Date: Sun, 3 Sep 1995 02:03:13 EDT From: "Randy Nichols, ACA Pres." <75542.1003@compuserve.com> You brought an interesting question about Rossignol and Wallis. Here are some thoughts. ROSSIGNOL Rossignol served with swashbuckling facility in the Court of Louis XIV. His cryptographic successes gave him access to secrets of state and the court. The poet Boisrobert (who originated the idea of 'Academie Francaise') wrote the first poem ever written to a cryptologist entitled "Epistres en Vers." He was the court cryptologist of France in the time when Moliere was her dramatist, Pascal her philosopher, La Fontaine her fabulist and the supreme autocrat of the world her monarch. They were influenced accordingly. Rossignol's technical improvements to the nomenclator systems of the time were quite important. When Rossignol began his career, nomenclators were one-part, listing both the plain and the code elements in alphabetical order or numerical order if the code was numerical. Plain and code paralleled each other. This arrangement existed since the beginning of the Renaissance. Rossignol destroyed the parallel arrangements and mixed the code elements relative to the plain. Two lists were required, one in which the plain elements were in alphabetical order and the code elements were randomized. The second facilitated decoding in which the code elements were alphabetized and the plain equivalents were disarranged. The two tables were called 'tables a chiffrer' and 'tables a dechiffrer'. The two part codes are similar to a bilingual dictionary. The two part construction spread rapidly to others countries and the nomenclator systems grew in numbers and size. His son Bonaventure, and his grandson Antoine-Bonadventure both carried on the tradition started by their father. Both were raised from King's counselor to president of the Chamber of Accounts. The Cabinet Noir, founded under Louvois, Frances Minister of War, at the urging of Antoine Rossignol, took extra ordinary precautions (switching systems, introducing 18 new nomenclator series) was the start of Frances ironclad control over the cipher business. It still has a tight access policy today. Actually it was a good policy. The Vienna Black Chamber - the Geheime Kabinets - Kanzlei regularly read French ciphers up to the cabinet level. WALLIS England had its Black Chamber. John Wallis was Rossignol's contemporary. He was first a mathematician, giving us the germ of the binomial theorem, the symbol and concept of infinity, a calculation of pi by interpolation and the beginnings of calculus fo rNewton to do his thing with. John Wallis' solution of Louis XIV of France letter of 9 June 1693 put in the record books. Their careers parallel each other. They were almost contemporaries, Rossignol was 16 years older. Both made their start on civil war ciphers in their twenties. Both had a mathematical bent. Both were self-taught. Both lived into their eighties. Both owed their worldly success to crytanalysis. Both became their countries' Fathers of Cryptology in both the literal and figurative sense. But they were different too. Rossignol worked at court while Wallis worked at Oxford. Rossignol introduced new systems for the French and supervised their use. Wallis apparently prescribed only one English cipher and that was done informally. It is unlikely that these cryptologic experts ever clashed cryptologically despite the contentious natures of both countries. REFERENCES 1. Charles Perrault, Tallement des Reaux, Les Historiettes, Bibliotheque del La Pleiade, Paris 1960, pp 256-258. 2. Denis L. MAvenel, Lettres, Instructions Diplomatiques et Papiers d' Etat du Cardinal Richelieu, Historie Politique, Paris 1853-1877 Collection. 3. Emile Magne, Le plaisant Abbe de Boisrobert, Paris, Mecure de France, 1909. 4. Duc de Broglie, Le Secret du roi: Correspondance secrete de Louis XV avec ses agents diplomatiques 1752- 1774, 3 rd ed. Paris, Calmann Levy, 1879. 5. Euggene Vaille, Le Cabinet Noir, Paris Presses Universitaires de Frances, 1950. 6. F. Stix, Zur Geschicte und Organisation der Wiener Geheimen Ziffernkanzlei, Mitteilungen des Osterreichischen Instituts fir Geschichtsforschung, LI 1937. 7. John Wallis, "A Collection of Letters and other Papers in Cipher" , Oxford University, Bodleian Library, 1653. 8. David E. Smith, "John Wallis as Cryptographer", Bulletin of American Mathematical Society, XXIV, 1917. 9. David Kahn, The Codebreakers, Macmillian Company, New York, 1967. Randy Nichols, 2 September 1995, 2400 hrs CST