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How to Write Secret Messages With Code

Codes have been around since at least 405 BC when Lysander of Sparta received an encrypted message that the Persians would soon attack. More recently, Benjamin Franklin and the Continental Congress used them leading up to the American Revolution to communicate secretly with allies in Europe. You can make your own codes to keep your communications private even when they are intercepted by a snoopy sibling or a nosy teacher.

Instructions

Revolutionary War Code
- 1
  
  Use a dictionary to write in code.
  
  Buy two copies of identical dictionaries. Keep one for yourself and give the other to your cohort.
- 2
  Assign each word you write a code by looking up the word in your dictionary. Use the page number, and the entry number for that word on the page. If the word "the" appears on the 743rd page of the dictionary and is the third entry on the page, your code for "the" is 743.3.
- 3
  Write your message by continuing to look up the words and assigning them their code. Anyone who knows how to make the code and has a copy of the dictionary you chose can send and receive your code.
Use a Substitution Code
- 4
  Write the alphabet on a sheet of ruled paper, giving each letter its own line.
- 5
  Write a unique number next to each letter, so that no two letters have the same number.
- 6
  Make a copy of the sheet of paper with the letters and numbers for anyone you want to read your coded messages. This is called a cipher. Do not send the cipher along with a coded message, because anyone who intercepts your note with the cipher can then read the note.
- 7
  Write your secret message by substituting numbers for letters.

Kids Games