by Adrian Florea
In Britain 1982, a skeleton of a carrier pigeon from World War II was discovered in a chimney. It appeared that the bird did not reach its final destination as it was found with a message attached to its leg. To the naked eye, the message looked like nonsense; just a lot of groupings of random letters. However, to cryptographers, the random letters make sense and are a part of an unsolvable cipher called the one time pad. This new way of encoding messages created by Gilbert Vernam changed the ways that encryption was seen in the scientific community.
Like learning about carrier pigeons? Check out these to read about these heroic pigeons and their services in war.
- Cher ami: https://www.worldwar1centennial.org/index.php/communicate/press-media/wwi-centennial-news/1210-cher-ami-the-pigeon-that-saved-the-lost-battalion.html
- G.I Joe: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-17138990
References:
- https://www.gchq.gov.uk/features/pigeon-takes-secret-message-grave
- http://blogs.lt.vt.edu/pigeons/pigeons-in-wwi-and-wwii-2/
- https://www.warhistoryonline.com/war-articles/carrier-pigeons-wwii.html
- https://www.bnd.com/living/liv-columns-blogs/answer-man/article36187029.html
- https://www.britannica.com/topic/Vernam-Vigenere-cipher
- http://users.telenet.be/d.rijmenants/en/onetimepad.htm
- https://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/02/world/europe/world-war-ii-pigeons-message-a-mystery.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
Audio:
- http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Lee_Rosevere/Music_For_Podcasts/
- https://archive.org/details/SurrenderOfGermanForcesInItaly
- http://freemusicarchive.org/music/King_Olivers_Creole_Jazz_Band/Antique_Phonograph_Music_Program_04072015/Snake_Rag_-_King_Olivers_Creole_Jazz_Band
- http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Dee_Yan-Key/Summer_Nights/11–Dee_Yan-Key-The_Pianist
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