Radio Used by War Spies

Radio Record, Volume IV, Issue 26, 9 January 1931, Page 8

Radio Used by War Spies

An Ingenious Code URING the World War radio was extensively used by spies’ as @ speedy and secret means of maintaining communication with headquarters. Telegraphy, of course, was the most common, and it ultimately led to the perfection of a spy-proof code cipher. It is a modification of the crossword puzzle. a i . A key is employed, consisting a number of squares in each of. are all the letters of the alphabet. (ver these squares is laid a piece of tratingpaper and a line is drawn from letter to letter, back and forth, spelling. out the message. Then the zig-zag picture is wirelessed asa single unit. The receiving operator transfers the zig-zags to transparent paper, places them over his key and then untangles the message. To wireless such a picture or map requires two cylinders of the same. size, revolving at a predetermined speed in perfect synchronism. ‘Size and speed can be varied at will, a fact that makes for the safety of the code, even though the key be stolen. In the earlier part of the war some important radio messages from a German.warship were once deciphered by accident. The messages had been inter cepted and. recorded by the British Ad; miralty, but the experts assigned to de code them were baffled. All they couic hear when the records were played was an unintelligible gibberish that defied translation. : Then a lucky accident led to the solution. One day the gramophone ral down, and the experts were amazed to hear the message being spoken in plain German! The slowing down of the instrument had made the talk understandable. The Germans had made records of their messages and sent them through the ether at terrific speed, DUL the slow gramophone had betrayed them.