, BY FRANCISCO LUCAS
 
 PLATE X 
 
 THE BI-FORMED ALPHABET CLASSIFIER 
 
 For Use with the Lucas Alphabets, 1577 
 
 5 73 
 
 a I c d tfg hikhnnopq rj s t u v w xjy 
 
 ab c d c f g h i k I m n of. a r f s t uv Ibicy z 
 
 COPYRIGHTED, 1916. GEORGE FABYAN 
 
 a forms above the shaded parts, b forms below 
 
 CUT OUT SHADED PART WITH SHARP KN 
 
 TRANSCRIPTION 
 Havem oreth antho ushow estSp eakle sstha nthou knowe 
 
 a a a a a 
 
 A 
 stLen dless thant houow estLe arnmo retha nthou trowe 
 
 stSet lesst hanth outhr owest Shake spear e
 
 PB~7200-SB 
 75-4 7T 
 C