[2]Escucheons. MS.
[3]Escutcheons. P.
[4]nor to be.
[Seals abundantly-significant.] Under this title the present article is referred to in the “Index,” given by the Marquis, at the end of the first edition of his “Century,” while the articles themselves are only distinguished by consecutive numerals. Therefore, without deranging the original form of the “Century,” the designation of the several articles will appear throughout, as above, at the head of each comment.
The author, never having met with any attempt to elucidate the mechanical arrangement here suggested, communicated a plan that occurred to him in 1829, soon after reading the foregoing, which was as follows:—
A Cipher Seal. Amidst the variety of inventions for giving security to property, few improvements have been made in seals or signets. I shall proceed to describe a cipher seal, which, though not, perhaps, so “abundantly significant” as those described by the Marquis of Worcester, might, nevertheless, be applied to very important uses, inasmuch as the face of the seal may be varied at pleasure.
Fig. 1. A, the seal handle; B, the seal made moveable on the pivots at c c.
Fig. 2. Is a section of the seal. It consists of two metal plates, B B, and D D, having a number of corresponding holes drilled through them, as at a a a a, and b b b b, into which the ends of small rollers, a b, a b, are made to fit and turn exactly. When all the holes are supplied with rollers, the plates, B B, D D, are retained at a proper distance by a metal rim, soldered to the edges of the plates. The ends of the rollers being thus exposed, and ground level with the surface of each plate, are to have a groove cut in each, similar to a screw head; this is to be effected by cutting lines from end to end of the plate, as shown at e e, e e, Fig. 1. With a graver a small dot is next to be made, all to the right on one plate, and all to the left on the other; or, vice versa, of each line occupying the small circular end of each roller. It is now evident that, by using a small chisel-shaped steel instrument, or key, with which to turn the roller, the small dotted line on its end, may be so varied as to form any alphabetical arrangement.
The position of the dotted line admits of sufficient variety to take in 24 letters, distinct enough to the eye, without increasing the size of the seal. In this alphabet only three variations are supposed to be made from the horizontal and perpendicular, one very slight on either side, the other greater, and the third at an angle of 45°. It only requires a transposition of the letters to produce a correspondence which shall be private between two persons. The use of two faces to the seal is obvious, one serving to compose on, and the other, being a reverse, to make an impression on the wax. Were this not the case, a sentence would have to be written from right to left. Its use might be multiplied by making each cipher refer to an entire word or sentence; as, if a, stood for men; b, for horses; c, food; d, money; and so forth: a mode which it would be next to impossible for any third party to decipher.—See Mechanics’ Mag. vol. x.