Dick Tracy Decoder

[Tahoe27]

Ok...it's corny, but I'm sharing anyway.

A few years back I came upon this cereal box. At first glance it reminded me of the 340. I also thought the way in which they decode the secret message was interesting.

Note it tells you to use (-) when necessary. The 340 has that. Is that common to use? Code people?

I know it's silly, but maybe it truly was something easier and child-like? I actually own the green and red decoders. Yep. It actually took me like two years to get my hands on the red one. Why do I do these things? lol

[up2something]

I remember this being thrown around at some point, but have never seen these pics. Very cool. I wonder where my two-way wrist radio is?

[AK Wilks]

Junior G Man badge?

This kind of thing comes from the Victorian era its called a Cardian Grille.

[onewhoknows]

I think this is fascinating and should be investigated.

[thedude]

me too

[AK Wilks]

Two examples of this type of code are seen below. I think it very likely, or at least possible, Zodiac was both a student of cryptography and the history of codes, as well as true crime.

The first is a note reported to be found on a body, perhaps a suicide, connected to the Black Dahlia case. A researcher highlighted words in red that spell out Ed Burns. This may be real, or a hoax, or pure coincidence, but either way it is an example of the type of thing the Zodiac may have seen and been inspired by.

Beneath that is a Cardan Grille device, which can be used to create and decipher codes. It was used by Elizabethian era codemakers and is discussed in books on the history of codes. The Dick Tracy Decoder is basically a Cardian Grille.

[Seagull]

If I were to attempt to try something like this to find a hidden message I think I would start with using the shape of the crosshair symbol for the template. The problem would be to determine a size and whether or not to round the shape or square it off. Even if you managed to hit on the right size and shape the message could still be coded. But my totally untrained cipher gut tells me that if the 340 can be solved it's might be something as seemingly simplistic as this.

[thedude]

i agree with seagul
finding the template,... and maybe using the old code to solve?

[thedude]

maybe this has already been asked, but when was the Dick Tracy decoder made?

[thedude]

Here is a site with more Dick Tracy code making.... Does anyone have Dick Tracy as there POI?

http://sliderulemuseum.com/Manuals/M102 ... r_Inst.pdf