Reverse Caesar Disc (2024)

Homepage

Crypto

Index

Glossary

Enigma

Hagelin

Fialka

Rotor

Pin-wheel

Voice

Data

Hand

OTP

EMU

HSM

Mixers

Phones

Bulk

FILL

Codebooks

Algorithms

Chips

Cryptanalysis

Toys

World War II

Countries

Czechoslovakia

DDR

Germany

Netherlands

Russia

Switzerland

USA

USSR

Yugoslavia

Manufacturers

ANT

Aristo

Ascom

AT&T

BBC

Bosch

Compumatica

CryptoAG

Datotek

Fox-IT

Gemalto

Gretag

Harris

HELL

ITT

Lorenz

Lugagne

MEL

Mils

Motorola

Mykotronx

Nokia

OMI

Omnisec

Philips

PTT

R&S

Racal

RanData

Raytheon

RCA

Safenet

Secunet

Siemens

STK

Tadiran

Tait

TCC

Telefunken

Telsy

Teltron

Thales

Transvertex

TST

Ultra Electronics

Utimaco

Zellweger

OTHER

Spy radio

Burst encoders

Intercept

Covert

Radio

Telex

Telephones

People

Agencies

Manufacturers

DONATE

Publications

Standards

For sale

Kits

Shop

News

Events

Wanted

Contact

About us

Links

Germany

Hand

Caesar

Beaufort →


Reverse Caesar Cipher

Polyalphabetic cipher disc

This cipher wheel was made by Linge in Pleidelsheim (Germany).It is a variant of the well-known caesar cipherof which the order of the alphabet on the inner disc is reversed.This type of manual cipher systemis also known as the Reverse Caesar Cipherand is a form of the Beaufort Cipher.

The image on the right shows the cipher disc which is milled out of a solidpiece of brass. It consists of a fixed outer ring in which the 26 lettersof the Latin alphabet (A-Z) are impressed in clockwise order. The outerring has a milled-out area that holds the movable inner ring.

The inner ring is held in place by a bolt at the center and has the 26letters of the Latin alphabet impressed in counter-clockwise order.Also mounted to the bolt at the centre, is amovable ruler that can be fixedin any of 26 positions by means of aknurled steel screw.

The only indication that the cipher disc is manufactured in Germany,is the name of the maker (Linge) and the city name (Pleidelsheim),which are impressed at the bottom. The disc does not have a serial number.A similar disc[3] is shown on the German Wikipedia page about the Caesar Cipher[1], but that one appears to be incomplete. It has an improvised bolt atthe centre and the ruler is missing. Furthermore is has a hole at thetop of the letter 'A' of the inner disc.

The disc shown here is a variant of the Caesar Cipher,of which one alphabet is in reverse order. When applied to the Hebrewalphabet in a static manner, the reverse caesar cipher is known as Atbash [2].In its basic form it is a simple substitution cipher (or: monoalphabeticsubstitution), but as the inner disc is movable, it could be used as a polyalphabetic substitution as well.If we align the letter 'P' of the inner disc with the 'A' of the outer disc,the substitution is as follows:

The advantage of the Reverse Caesar Cipher is that it is reciproke (reversible),even when the inner alphabet is shifted. As a result, the same procedure canbe used for coding and decoding.

1 / 8

2 / 8

3 / 8

4 / 8

5 / 8

6 / 8

7 / 8

8 / 8

❮❯


Help required

At present we have no further information about this cipher disc, itsmanufacturer or its age. If you have any additional information, pleasecontact us.


References

Wikipedia, Caesar-Verschlüsselung
German. Retrieved September 2014.
Wikipedia, Atbash
Retrieved September 2014.
Hubert Berberich, CipherDisk2000
Image of Linge cipher disc. Via Wikipedia, Retrieved September 2014.


Further information


Any links shown in red are currently unavailable. If you like the information on this website, why not make a donation? © Crypto Museum. Created: Thursday 11 September 2014. Last changed: Thursday, 18 February 2021 - 18:29 CET.