[ARC5] Dead Pigeons, Secret Messages, and Random Numbers

[Neil]

> This is a follow-up to the news story of the long-dead carrier pigeon
> found in a chimney in the UK with a 'secret'message attached.
>
> News reports say that the message may never be decoded, because it was
> encrypted using a one-time pad.
>
> Now the question: In WWII, how did they generate the random data to make
> one-time pads? And, how many distinct, different one-time pads were made?
>
> If the message were now in machine readable form, it could be quickly
> tested against a library of different one-time pads, but that would have
> been next to impossible 70 years ago.


I think it can be done slowly and tediously by both parties agreeing on a
commonly available book (eg. the Bible) and using say, every 8th letter.
For the next message, use every 9th letter, and so on.

Look at this (scroll down to "Making one-time pads by hand":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_time_pad

Also look at this intriguing Australian mystery. The second link contains an
extensive mathematical analysis by Professor Abbott of the murdered man's
coded message.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taman_Shud_Case
https://www.eleceng.adelaide.edu.au/personal/dabbott/wiki/index.php/Critical_design_review_2009:_Who_killed_the_Somerton_man%3F

73 de Neil ZL1ANM