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The most intriguing figure in 19th-century cryptanalysis (codebreaking) is Charles Babbage, the eccentric British genius better known for developing the blueprint for the modern computer. Babbage, born in 1791, was a scientist with broad interests, applying his mind to whatever problem tickled his fancy. His inventions range from the speedometer to the 'cow-catcher' - a device that could be fixed to the front of steam locomotives to clear cattle from railway tracks. Babbage was also the first to realise that the width of a tree ring depended on the weather in the corresponding year, deducing that it was possible to determine past climates by studying ancient trees.
Moreover, Babbage tried to tackle problems beyond the fields of science and engineering. The cost of sending a letter within Britain was once related to the distance that the letter had to travel, but Babbage pointed out that the labour required to calculate the price for each letter cost more than the postage. Instead, he proposed a single price for all letters.
The turning point in Babbage's scientific career occurred in 1821, when he and the astronomer John Herschel were examining a set of mathematical tables used as the basis for astronomical, engineering and navigational calculations. The two men were disgusted by the number of errors in the tables, which in turn would generate flaws in important calculations. One set of tables, the Nautical Ephemeris for Finding Latitude and Longitude at Sea, contained over 1,000 errors. Indeed, many shipwrecks and engineering disasters were blamed on faulty tables.
These mathematical tables were calculated by hand, and the mistakes were the result of human error. This caused Babbage to exclaim: 'I wish to God these calculations had been executed by steam!' This marked the beginning of an extraordinary effort to build a machine capable of calculating the tables without error. Babbage designed Difference Engines No.1 and No.2, magnificent calculating machines with thousands of precision parts. He went on to design the Analytical Engine, which was programmable, and therefore a precursor to the modern computer. Unfortunately, lack of funding meant that Babbage finished none of his machines.
Less well known is Babbage's interest in ciphers, which began at a very young age. In later life, he recalled how his talent occasionally got him into trouble: 'The bigger boys made ciphers, but if I got hold of a few words, I usually found out the key. The consequence of this ingenuity was occasionally painful: the owners of the detected ciphers sometimes thrashed me, though the fault lay in their own stupidity.' He wasn't discouraged. 'Deciphering is, in my opinion, one of the most fascinating of arts,' he wrote in his autobiography.
Although Babbage was primarily known as an inventor, he also gained a reputation as a cryptanalyst capable of tackling any code, and strangers would approach him with all sorts of problems. For example, he helped a desperate biographer attempting to decipher the shorthand notes of John Flamsteed, the nation's first Astronomer Royal. He also came to the rescue of a historian, solving a cipher of Henrietta Maria, queen of Charles I, and then, in 1854, he collaborated with a barrister to provide crucial evidence in a legal case.
But Babbage's greatest cryptographic achievement was the cracking of the Vigenère cipher, a breakthrough which he never published, and which went unnoticed until a historian of science analysed Babbage's notes in the 1970s.
Charles Babbage
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