8 Jefferson Wheel Cypher
This chapter covers
- Thomas Jefferson’s wheel cypher
- Solving a wheel cypher using a known word
- Solving a wheel cypher when no words are known
Thomas Jefferson invented the Jefferson Wheel Cypher sometime between 1790 and 1793, while he was serving as secretary of state to George Washington. The device consists of an iron rod or spindle 1/8 to 1/4 inch in diameter and 6 to 8 inches long with 36 wooden disks about 2 inches in diameter and 1/6 inch thick. Each disk has a hole drilled through its center the same size as the rod so that all of the disks can be placed snugly onto the rod, forming a wooden cylinder. The flat faces of the disks touch one another, with the outside rounded edges visible. One end of the rod has ...
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