superprismatic Posted September 5, 2009 Report Share Posted September 5, 2009 The telegram: 23224 17726 15411 27251 01812 13135 22166 14192 18209 [/code]was sent by a mysterious personage believed to be a secret agent codenamed Alex. Some time later the telegram: "My client cannot meet stated terms, considers twelve percent excessive. Also skeptical of broker's ability to pay current rates on speculative stocks, prefers advance payment without interest." was sent to the same addressee. The telegraph clerk became suspicious and put two and two together, thus averting a disaster. How? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 superprismatic Posted September 6, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 6, 2009 The telegram: 23224 17726 15411 27251 01812 13135 22166 14192 18209 [/code]was sent by a mysterious personage believed to be a secret agent codenamed Alex. Some time later the telegram: "My client cannot meet stated terms, considers twelve percent excessive. Also skeptical of broker's ability to pay current rates on speculative stocks, prefers advance payment without interest." was sent to the same addressee. The telegraph clerk became suspicious and put two and two together, thus averting a disaster. How? [spoiler=A very small hint for a place to start:]Why do you suppose the digits of the first telegram have such a strange frequency distribution? [/spoiler] Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Guest Posted September 7, 2009 Report Share Posted September 7, 2009 Why do you suppose the digits of the first telegram have such a strange frequency distribution? That was also my first thought when I started counting. I would assume that 1's and 2's, which are in abundance (13 & 11 respectively, and compose over 53% of the total amount) are somehow supposed to be used with the remaining numbers. Still working on the how. Next thoughts include that the 45-number sequence could be divided into at least 9x5, 5x9, 15x3 and 3x15 matrices, but I'm still working on it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Guest Posted September 7, 2009 Report Share Posted September 7, 2009 I would say that Alex "Prefers Client Advance. Considers without ability. Meet also Interest. Payment Excessive. Current(ly) Skeptical Of my Cannot Stated Stocks. To Terms: Broker's Rates Speculative, Twelve on Percent!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 superprismatic Posted September 7, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 7, 2009 Why do you suppose the digits of the first telegram have such a strange frequency distribution? The frequency distribution of the digits of the first telegram is consistent with it being an ordering of the numbers from 1 to twenty-something just jammed together. This would make things slightly ambiguous because, for example, the stream 2632156... could either be 26 3 2 15 6 ... or 26 3 21 5 6 .... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Guest Posted September 8, 2009 Report Share Posted September 8, 2009 The frequency distribution of the digits of the first telegram is consistent with it being an ordering of the numbers from 1 to twenty-something just jammed together. This would make things slightly ambiguous because, for example, the stream 2632156... could either be 26 3 2 15 6 ... or 26 3 21 5 6 .... 26? There are 27 words in the second 'gram. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 superprismatic Posted September 8, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 8, 2009 26? There are 27 words in the second 'gram. I purposely made a point not to say 26 or, for that matter, 27. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Guest Posted September 8, 2009 Report Share Posted September 8, 2009 (edited) Like ljb said, the second letter word count was what i went on as well. If you take the 45 numbers from the first message, you can arrange them and use all numbers only once. 23 2 24 17 7 26 15 4 11 27 25 10 18 12 13 1 3 5 22 16 6 14 19 21 8 20 9 If you then "beale" them, you get the following message: p c a p c w a m a i p e c s o m c s s t t b r s t o p Next thing was to Ceasar with a shift of 12 (from the second letter), i.e. p -> b, c -> o etc. and lo and behold, the first word was BOMB. Next ones didn't make sense. However, I'm drawing blanks as what to do next. Could someone please solve it, or give more hints. Edited September 8, 2009 by walla Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 superprismatic Posted September 8, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 8, 2009 Like ljb said, the second letter word count was what i went on as well. If you take the 45 numbers from the first message, you can arrange them and use all numbers only once. 23 2 24 17 7 26 15 4 11 27 25 10 18 12 13 1 3 5 22 16 6 14 19 21 8 20 9 If you then "beale" them, you get the following message: p c a p c w a m a i p e c s o m c s s t t b r s t o p Next thing was to Ceasar with a shift of 12 (from the second letter), i.e. p -> b, c -> o etc. and lo and behold, the first word was BOMB. Next ones didn't make sense. However, I'm drawing blanks as what to do next. Could someone please solve it, or give more hints. The permutation of the 27 numbers is right with the possible exception of how you broke up the 1313 part (it could be 1 3 13 instead of 13 1 3). I don't know what you meant by "beale" them. So, I don't know how you got the sequence "p c a p....". Perhaps you need to use the sequence on the second telegram somehow. After all, the second telegram is needed for the solution. Anyway, you seem to be trying a lot of good things. When you solve it, you will feel a real sense of accomplishment. In the meantime, please explain "beale" to me. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Guest Posted September 8, 2009 Report Share Posted September 8, 2009 The permutation of the 27 numbers is right with the possible exception of how you broke up the 1313 part (it could be 1 3 13 instead of 13 1 3). I don't know what you meant by "beale" them. So, I don't know how you got the sequence "p c a p....". Perhaps you need to use the sequence on the second telegram somehow. After all, the second telegram is needed for the solution. Anyway, you seem to be trying a lot of good things. When you solve it, you will feel a real sense of accomplishment. In the meantime, please explain "beale" to me. Walla used a Beale cipher where you take the first letter of the Nth word of the second telegram Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 superprismatic Posted September 8, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 8, 2009 Walla used a Beale cipher where you take the first letter of the Nth word of the second telegram He's on the right track. He's got to try variants on that theme. There's lots of things to permute: last letters, whole words, etc. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 superprismatic Posted September 9, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 9, 2009 There is more than one way to skin a cat or apply a permutation. In this case, the permutation begins with 23. Now, does that mean to put the 23rd thing in the first position of the result, OR does it mean to put the first thing in the 23rd position of the result? You've got to try both! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Guest Posted September 9, 2009 Report Share Posted September 9, 2009 Thanks to all the hints: Using superprismatic's last hint and the sequence provided earlier, w/ superprismatic's adjustment, permute whole words. I.e. put the first word in the 23rd spot, the second in the second, etc. Then take the second letter of each word (I guess you could do that in the first place, but it's easier to read if you use words first). Using that, you get: Blow up tanker at one Friday Alex Of course, the telegraph clerk would have to know what was going on to figure out the details. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Guest Posted September 9, 2009 Report Share Posted September 9, 2009 Of course, the telegraph clerk would have to know what was going on to figure out the details. You don't think the clerk had superprismatic coaching him over his shoulder? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Guest Posted September 9, 2009 Report Share Posted September 9, 2009 (edited) You don't think the clerk had superprismatic coaching him over his shoulder? It's a distinct possibility for figuring out the code, but superprismatic would have to know about the... tanker in order to help with preventing the actual event. Edited September 9, 2009 by AnapesticTetrameter Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 superprismatic Posted September 9, 2009 Author Report Share Posted September 9, 2009 Nicely done people! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
0 Guest Posted September 10, 2009 Report Share Posted September 10, 2009 Nicely done people! Damn, so I got it the wrong way round. And it didn't even occur to me to do the opposite. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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The telegram:
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